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Unless you've lived under a rock for the past several years, you've probably been exposed to the Mean Girls phenomena.
Whether you've heard it millions of times or you are in fact the one that
uses “so fetch” on the daily, since its release in 2004, Mean Girls has dominated
pop culture.
Between the “my boobs can tell when it’s raining” and the famous “she doesn't even go here”, Mean Girls has caused fits of laughter for both women
and men alike. It’s freaking hilarious, and we love it. Why?
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Because even to this day, it still remains as one of the best portrayals
of the 21 Century American teenage girl. It’s dramatized, but my god is it
accurate. No matter where you go, no
matter what high school, there will always be “that” clique of girls who
dominate the hallways.
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The concept of cliques are timeless. Before there was
Regina, Cady, Gretchen, and Karen, there
were two decades of previous girl cliques that dominated our screens.
Like Mean Girls; Heathers and Clueless also gave their audience an accurate light to the average
American high school girl.
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Although they all reflect completely different times in American
pop culture, there is this strong similarity that lies between all three.
If you've watched all these movies, you must think that
I am crazy. Not only are any of their plot lines similar to each other, but
they all are completely different types of comedy.
Seriously-
Heathers
follows a popular girl and her boyfriend as they literally kill off other
popular students at their high school and forge their murders as suicides.
(although this doesn't sound like it, this is actually a dark comedy)
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Clueless
follows a clique of wealthy girls in California as they look and set up others for
love (a romantic comedy)
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Mean Girls…well,
you know what it’s about.
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Especially considering that Heathers revolves around murderers,
it’s safe to say that none of these are particularly realistic or similar.
So what am I talking about?
There is this pattern that goes between all of these movies. In
her article “When the Cool Get Hazed”, New York Times reporter Tina Kelley
perfectly wraps this pattern up as “popular
girls organize a perfectly-coiffed and designer-clothed gang; fringe girl is
targeted; bullies use their meanness and power to further marginalize fringe
girl and reassert their status.”
For fun, lets break down what Kelley
said-
“Popular girls organize a perfectly
coiffed and designer-clothed gang”
Let’s look at pictures of all three
of these cliques:
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All of them have perfectly cut and
neat hair (notice how the blond is always the leader).
For the time, they are all at the
height of fashion:
The 80’s shoulder padded blazers, 90’s
knee socks and plaid skirts, and the 2000 low rise jeans, short skirts, and mid-drifter tops .
Because they are at the height of
fashion, it most likely means that they are fairly wealthy (which, according to
these three cases, they are).
“Fringe girl is targeted”
The Fringe girl:
Heathers: Veronica
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Clueless: Tai originally, about
halfway through the movie, it sort of switches to Cher.
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Mean Girls: Cady
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All three of these “fringe” girls
were originally outsiders that were recently bought into the clique. At least
at one point in each of these movies, one of the leaders of the clique says
something along the lines of “we don’t do this very often, so you’re lucky we’re
acknowledging your existence at all."
“bullies use their meanness and
power to further marginalize fringe girl and reassert their status”
This is the big one. It is this
notion that the “bullies marginalize the fringe girl to reassert their status”
is when all three plot lines of these movies seem to interconnect.
Although there is a degree of physical
violence in all three of these movies (Heathers being the most), the fighting
and the bullying rely heavily on a psychological manner, as Kate Niswander puts it “the
fighting between girls is often more subtle and devious”.
Take Heathers for example:
There are no acts of
physical violence in this clip at all. But, there is definitely some psychological girl fighting.
Anyone besides Heather #1 is essentially a fringe girl. Heather asserts her
power over Veronica by reminding her that “you’re apart of the most popular
clique in school”, and although it may not seem like fighting words, it’s a passive
aggressive, devious way to remind Veronica how easily she could fall out or be removed from the clique.
Clueless:
“you’re a virgin who
can’t drive"…I mean can it get harsher than that?
Mean Girls:
I think this pretty
much wraps up the definition of passive aggressive and sneaky fighting. The
fringe girl (Cady), even at the end of the movie is still being targeted as the bully
reasserts her status (Regina).
There have been many
critiques that say that these movies don’t necessarily accurately portray the
real psychological damage that “girl fighting” can do. That adding humor to
something this serious only adds fire to the flame.
I have to disagree. I
think through comedy we are able to point out and come face to face with our
issues. Like I said before, the main reason why these movies remain funny is
because it is something we can relate to. We all have been a victim or a part
of bullying in some way and I think that these girl clique movies point out the
general stupidity and immaturity that lies within high school drama.
Despite everything
though, these are only three of numerous other “mean girl” movies. There are
also the “Pink Ladies” in Grease, the group of girls in Carrie, Never Been
Kissed, and so much more. But nothing beats the complete and utter cattiness of
American girl culture like Heathers, Clueless, and Mean Girls. They've defined and became cult classics for their generation.
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SOURCES USED:
1. Niswander,
Kate. Survival of the Meanest: The
Realities of Female Relationships in Mean Girls. Rep. no.
UW20-M1. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.
<http://www2.gwu.edu/~uwp/fyw/euonymous/2005-2006/06-niswanderfinal.pdf>.
2. Kelley, Tina. "When
the Cool Get Hazed." The New York Times 27 Sept. 2009: 5(L). Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Nov. 2013
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