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Mean Girls analysis
Mean girls movie analysis
Introduction about leadership styles
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Mean Girls tells the story of Cady Heron’s transition from 12 years of home school in Africa to public high school in the United States when her mother gets offered tenure at a nearby college. Upon her arrival, Cady bonds with Janice and Damian who are considered apart of the “out crowd”. Janice and Damian give Cady the scoop on all of the social cues and how to navigate her new territory. When she is invited to join the most popular clique in the school, “The Plastics” Cady is placed in the middle of revenge and is encouraged to invade the lives of the girls to steal their secrets and eventually uproot their lives. Although this movie is primarily focused on revenge (which can be correlated with coercion, the least ideal form of leadership) …show more content…
This leadership style has a strong focus on task requirements and less emphasis on concerns for people. When she asked for something she wanted it done immediately with no regard to what the needs of her followers were. When Gretchen wanted to make the word “fetch” a trend at school Regina halted her and demanded that she stop. On the other hand Regina’s mother, Mrs. George had a country club (1,9) leadership style. She was more concerned with being the “cool mom” than being an authoritative figure. This is reflected in the scene where she meets Cady for the first time she emphasized that there were no rules in her house and even went as far as to offer 16 year old Cady alcohol. She was exceptionally eager to be “in the mix” with the girls, making more of a friend than a parent. Mentioned earlier, most of the movie is focused on using some form of coercion as power. A person exerting coercive power uses his or her followers to their own benefit. Most evident would be Cady’s plan to sabotage Regina’s throne by manipulating her closest friends, helping her gain weight instead of losing it, and sabotaging her relationship with Aaron Samuels to get his
Golding shows how children all on their own, can change their own brains to function the way they choose with no one telling them what to do. He as well explains the impact of less clothing has on society, which causes civilization to diminish from where they lay. Likewise, Cady changes the way she dresses from being fully covered with dignity and respect to exposing body parts and changing her way of thinking. However, in the end, both authors reveal symbolism and setting through teenagers and children. Parents should be most cautious about teenagers because they seem to be the main reason why society corrupts and destroys itself, which leads future generations at risk of becoming even
In the film Mean Girls, teenager Cady Heron was home-schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents. When her family moves to the U.S., Cady finally gets a taste of public school and learns a vital lesson about the cruelty involved in the tightly knit cliques of high school. She eventually finds herself being drug into a group of “the worst people you will ever meet”, The Plastics; and soon realizes how they came to get their name.
Cady has always been homeschooled, so she did not really know what it was like to communicate with others and make friends. She thought that her actions are what she should be doing in order to make friends. As Cady gets closer to The Plastics, she starts to develop feelings for Regina’s ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels. Later on in the movie Cady has to make a choice whether she wants to be officially part of the group or to continue sabotaging it. Eventually she decides to be part of the group, which disappoints Janis; since Cady basically betrayed her. Cady starts developing into a whole new person; she became a Plastic. Cady illustrates different types of interpersonal communication as she tries to make everything right again in her life. Throughout this movie, the girls show how their relationships consists of: social exchange theory, communication privacy management theory, unproductive conflict, and productive
Mean Girls is a comedy film aired in 2004 this film captures the influences on lifespan development during adolescence. The main character Cady Heron was home schooled in Africa and now she must transition into high school where she is tested in different areas of her development. Throughout the film she becomes known as the new girl who is trying to figure out her self-identity. Cady integrates herself into a clique of girls known as the Plastics, soon enough Cady understands why they are known for their name. The Plastics run the school by the norms they have created and must always be followed otherwise it will lead into exclusion from the group. In order to be socially accepted social norms determining attitude, behavior, and status must
The film Mean Girls is about a young girl, Cady Heron, born and raised in Africa by her zoologist parents, who were also her homeschool teachers for sixteen years. When Cady moves to the United States, she enrolls in a public school for the first time. Here she realizes that high school students have the same hierarchy as the animals she observed in Africa. The lowest ranking group in this high school hierarchy is the outcasts, who also happen to be Cady’s first friends in the U.S. The highest on the high school food chain are the “plastics”. The “plastics”, are the most popular girls in school. The plastic’s notice Cady’s charming personality and stunning good looks and invite her to join their clique. In order to avenge her first friends,
Regina George is a junior in high school who is described as teen royalty. As the leader of her clique referred to as “The Plastics”, she rules the school with her best friends Gretchen Weiners and Karen Smith loyally at her side. The three girls feed off of tearing the other girls in the school down and diminishing them by writing awful rumors and secrets in the “Burn Book”. With her tall and skinny physique, bright blonde hair and good-looks, she uses her sex appeal and superiority to manipulate and victimize the people around her including her family. Regina easily controls her family members. Her mother worships the ground Regina walks on and desperately looks to her for acceptance. Her ability to make other girls at school feel inferior fuels her power, as queen bee Regina is seen as the “it” girl. Everyone wants to look like her, dress like her, and be just like her. She uses her sex appeal to get any guy she wants and dangles them around everyone else to make them jealous.
