Shauntavia Conway

I’ve heard of it, and I know many of you have too. Mean Girls is a 2004 comedy-drama, produced by Lorne Michaels and Tony Shimkin, with a screenplay by popular comedian Tina Fey. The movie revolves around the main character, Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), a new student from Africa. Unfamiliar with high school troupes and cliques she is surprised by many American norms. Cady attends high school for the first time, she fails to understand the cliques and even bumps into a teacher, Ms, Norbury (Tina Fey), making her drop her things. As she gets to know her classmates she gets her name mispronounced and people question her nationality. Cady described her first day as “a blur, a stressful, surreal blur.” But, through all this, Cady finds comfort in a familiar friend, math–because it is the same in every language.
The second day Cady becomes classmates with Janis Ian and Damien. Janis and Damien collaborate to help Cady understand high school, they tell her about jocks, nerds, hotties, wannabes, burnouts, and of course, The Plastics. The Plastics consists of three teenage girls, Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried), Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert), and Regina George (Rachel McAdams). Regina is the Queen Bee of their high school. As Cady walks into lunch, The Plastics invite her to sit with them. Upon hearing this, Janis comes up with a master plan to use Cady by eavesdropping on The Plastics for revenge on Regina. Cady agrees reluctantly but is desperate for friendships.
During a math class, as Cady believes nothing could distract her, she meets Aaron Samuels and develops a crush on him, unaware that he is Regina’s ex. When Regina is informed of this crush, she pretends to give Cady a good word with him, but in reality will do the complete opposite. During a Halloween Party thrown by a classmate, Regina spills false secrets about Cady and kisses Aaron and Cady witnesses her first heartbreak. Now she, Janis, and Damien are determined to ruin Regina’s reputation. They sabotage her body image, expose her for cheating, and ruin her relationship with ‘The Plastics.’ As Regina’s life is being wrecked, Cady is becoming more like her, and even throws a party and forgets to invite Janis and Damien. Feeling betrayed, they stop being her friends. Regina feels horrible about herself, and frames the remaining Plastics, saying that they wrote all the rumors in The Burn Book, including those about herself. The school becomes raucous.
Due to all the chaos, there is an assembly about bullying and several people, including Ms. Norbury speak about their victimization by Regina. She rushes out of the assembly, referring to Cady as, “A jungle freak who’s a less hot version of me”, and then gets hit by a bus. Cady tries to resolve all issues, by getting her grades up and learning to be without The Plastics. At the school dance, Cady is pronounced queen and has her first kiss with Aaron.
When all is resolved the girls go onto their paths, and school becomes a lovely place to be without the torment of girlhood.
When I first read the overview of Mean Girls I thought it would be a comedy, but it is much deeper than that. Although it has silly aspects, Mean Girls touches on the topics of bullying, girls being put against each other, and friendship sabotage. One thing that stuck out to me was Cady dumbing herself down for a boy, and not joining mathletes despite math being her strongest subject. Another thing was when the girls looked for insecurities. It puts into perspective how young girls are supposed to automatically find what society deems wrong and change it within a snap. Gretchen’s insecurities cause her to betray Regina, and she even states that she would never reveal these secrets but still ends up doing it the first moment she gets the chance. Janis used Cady to get revenge on Regina for something that happened years ago. No one thought about the consequences of their actions, they only worried about how it would benefit them which is still a prevalent issue among teens today. At the beginning of the film, most girls try to conform and be just like Regina by idolizing being hurt and trying to stylize themselves to be just like her.
All of the characters had their own talents and specialties and could have been independent in their ways if they weren’t so concerned about the fruitless issues in high school.