Mean Girls Movie Commentary
Mean Girls was, in short, a cultural reset. One of the few films of the early 2000s that has withstood the test of time and popularity, the cult classic continues to gain recognition and fans year after year. I first watched Mean Girls when I was in 6th grade, and it felt like a right of passage into teen-dom, and as the year's progress and my watch count of the movie goes up, I find new things to appreciate about it every time.
My most recent viewing was accompanied by intense fashion analysis (the looks each character wore we all SO well detailed and planned and they represented the development and changes each character went through to such an intricate T) and a new feminist lens, through which I could observe the interesting, nuanced, and heavily present social commentary the film was conveying. Mean Girls is often seen as just a chick-flick when in reality the film is coated in power structure analysis and commentary on gender roles within the female gender.
THE PLASTICS: Consisting of Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith “the plastics” hold all the power at North Shore High. If ‘like other girls’ was a friend group, it would be the plastics. Adorned in pink and glitter, they represent ultra femininity and beauty. Regina, Gretchen, and Karen took the gender roles that are put on them as women and embraced them. If we are looking at women through the lens that women are often looked at through and viewing all their actions as something they do to please and attract men, the plastics took the more traditional route. They saw “girl world” and didn't run from it, or reject it, but rather made it their own.
CATY HERON: Caty, is essentially, in terms of the effects that sexism has on girls growing up, a clean slate, a newborn baby if you will. She has never read a headline about what is so wrong with your armpit fat or been told, “you’ll never find a boyfriend if you act like that.” She is an unmolded piece of clay, an interesting vision into what we all might be like if we didn't fall victim to societal norms and gender roles. And because of her shapelessness and lack of visible developed personality, Caty is easily affected and molded by, first Janis, and then “the plastics.” Viewers get to see Caty go through a fastrack into ‘girl world’ and the effects it has on girls, in a close up way. Caty's journey opens viewers' eyes to their pasts, and how internal and external misogyny has affected their lives.
JANIS IAN: Janis’s character might be my favorite to analyze, because not only does she internalize so much misogyny, and put it onto the plastics, herself, and the world in general, but how her character dresses, acts and interacts with the world is the absolute epitome of “I’m not like other girls.” Not only does she do her hair, makeup, and dress in a way that visibly rejects all-female beauty standards, she also puts this internalized misogyny onto hatred for the plastics and a desire to take them down, as to Janis, they represent everything evil.
Maybe I’m just reading WAY TO FAR into everything, anyways, I’m writing this on a Wednesday and I’m not wearing any pink --- you know what that means.
