Mean Girls

October 12, 2006 aleshiam

Mean Girls a non fiction teen comedy released in 2004 is a movie which enters ‘Girl world’, where only the strong survive.

Cady Heron a teen girl who was brought up in Africa and home-schooled , has just moved to America and starts real school at age 16. When she first arrives she becomes friends with the social outcasts, Janis Ian (thought to be lesbian) and Damian (who is gay). The Plastics (The hottest, most popular girl group of the school) invite her to sit with them one lunchtime, she does sit with them and then becomes a part of their group, however only to reveal all their secrets to her real friends Janis & Damian. Except the more she hangs with the plastics the more she becomes like them. She takes grade 12 calculus, so does Aaron Samuels who is Regina George’s (the leader of the plastics) ex boyfriend, Cady soon finds she has a crush on Aaron and tells Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith (the other members of the plastics) who tell Regina. A rule in girl world is that ‘a friend can not like a friend’s ex’ so Regina seeks revenge on Cady, and gets back with Aaron. Cady really hates Regina for this, but pretends like nothing is wrong and tries to sabotage Regina’s life by devising a plan with Janis and Damian. Cady holds are small gathering at her house and invites Aaron and not Regina, heaps of people end up arriving and Cady tries to make a move on Aaron. Aaron tells her she has become a clone of Regina, Regina finds out Cady has been sabotaging her, and Janis and Ian tell her she is not pretending to be plastic anymore she is cold hard shiny plastic. Regina goes to the principle and frames Cady, Gretchen and Karen for the making of the Burn Book (a book which contains nasty comments about all the girls in school), copies of the book are made and dropped around the school. All the girls go wild, and a counselling session is held, soon everything is sorted and the school becomes a much nicer place, everyone is seen as socially equal, the plastics no more exist, and Cady ends up with Aaron.

I really enjoyed this movie, as it is one which I and all teenagers, in particular girls can relate to, as it covers topics such as body image, self hate, competition, peer pressure and sabotage. These topics are covered in a comical form which make the movie more enjoyable, so therefore helps to keep the viewer interested. I believe most people would like this movie, however some may not as it contains several parts some may find offensive. For example when Cady imagines normal home school student she imagines a “religious freak” who is a typical hillbilly and says “on the 6th day god created guns to kill the homosexuals”. There is also a lot of swearing and use of words such as slut and whore, and sexual speak, however if this was left it the movie would become less real.

I believe all the characters where fairly realistic, maybe a little stereotypically emphasised to help the comedy of the movie, though realistic enough to be able to relate each of the characters to real people.

A strong message which is conveyed in the movie is ‘being yourself is the best thing you can be, don’t try to be something your not’. The movie also shows the effects of gossip, lies and how much words can hurt.

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