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The Character Stereotypes In The Movie Mean Girl

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Stereotypes are seen all throughout history in films and television. With all of the character tropes that began to make an appearance in films, most characters were thrown into a certain box with a checklist of criterias that they had to fit. Character tropes are especially seen in movies with a high school setting due to the overwhelming pressure of fitting in and the cliques that seem to ring true in real life. In most high school movies there is almost always a teacher's pet, jock, stoner, geek, and most importantly a mean girl. A mean girl trope is very common in high school movies and they are usually one of the most relevant characters to the plot of the movie. Although there are a variety of iconic mean girls throughout films, they …show more content…

This is really solidified in films through the other characters' comments on the mean girl's appearance. Other characters are always drooling over the mean girl, playing a strong part in her desirability, which is one of the most notable traits of the classic mean girl in movies. Everyone always wants to be her or to be with her. In addition to this, everyone becomes easily influenced by the mean girl. This is strongly portrayed in the movie Mean Girls (2004). In this movie, the main character, Cady, moves to a new school and befriends the group of popular girls. Throughout the film, Cady is trying to ruin Regina George’s, the main mean girl’s, reputation. Cady agrees to do this on behalf of Regina's former friend Janis. Janis has a hatred for Regina because she spread hurtful rumors about her in the past and ruined their friendship. In one of Cady’s attempts to sabotage Regina, she decided to cut holes in Regina's shirt during gym class. Unembarrassed, Regina still decided to wear the shirt around with the holes in it. Everyone saw Regina wearing the shirt around and thought it was a new fashion trend and that it must be cool because Regina was doing it. In only a few hours, almost all the girls in the school decided to cut holes in their shirts as well. This just shows the influence and desirability that mean girls have in

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The movie Mean Girls shows many of the psychological themes that have been discussed throughout the course. Two prominent themes within the movie are bullying and cliques. Bullying is described by the book as being “verbal or physical behavior intended to disturb someone less powerful” (Santrock, 2016, p. 351). Bullying is extremely prominent in schools, which is the setting of the movie, with one in three students claiming that they have experienced bullying at some point whether as the victim or the bully (Santrock, 2016, p. 351). In the movie, bullying is a prominent plot point with most of the background characters stating that they, at some point, had been bullied by Regina George.

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All the girls backfired at each other, calling each other mean slurs like sl*ts and h*res. The plastics created a “burn” book that consisted of photos of girls they disliked and they wrote insults under them. Cady herself was pressured to join the Plastics and contributed to the “burn” book. Everyone at the school had something against one another especially the girls. They never recognized that the differences between us are what makes each and every one unique.

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A stereotype is a widely known saying which reduces someone’s entire identity and puts them into a single category with set characteristics which do not necessarily apply to them. For example, racial stereotyping is seen when individuals from the Middle East are automatically assumed as being terrorists. In addition, gender stereotyping is seen when all women are expected handle all the housework. Within Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, the character of Scout is affected by gender stereotypes, because she is constantly being told that she is a girl and is expected to act like so. Additionally, the character of Boo is affected by ableist stereotypes, because the children are highly frightened of his presence in Maycomb.

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The period of adolescence is confusing for both the adolescents and the parents. As a result, there are a lot of stereotypes and myths that we associate with them. Some of these stereotypes and myths are exaggerated and reinforced in popular media. The movie, Mean Girls, reinforces some of these myths, but overall, accurately portrays many aspects of adolescence. To summarize, Mean Girls is about Cady Heron who transferred to a public school in the United States after being home schooled her entire life.

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Rachel had to wear the piece of clothing in front of her class when it wasn’t even hers. Children are mortified when they are forced to do something awful in front of their classmates. In addition, the flustered Rachel is called out when,” Mrs. Price says loud and in front of everybody, ‘Now, Rachel, that’s enough.’” The degraded narrator is drawn further into despair when her teacher singles her out. The author uses imagery to fortify Rachel’s humiliation.

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These stereotypes are labels that evoke images of oppression, segregation and exploitation of minorities in America. Meanwhile reinforcing the dominance in a social hierarchy. The film Imitation of Life (1959) indicates the power behind stereotypes. It strongly depicts the relationship between a Black American woman, Annie Johnson

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Next, many gender and sexual stereotypes are perpetuated in media, through the ways of movies. In fact, the movie Legally Blonde fits under the category of stereotypes exceptionally well, since it shows many stereotypes of women in the society. For instance, there is one scene in the movie, where Warner, the handsome boy is playing football with his friends, and Elle, the dumb blonde sits on the sidelines to study and distract the guys playing as she wears nothing but a sparkly bikini top under a furry shawl on her upper half. This example evidently portrays the serotype of being a blonde dumb. Throughout the movie “Legally Blonde” Elle is shown as a material sorority girl, who is a duplicate copy of barbie in real life.

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The 2004 film Mean Girls is a favorite among many and has been seen by almost everyone . The vast majority of viewers see the film as it is given: a coming of age drama about a teenage girl's nightmare about struggling to fit into the “female society” that is high school, filled with corny humor and even a dance routine. This may be true of the story, but if you pay closer attention and read between the lines of the juvenile banter, you'll realize that the movie also has political undertones, particularly as it relates to hierarchy. How does this narrative relate to politics, then? Not only does the film make multiple references to its high school hierarchy, but it's deeper political message supports the concept of political-resistance and

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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.

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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.

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Second, I will present a synopsis of the film Mean Girls and how it applies to the Social Identity Theory. Lastly, I will provide my own personal interpretations of the social identity theory in relation to the film Mean Girls. Summary of the Theory Tajfel and Turner first developed the

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‘Or in a trash dump.’ That was Diane.” This proves that many students looked down on Rachel because of her appearance and financial state. Finally, the biggest and worst moment of the bullying, “Choked giggles, shuffling feet—and then applause—wild, sarcastic, malicious applause” shows that the majority of students in the class participated in the derision of their classmate. However, this is not the only scene where bullying pressures others into doing the same, as it can also be seen when the bullies encourage Laura to take part in the

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Mean Girls utilizes first person perspective with the protagonist, Cady narrating the majority of the film. This technique allows viewers to personally empathise with the protagonist and take on their world perspective. Further, Mean Girls frequently goes to close up camera shots of different staff and students in the school to show the overall opinion of the protagonist at varying points of her transformation; revealing the height of Cady’s popularity occurred when adhering to the ‘plastics’ materialistic standards (Mean Girls 2004). Similarly, Pink is also narrated from a first person perspective with the protagonist Ava. Accordingly, the audience is positioned to align with Ava’s perspective such as when she says ‘When I’d wanted to change boxes and become pink and perfect, all I needed to do was change schools and buy some new outfits.

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Stereotypes and a false representation of characterization are both used throughout the film about the role that women play in society. In this

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Entertainment is a big part in defining all stereotypes. Many people today believe that how the characters act in tv shows and movies are exactly how people act in real life. This is how the mental pictures of the stereotyped groups get over exaggerated. Stereotypes affect individuals who perhaps like different things or do different activities, but feel ashamed of doing so because of the stereotype put on them due to society. Stereotypes happen because people assume there must be something important that led to a groups common classification in the first place, something that makes the group essentially similar.

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