There are two types of interpersonal power coercive power and referent power; both are used in the movie. Coercive power is used when Regina interacts with her peers at school because they are afraid that if they cross her she will cause them problems and even harm them psychologically. Referent power is used and held by all the girls in the plastics because a lot of the school body admires them and the social power they have in the school. This is illustrated when people within the school copy the things they do just because of who they
Once planted in the minds of individuals, ideas have a remarkable ability to grow with the strength and speed of the most powerful pathogens – possessing equal communicability as they spread to proximal centers of consciousness. How can this characteristic of ideas be utilized to benefit society? In the film Twelve Angry Men, we see a situation where Juror Eight – equipped with all the autonomy and wisdom of an ideal leader – appeals to logos in an attempt to promote the consideration of an idea, which he has planted in the minds of an otherwise unanimous jury; this idea being the mere possibility of innocence in the conviction of a boy charged with patricide. Ideally, leaders will possess an ability to transcend the allure of groupthink so prevalent in collective decision-making. However, when not coupled by the proper corresponding actions, such transcendental thoughts never become bigger than the brain-cells that they occupy. As Juror Eight leads his associates to consider the uncertainty of the case, we see an important skill in leadership: the ability to recognize disparity in individual cognition. Juror Eight appeals to this variance in thought patterns by guiding his peers through a journey of personal evaluation – allowing them to reach conclusions on their own, rather than explicitly dropping their minds into the terminal of his own logic.
As defined relational aggression between girls is relational, making them feel less than or rejected which result from girls falsely commenting about one another behind each other’s back. Such statements may be acted upon when teen girls want to speak positively about one another, but end up speaking falsely about another teen girl due to their envies feelings overcoming their positive actions, such as Regina did when she wanted to help Cady get Aarons attention. In the movie Grechen also acts upon anger by mentioning problems and changes such as Regina’s nose job and her parents not sleeping together to Cady. At this point in a teens life a healthy self-esteem becomes very important, because they are aware of their physical appearances and
Her character and personality is a prime example of perfectionism. In the movie, she secures the title of “queen bee” within her group of friends. Regina controlled her friends on what to believe, what to say, and even what to wear. Showing no signs of sympathy, Regina refused to allow anyone below her standards of ideal into her small group of friends. Quickly, she mastered superiority making not only her friends feel inferior but also other peers. Annoyed at Regina’s manipulating, controlling, and self-centered ways, Regina’s group of friends turn their back to her. In the end, Regina loses her friends and becomes hated as a result of her perfectionism. Regina’s perfectionism leads to her social
One of the major conflicts is the intrapersonal conflict Cady has with herself. Cady goes from being home-schooled in Africa to entering the “girl-world” in high school. Throughout the movie, Cady is trying to fit in, become popular and to get the attention of her crush, Aaron Samuels. This causes Cady to ultimately lose herself in the process of becoming Plastic. In the effort to take revenge on Regina for taking Aaron back, Cady loses her own self by attempting to be Regina. This gets Janis to notice Cady’s transformation especially when Cady throws party the same night of Janis’s art show and doesn’t even show up to the art show. Janis came to Cady’s house tell her: “You think that everyone is in love with you, when actually, everyone hates you.” Cady then has to decide whether she wants to become a better person or become someone she’s
We often see a pattern where like attract like. People who have the same habit or values can easily find some common topics of conversation. They enjoy to communicate and stay together. Then group arises as time passes. The group runs like a microcosm of society. Every one play a different role in this group. Some people play as small roles in this group. Some people play are punching bags in the group. Some people are good at flattery in that group. However, there is one kind of person who act as a leader in the group. They are attractive, charming, popular and sought-after. They are the center in the group and lead the group with other following. This kind of people are born for social activities and always can get satisfaction of being the center of the group. Good
...s a classic that shows just how nasty adolescent girls can be under typical circumstances. Nearly every character at one point shows adolescent egocentrism. There are numerous lifespan concepts covered throughout the movie. Cady Herron is a perfect example of how tough high school can be for an adolescent girl going through multiple changes. She goes through a lot more than the typical adolescent girl. However, I think she shows how staying true to yourself is important when going through high school. The "plastics" do a great job of displaying different relationships with peers. They have strong relationships with each other, but struggle to form these relationships with anyone outside of their group. All in all, Mean Girls does a great job of displaying parenting styles, egocentrism, relationships with peers, self worth in relationships, and juvenile delinquency.
Power has been defined as the psychological relations over another to get them to do what you want them to do. We are exposed to forms of power from the time of birth. Our parents exercise power over us to behave in a way they deem appropriate. In school, teachers use their power to help us learn. When we enter the work world the power of our boss motivates us to perform and desire to move up the corporate ladder so that we too can intimidate someone with power one day. In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Kurtz had a power over the jungle and its people that was inexplicable.
By watching the movie, I notice that defamation between these teenagers is very used to obtain what they want, such as friends, boyfriend or popularity. Another issue presented in the movie is the sexual behavior, it looks like it’s important to them explore their sexuality. There’s different parenting style between Cady’s parents and Regina’s parents, it looks like Cady’s are more conservative and discreet than Regina’s, her mother, she is more “open minded”, with no rule as she said in the movie and with inappropriate discretion to be a parent, in my