As preteens and teens push for increasing independence from their parents, they tend to turn to their peers for guidance, acceptance, and security. For those who are low in self-esteem and confidence, their safety lies in fitting in and having a place to belong. Most people find a group in which they connect with in a healthy way while others make their way in cliques that give them security but at the price of their own values and individuality. The movie Mean Girls portrays how high school female social cliques operate and the effect they can have on girls. I will argue how if one doesn’t have a strong sense of self-identity, the opinions of others will become their identity. In the movie, 16 year old Cady Heron was the daughter of zoologist parents. They had been on a 12 year research trip in Africa before returning to the states so Cady was homeschooled most of all her life. While attending public school for the first time, Cady is swept away by who she thought she was to the new person she had become. A “plastic” is what she had become. The Plastics were the most popular girls in school, but also the messiest and most insecure. Downing others to make themselves feel better was what The Plastics lived for. It took for chaos, confusion, and betrayal for them to get to the gist of who they really are as individuals. The adolescence period in one’s life is a very tough and exciting time. A teen is constantly going through changes daily; physically, mentally and emotionally. Those with a strong sense of self make a smooth transition during this period, while others still looking for a sense of belonging seem to struggle. During the middle school years, they begin to develop more interpersonal relationships and peer acceptance be... ... middle of paper ... ... meaning the comment indicates, good or ugly, individuals helplessly contemplate the remarks and allow it to determine their moods, thoughts, and ultimately, their self-identity. Nietzsche believed we create the self through our experiences and our actions, and in order to be a complete self, we must accept everything we have done. I agree with him in this sense. Although it is easy to learn from the mistakes of others, there is no greater lesson than learning from our own mistakes. He also believed there is much more to the self than we know about. This is another example about how we learn about ourselves through our experiences and actions. We are not born knowing everything about ourselves; it is a daily learning process. Some live their lives vicariously through others, while some yearn to learn themselves. So, with all this being said, how do you see yourself?
In the movie Mean Girls the role of conformity is important to the central plot. The plot of the movie is focused on new girl Caty, who moved from Africa to start a new life, and is forced to attend America’s high schools. She at first has two friends, Damien and Janis, two kids who consider being in the “outside” group. However, the popular girls, called the “Plastics” try to take Caty into their group, because of her she looks. The leader of the group is the most popular girl in school named Regina, who is really hated by a lot of people, but is still considered extremely popular. Caty falls for their deceptive kindness, not realizing that really it’s all just a show. She begins to become more like them, she starts to talk to boys and dress
When I watched this movie it was easy for me to see that the Plastics greatly affected how Cady and others at the school acted, talked, and dressed. In one scene Regina George, the ultimate mean girl and leader of the Plastics, returned to the locker room to find that her tank top had been cut in two places. She shrugged her shoulders and put it on, knowing
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
Teenagers enter into adolescence feeling insecure and unsure of themselves. They desire to fit in and belong. If they don't, they see themselves as abnormal. Children seek to become independent from their parents and immerse themselves in their own social environment during adolescence. According to Psychologist Erik Erikson “Peer groups fulfill the adolescent’s need for validity and acceptance and provide space and opportunity for exploration and experimentation.” This is likewise to the Protagonist Tracy because in order for her to get Evies acceptance she stole a purse from an old lady and afterwards went on a shopping spree. Tracy explored and experimented many things with her new found peer group however, from there, it all spirals down as Tracy experiences and responds to a variety of pressures and situations not uncommo...
In many high schools, there is an unspoken social order amongst peer groups; teenagers are either included in the popular group or the unpopular group. These social standings are determined by the popular group whether they will accept certain people based on shared interests and values but mainly on appearance. For example, some groups may isolate a student who does not have clothing considered attractive enough. Teenagers belonging to the popular clique label individuals as outcasts who do not fit the clique’s standards of a perfect appearance. This repression can cause a build up of anger if an outcast seeks to be accepted into that popular group.
