ABSTRACT
Meanness among girls recently has gained extensive media attention on talk shows, in news stories, and in theatres. For example, the movie Mean Girls (Messik, Michaels, Fey, & Waters, 2004) provides a satirical depiction of this seemingly dark behavior. The movie opens as protagonist Cady begins her first day at public high school. Previously, Cady was home schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents and is therefore unaware of the social rules she is expected to follow. She is befriended by outcasts Janis and Damian who mentor her about different cliques, including groups such as the “varsity jocks,” “desperate wannabes,” “over-sexed band geeks,” “girls who eat their feelings,” “cool Asians,” and the most popular of all groups of girls, the “Plastics.” Included in this exclusive group of malicious yet admired girls are queen bee, Regina, and her worker bees, airhead Karen and instigator Gretchen. To Cady’s surprise the Plastics invite her to be a member of their elite group and, persuaded by her friends, she agrees to scheme against the ringleader. The plan to overthrow Regina includes helping her to gain weight unknowingly, to lose her high-status boyfriend, and turning her friends against her. Given the success of the plot against Regina, Cady finds herself as the new queen bee; however, during the climax of the film the plan unravels and results in chaos, including verbal and physical fighting among the various female cliques. As a result of this turmoil, the principal and teachers facilitate an intervention encouraging the girls to self-disclose about
a time when they gossiped and spread rumors about other girls before doing trust-falls into a crowd of their newly supportive peers. Although these initial attempts to foster reconciliation among the girls are not completely successful, the movie ends in social harmony among the cliques and the girls.
