Youth Culture in film Mean Girls

The film Mean Girls incorporates images of subcultural fashion. The Plastics, a group of three females from a bigger high school group, are a subcultural style. The ruling three, led by Regina the Queen Bee, was the school's most elite group. The Plastics were three females named Gretchen, Regina, and Karen who were described as the worst individuals someone could ever meet. Mean Girls' main enemies are the Plastics, the most popular clique at North Shore High School.Their attitude is quite dislikeable which the main reason for their power and fame. The fact that the three girls are all extremely beautiful, the prettiest and most stylish group of girls in the whole school.

Actual Human Beings is a subcultural style that makes an appearance as the film comes to an end. This is a group of students at North Shore High School which formed together after Cady won Spring Fling Queen. She named this group as a complete opposite from the previous clique, The Plastics. Members of this circle include Cady, Kevin, Janis, Damian, Karen, and Jessica. Varsity Jocks are a group at North Shore High School. As their name suggests members of this group are athletic and also popular in the entire school. Shane and Jason who are the known members of this group have a romantic past with the Plastics.

The Desperate Wannabes have formed another clique at North Shore High School. Just as their name states, these are people who are continuously trying to mimic someone else's behavior including their sense of fashion. This is seen when Bethany says that she got herself some army pants and flip-flops, only because Cady once wore them in school. Bethany and Jessica are the known members of this clique. Members of the Cheerleaders clique for North Shore High School have the tendency of always sitting together in the cafeteria during lunch. Janis identifies their table in Cady's Map. The exact number of members of this group is not known and hence none of their names have been exposed in the movie.

What ‘youth styles’ are represented in the film and what do they mean?

Youth styles represented in the film include being dramatic and over-exaggerated characters. The film shapes the social dynamics of popularity of the female gender especially in cases where cliques rule others with manipulation and cruel harassment not forgetting judgement. Cady, the protagonist in this film is home-schooled hence clueless of what happens in high school. The audience, therefore, has the mandate to identify her and share her ignorance. Janis and Damian who are misfits to discover she is out of place and guides her accordingly. The Plastics also decide to invite and lure her to their camp since she is as sexy as them. This only means the film represents issues of female representation.

The Mean Girls film represents the Plastics as bimbos. This is because of their blonde hair, big breasts, flashy makeup, high heels and their mini-skirts. This represents stereotypes as they are labeled as the superior girls in the entire school, however, in this film the stereotype has been exaggerated. Use of seductive language is another youth style. This represents how women are viewed as sex objects for the satisfaction of men. Cady is seen wearing revealing outfits so as to expose her flesh so as to attract the attention of the male audience. Attracting their attention satisfies their sexual fantasies. The camera helps in doing this as it focuses shots at low angles hence emphasizing Cady’s figure.

The presence of prom at the end of the film is typical in all teenager films hence qualifies to be a youth style. The prom in Mean Girls assists in reviewing the whole film as Cady reveals her confession to the entire school as well as elaborating what she has learned from the film. At the start of the film Cady is this down-to-earth girl who is innocent and naïve but under the influence of Plastics, she acquires the image of Regina the leader of the trio. This means there are good females and bad ones. The bad ones, in this case, are the Plastics while the good ones are the characters of Cady before joining the Plastics.

How do the categories of gender and youth interact in the film? What about race, class, and sexuality?

Subculture is an important part of the society and Hebdidge (2013, p.4) defines it as a term that suggests Masonic oaths and secrecy. Through the subculture, the concept of culture can be derived. The most popular group in the film, The Plastics, value the creation of the female gender. In the film, the group is seen to mostly wear pink colors that are associated with the female gender. The group would only put on track pants or jeans on Fridays. On other days of the week, the girls dress in short dresses and skirts. The queen bee in the film, Regina, is the typical female as she is seen to be thin, blonde, and has large breasts. The most adored girl is also able to get any man that she wants at her side. The film’s representation of femininity reveals the existence of a social structure of gender and beauty, beauty in a standard culture. This is seen when Regina's beauty makes her powerful and popular.

