Mean Girls: implicit and explicit social norms, conformity, obedience Cady Heron’s life changed dramatically when she moved to a suburban area in Illinois, after living in Africa and being homeschooled her whole life. She started at North Shore High and quickly got sucked into the stereotypical girl drama. Prior to the drama, Cady met two of her best friends Damian and Janis, who were apart of the out-caste clique. The two compiled a map of North Shore High and how Cady will survive it. A big part of the map was the cafeteria and where all the different cliques sat. Cady was warned about a certain clique called “the Plastics”, she was told they are the worst people she would ever meet. The Plastics are the popular clique at Cady’s new …show more content…
I learned that there are many different types of social norms, but the two depicted in Mean Girls are, implicit and explicit social norms. Implicit social norms are the behavior rules that are implied without anyone having to talk about them, while explicit social norms are stated clearly and there is no room left for confusion. These types of social norms are often seen in everyday life, and if you break the norms it can lead to you being shunned by others or all the way up to punishment with the law. Social norms are all around us. In the film Mean Girls, Cady moved from Africa and had to figure out both sides of the social norms. She had not experienced any of the social norms that everyone else lived by each day. Cady had to learn all the explicit and implicit rules of girl world. For example, when Cady first told Gretchen and Karen that she thought Aaron Samuels was cute they yelled at her and warned her that she could not like him. The reason she could not like Aaron was because he was Regina’s ex boyfriend and that breaks “girl code”. Cady had no idea about the girl code which is an example of implicit social norms. An example of explicit norms is the plastics burn book and when they write “Amber D’Alessio, she made out with a hotdog” they are shunning her for breaking the behavior
In the novel "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart, the rebel archetype is embodied by the protagonist Cadence Sinclair Eastman, also known as Cady. Throughout the novel, Cady rebels against her family's expectations and traditions, leading to her coming of age and developing a sense of awareness. This rebel archetype is an essential part of Cady's character development, as it leads her to question her family's values and ultimately understand the truth behind the lies they have been telling her. At the beginning of the novel, Cady is portrayed as a naive and innocent young girl, who blindly accepts her family's views and traditions.
Likewise, in the text, society is a struggle between the inferior proles and the superior Party with Big Brother being victorious every time. Although 1984 and Mean Girls are fictional storylines, they both portray the reality of school life in the world today. The social order seen in George Orwell’s novel, 1984, portrays the exclusion, pressure, and aggression between classes, directly paralleling the societal structure of today’s school systems. Exclusion between the classes is shown in 1984 and school society through the separation of the outcasts and the proles from the popular cliques and the Party.
Society has only changed to adjust to some female role. For example, in the text and in the videos it showed how girls are more likely to be watched more than their brothers. This example comes from a long line of things girls are
Throughout the book, the sorority and the national sorority system employs dualistic behaviors and attitudes in regards to how they speak, dress, and act. Sorority members are pressured to conform to that stereotype to keep with the sorority image, such as when multiple sorority girls were getting a certain body part pierced, the president of the sorority who is tasked with serving as a role model conforms to getting her nipples pierced. The dualistic behaviors started when the “house mom” was the authority figure and set the rules in terms of sorority women cannot smoke in front of the house, which can destroy their reputation. Furthermore, the mentality that one of the sorority girls had to conform and break off her relationship with her friends and boyfriend to fit in with her sorority and behave in a certain way during the date night parties support dualistic behaviors. Not only are these sororities pressured to conform to a sorority identity, the weight of continuing a legacy of which their family was a member of furthers the struggles that these students experience.
This has to do with the experiment, because all social norms are used as vessels to make people act and think the same, and if you break them you are looked down upon by
Years prior, gay individuals got shunned, and restricted in films with few exceptions while worsening with the AIDS crisis. It was not until 2000 when Vermont created the Civil Union and in 2004 Massachusetts accepted gay marriage whereas other states were rejecting this right. In the same year, 2004, Mean Girls was released which was created off the basis of Queen Bees & Wannabes published by Rosalind Wisemen. This film in particular is quite unique and important to understanding high school students in their environment, causing them to change. Mean Girls was written by Tina Frey, who brought personal experiences into the film giving a stronger connection to real life.
