...Adolescent development in Mean Girls The movie Mean Girls is filled with characters that are easy to relate with, quotable lines, and a hilarious but realistic plot line. One other major thing that the movie has is concepts of the development that occurs during late adolescences including social, emotional, and cognitive development. Mean Girls is about a girl named Cady that is attending a public high school for the first time after being home schooled in Africa for all of her life. She knows nothing of the American teenage culture or customs or about the public school system. During her first week of school Cady becomes friends with two people in one of her classes named Janis and Damien, who unbeknownst to her are a part of the outcast crowd. They convince her to befriend “The Plastics” who are a well-known clique of girls, because it would be fun to see what their lives are like on the other side that people don’t see. She goes along with this plan and quickly her life begins to change. On the first day of school Cady enters the cafeteria during lunch and feels as if everyone is watching her simply because she is the new girl. This feeling of having an imaginary audience is a part of adolescent egocentrism (Santrock 375). Egocentrism in adolescence varies from egocentrism of early and late childhood. The definition of egocentrism changes from being able to understand the difference of owns perspective from others to adolescent egocentrism, which is having a heightened...
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...Heathers is a satirical black comedy directed by Michael Lehmann, starring Winona Ryder as Veronica Sawyer and Christian Slater as Jason “J.D” Dean. Veronica Sawyer is a new addition to the most popular clique comprised of three other girls in her high school, all named Heather, but Veronica does not approve of the other girls’ petty and malicious actions. When Veronica and her unorthodox new acquaintance, J.D., attempt to confront the clique leader, Heather Chandler, they accidentally poison her, and make it out to be a suicide. As a pattern of similar suicides breaks out, Veronica realizes that J.D. may not be all that she had hoped for. Heathers features many literary elements throughout the film to add depth and meaning to the characters...
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...Tziporah Nockenofsky, 337655518 The Meaning of Meanness: Popularity, Competition, and Conflict among Junior High School Girls Don E. Merten In this qualitative research paper, Merten examines the sociocultural construct of meanness, more specifically how competition for popularity influenced a group of girls in junior high to be blatantly mean to one another. The goal is to understand why meanness was considered acceptable and didn’t threaten the girls’ popularity and perhaps more importantly, to understand the mixture of social and cultural factors that exist behind this cluster of behaviors. Merten approaches the issue of meanness not because of a deficiency in existing field research but in order to focus on the relationship between competition for popularity and meanness. The clique he researched had become so embroiled in their mean spirited behaviors, they acquired a reputation of being the meanest girls in the school. Merten concentrates on analyzing the complicated factors that led to such a social reality. In earlier research of competition and its effects on human relationships, researchers worked from the suspicion that women were by nature less competitive than men. Females were found to prefer to use verbal strategies to diffuse personal conflict rather than confront any open competition. Eventually it...
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...The Christi Clique of Maryville Middle “Melissa, Kalli! Get over here! It’s time for my makeup check!” Christi said. “Coming!” The two girls said together. Christi pulled up her makeup checklist on her Mac laptop and started reading it out loud. “Mascara” “Check” “Lipstick” “Check” “Eyeliner” “Check” “Girls, let’s go, it’s time for your first day as 7th graders!” Christi’s Mom showed up on the flat screen TV mounted on Christi’s wall. Every room in the huge, luxurious, house had received a TV just like Christi’s as a Christmas present from Jose the butler. The TV’s allowed the Jackson family to talk to each other face to face anytime they wanted to. “Uugh! Mom, stop nagging us, we’re almost ready, gosh!” Christi whined to her mother. After the three girls were done perfecting each other they stepped to the elevator and rode downstairs. “I can’t believe we’re in 7th grade!” Melissa said. “Yeah I know, it seems like just last year we met in 1st grade,” Kalli replied. Christi could care less about being in 7th grade. She was more interested in Nicole Perry’s new makeover she had heard about. What if she’s prettier than us now, Christi thought to herself. “What if she thinks just because she’s pretty that she can join the Christi Clique?” “Oh well, it can’t be that bad.” Melissa, Kalli, and Christi stepped into the Cadillac Escalade, buckled their seat belts and started discussing the new year’s latest fashions. When the pearly...
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...SOCI2810 Lecture 4 September 28th, 2015 Public Anxiety AND Cultural Fascination of girls/girlhood Last Week: - Theorizing that says girl’s live in an externally hostile world - Splinters their authentic selves. Attack self-esteem - Result is girls lose their authentic voices. Can’t live up to dominant femininities - “Ophelia” framework emerges - See it in programs policies, popular culture and media for girls From Vulnerable to Mean - From the 1990s “Ophelia” vulnerable girl to the early 2000s: “mean girl” or “bad girl” - Who are they and why the focus on “mean girls” in 2000s? - “Mean girls” commit violence – ranging from indirect and verbal aggression to direct and physical violence - “Discovery” of girls’ aggression led to explosion of Girls, Relationships, Popularity - For writers including Simmons and Wiseman, popularity is a process that includes a number of positions within girls’ cliques: - Queen bee who controls and instills fear in other girls - Wiseman: girls’ friendship almost cult-like orgs - She helps girls understand privilege and stop exclusion - “Mean Girls” (2004) loosely based on Wiseman’s books 3 of Many Explanations They Offer for “Mean Girls” ➢ Naturalization of ‘girl’ category and girlhood: - While these scholars recognize a ‘problem’ with girls’ aggression, they argue that many girls have ‘successfully’ passed through this crisis time to become responsible adults, mothers. - “Don’t worry. Just a phase.” - What are the...