McRobbie (2000, p.121) states that in order to get a better understanding of the cultures of the youth and the politics that surround this young adult, one has to focus on race, sexuality, and social class.

Race

Main characters in Mean Girls are white. The people of color are considered to be unfriendly such as the black kids who appear in the film. The black characters are also seen as inferior to the white. Cady’s ideal man is Aaron, the white dominant male and not Kevin who is a non-Caucasian. Therefore, racism is a noticeable sphere of domination in the Mean Girls film.

Social class

The social ladder in the film is greatly determined by class. The Plastics form the exclusive group in the film and they are wealthy and only wear the expensive types of clothes and make-up besides. Furthermore, the group lives in big expensive homes. The luxurious lifestyle of Regina the Queen bee largely contributes to her social supremacy. The film reveals the realities of social class in the society but fails to challenge this notion that brings inequality.

Sexuality

Sexuality is evident in the Mean Girls film as those in the heterosexual group are viewed as the superiors. In the film, those who fail to fit in this social category are seen as social outcasts. An example is Janis who gets rejected by her peers because she is perceived as a lesbian. On the other hand, Damian is represented as an attractive stereotypical homosexual. Mean Girls indirectly supports the traditional roles of gender. At the end of the film, Janis and Kevin start dating and that is the only point that she finds approval among her peers. Finally, the film is seen to relate happiness and normality in the society to heterosexuality.

What discourses of youth are represented in the film? Is it critical or celebratory of dominant ways in which youth is understood and/or experienced?

Grossberg (1994, p.32) states youth are viewed as a stage where the individuals start to search for their identity as adults. The film represents the discourses of the youth in a very negative way. The girls are portrayed as mean, stuck up, and cunning. The film focuses on the plastics which is the main group that the girls in the film would want to be in. The group brings out the youth as people who act superior to everyone else and their discourses are displayed in their attitudes. In a scene at the start of the film, there is a conversation between the girls and one of them says, “one time she punched me in the face…it was awesome’ (Mean Girls). The girls seem to respect Regina George despite her negative behavior. Her reputation among other youths portray her as ruthless but still, there was peer pressure among the girls to be like the queen bee. The queen bee is represented as smart, mean, pretty, and a big influence on the other high school youths.

The youths are seen to have fake relationships between them especially the girls who act friendly and yet they backbite their friends. Another relationship is between Janis and Regina who hate each other and are open about it. The relationship between this two youths can be said to be the genuine relationship since both are frank about the status they hold on each other. Dressing codes for the youths also display a clear image of the discourse. The clothing gives the viewer an impression of how the youths in the film behave. A Halloween scene in the film is a clear opposite of what the youths are expected to wear. The narration on the Halloween, ‘the one night a year a girl can be dressed like a total slut and get away with it’, is not what the youths are expected to do during Halloween time (Mean Girls). The youths are depicted as immoral through the camera angles that help the viewer interpret the lives of the youths. According to Grossberg (1994, p.26), the youth in the society have always been transformed by social factors such as sexuality, class, race, gender, ethnicity, and their surroundings. In addition, they have been impacted by generational identity which is the main reflection of the youths in the film.

The overall representation of the youths in the film is not celebratory as they are displayed as people with negative behaviors. The girls are framed as cruel and they even recruit an innocent girl whose family had moved to the U.S. into the Plastics. The group has aspirations to become popular and they are ready to do anything to gain fame, which portrays the youth in a not celebratory manner.







References

Brigid M. (2017). "Mean Girls" Full Movie - Part 1." YouTube, 6 May 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfSmRA6MBjs&list=PLdsVlW09vLW1ewlS-Oeum0uCP-ON1yeDW.

Grossberg, L. (1994). "The Political Status of Youth and Youth Culture," in Jon Epstein, ed., Adolescents and their Music (New York: Garland Press, 1994), pp. 25-46.

Hebdidge, D. (2013). Subculture. Florence, Taylor, and Francis.

McRobbie, A. (1980).  'Settling Accounts with Subcultures: A Feminist Critique', Screen Education 39 (Spring, 1980) reprinted in Feminism and youth culture. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2nd edn, 2000).