Rubrik What actually defines success? In the book We Were Liars, written by E. Lockhart, the protagonist Cadence Sinclair is starting to reinvent herself, as she becomes progressively aware of the world outside or her tiny isolated bubble of rich people, dripping with privilege. The Sinclairs spends entire summers on their private island, drinking expensive wine and eating posh food. Their worst horror is being abnormal, hence the carefully crafted outer image of the perfect family. Which, of course, could not possibly be further from the truth.
In order to be accepted in the current social society, you must follow a certain set of norms throughout life. Social norms are the unwritten rules on behavior that are expected and established opinions on what is appropriate and what is not. People who do not follow these instilled norms may be casted aside, judged, or suffer a consequence. Society’s expectations have dictated what normal human behavior is that people conform to as a way of life. These norms, however, are not set in stone, so they may be challenged.
Conformity is present in every group situation with adolescents. Adolescents are always looking to be a part of a group, usually conforming to the standards of the group. Adolescents often conform because they want to have the approval of the peers that are well liked or “popular”. A great example of adolescents and conformity is in the chick flick ‘Mean Girls’ through the different cliques in high school and how it affects the peers themselves. Caty, the main character, is faced with several difficult situations where she decides to conform with her high school peers getting her in trouble that becomes hard for her to escape.
At the beginning of the film (4 minutes and 50 seconds) shows how the different Hierarchical Groups taking part in this movies. Social Dominance Theory explains the behaviours that being participated in and experienced in middle and high school as well as the behaviours in the above mentioned move, Mean Girls. The theory states that people all belong to groups and members protect their group and act to maintain their hierarchical groups. The clip demonstrates this principle in how a member of the group did not follow their standards and therefore, in order to protect the group, she was dismissed. The top group has high social value which motivates and maintained the hierarchical status.
It centers on females and how they act at that certain age. The four mean girls, Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith and Cady Heron represent the stereotypes of the popular girls of high school. The role of gender plays an important role in the movie. The movie discusses the aspects of how a “typical” teenage girl should be, in order for her to fit in.
The film Mean Girls is an American comedy movie for teens that illustrates the mainstream high school experience in the west. The main character, Cady Heron is a sixteen-year-old girl who is a new student at bob school in Illinois. Cady moved from being home-schooled in Africa, and therefore is unaware of the environment and lifestyle at a public high school. Cady then meets Daemon and Janis, who are part of an outcast group. Janis and Damien expose Cady to the norms of their school, talking her through cliques, and most importantly introducing her to “the plastics”, a group that Janis and Damian hated.
When Cady is befriended by this in-group, she quickly starts conforming throughout the movie to the standards
Many of the characters in Mean Girls struggle with finding their identity and belongingness into a certain group. Fitting in is hard. Making new friends, moving to a new place, figuring out where you belong, and discovering who you are—all of these are difficult tasks. The films show how cliques can wreck everyone’s life. The film even shows how conflict often time arises within different socio or cultural groups.
Mean Girls, set in Illinois, depicts the socio-political climate of an American high school, with it’s protagonist, Cady Heron moving from Africa and homeschooling to be socialised in her new society. The antagonist throughout the film, Regina George, is portrayed as an authoritarian woman who has total control of the school (Mean Girls 2004). Regina is shown to engage with numerous sexual partners at the same time and promotes her liberation through wearing a tee-shirt with her bra protruding out the front when she finds two holes cut at her breasts; motivating a new fashion trend throughout the cohort (Mean Girls 2004, Robinson-Cseke 2009, p. 45). This depiction of a strong, independent woman aligns with ‘Post-feminist texts-films, books, magazines and television programs characterised by a model of young womanhood that is empowered, successful, entitled, independent, socially mobile and free to choose her destiny’ (Toffoletti 2008, p. 72). Post feminism is further reflected in the film through the power change which occurs, transferring from Regina to Cady, mirroring the transfer of power from second wave feminism to post feminism.