In our modern world, sociology has a tremendous impact on our culture, mainly through the processes and decisions we make everyday. For movies and television shows especially, sociological references are incorporated throughout the storyline. A movie which includes many sociological examples is Mean Girls. Mean Girls is a movie based on the life of home-schooled teenage girl, Cady Heron, who moves to the United States from Africa and is placed in a public school for the first time. Cady finds herself in many uncomfortable scenarios and has to deal with the trials and tribulations pertaining to everyday high school issues. Her experiences involve interacting with high school cliques, such as ‘the plastics’, weird high school teachers, relationships,
The movie main character is Cady Heron who is a homeschooled girl. Her and her family lived in Africa for 15 years. They return back to the states and place Cady into a public school for the first time. Cady meets her classmates and finds a few good friends the introduce her to a group of girls called the Plastics. She ends up joining the plastics with the motive of bring them down because her new friend don’t like them very much and thought it would be funny. However, she eventually gets assimilated into the group of three unkind girls and starts to be just like them.
Dakota Hoffman Changes and Choices Mrs. Srittmatter. Have you ever felt like you were socially awkward? Well in the book of the perks of being a wallflower a kid named Charlie has a hard time knowing what to do to socialize, in the movie Mean Girls a girl named Katy comes from Africa and also doesn’t know what to do socially, so they both have similar social skills, both causing them to be social outcasts. In the book Charlie starts his freshman year out friendless and he is not really sure on what he is to do to make a friend. But he meets Sam and Patrick and just goes with them because he feels comfortable around them.
Conformity means a change in one’s behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people. As a teenager, the pressure to conform to the societal “norm” plays a major role in shaping one’s character. Whether this means doing what social groups want or expect you to do or changing who you are to fit in. During class, we watched films such as Mean Girls, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Breakfast Club which demonstrate how the pressure to conform into society can change who you are. In the movies we have seen, conformity was most common during high school.
Ideology is “a system of meaning that helps define and explain the world and that makes value judgments about that world.” (Croteau & Hoynes, 2014). According to Sturken (2001), the system of meaning is based on the use of language and images or representation. Therefore, media texts come along and select what is “normal” and what is “deviant” to the extent that this hegemony of constructed meanings in the viewer’s head becomes “common-sense” (Gramsci in Croteau & Hoynes, 2014). From this standpoint, what America claims to be pop culture which is omnipresent in media internationally, is a representation, through “politics of signification” of what is right or wrong (Kooijman, 2008). An example of America’s cultural ‘manifestation’ is Mean Girls,
When life becomes overwhelming during adolescence, a child’s first response is to withdraw from the confinement of what is considered socially correct. Individuality then replaces the desire to meet social expectations, and thus the spiral into social non-conformity begins. During the course of Susanna’s high school career, she is different from the other kids. Susanna:
On the second day when Jason tried to make fun of her, she did not know how to respond until Regina saved her. She did not know how to react in a situation like this. In the lecture, we discussed that peers allow us to make relations on our own. Peer interactions are spontaneous and non-structured. Peers can have an effect on our socialization and develop our sense of identity. When she entered high school, she was a nerd with good grades and did not know how to socialize. When Janice and Damien forced her to interact with the plastics and tell them what they talk about she agreed. At that time, she was not able to figure out that this is not good for her. Slowly her personality started changing and she became just like plastics. She started misbehaving with her parents, ditching Janice and Damien. She was getting used by people. She did not interact with peers before so she did not have the experience of it. But slowly she began to figure out that it is affecting who she is. In the beginning, Cady could not differentiate between her friends and enemies. Like the first 3 way call. Cady could not figure out about her real friends and she told Gretchen and Karen right away when she started liking Aron
When you think about your high school years, I’m sure we all have exceptional and dreadful memories. I’m sure all of us remember who was voted most popular, best dressed, who were the misfits of the school. If you want a glimpse of the different social classes in high school watch Mean Girls. Cady Heron is a freshman who for most of her life was home schooled and lived in Africa. Upon her first few days of school being the “new girl” she doesn’t quite fit it, until one day she accidently receives an invite from Regina George the most popular as well as the most hated girl in school to sit with her and friends at lunch. Soon after, she pretends to like them and hang out with them for inside information. During her investigation, she turns into
In the end, no matter what may be said about me, I know that I am some what of an abstract project. I continue to grow everyday and discover new factors that define me. I know what I stand for. I love myself, and the people around me. They don't create me, or make me who I am, but they do help be define myself