Teenagers of our generation are expected to look and act in a certain way to be accepted by a certain clique, is this the way we want to continue, thinking we will never be good enough? We will never be perfect? The Movie Mean Girls is a good example of this and is a thought invoking movie for any teenager. Mean girls is based on a book called "Queen Bees and Wannabes" a film produced by Tina Fey which would gives teenagers/woman a view into the life of high school and the way you "should not act". The Film shows how easy it is to feel out casted or not accepted based on physical appearance and the clique that we are hanging in. Society has caused a negative example where teenage girls think they are expected to dress and act "slutty" and not be themselves around members of the opposite sex and just pretend or put on fronts as "normal is not okay".
In the film you notice many stereotypes for example “ try hards” who are known for trying to act popular and up to date with all the trends however they fail in the attempt, this is how some teenagers today may feel or appear to be like.
Teenagers of our generation feel that they will always be the outcast if are not the likes of 'Regina George' blonde and prefect.
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In one of the first scenes you notice the field scene where all three “popular girls” are entering onto the field in different ways. For example you can tell by their clothing that they are wanting to be different, this is quite clearly shown in the way Gretch Wieners and Karen Smith are shown to act and appear to look like, for example in the photo below you notice that Regina George shows herself as a girl that wears the correct p.e uniform however she is the one that has the opposite sex carry her onto the field. On the other hand Gretch is known to walk on to the scene in a crop top and on the phone this shows that she trying to dress slutty to get noticed and the same goes with Karen whilst she is not showing any belly she is showing her feminie shoulders and is seen to have some cleavage showing and shows that she also fits into the “dumb blonde stereotype” where she is named as the stupidest which does not even know how to spell orange. This shows me that some girls have to try harder than another and some are known to have class without needing to show off any aspects of their body.
In the film Mean girls the main character is Cady a young teenager has moved from South Africa and she had never attended a school before. Cady has no possible idea of right from wrong, however all she wanted to do was to fit in with the group of girls with the names of Regina George, Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith, girls known such as the "plastics" to the high-school students they are portrayed as prefect and important and are in the books case the "Queens" of the school, and that anyone that may be "Different" or not act in a certain way is classified as a "Outcast.
However I noticed a quote that Janie states “Regina George is an evil dictator. How do you over throw a dictator? You cut off her resources. Regina would be nothing without her high status man candy, technically good physique, and her ignorant band of loyal followers. This shows to me as that to the popular girls the way they act, appear etc is to get what they want for example a hot boyfriend and if you lose your popular status you have nothing you are no longer anyone.
This is the scene which shows the stereotypes that are in the high school such as the girls that eat their feelings and girls that don’t eat at all, and the plastics to which Janis states are “the worst”. Because of this to young girls we feel that unless you are perfect and show no flaws you do not belong in the popular group, and if you are little overweight or not happy with your image/ body shape you belong with the overweight people which eat a lot. How is this suitable to make teenage girls think and to make their self esteems go out the window knowing that they are being judged by other girls by the smallest things. Girls are forced to watch in the media girls being portrayed as sexual objects or someone that will never be good enough and they are not shown to hold a more mature role and be a leader.
Cady at the start of the movie is shown to be all innocence in many areas and because of her back ground in her past she may not have known what real life for a teenager was like certainly not in an American school. An example of this matter was shown in the film where Cady did not know many slang such as when Regina says "shut up" Cady did not know the true meaning behind this, as she thought was the complete opposite to what Regina was actually trying to bring the word across as. ( below is the scene where Regina uses her slang and confuses Cady)
above is a clip of part 2 in the film mean girls which you notice
Another thing I have noticed in the movie is that Cady accepted her appearance and the way she looks and appears to the opposite sex. This is shown simply in the movie when Regina compliments how pretty Cady is and Cady replies with a simple thank you, however this is shocking to Regina as she did not expect her to accept the compliment and was expecting a disagreement to occur. In our generation I notice woman and young girls that do not accept their body and the way that they look because so many other girls put them down also, so to girls of our age are many are uncomfortable with their looks and their body shapes, and as you grow up in this environment you notice the effects that being forced in the media is having on a number of girls every day where the are undertaking dieting to an extreme level to where it is highly likely to affecting her/their health in long term and years to come in a America that statistics are shown on http://www.state.sc.us/dmh/anorexia/statistics.htm
That eight million people are forced to cope with eating disorders in some way ( seven million being woman and one million being men). The rates of minorities with eating disorders are mostly those that are white skin toned this is possible because they are the main race that is known to be shown in a large amount of magazines and they are forced to look at these size 1 models.
95% of those with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25 is that healthy for a 12 year old to starve herself to “try” and be prefect when actually you are left with weak bone and your face structure is very defined and you suffer from lost energy while most of all no fat and appear to people as a “stick”. In America 50% of our 11 and 13 year olds see themselves as overweight when actually they have not developed yet and are brain washed to believe that they will “never be good enough” nor “skinny” enough.
Also this can occur not only by physical changes in a young teenage body it can mentally cause problems and in some cases suicide attempts could also happen, a high percent of girls are diagnosed with depression at a young age and in some cases it is because they are being bullied by their weight, the way they look, something they may have done that others did not see normal, family history, and overload of stress. In my case I believe that the media is to blame for this and all these statistics.
The media portray teenage girls as “easy” to men and we will take what ever we can get, and shows us that girls really don’t have any goals set out for their future and that while your in high school it is Said to be your “mess around years” when actually it is the time to make the most of your opportunities under our aims and work towards major goals if it is in sport or education.
The way we are portrayed in media represents the opposite of reality and this is not a good image that we are shown in mean girls this being because this is how they do not want us to act they want us to respect our bodies they want us to accept the way we look the fact that it is possible for us being different and that being different is okay and there is no need to be ashamed, but why, why do the media make us feel upset make us never feel prefect and make us look at girls that are covered in makeup and have been photoshopped and air brushed to be portrayed as prefect to sell, thats all they want, they want there products to sell, they want their name out there they want girls to understand in the movie aspect the damage they are capable of doing and the extreme things girls are forced to do to be accepted or looked at as not a "outcast" this needs to stop it is damaging each generation that little bit more.
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