Topic > Mean Girl Movie Analysis: Exploring the Dark Side of American Culture

IndexIntroduction"Mean Girl" Movie Analysis (essay)ConclusionIntroductionThe movie I chose to watch is Mean Girls. I felt that this film accurately reflected American culture and was also strongly associated with teen and high school culture. In this essay we will research the film 'Mean Girl', its analysis will examine the film from two different sociological perspectives, namely the functionalist perspective and the conflict theory. The essay also discusses the film's depiction of American culture and teen culture. The Burn Book, a crucial element of the story that contains nasty rumors about the school's students, exemplifies betrayal and lies, which unfortunately is a theme that reflects some of the darkest aspects of American culture. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Analysis of the Movie "Mean Girl" (essay) The movie focused on Regina George, the high school homecoming queen, and how she and her two friends, Gretchen and Karen dominated their high school. They were called "Plastic". When Cady moved to the United States from Africa, she was enrolled in the same school as these girls and became intertwined with the group of friends. She would initially try to join their group as a way to gain information about them and then return to her other friends Janice and Damian to expose them. Eventually, Cady realized that she had truly become part of the "Plastics" and was a bad girl herself. The "Plastics" eventually faded away and everyone made new friends in new groups, but the movie mostly focused on the inevitable implosion of the groups and everything they did in between. The mean girl movie can be analyzed using functionalist theory and conflict theory. Today, functionalism is defined as social integration in which there is an overall collective consciousness about what social beliefs, ideas about how a person should act, and also values ​​that have been passed down generation after generation. In the movie Mean Girls we can see how a group of different people form a society with a shared belief. For example, the mean girls environment is a high school where different types of students come together with the same value which is getting their education. The functionalist perspective can also be seen when different forms of groups exist. For example the famous group "Plastics" of which Regina is the leader. Unpopular high school students conform to this popular group in the way they walk or dress just to fit in and be popular just like them. This can be seen when the girls at the school cut off their shirts just to follow Regina's fashion sense. No one thought his shirt was weird or laughed. The other groups like the Matheletes or the athletes make the school function normally showing that there are always two sides that are the norm for the society (Na, 2016). In the movie Mean Girls you can also see the conflict theory. According to Karl Marx's conflict theory, the bourgeoisie which is the upper or property-owning class has power and takes advantage of the lower class which is the proletariat. In the movie Mean Girl, conflict theory comes into play with the Plastics, who are the bourgeoisie, and the unpopular kids who are the proletariat. The Burn Book they had, where they wrote bad things about people who didn't conform to their status quo, is the one where we can see the conflict theory. This book about burns led to fighting among all the children in the school when Regina denounced the book about burns. Janice and Damian wanted social change,including Cady, when they decided to embarrass and tear down Regina, Gretchen, and Karen (Na, 2016). There is a lot of American culture represented in this film and it is all depicted from a high school point of view. . This movie has a lot of influence on teenagers and attracts their attention. Mean Girls is such a popular movie and has continued to stay relevant since 2004 when it was released, which is a major sign of how relevant it still is. To start, the film focuses on the most popular girls in school, and many people in the film refer to them as the "queen bees". It's all about how these girls dominate the school and how everyone falls on their feet to be loved by the girls who are so mean to everyone, especially Regina. In American high schools, teenagers benefit from being popular and well-liked because that is the most important thing to them at the time, and Mean Girls was an exaggerated representation of how far people will actually go and how far people are willing to change to be considered. popular. Watching Cady's transformation throughout the film was amazing. He started the movie very humbly and down to earth, not caring about what he looked like or how many friends he had, and then he pushed everyone in his life away except the "plastic" and started caring so much about appearance, you guys. , how many people she liked, etc. Cady also expresses her shock at entering a culture she had never gone to before because she has been homeschooled her whole life. This film also portrays some popular cultures where drinking, partying, and fashion were one of the main ideas of what the upper class does. Another theme of American culture represented was lies and betrayal. It's very sad to say, but American culture thrives on betraying others, lying about things, getting others