Mean Girls

The film ‘Mean girls’ is the stereotypical representation of teen girls in high school. The whole film is about how the main character ‘Cady’ evolves throughout the film in order to fit in and be just like ‘The Plastics’- stereotypical teenage girls. The main purpose of the film and the book that the film is based on is to over exaturate teenage girl behaviour in order to make audience's realise how the way the characters are acting is extreme and this behaviour should be avoided at all costs.

The aim of the film is to make teenage girls believe that this isn't the way they should act. However, for people who don't understand the concept/aim of the film and for younger girls who don't understand the sarcasm; a negative affect can be imposed.

Society’s definition of beauty is very similar to what is portrayed in a Barbie doll. The definition completely revolves around beauty to an extent where it is impossible to look completely identical to that expectation. Hence Photoshop, make-up and lighting are used in every aspect of the media in order to enhance and change features of the typical teenage girl appearance.

In the very first scene of Mean Girls we can see how “the plastics” are portrayed in relation to the rest of the people at school and how they are seen to be the most important, the prettiest and the most popular. As the plastics walk out onto the field we see both Karen Smith and Gretchen Wieners in very tight t-shirts with short shorts, looking reasonably lost, dumb and quite self-absorbed. As Regina George enters the scene we see her being carried by multiple boys; looking regal and self-absorbed as she lies on top of their hands and smiles as they carry her onto the field. Although it is obvious that Karen and Gretchen are popular and high up in the school hierarchy it is clear that Regina is above them in terms of popularity and she is therefore seen to be the leader of the plastics. 

It is interesting to notice that Regina’s clothing choice is noticeably more modest that the other two girls suggesting that Karen and Gretchen have to try hard in order to be popular and noticed whereas Regina doesn’t need to put a lot of effort into being popular, pretty and noticed because she is already adored and seen to be the most popular girl in the school and therefore out of the three, can afford to wear more covered-up and modest clothing even when her personality is almost the complete opposite to what you would expect of someone in slightly more conservative clothing.

A prominent idea that is displayed in the film “Mean Girls” is the idea that every girl should have insecurities and see things about themselves that they would like to change. This idea is shown mainly in two scenes; the cafeteria scene and the scene in Regina’s bedroom when the girls are looking in the mirror and analysing their flaws.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re5veV2F7eY

In the cafeteria scene (shown in the link above) Regina compliments Cady by saying “But you’re really pretty” to which Cady responds “thank you”. Regina finds the idea that Cady accepts the compliment foreign and usual and so replies “so you agree, you think you’re really pretty?” The plastics become confused at this point because it doesn’t make sense to them that Cady is okay with how she looks and is willing to accept a compliment such as “you are really pretty” without hesitation or denial. This shows the audience that the plastics are used to criticizing the way they look and therefore expect others to do it as well because they believe that every teenage girl should find faults in them that they would like to be different and also because the plastics can find faults in themselves, they can also see faults in others. Showing the very judgmental stereotype of teenage girls displayed often in the media. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYrvUwkvQfg

Another scene where the idea that “every teenage girl should be able to find faults in herself” is shown is in Regina’s bedroom (shown in the link above).
Regina, Gretchen and Karen stand in front of the mirror and tell each other their insecurities about their bodies without any hesitation as if they always tell each other what they hate about themselves and as if it is completely normal.  “My hairline is so weird.” “My pores are huge!” “My nail beds suck!” The girls then turn towards Cady and look at her with confused and anticipated facial expression waiting for Cady to tell them a fault about her own body. Cady then tries to find something about herself that she could possibly find fault with in order to fit in with the other girls and so awkwardly says “I have really bad breath in the morning.”

Cady isn't able to immediately find a fault in herself like the other girls can suggesting that she doesn't see how or find it normal to pick faults in herself and her looks and doesn't spend a lot of her time worrying about her appearance. This is very odd and confusing for the plastics as they believe it is completely normal to have/find flaws. 

This reflects the stereotype on teenage girls with the idea that all girls should be insecure about at least one feature of their body and if they don’t, they are somewhat stuck-up and too confident in their own un-altered body which is not considered to be good in the film and other aspects of the media. This representation can cause teenage girls in our society to believe that it is normal and encouraged to find faults in our appearances and that no-one is beautiful just the way they are.

The plastics’ insecurities could cause teenage girls to look at their pores, hairline, nail beds and other features and wonder whether theirs too are ugly, weird or abnormal. This can be very damaging because many teenage girls could start thinking, believing and extensively trying to fix their insecurities. This can lead to self-esteem issues and perhaps depression and self-harm due to the imposed idea that no-one is good enough as they are and everyone needs to change their appearance in some way in order to be society’s definition of beautiful.