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...Additionally, this exploration is organized by each theoretical view. Furthermore, this review includes the opinion of this writer’s strongest theoretical perspective, as well as considering additional questions relating to the correlation of micro and macro sociology within the film. Thus, the film chosen for this analysis is “Mean Girls”, the 2004 comedy with a moral plot which is written by Tina Fey and directed by Mark Waters. Indeed, this film relates to the sociological area of gender and by watching this film through different lenses, this writer ascertains the intricacies of each role and function...
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...Cliques, Friendship & Dating Cliques As a teenager, having a social life takes major precedence in shaping other people’s perceptions of an identity or even the light that they see themselves in. Often times, people make judgements about a person's value based on the type of friends they have. Our friends are a great support system in such a transitional part of our lives. We laugh alongside them, as well as suffer losses together. Most times our friendships are a positive aspect of how we define ourselves, but when friends become exclusive, it can seriously hurt those being left out. A clique is a group of friends that excludes certain people in a purposeful manner. There may be one or two controlling members who influence the rest of the group. This type of peer pressure can cause people to act differently or behave in an uncharacteristic manner. These actions can stem from insecurities or the desire to gain popularity. People feel more powerful by putting others down, but deep down it doesn’t help to tear down the self-confidence and respect of another. (Coping With Cliques 2). Girls have a tendency to form cliques more frequently than boys, but all members of a social community are affected by this kind of behavior. Often times teens will feel trapped in a clique or be afraid that if they speak up to stop things, the group will turn on them next. They take a passive approach to the situation in order to avoid being a victim. However, there is no true sense of belonging...
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...Mean Girls is a film about an adolescent foreign student, Cady, who moves from Africa to a suburban area in Illinois (Lorne, Shimkin, & Waters, 2004). Consequently, she had to give up homeschooling. Cady is introduced to a typical, public high school full of cliques, which makes her question her individuality in terms of popularity. After befriending two outcasts, she ironically is drawn to the “plastics” – a group of domineering, popular girls. Cady is persuaded by her two unpopular friends to falsify a friendship with the plastics in order to reveal their deepest secrets and ultimately destroy their clique. Unfortunately, Cady ends up becoming one of the plastics herself, which causes her to lose connections with both cliques. Cady...
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...Date 1. Describe the major hormonal changes that occur during adolescence. Describe girls’ reactions to menarche and boys’ reactions to spermarche during puberty. What factors influence the way adolescents respond? Describe the impact of puberty on parent–child interaction and the adaptive value of this change in adolescents’ relationships with their parents. Hormonal change is at its peak during adolescence and is a period of rapid psychological and physiological transformation. During puberty boys and girls sweat and their oil glands become more active. This will result in body odour and acne. They also get underarm and pubic hair in the body. The brain releases Gonadotropin – releasing hormone (GnRH) for stimulating pituitary gland. Pituitary gland is also known as the Master gland releases luteinizing hormones and follicle stimulating hormone. In boys, interstitial cell stimulating hormone and it stimulates interstitial cells to produce to from hormones in male organ of testicles. Both male and females have estrogens and androgen in their body in low level and after puberty, males begin to have more androgen including testosterone. In female they get more oestrogen as puberty crosses. Menarche is the first menstrual bleeding in a girl and her reaction to this event can be both emotional and physical. It is a sign of growing up and happens between the age of 9 and 15 years. The girls usually show stress, irritability and anxiety during menarche. The surge of hormones can...
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...“it” girls are all groups that we automatically and exclusively associate with a high school environment; how many times have we stopped to consider where these segregated cliques originated or the purpose of their existence in our society? In the 2007 film, Mean Girls, the directors portrayed a comedic overrepresentation of these specialized groups in a way that actually raises a myriad of sociological questions regarding the inner workings of high school social behavior. Taking a closer look at this satirical, lighthearted movie can provide a sufficient amount of insight about how social fact and the social construction of reality dictate our behavior and our perspectives on society and the roles we play in it. I should start by explaining...
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...An analysis of generic conventions in the trailers for the movies ‘John Tucker Must Die’ & ‘Mean Girls’ An analysis in terms of generic conventions in the trailers for the movies “John Tucker must die” and “Mean Girls”. Genre is defined as ‘A large category of stories united by their particular settings, characters, themes and narrative conflicts’ (Worland 2007, pg15). This assignment will look at the generic conventions a coming of age/ teen film (what we expect to see), aspects such as typical situations, stock characters, style, icons and setting. In terms of themes in coming of age (teen films) (subjects that are dealt with within the text) they tend to focus around, first love, rebellion, and conflict with parents, teen angst or alienation. In terms of what we would typically see within the genre ‘teen/coming of age’ film it is in the interest of the target audience and making the plot relatable and focus on their interests. The first trailer to be analysed is “Mean Girls”, a teen movie released in 2004. The style of “Mean Girls” is glossy, the use of high key lighting creates an expensive look and the contrast of high/bright colours makes the film more vivid and eye catching the use of the bright colours encourages a cheerful and young audience. In the first shot we see ‘Kady Heron’ in class she looks bland and has no character and is introduced as the new ‘student’ which is typical for the plot of a teen (coming of age movie) and the non-diegetic sound tracking...
