Introduction
Cady Heron is a 16-year-old home-schooled girl and a daughter of a zoologist parents that returned to the US after staying for 12 years in Africa to do their research. For the first time in her life, she has to experience a public school. Her first friends are Janis and Damien, who has warned her to avoid various cliques, especially “The Plastics”. A group that is led by Regina George. The Plastics are interested with Cady. So, they invite her to sit with them, to shop together, and to come to Regina’s house. Not to waste this chance, Janis took a revenge for The Plastics through Cady by sabotaging them. Cady tells Janis about their secrets, especially about “The Burn Book”. A book that is filled with photos and secrets of the people that are hated by them. From here, Cady becomes the one who wants to sabotage The Plastics. She also makes the rest of The Plastics members, Gretchen and Karen go against her. Regina took back the revenge to Cady by giving “The Burn Book” to the principal and blamed Cady for it.
Things got messy and Cady took all the blames. Then she has no friend, distrust by people around her including parents, and teachers. So, she tries to rebuild their trust by joining the Mathletes for a competition which she won over the rivals. After going back from the competition, she comes to the Spring Fling dance and elected as the Queen but she refuses to take the crown. Instead, she breaks it to pieces and throws the pieces to the audience. Finally, she makes up with her friends and Aaron.
The content of this report will be based on examples in Mean Girls movie which are related to certain theories that have been chosen by the group members. Those theories are communication accommodation theory, social exchange theory, symbolic interactionism theory, and lastly, expectancy violations theory.
Communication Accommodation Theory
People can vary their communicative styles and strategies in ways that reflect their differing personalities and temperaments, roles and relationships, and social identities. Such differences in interpersonal communicative styles are abundant, varying by ethnicity, occupational status, gender, age, and so on. The characters in this movie, Mean Girls, can be analyzed with this theory.
From home-schooled and leaving with animals to learn in an actual school, Cady was out-grouped in the beginning of the movie; this can immediately be seen when she just arrived in the crowded school and saw some students playing with fire. Her facial expression and body language clearly stated that she was uncomfortable and surprised. As she introduced herself yet was scolded rudely, her expressions and reactions kept indicating that she was not used to that environment. It can also be seen when she saw a couple kissed in her classroom. Plus, the way she speaks also shows a difference between herself and the others.
Cady was considered a divergent by speaking softly and politely when she talked to Janis, Damian, and the Plastic for the first time, while all of them talked to her in a more outgoing way. Gretchen also demonstrated some divergence by using a British slang, “fetch”, when she talked to Cady. As Cady gradually blending in with the Plastics, she started to say “coolness”, a word that Regina often uses, to Janis. She also said. “love you, bye” and gave Janis and Damian a flying kiss as she walked away. This indicates that Cady is showing them that they are at a different level and that she is more in-group with the Plastics; a more popular group, since she kept showing the attitudes that the Plastics are likely to do.
In the movie, Gretchen showed some in-group by willing to stay as one of the Plastics even after she thought Regina was upset to her. Regina has also been mean to her that she did not allow Gretchen to wear hoop earrings although she loves it so much. Yet, Gretchen chose to converge and pretended that she did not like it either.
Another example is after Cady has really became one of the plastics; she unconsciously felt that she was stupendous when she fought with Janis. Cady told her that it is not her fault if she is obsessed with her. Despite she admitted herself as only pretending to be Plastics, this clearly indicates that she sees herself as part of them.
Furthermore, in the scene where Regina asked Cady why she was talking to Janis, Cady was being convergent that she started sounding like Regina and talk negatively about Janis. When Regina had a conflict with Gretchen in some parts of the movie, Karen was also converging by saying that she was annoyed by Gretchen. However, after knowing that Regina talked behind her back, she ended up refusing Regina’s offer to hang out. Moreover, when Gretchen and Janis gave a compliment to Cady after her attitude was influenced, she replied them by saying “I know, right”, converging to the Plastics. Indeed, Cady adjusted her way of communicating to assimilate others.
Social Exchange Theory
Social Exchange Theory is an important social psychology concept that concerns social changes as a process of interactive exchanges between different people. The fundamental concept of the theory of social exchange is cost and rewards; this means that cost and reward comparisons drive human decisions and behavior. Some scenes in this movie might describe the theory altogether.
At first, Cady agreed to join the ‘plastics’ because she wanted to help Janis to get revenge on Regina. But then, Cady really became one of the ‘plastics’; she acted like them. Truthfully, Cady and Gretchen hate Regina because she was overbearing, had the guts to steal Aaron from Cady for a while, and also said mean things to everyone behind their backs. But, both of them could not stop being friends with Regina because it would mean that they are out of the ‘plastics’. Being in the plastics meant that they were famous and everybody knew about them; they became the trendsetter and everybody seemed to adore them. They cannot lose all those benefits. This signified that the ‘rewards’ of being in the Plastics seemed to overcome the ‘cost’.
One of the students who adored the plastics once said, “One time, she punched me in the face. It was awesome.” That one sentence portrayed how worshipped they were by other students. Thus, Cady and Gretchen stayed in the plastics. Yet, the more they hated Regina, the more they wanted to impress and please her because they knew that they still needed her to be able to stay in the plastics at that moment.
When Cady knew that she has a crush for Aaron at her first time attending math class, she was over the moon. But then, she found out that she cannot dated him because he was Regina’s ex-boyfriend and it was against the plastics’ unwritten ‘rule’. So, Cady tried to stop her crush over Aaron because the benefits of dating Aaron was lesser than being a member of the plastics. Although at the end she dated him anyway, it was because she does not need to be in the plastics anymore, which also means that the benefit of dating Aaron overthrow the costs of dating him. It is clear that she examined her decisions throughout the movie based on what she might lose or gain in applying her choices.
