mEAN GIRLS
Lisa Freund
BLOG 4
1.) Friendship in Mean Girls does not seem prevalent in this movie especially in the main characters where the girls only seem to have friends to gain popularity which to me seems like a pretty unhappy and unfriendly position to be in. The two plastic characters, Gretchen and Karen would not put up with Regina’s back stabbing antics and put downs if they knew they wouldn’t gain something out of it and even Cady the main character would not become their accomplice while they hurt other girl’s feelings if she couldn’t have gained more “friends.� There are times when we see the female characters looking out for their friends and being loyal like when Regina makes fun of Janice and Cady finally says something and steps in however, it does not seem to happen as often as the prior.
I believe that friendships truly are important to girls in high school and are a crucial part in surviving those years but unfortunately it is a time where girls are so worried with certain images and beliefs like they have to be a certain shape or size or need to have so many friends that sometimes these things come in the way and ultimately ruin what could have been a true and caring friendship. Girls feel they must always compete with one another and are always comparing themselves to one another, especially their friends, which can cause a lot of hurt feelings and distrust and their ultimate breakup. High school is a time where many girls start realizing who they are and what they want to become and need good friends to be able to rely on and trust in which means it could possibly the worst time in their life for dishonesty and backstabbing. Brown and Simmons believe that friendships for young girls thru fifth grade and high school can be very destructive but not because these young girls are terrible people but because society keeps giving them mixed messages making it nearly impossible for girls to be accepted in society. Any girl that has confidence is seen as a bitch or “know it all� which serves as an excellent way to deliver messages to young girls that you can never be perfect because if you are too perfect than everyone will hate you.
6.) In this film all of the main characters and even most of the lines are said by white middle to upper class girls and exclude any kind of diversity. The lines that were actually said by those of color were only words that defended or provided an open door to discus their race, for example, an Asian girl says to her friend “Nigga please!� One girl who has dark skin has to remind her teacher that she is from Michigan and not from Africa. There are also the groups at school which include the smart Asians, nerdy Asians, the black cool group and so on but you don’t hear any of the groups being called the white geeks or white skateboarders.
I think especially because the groups of people in this movie are so obviously separated because of their race that it is hard for anyone of color to really relate or want to relate to this movie that only makes fun of and denotes certain characteristics to groups based on their color of skin. Unfortunately even still today there are very few films that have characters that are not Caucasian and if they do they still automatically stereotype them and make them act and dress in a certain way which goes back to the color of their skin.