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...Mean Girls is one of my favorite movies. Then, Mean Girls 2 came out and I though that they would have more similarities. But I was wrong. Even though the movie titles are basically the same, the differentiate in plot, climax, and resolution. The main character in Mean Girls 1 is Cady. Cady Heron is a sweet girl who knows all about survival in the wilderness but now she has to learn how to survive high school. She just started her first year of public school for the first time since moving from South Africa, where she was home schooled and her parents were zoologists. When she is befriended by two nice students, Janis and Damian. She soon meets the Plastics, the three crude, beautiful, popular girls, consisting Regina, the unofficial leader, Gretchen, Regina’s full-time-follower, and Karen, “one of the most dumbest people you will ever meet.” The main character in Mean Girls 2 is “Jo.” Johanna Mitchell, she is a 17-year-old tomboy, who lives with her father, who works as a race car driver for NASCAR. The first day of school, she explains that she wants to avoid high school drama, and already knows what to expect from some of the mean-spirited cliques to that attend North Shore High School. Then she is introduced to the school's most popular clique, "The Plastics" This time "The Plastics" consist of Amanda "Mandi" Weatherly, a rich snobbish girl who lives down the street from Jo; Chastity Meyer, a seemingly slow-witted blond who is known to randomly hook up with guys (even...
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...For the guys: So, you like two girls. Maybe more, it sucks, torn between them, not knowing which one to go for, right? The bad idea is to go for both (or in some cases, “all”) of them. What I’m here to do is try to help you narrow down which girl you should go for. Not to be mean or picky, but it’s just sort of a guideline. How do I know which one to chase after? More often than not, each of these girls will be different, both in personality or lifestyle. Maybe from different cliques, different cultures, whatever, but I’ll try to go over what I can. Girl #1 - DGAF Chick This is sort of self explanatory… the DGAF girl doesn’t well… give a fxck. She likes to party, flirts a lot, and has fun being single. There’s a good chance that she drinks, hopefully no drugs, but she’s fun to be around. Usually hangs out with a lot of guys, so that could prove, um, “worrying.” The fact that she hangs out with all these dudes can mean that you’ll get jealous, A LOT, and that you’ll get sort of protective of her. The constant flirting also sends off a lot of mixed messages. Do not go for this girl.Chances are, you’ll be happy that it seems like she’s into you up until you find out she’s like that to almost every guy. You got played, son. Girl #2 - The Shy Girl The Shy Girl is usually really cutesy, and usually hangs out with a lot of other cutesy girls too. Probably a little awkward around guys, but in a good way. They’re usually really nice, and actually pretty...
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...white kid from Africa that has no experience in schools, but things began to look up when she met two kids at lunch. Their names were Janis Ian and Damian Leigh, two outsiders that took Cady under their wing. She found her little clique; they were corky and weird, but she fit right in. Their lunch consisted of Janis and Damian giving Cady the run down on all the cliques and their description became particularly detailed when they expressed their hatred for “The Plastics.” They explained them as the mean, stuck up girls who ran the school, and explained that Queen Bee, Regina George was the worst. The Plastics ran the school in their matching outfits and lingo, and very rarely looked in the direction of anyone who seemed to be lesser than them. The remainder of the movie revolves around Cady’s new friends’ plan to get the inside scoop of The Plastics by having Cady “pretend” to become one. This movie serves as a good example of the Social Identity Theory because it shows the process of gaining ingroup membership, the use strategy of intergroup differentiation, and the display of ingroup commitment. The first connection from Mean Girls to SIT is Janis and Damian’s display of favoritism to their own group. When they were pointing out all the different cliques to Cady at lunch, they made it clear that they were glad that they weren’t a part of any other. They even had their strong bias against a particular group; The Plastics. This further explains how categorization to one group makes...
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...Mean Girls (2004) Mean girls 2004, was directed by Mark Waters. Based of a book by Rosalind Wiseman “Queen Bees and Wannabes” and screenplay by Tina Fey. The movie was first developed by Tina Fey, calling Saturday Night Live’s producer Lorne Michaels to suggest Queen Bees and Wannabes if it could be turned into a film. Borrowing elements from the book, she then rewrote the plot from her own high school experience. Lindsay Lohan first read Regina George’s line but the casting team felt like she was more fitting into their Cady’s character and that it would harm her reputation at that time. Rachel McAdams was casted because Tina Fey felt her being “kind and polite made her perfect for an evil-spirited character. Amanda Seyfried also read lines for Regina’s role but the producers suggested her for Karen due to her “spacey and silly sense of humor”. Lacey Chabert and...
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