Final Paper: Sociological Review of Mean Girls
By: Ally Marks
Cady Heron is a teenager who was raised in Africa by her zoologist parents. Her family moved to the suburbs of Illinois, where Cady gets to experience public school for the first time. She quickly realizes the cruelty and laws of popularity. Cady finds herself in the likings of an elite group of manipulative students called "the Plastics” due to her beauty, gender and race. The Plastics consist of Regina (the popular one), Gretchen ( the gossip girl) and Karen (the dumb one). Cady develops a crush for Aaron Samuels, but Gretchen explains that he’s Regina’s ex making him off limits. Regina rekindles her relationship with Aaron once she sees Cady’s interest in him. This causes Cady to run to Janis and Damian as they create a plan to destroy the Plastics as pay back. As Cady pretends to act like a Plastic as part of the pay back plan, she slowly begins to act like one, making her a Plastic. Overtime Cady sees that only hard work will solve her problems and lead to success. As a punishment for Cady’s recent bad behaviors she is forced to join the mathletes because she is very good at math. Cady is later encouraged by her mathlete friends to attend the Spring Fling Dance, where she is voted Spring Fling Queen. Cady decides to shatter the tiara and distribute the pieces to her classmates to represent equality among all the students. As the start of the new year approached many things had changed among friendships within the school. The Plastics were no longer a group and they were all doing their own thing. Cady returns to being friends with Damian and Janis, keeping a lookout for upcoming Plastics.
A social hierarchy is the arrangement of individuals into a social ladder, it falls upon the person’s race, gender, and social class. Social class is a division of society based on social and economic status. Regina’s social class is the upper class as her character was white, she drove a luxury convertible car and wore expensive clothes. A scene in the movie is when the Plastics are riding in a luxury sports car and Regina yells “get in loser we're going shopping”. This represents the upper class, as Cady was wearing old clothes when they went to the mall to buy new clothes so she could better fit into their social class group.
The hierarchy for high school girls is based upon physical appearance, wealth, race, and behavior. There is a leading queen bee, Regina George, who has 2 helpers named Gretchen and Karen. This team royalty is called the Plastics because they are white, female, upper class, their social superiority is based upon their materialism and wealth. These girls control the standard of beauty and what the rest of the people surrounding them should imitate. All girls work to receive an approval for others to like and accept them. Cady moved up on the social ladder and became one of the most popular students at school when becoming a Plastic. This group maintains their status because they satisfy other lower social class by acting as if they are friends while complementing their style. This is a fake friendship as the Plastics laugh at the lower social class behind their backs pretending to be their friends. One episode in Mean Girls was when Regina complimented Cady on her bracelet that her mother had made her while in Africa. Although Regina did not actually like the bracelet the compliment made Cady feel satisfied as if they were friends.
Cady changes her physical appearance and her clothing style when she becomes accepted by the Plastics social group, which moved Cady up on the social ladder. Her natural beauty, gender, and race play an important role as she advances on the social ladder. Mean Girls exhibits how people try to fit into a social class by pretending to be something they are not. This movie gives several examples of the lower class trying to fit in and move up the social ladder with the in crowd. For example, the girls in the movie seeked for Regina’s approval. During lunch one girl came up to Regina and asked her if she liked her new shirt. Regina kindly said that she loved her shirt, but laughed and made fun of the girl behind her hack. This is how Regina maintained her high social status within the high school by pretending to be friends with the lower social class. Also, Cady pretended to not understand the math lessons and asked Aaron Samuels for help, when in reality she was very good at math but used this as an excuse to talk to him. This y did this he later invited her to a Halloween party because of their conversations in math class. She made herself seem less than she actually was to get a guy’s attention.
Regina and the plastics created a burn book in which she kept notes about people to start gossip and rumors about girls and boys in her school. For example, a scene in the movie where Janis told Cady when she was upset with her, that “that’s the thing about you plastics, you think everybody loves you but in reality everyone hates you”. Deviance broke out in the hallways once the school saw what the Plastics had said about them in the burn book. Deviance is an action that violates social norms, especially in social or sexual behaviors.
Social Stratification also occurs in Mean Girls among the cliques. When Cady first arrived to her high school, her first two friends, Janis and Damian, showed her a map of where each clique sat in the cafeteria. For example, Janis stated that the Asian girls sit together, the jocks sit together, the band nerds, the mathletes and so many more. According to chapter 7, pg. 184 of “The Real World” textbook it states that social stratification is when “ members of a given society are categorized and divided into groups, which are then placed in a social hierarchy.”
Social inequality is also represented in Mean Girls. The Plastics represent the upper class and how they usually get whatever they want. According to chapter 7, pg. 188 of “The Real World” textbook it goes into depth about the many social classes; the upper, upper-middle, middle, working (or lower middle class), and the lower class. It explains that the upper class is about 1% of the US population. It explains how upper class members have power over many resources and government power in their area. In the movie, it showed a scene where Regina invited friends over and her mom offers them alcoholic fruit drinks, it explains how her mom gives her whatever she wants including the master bedroom.
Gender is also represented in Mean Girls. A scene in the movie was when all of the female students were called into the gym to discuss their hurt feelings from the burn book. While they were in the gym the female teacher discussed tampons, the menstrual cycle, virginity and reproductive organs. Once a student started talking about their menstrual cycle the male principal stepped aside and said “I can’t handle this.” This shows how the girls were treated differently amongst all the students. According to Chapter 9, pg. 254 in “The Real World” textbook it explains how “gender is referred to the physical, behavioral, and personality traits that a group considers to be normal, natural, right, and good for it’s male and female members.”
Sexuality is also represented in the movie. The plastics danced a inappropriate dance on stage in front of the school. Cady’s parents were not happy, while Regina’s mom was trying to get in on the action. The girls used their sexuality to entertain the crowd and get what they want. According to Chapter 9, pg. 256 in “The Real World” textbook it explains how sexuality is used to describe sexual behavior, desires, and fantasies.