Symbolic Interactionism Theory
Symbolic Interactionism perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop and rely upon in the process of social interaction. This theory analyzes society by addressing the subjective meanings that people impose on objects, events, and behaviors. Since this theory is practical in everyday life, of course it can also be applied for this movie.
The A-list girls in this movie, known as The Plastics, are very admired by many students in school. But, some of them truly despised The Plastics. For instance, Janis thought that The Plastics are life ruiners. Yet, for Cady who experienced high school for the first time thought that The Plastics are not that bad. However, Cady started to hate The Plastics especially Regina George because Regina kissed the guy that Cady had a crush on. After that, Cady, Janis, and Damian took revenge on Regina and The Plastics. Thus, the meaning of The Plastics for Cady had changed throughout her unpleasant interaction with Regina George.
After Regina George took Aaron from Cady, she dangled Aaron in front of Cady on purpose to make Cady jealous. There is a scene where Regina asked Cady to tell Aaron that his hair would be sexy if it is pushed back. Before Cady said those words, she did an inner dialogue in her mind that she wanted to attack Regina. However, she knew that this is a girl world, and in girl world, all fighting had to be sneaky. Besides, she had a secret mission with Janis and Damian to ruin The Plastics. Thus, she held back her inner thought and said the words to Aaron.
Moreover, in the scene where Janis gave the school map to Cady, she actually handed a proof that the school society has labeled people, or as in SI theory usually called as the naming. There were several tables with various names on it which represent who always sits in that specific place. There are Freshmen, ROTO guys, preps, JV jocks, Asian nerds, cool Asians, varsity jocks, unfriendly black hotties, girls who eat their feelings, girls who don’t eat anything, desperate wannabes, burnouts, sexually active band geeks, the greatest people you will ever meet, and the worst “The Plastics”. This naming is representing the personalities, characteristics, gender, and even their race in the society of the high school.
In the movie, Regina’s personality shows more of an “I” which is spontaneous, straightforward, and self-conception. She doesn’t care what people feel and think about her behavior. For instance, she told Cady to shut up when she just met Cady for the first time in the cafeteria. Then, she asked Gretchen to switch her spot with Cady without considering Gretchen’s feeling would be hurt. On the other hand, Cady’s personality shows more of a “Me” because she is considerate, share the views with others, and socially conscious. For instance, Cady could not refuse when Regina George asked her to join The Plastics. She also could not refuse when Janis asked her to hang out with The Plastics and told Janis everything that Regina talked to. And last, Cady could not be angry or mad at Janis and Damian when they made her skip the healthy class just because they said that they were Cady’s friends.
Expectancy Violations Theory
Expectancy violation is a communication theory which tries to explain the unexpected behaviours of human beings while interacting. The theory is based on the uncertainty reduction theory where the vagueness on the behaviours of the others is reduced through interaction. In this movie, there are both of positive and negative violences based on Expectancy and Violation Theory.
At first, Cady, a new student and a main character, has negative image to famous girls group: The Plastics. This is because she follows her friends, Janis and Damian, advice that it is better not to interact with The Plastics to have a peaceful school life; The Plastics have bad reputation in the school. Other students also avoid and are scared of The Plastics, even though some of the students admired them because of the huge influence that they have in school. In her expectation, before she interacts with them, good things would never happen if she is involved with The Plastics. The second day of lunch time, Cady gets involved with a guy student and Regina helps her unexpectedly. This behavior brings a positive image of Regina to Cady and Cady thinks that Regina is better person than she has expected.After this behaviour, Cady is finally welcomed to The Plastics as a new member and she accepts it even though it is only because of Janis and Damian. This is one of examples that violence works positively.
Another example which violence works negatively is the scene when Cady falls in love with Aaron in the first sight who is an ex-boyfriend of Regina. Regina shows cooperative attitude to help her and make up each other. However in the party, which is held by Regina, she kisses Aaron as for appealing their close relationship to Cady. After seeing this, Cady decides to have a revenge on Regina that drags her down from position, not only from being a leader of The Plastics, but also from The Plastics itself. Cady’s plans are by taking an advantage of a situation. For example, when Regina was on diet, she recommended chocolate bar which contains high calorie as a healthy one which makes Regina’s perfect figure become a flabby body on.
Furthermore, Cady tells Regina’s bad reputation to other members of Plastics. As a result, she succeeded to drive out Regina from The Plastics and Cady becomes her replacement as a leader of The Plastics. Previously, She dislike to be in such a complex and superficial relationship, but she is willing to build this relationship to keep her status in The Plastics. From this example, Cady changes her action based on her mind which has already changed by Regina’s unexpected behaviours.
Critique
Specifically for this assignment, Mean Girls does not provide wider range of perspectives for communication theories to be applied in this movie because the focus of this movie is mainly The Plastics. Therefore, others’ point of views which could be totally different from The Plastics are not enhanced enough to be analyzed. Moreover, for the movie itself, the flimsy climax does not unravel the solid humor, and the movie aftertaste is not as vigorous as the expectation. In addition, the idea of this movie is not original because the storyline is tragically almost the same as the movie ‘Heathers’ although Mean Girls is more relatable to this generation as it brings a more modern concept in comparison to Heathers which was made in 1988.
Conclusion
To conclude, this movie happens to be easy to digest, provide enough data, and also relatable with the theories that are discussed on this report. The Plastics, Cady, and Aaron are characters that mostly become examples in theories discussed. While serving as an entertaining movie, the examples pulled out by group members show how this teen comedy movie can as well be a learning medium for students. In a long term result, being aware of every scenes in movies and also in real life, while analyzing it through communication theories are unavoidable.