Social Discrimination In Mean Girls

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Mean girls. Queen bees. Alpha females. Our culture is full of phrases that label or describe females who partake in behaviors that degrade and undermine other females. It is so prevalent in our society that filmmakers have used this underlying theme for decades. In 9 to 5, a woman draws the ire of fellow coworkers because they perceive her as dressing provocatively and they gossip and spread rumors she is sleeping with the boss. In Working Girl, a female executive encourages her assistant to contribute ideas by referring to them as a team, but then steals the idea of her assistant and tries to pass it off as her own. Mean Girls focuses on a clique of teenage girls who use meanness as sport to torment other females. Social aggression is a common act for females, and therefore it is easy to see why movies focus on the “mean girl” image (Behm-Morawitz & Mastro, 2008, p. 133). It is also easy to see why this depiction in media can be related to stereotypical ideas about female relationships, bias towards women, and the correlation of social aggression to social status (Behm-Morawitz & Mastro, 2008, p. 141), but is this an accurate reflection of reality?
Societal expectations of females cause them to express their …show more content…

306) and society’s knowledge of the ramifications of aggression, combined with cultural expectations, helps to control how aggressive behavior is manifested (Eagly & Wood, 1991, p. 311). Females are for the most part not overtly aggressive with each other and are more inclined to use their social intelligence to exploit relationships or undermine other peers they are in competition with (Crothers, Lipinski, & Minutolo, 2009, p. 102). These manipulative behaviors are comprised of gossiping, avoidance, rumor spreading, and stealing of friends or romantic interests (Crothers et al., 2009, p.

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