Mean Girls Film Critique

The movie “mean girls” is about a sixteen-year old homeschooled girl named Cady Heron who lived in Africa for the last 12 years of her life. After 12 years she returns to the United States and is now going to High school. Attending public school for the first time in her life. The homeschooled girl entered girl world that is full of lies, drama, gossip, boys and rules. She started hanging out with the “Plastics” and become friends with. The movie showed many example of conflict management styles, it reflects on the American culture values and beliefs, and power style.

The movie Mean Girls is filled with characters that are easy to relate with, quotable lines, and a hilarious but realistic plot line. One other major thing that the movie has is concepts of the development that occurs during late adolescences including social, emotional, and cognitive development. Mean Girls is about a girl named Cady that is attending a public high school for the first time after being home schooled in Africa for all of her life. She knows nothing of the American teenage culture or customs or about the public school system. During her first week of school Cady becomes friends with two people in one of her classes named Janis and Damien, who unbeknownst to her are a part of the

"Mean Girls", based on the book "Queen Bees and Wannabes" written by Rosalind Wiseman, was produced by Paramount Pictures in 2004. (Walters 2004, Wiseman 2002) The leading star, 15 year-old Cady Heron (Lindsey Lohan), recently moved to the suburbs of Illinois after being home schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents. During her first day of public high school, Cady befriends two teenager outcasts, Janice Ian (Lizzy Caplan) and Damian (Daniel Franzese). They supply Cady with a map of North Shore High School in order to educate her to the 21 different cliques within the school. Even more, warning Cady to stay away from the "worst people you will ever meet", The Plastics. Which was comprised of three girls: Gretchen Wieners, a girl who's rich because her father invented toaster strudel; Karen Smith, the "dumbest girl you will ever meet"; and Regina George, "queen bee" the unofficial leader and the meanest one. The Plastics take an interest in Cady and invite her to join them, Cady is very unsure of this. She discusses this with Janice and Damian and they convince

Mean Girls is about a girl named Cady who joins an elite social group at her new school known as the Plastics. While socializing with the Plastics, Cady develops a new, mean girl, personality and ends up sabotaging the group’s leader, Regina, and becomes the new leader of the Plastics. Regina retaliates by spreading the burn book, a book the Plastics filled with insults and gossip about other students, around the school leading to a riot and Cady takes the blame. Cady realizes that her new personality is wrong and apologizes to the school, makes amends with her old friends, and forms a truce with Plastics who disband and become regular students (Mean Girls, 2004).

In the film “Mean Girls” there were many types of peer relationships expressed. Friendships are described as a reciprocal liking, trust, and loyalty between all participating dyadic parties. An example in the film is the relationship that Damian and Janis hold because they are loyal to each other and the liking is mutual. Peer acceptance is to the degree one is liked by their peers. In the film Aaron Samuels is very much liked by his peers. Perceived popular is a child that is considered popular based on their peers’ perceptions. Regina George is a prime example of teenage girl perceived as popular. When students described Regina George in the film these type of comments were made, “Regina George is flawless”, “One time she punched me in the faced. It was awesome.”, and “she always looks fierce.” Cliques are polyadic social groups that are voluntary. A main clique in the movie is “The Plastics” which consists of Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith. These forms of peer relationships are a lot more complex than just a group of friends, these relationships of dynamic in early adolescence.

The teen comedy Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters, welcomes the protagonist (Cady Heron) into the stereotypical high school setting after being raised in Africa for all of her educational path. Cady, never being in a public-school setting, comes across the Plastics: Regina George (unspoken leader), Gretchen Wieners (gossip queen), and Karen Smith (the stupid, clueless one), who are at the top of the social pyramid. Befriended by the girls, Cady is left to decide whether or not she belongs in this clique or if her place exists in a different one. The use of satirist and comedic scenes throughout the film show the different sexist lenses and stereotypes that women are viewed with.