into trouble so we can get ahead, and the list goes on. The Burn Book was a very influential part of the story and ultimately marked the downfall of "Plastics". Regina, Gretchen, Karen and Cady decided to make a book in which they spread bad rumors about the students at their school and were not to be seen by anyone, but they inevitably got out into the public domain. During their group's clash, Regina took it upon herself to publish the book and make it seem like she had no part; Even going as far as to put something bad about herself in the book to seem innocent. She told the school principal that she found it in the girls' bathroom at school, but then went to the trouble of printing hundreds or pages of the book and spreading them around the school, which caused a stir. In the end Cady decided to be the bigger person and take all the blame for the book. Overall, these girls would do anything to get ahead and stand out, just like the rest of our society. I think the meaning behind the film is very true to American society, but of course it's just exaggerated to make the film more interesting. movie. All of the themes and messages of the film were very true to American high school culture, but were transformed into something greater for the film. But the movie showed the main points of the high school popularity pyramid, lies/scheming, betrayal of friends and more. I think this film has had and continues to have a great impact on the American school system. The movie did a good job of describing how to behave and how not to do it. It showed the popular girls starting out with all the fame and success of high school, but showed the downfall of being mean to others. Their meanness caused chaos throughout the school system and turned the school upside down. Butagain, this movie also does a good job of helping high school students find new ways to bully each other. Being bullied at school is enough to make someone feel guilty, but now bullying can also be brought home with the help of social media sites. The movie was filmed in 2004, so there wasn't much social media at the time, but now that social media is growing to its current levels, high school students are finding other ways to implement book burning online. One of my good friends is American and has lived here his whole life. When I told her about this assignment and that I would be watching Mean Girls, she told me about her high school experience and how this movie was brought to her school. He told me that people have started a page on the Twitter app called “Burn Book” after his school. People started sending mean things about people at his school and it got as out of control as the movie. Also, considering other sites based on the Burn Book, there is a website called Ask.Fm which was popular around 2013-2014. This site allowed people to send him anonymous messages, and those messages were displayed on the person's social media sites, and some messages are very offensive. I understand the basics of the movie and the dramatization of the movie, but this movie brought to life some new ideas for students and new ways to make the lives of high school students more difficult than they already are. As I said before, this film has continued to remain relevant for years and I can't see it dying any time soon. The more generations this film goes through, the more ideas students will get from the film to make other children's lives more difficult. The film portrays everyone in a different way, but not always necessarily a negative one. To begin with, the men in this film didn't have a major role in shaping the film, but when they were seen, they were more of a sweetheart to the "Plastics". For example, Aaron, who was Regina's boyfriend for part of the film, was also very popular, but he was only seen as an accessory to Regina and, in the end, Cady tried to be with him too. They also portrayed Shane, the guy Regina was cheating with, as someone who was sexy and mindless, only used for Regina's gain. Women have been seen in many different lights. The 'Plastics' were obviously held to a much higher standard than all the other women in the book, but they portrayed the other female students as something that was perhaps not correct. They showed schoolgirls bowing at the feet of popular girls, like fighters, perhaps some were seen as “airheads”. There was a series of treatments reserved for girls. Not much was said about race, ethnicity, or culture, but there were things to be said about sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. Damian, one of Cady's good friends when he came to school, identified as gay and because of that he got a bit of prominence in the film. Janice was his number one best friend, but several times throughout the film she pointed out that he was gay and called him different names in relation to his sexual orientation. For example, his page in the Burn Book contained a photo of himself with the caption "too gay to function." As far as socioeconomic issues go, Regina's family was rich and they portrayed her as a very spoiled girl. He lived in a huge mansion, drove a brand new convertible, an amazing room, all the best and coolest clothes and accessories, and more. She was portrayed with an all-pink vibe and her family showed why she was entitled and spoiled. While Cady's family lived in a medium sized house and had very normal things. At the beginning of.