Summary of the Movie: Mean Girls

The movie “Mean Girls” is all about conflict whether it was with the outside groups or each other. Conflict management is the way we engage in conflict and address disagreements. The movie “mean girls”, every character showed many conflict management styles. Two character who used many conflict management styles in the movie were Cady and Regina. Cady used the Avoidance style. The avoidance is deliberate decision to take no action when dealing with conflict. Avoidance conflict style is Basically being avoiding the conflict all together. Examples of when Cady used the avoidance style is when she eats her lunch in the bathroom because she could not find people to sit with. Another time she shows the avoidance style is when she did not tell her parents how the school was really going. She just ran to her room. She ignored the conflict all together. The opposite of Cady is Regina, the “queen bee” of the school. The conflict style Regina used was competition. Competition is someone thinking that the conflict has to go their way or the highway, is a win-lose situation. She showed this conflict style is when she told Aaron the rumors that Cady was stalking him and then got back with him. Even though she did

During the opening scenes of the movie Cady’s dad is shown handing her a brown paper sack lunch and telling her that there is a dollar inside so that she will be able to buy milk during lunch, he then tells her that she can ask “one of the big kids” where to buy the milk at. This sounds more like a dad talking to his kindergartner on the first day of school, not a sixteen year old on her first day of high school. This is showing the relationship between Cady and her parents. You always see that even though they are not directly controlling her they are still babying her, which is a part of balancing freedom and control (Santrock 395). A big part of adolescent develop is their need to become independent and their aversion to authority figures because of the mind set that are always right and they know best because they are now growing up. One thing that parents have to strive to achieve is the balance of supporting the child’s newfound independence and their desire to still have control over what is best for their child. Another time that you see Cady’s relationship with her parents is when she asks if she can stay home one weekend without them because they have tickets to a show but she wants to go to Janis’ art show. They protest telling her that she always comes, but then change their minds because they think she is responsible enough to stay home by

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).

Regina George’s friend group is comprised of Karen and Gretchen. Their friendship is difficult at times. They share secrets among each other, for example the burn book is a secret between the girls. When Cady is included into the friend group she is then entrusted with the group’s secrets. This group of “Plastics” are friends by choice and always ask for each other’s

The movie Mean Girls shows examples of many social-psychological principals. Three of the major social-psychological principals depicted in Mean Girls are prejudice, discrimination, and conformity. According to Social Psychology and Human Nature textbook, written by Baumeister and Bushman, prejudice is a negative feeling toward an individual bases solely on his or her membership in a particular group. Discrimination is unequal treatment of different people based on the groups or categories to which they belong. Lastly, conformity is defined as getting along with the crowd.

In understanding conformity, Bartleby the Scrivener warns of the risks of being too non conformist while Mean Girls chronicles the risks of too much conformity. In Mean Girls, Cady Heron conforms to a group of malicious friends known as the plastics. When first meeting with them she does not intend to become actual friends with them, but then she is lured by the reputation she will

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

As Janis is telling Cady about the different cliques at their school, she ponders "How do I begin to explain Regina George?" This is followed by comments and opinions by different students ': "Regina George is flawless" "She has two Fendi purses and a silver Lexus". The fact that the second comment made about her describes the products that she owns says a lot about our consumer culture and recognition of brands, and the way we look up to people. Mean Girls emphasises that Regina is "fabulous, but she 's evil" - despite her attractiveness and the respect she is given, her behaviour and personality leave much to be desired. Even though she is downright nasty and universally hated, people still want to be like

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.

Damian. Janis is your average outcast teenager who loves to wear all black and Damian is flaming gay. One of the first scenes in the movie Janis gives Cady a map she drew of the lay out of the lunchroom. Each table is labeled according to the social group they identify themselves with. Some of the social groups she mentions include the “Asian nerds, varsity jocks, the unfriendly black hotties, girls who eat their feelings, the burnouts, and the worst of them all, the Plastics” (2004). Janis and Damian challenge Cady to “become one of the Plastics” so she can obtain the infamous Burn Book. The Plastics are the most popular girls in the school and the hottest and meanest of them was Regina George. Regina befriends Cady and she finds herself trying to acquire the label as an official Plastic so she will no longer be the new girl. Cady notices her classmates accept her new status and she uses this recognition in her favor. It is important to recognize that the behaviors of the Plastics are deviant and challenge social norms. Although this is obvious to the audience of the movie, the student body at North Shore does not recognize this because they are too distracted by the Plastics status quo. Cady’s primary deviance is seen in the scene where Regina invites her over to her house to hang out with the other Plastics. While hanging out, Regina shows her the Burn Book where she comes across a picture of Janis and her friend from math club, Kevin. The Burn Book includes

This offense, along with the new level of morally acceptable behavior Cady formed once fully ingrained within The Plastics, finds revenge against Regina as reasonable. According to social identity theory, an individuals' behaviors are organized in terms of the social categories with which they identify, so that they are motivated to establish and maintain a positive self-image by viewing these categories as positive and distinct from alternative categories (Seta, Seta, & Hundt, 2001, p.19). As a Plastic, positive self-image is the ultimate goal, so an act of revenge as the result of an offense is considered rational and even expected within that social setting. Once Cady identifies herself as a Plastic, the idea of revenge no longer holds the stigma it once did when Cady could not follow through with Janice’s plan for revenge. Cady then follows through with an act of revenge, something she had previously found to be morally reprehensible in her previous social

The message of a film is what it revolves around, and what the filmmaker is trying to portray; a strong message makes for a successful film. Mean Girls and Bully have that in common. They correlate the message of not fitting in with a crowd, therefore the characters modify themselves in an attempt to please others. The Plastics initiate a conversation with Cady, where first they offer her an invite, followed by listing all the rules she needs to follow to be allowed to join the group. She goes along because it is for the purpose of the hoax that Janis plots (Waters 13:40). Cady is confined with how she dresses, who she is seen with and how she interacts, otherwise she is seen less as. It is unlike her personality to act so feminine and mean because she has a different taste. Even Gretchen is unhappy in the group, “She knew that it was better to be in The

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.

Norbury asks the entire senior class to raise their hand if they have ever been victimized by Regina George and nearly every single hand was raised. She does whatever she wants and thinks that everyone admires her. This is mostly because of the way her mom acts towards her and her friends. Regina's mom tries to be one of the teenage girls and gossip along with the "plastics." She even allows her daughter to drink underage. Regina's mom also allows the younger daughter to watch nudity on the television. Her care free, laid back parenting style plays a huge roll on how Regina acts towards her peers. In addition, Cady's parents are very strict. The first sign of this is in the beginning when they are very concerned with sending her to a public high school. After being exposed to the "plastics" and how they act, Cady begins to drink and participate in illegal activity nearly every weekend. Cady finds her wrong doings as an escape from her parents. This is because her parents are too strict and are constantly nagging her. Their uptight, strict parenting style is what leads to Cady doing unacceptable activities.