The story begins when Cady meets two friends, Janis and Damien, who show Cady the ways of high school. This is a very normal way in reality and most would not think much of it. Unconsciously, Freud would say, that there is some sort of motive behind this behavior and that there is no possible way that there doing it just to be nice. But as the story goes on we do find out that Janis used to be best friends with Regina (queen bee of “the plastics”) and that their friendship ended due to Regina spreading a rumor that Janis was a lesbian. When Cady is asked by Regina to hang out she is very hesitant to do so and tells Janis what is happening. Janis gets overly excited and instantly her id, the pleasure seeking principle, of her behavior jumps into play causing her to completely ignore

Mean Girls (2004) follows the journey of sixteen year old Cady (Lindsay Lohan) in her first year at a public school in suburban America - a stark contrast to the previous twelve years of her life: being homeschooled in Africa. Cady moves to Evanston, Illinois and soon finds herself in with 'The Plastics ', the "teen royalty" of Northshore High School, led by the 'Queen Bee ', Regina George (Rachel McAdams).

Cady is used to living in a society, or a group of people that share the same beliefs and values as her, where adults trusted her, and she had the freedom to do almost anything she wanted. When she switched from homeschool to public high school, she was met with a new set of norms, or the behaviors that are expected by teachers and peers. Cady could not go to the restroom whenever she want; she

Stereotypically, men and women have very different roles in the eyes of society. Gender roles and stereotypes have a history in religious, political, legal and economic systems. In reality, men and women are more alike than most people assume. Throughout the world there are struggles with identity, power, and violence occurring everyday between both men and women. The film Mean Girls, directed by Mark Walters, follows a young girl, Cady’s, transition from being home schooled to public high school. Cady enters the school’s group of mean girls, otherwise known as “the plastics”, which consists of Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith. Throughout the film each character struggles with their true identity.

In fact, this also applies to the situation of understanding what social conformity is. This subject has been around for centuries, forcing many to behave in a certain way that the society expects. The influence of peer pressure is still a topic has an impact to the world, especially the adolescents. The “[s]ocial psychologists have suggested that one core function of compliance and conformity is to maintain group harmony”(“Social Influence and the Brain:Persuasion, Susceptibility to Influence and Retransmission” Cascio,Scholz,Falk) and this applies to many individuals who value public opinions more than their own. They seek to be “good” people and make an effort to follow the trend of the crowd. More often than not, this also relates to the confidence level of an individual, “If those others agree with one’s beliefs, one gains confidence in them; if they disagree, one loses confidence” (“Conformity,” Levine). This is indeed what many people face today from all different phases of life. Daisy, one of the characters in the book The Great Gatsby, is a perfect example of a person soaked into social conformity. From the beginning of her marriage life with Tom to the end of the book, she progresses into immoral stages of life. Day after day she conforms herself into a world filled with corruptions, such as adultery and murder. Although, she is an adult, she is a character that is stuck in a stage that her age group have already

Mean Girls is about a young teen girl Cady Heron who just moved from Africa to attend a public high school in America for the first time. This is very different for Cady because the high school setting in America will be extremely different from how it was when she was living in Africa. It’s not easy for her because she is not used to the American customs or “norms”. Within the first couple of days of school she becomes really good friends with two people named Janis and Damien. In the school there are many many cliques, and Janis

The last psychological perspective of psychology to compare “Mean Girls” to is the behaviorist approach. This approach emphasizes the importance of environmental and situational determinants of behavior. Simply because of the new environment that Cady is thrust into her entire behavior is changed. She acts completely unlike her normal self, adapting and becoming an expert at backstabbing and manipulating. Through her manipulation she learns to control everyone around her, because according to this theory people and situations influence each other

In the teen comedy Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters, the protagonist (Cady Heron) is welcomed into the stereotypical high school setting after being raised in Africa for all of her educational path. Cady, never being in a public-school setting, comes across the Plastics: Regina George (unspoken leader), Gretchen Wieners (gossip queen), and Karen Smith (the stupid, clueless one), who are at the top of the social pyramid. Befriended by the girls, Cady is left to decide whether or not she belongs in this clique or if her place exists in a different one. Throughout the film satirist and comedic scenes are used to show the different sexist lenses and stereotypes that women are viewed with.

"Cold, shiny, hard, PLASTIC," said by Janice referring to a group of girls in the movie Mean Girls. Mean Girls is about an innocent, home-schooled girl, Cady who moves from Africa to the United States. Cady thinks she knows all about survival of the fittest. But the law of the jungle takes on a whole new meaning when she enters public high school and encounters psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teen girls deal with today. Cady goes from a great friend of two "outcasts", Janice and Damien to a superficial friend of the "plastics", a group of girls that talks about everyone behind their back and thinks everyone loves them. Adolescent egocentrism and relationships with peers are obviously present throughout the film. I