Stereotypes In Mean Girls

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Alicia Altmann Essay #2 WST: Women, Gender, and Society Media Analysis: Mean Girls In this film we see many typical high school behaviors such as cliques, cattiness, and popularity (or lack there of) issues. Many scenes in this movie have an array of stereotypes. Sometimes they are clearly stated and others just seen through attitudes of the actors/actresses character. Also through out we follow the main clique “the plastics” and they have this image they have to uphold. Be perfect, skinny, the best at everything, and in sync with everything they do; or they wont uphold their status. I chose this film because I think it shows a lot of what we have learned in this course and how it is in real life. Clearly the film is exaggerated but much of …show more content…

These are all stereotypes, a classification of a person or group based solely off of assumptions and opinion. Stereotypes lead to discrimination and harassment. This movie displays a wide variety of it, Janis is considered to be in the “outside group” and acts all tough against the plastics but in the end we find that it’s simply a defense mechanism because she blows up on Cady and you see that jealousy and anger from Janis. I thought that this went to show that forming these “secluded” groups that only certain people can be in actually brings people further apart. It creates a hostile environment for these young men and women and takes the focus away from why they are actually at school, and what person they truly want to …show more content…

A person will speak or act negative about their body when they have a negative image of themselves. You can see low self-esteem in someone who has a negative body image. This happens in this film when Janis, Damien, and Cady give Regina these bars that Cady’s mom used to feed the children in Africa to help them gain weight. Regina was looking to loose weight so that she could fit perfectly into her dress for homecoming (she needed to be queen.) Once she started gaining weight she was uncomfortable in the only clothes that fit her and had to wear sweatpants. Her best friends started pointing it out and you could see her frustration with the weight gain. She was now uncomfortable in her own skin. This happens to women all the time. Especially women in high school and college, our bodies are constantly changing and that can be very tough on our personal body image thoughts. I know I have gained weight in the past year but have tried to keep a level head and just head to the gym more. I think that this class has shown that body image is only negative if you let other things influence you negatively. It’s all about our own personal thoughts and we need to make those

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