Mean Girl is a popular movie for adolescents of a comedy genre. It is a story of a young girl Cady who has spent her childhood being home-schooled in Africa. She comes back to the USA and enters the American educational system to discover that it is the same jungle. There are various predators and prey, and only the fittest ones survive. The film depicts the confrontation of the “new vs. popular students.” The plot itself is not original; however, the film’s social concepts are presented in a sophisticated and exciting manner.
Body Image and Sexual Identity
Cady, the protagonist, starts a new school year in the US and befriends a group of popular girls, referred to by the rest of the children as “Plastics.” The popular girls, Regina, Karen, and Gretchen, are all about 15 years old. This is the puberty age when many young girls face body image issues in real life, and the film accurately depicts the most harmful ways of doing so. The difference between Cady and the “Plastics” is fascinating and disturbing. Cady, being brought up in Africa, dresses plainly and adequately for her age, and barely uses makeup. However, the girls in her new school look more like women and dress quite frivolously. The early maturation is interconnected with the concept of early sexuality and is witnessed in the example of Cady, who is still a child, and Regina, who is already a woman. The sexual behavior is also quite different for Cady, who is innocent in this sense, and the “Plastics”, who mention having numerous boyfriends.
Mean Girls raises issues of sexual identity, as well as the acceptance of being different. Janis Jan, a former friend of Regina, is shown as a girl who is still trying to identify her gender role. Damian, another character and Cady’s friend, exhibits homosexual behavior in quite an obvious way. From the start of the film, Damian reinforces his homosexual identity, despite being not accepted by the majority of other male students. Thus, numerous issues on gender nonconformity and expressions of homophobia, depicted in the film, provide a lens through which modern society examines them.
Peer Relations and School Issues
One of the most critical social concepts developed in the film is the peer relations at school, the issues of friendship, empathy, groupthink, and conformity. When Cady enters the cafeteria for the first time, she is introduced to all the different social groups. Her friends also explain to her which cliques are acceptable to be social with and which ones to avoid. Therefore, using the school as an example, the film shows that the same division happens on a broader societal scale.
Conformity plays a significant role in the way students interact with each other. All the attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs are expected to align with what is considered to be social standards for a specific group. Thus, such school issues as social pressure and the ability to conform are the key components that measure the level of acceptance into a friendship circle. Discrimination is portrayed in the film concerning gender roles, and when students identify themselves with a particular clique. The majority of the students experience social dissonance because the feelings of hatred and obsession with the popular groups at the same time are closely intertwined. This conflict results in groupthink when students try to conform their behavior to fit in.
Marcia’s Identity Crisis
Identity statuses developed by Marcia can be traced through the character of Cady Heron. Cady goes through Identity Foreclosure, for example, before she came to the US. She accepts the value system and her parents’ lifestyle since they are the ones she spends most of her time with. Identity Moratorium is the status Cady’s character spends most of her in. She struggles between being her previous self, concentrating on academics, and the new status now pretty but a superficial girl. Cady is shown trying out different roles, sometimes making her look shallower than she is when trying to impress a handsome boy.
Diffusion is the status the viewers do not see Cady going through; however, she succeeds in Identity Achievement, after she realizes all the pain her actions caused and manages to learn her lesson. The culmination of achieving this status is when she gives away her Spring Queen crown and shares it with Regina and Janis. Janis, in particular, is the character that does display the Identity Diffusion status well. She is shown as independent of any commitments and socially acceptable in the school principles and values.
Parent-Adolescent Relationship
The film outlines polar concepts of parent-adolescent relationships – from the permissive parenting style of Regina’s mother to a democratic way of Cady’s parents. Regina’s mother has no rules for her daughter; there is no discipline, control, or regulation. The relationship between them is more of two friends of the same age rather than an adult and a child. This style, as it can be seen from the film, results in less attachment and respect within the family. Conversely, the democratic parenting style is represented in Cady’s relationship with her parents when it is obvious she is expected to follow a set of rules and guidelines established by the adults. However, there is no pressure and or conflict, resulting in a warm and trusting relationship between parents and children.
Conclusion
Despite being just a comedy for young adults, Mean Girls can serve as a basis for identifying and interpreting the key social psychological concepts. Through various characters, the film explains the issues of puberty, sexual identity development and acceptance, peer relations, and the issues students face in a modern school system. The film also depicts how a parenting style may affect a young adult’s identity development and future social role.