It is then made obvious to teenage girls through the use of advertising in magazines and commercials (media) with models who are portrayed as ‘perfect’ that in order to reach society’s definition of beautiful (just like the models in the advertisements), beauty products must be purchased and used. The models on the adverts that have the perfect hair, skin and figure make teenage girls believe that if they buy the product, they too will have the perfect hair, skin and figure which will completely fix their insecurities which of course is false information. When girls who buy these products don't end up looking like the teenage girls in the media they can feel ugly, alone and like an outsider because even when they use the products which as supposed to make you look like the girls in the media, they don't look the way that they want to (influenced by the media's stereotype/representations of teenage girls). Even when teenage girls use the products advertised to them in order to fix their insecurities, it won't be a magic fix. It is humanly impossible to look identical to the photo-shopped images in the magazines. Hence giving teen girls even more self-esteem issues than before, causing effects such as self-harm, depression and eating disorders. 

This representation of teenage girls could cause society to believe that all teenage girls are insecure about their appearance and can find many faults in themselves. This could cause society to believe that teenage girls are solely obsessed and worried only about their appearances and not about other things such as education, friendships and families. This is a worrying idea as this stereotype gives quite a degrading view on teenage girls as if they are weak, insecure and self-absorbed.

However, on the complete other hand, this bedroom scene could cause some teenage girls to be shocked at how girls alike to them could be so insecure about their appearances. In the scene, the plastics talk about their weird hairline, huge pores and ‘sucky’ nail beds, however these faults are untrue and invisible to the audience and so we wonder why the girls could be so insecure about a fault that isn't even there.
It could make teenage girls think about how much they criticize their own appearances and realize that perhaps their own self-made flaws are almost imaginary and not as visible and extensive as once thought. This could be a very positive outcome to the film and stereotype of teenage girls, decreasing the rate of insecurity and depression due to insecurity.

In the film, the plastic's insecurities are shown to be a negative thing (that was the director's purpose) however, some girls may misinterpret the movie to believe that having insecurities is completely normal and in fact is encouraged. The fact that the plastic's find it normal to have insecurities and shun Cady for not having them shows that they (the plastics) believe that all teenage girls should feel insecure about themselves in one way or another, as if because Cady doesn't see anything extremely wrong with her body she is weird, stuck up and not normal.

Before Cady entered the American high school she was very confident and satisfied with the way she looked and behaved. She had had no peer pressure around her previously, telling her she should be and look a certain way. As time passed it became obvious to the audience that the people and environment around her was slowly causing her to change her characteristics and attributes so that they became similar to the plastic's, to a point where she was almost unrecognizable in comparison to the person she was beforehand. This definitely shows us that teenage girls are very much influenced by their peers, environment and media and that teenage girls nowadays should be very cautious as to who they are associating with and how these so called "friends" are influencing them but also cautious about how the media is affecting us, because just like Cady, it can become too late and your peers and/or media have influenced you so much that you have almost become a completely different person. 

Some other examples of teen girl insecurities are in the films "Grease" and "St. Trinians".
In both of the films, the girls; Annabelle Fritton and Sandy Olsson change the way they look and act in order to become more sexy, desirable, independent, fierce and popular due to the peer pressure around them. This peer pressure causes them to have insecurities about the way they look, feel and are and so change themselves in order to feel more confident. In St Trinians it is the people around her who force her to change her attitude, persona and appearance whereas in Grease Sandy chooses to change by herself, however in both films they are peer pressured and in both films they seem to be more confident and happy with the way the are when they conform to the expectations of the people around them.

We keep seeing the representation of insecure teenage girls in the media as it is what sells beauty products and fashionable clothes. Girls want to be able to look what is considered ‘perfect’ and the constant repetition of girls in the media who don’t like the way they look makes teenage girls more aware of their own flaws and what they can do to perfect them.

If there was a more common representation of girls in the media who aren't society’s definition of beautiful but are still confident with the way they look then I believe more girls would be confident in their own bodies, causing fewer effects such as depression and self-harm.  

We also see the constant repetition of unnatural and unattainable beauty; girls who have been photo shopped or are wearing heavy makeup because it makes teen girls watching the films/ programs and other forms of media insecure. When we see girls portrayed in the media who we perceive to be beautiful, pretty and popular and we don't look anything like them, we automatically believe that those girls in the media are normal and the fact that we don't look anything like them makes us think that we are abnormal. This is why a lot of teen girls today, just like Cady, strive and succeed in changing their appearances and personalities in order to be more like these stereotypical teenage girls. 

I believe that both the media and peers play an interlocking role in influencing teenage girls. What we see in the media influences us into thinking and believing that we should look a certain way, depending on what is constantly shown in the media (western beauty- blonde hair, blue eyes etc) and then we, as teenage girls, pass these influential images and ideas on to our peers. Constantly spreading this information to all the teenage girls around us so that they too, end up thinking that this is the way we should act, behave and look like (a never ending cycle). Even if we have come to the conclusion of how to be due to common stereotypes and representations in the media, when our peers re-confirm that representation i.e. "I wish i had blonde hair" "all the people in the magazines are so thin" it automatically becomes more vivid in our minds and we can again become focused on trying to maintain these stereotypes in our every day lives.

            
 Images from:
  http://www.glogster.com/kaylatheberry22/mean-girls-qoute/g-6ll0mt6cb8qqsfbv2edsga0

 

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