Conflict In Mean Girls

There is no doubt that the film Mean Girls is full of conflict. Director Mark Waters did an excellent job at presenting how conflict can transpire and spread between females. The conflict that occurs in Mean Girls can easily be seen through the main characters Cady and Regina, however, conflict does not only takes place between the two of them but the entire school as well. Conflicts that arise throughout this film can be explained through power and power currencies, conflict styles and tactics, assumptions and triggering events, and forgiveness and reconciliation. Each conflict allows there to be understanding as to why the conflict took place and how it got as destructive as it did.
To begin, power is the main reason for conflict in this film. Regina has distributive power because she has power over everyone in the school (Hocker & Wilmot,

At the beginning of the movie, it seemed as though Regina and Gretchen had a dominating conflict style because they were both aggressive in their own way and were uncooperative (Hocker & Wilmot, 2014, p. 156). They did all that they could to keep their power and cared less about other people’s feelings. At the beginning, Cady seemed to have an obliging conflict style, she accommodated to what others wanted so that she could fit in (Hocker & Wilmot, 2014, p. 163). She agreed to help Janis because she wanted friends and she started acting like the Plastics when she got close to them because she wanted to fit in with them as well. At the beginning of the movie Janis had an avoidance conflict style. She only spent time with her friend Damian and she did all that she could to stay clear of Regina. She talked about her conflict with Regina instead of confronting it, yet once Cady arrived she was ready to change her style to a dominating style so that Regina could finally be taken down (Hocker & Wilmot, 2014, p.