Depictions of Adolescents and Youth culture-Mean Girls movie-2004
Introduction
I consider the Mean girl’s film as an example of a classic cultural film. Most of the teenagers and millennials in the United States should be aware of this film. There are quotes such as ‘I am a cool mom,’ ‘She doesn’t even go here,’ which most of them will relate with. Watching the film, we can see that most of the time, stories about young adults cannot be written without an insane amount of sexual activities being added. Most directors have the tendencies of giving out sexualized content when it comes to films that involve the youth in their entertainments. Mostly they involve high school girls. Because this film is mostly watched by young people, it very culturally influential, which makes it makes it very problematic. Because the film industries are mostly dominated by the male gender, oversexualizing girls is not a new thing, Ralph, S. (2020). The film represents some of the pressures the youth go through their life to gain acceptance and be valued. This paper will look at the depiction of adolescents and cultural stereotypes that exist among young adults
Brief Description
The mean girls are filled with the character, which is easy to relate with. Throughout the film, the movie is based on the life of adolescents. This is seen by the hilarious and quotable line which have been used in the movie. This movie has the stages of adolescents that teenagers go through in terms of emotional, social, and cognitive development. The film revolves around a girl Called Cady. Being homeschooled for, she is not aware of the teenage culture in America as well as the customs that are in public schools. She thinks that she knows all the rules about teens. But immediately she enters the school she finds out their other rules which she is not aware of. She is faced with unwritten social rules which she has to deal with. She meets with two superficial friends Damien and Janice, who are outcasts and think that everyone loves them. They talk about people behind their backs. Throughout the film, we can see egocentrism among adolescents and their relationships with their peers. Throughout the mean girls, we can see cases of juvenile delinquency, Parental styles, and self-worth in relationships Ralph, S. (2020). Most adolescents will have a type of imaginary audience where they think people are focused on their appearance. There is this group led by Regina, known as the ‘plastics.’ This is because of their glamorous looks and self-absorbed personalities. In school, they talk about everyone in a very nasty manner. Their minds tell them people are concerned with how they look all the time. Cady, who initially had a very humble personality, as the film progresses she starts to think on the same level. The movie also highlights the shift from parental authority Ralph, S. (2020). One of the challenges or threats that teenagers face today is not from their strict parents but from their fellow peers. To be able to make friends, one has to constantly prove themselves. Most adolescents live in constant struggles during the high school years. There is a sense in which friends betray each other, make other false friends so that they can go up the social hierarchy. Regina is the most-liked and still most hated person throughout the film. Young adolescents try to seek popularity, and they do anything possible to ensure that they are accepted by everyone. This is by trying to be unique above everyone else.
It is clear from the movie the type of message that Tina Fey wants to pass by writing the movie. When the film is looked at in terms of race, gender, and popular culture, the characters and the plot used in the movie perpetuates some form of social inequality. The films promote the oppression of race, gender, disability, and the social class.
Adolescents’ Youth Culture
The culture of youth involves interests in; sports, the type of music, type of clothes. It also involves certain beliefs and behaviors and how teenagers conduct their daily lives. The main difference between adolescents’ culture is that it involves behaviors, Cultural norms, and morals that are different from the older people. Young men are very unpredictable and not easy to understand. Most adolescents are bullies who achieve want they want through manipulations, and they are stereotyped at school, which we see with the plastics group. Most young people are more concerned with being accepted and their social appearance. In the film, mean girls, adolescents are represented as people who manipulate their way into gaining an advantage over others, and they are not concerned even when they become bullies on the process. Cady makes her two friends Katy and Gretchen, to start hating Regina Ringrose, J. (2006). They are not concerned with the consequences of their action so long as they get what they want.
The movie also shows us how there is always some constant pressure among the teens to always monitor their bodies so that they can gain acceptance. Teenager’s quest for popularity makes them do very extreme things. Regina’s gorgeous body makes her a target in the school. Her body is also a representation of her social class. Because she lives in a mansion and the money she has made her to have a lot of influence in the school. She is able to convince her friends to make a hole in their shirts so that they can wear them as fashion. Like other girls, Regina looks very confident and very assured, but inside her, she is full of insecurities concerning her body even though she has a nice slim figure by conventional standards Ringrose, J. (2006). She is constantly preoccupied with losing only three pounds. Every girl in the school wants to maintain a standard that is aesthetic and sexy. The girls want to compartmentalize their personalities and sexual desires in a way that even men would not be expected to do. Though they want to follow these desires, it only brings them a lot of misery, Ringrose, J. (2006). They can’t see that what they are pursuing only acts to marginalize them. They abuse each other, calling themselves sluts, which makes even boys start to call them whores and sluts. It is like the only way a girl can succeed is when they are pitted against each other.
Neo-Marxist Perspectives
According to Neo- Marxist perspectives, individuals are shaped with the social practices norms, and values of the dominant group. The dominant group seeks to oppress individuals who want to challenge the status quo. Economic conditions and materials are the things that shape, which need to be empowered Oppliger, P. A. (2013). This exposes the truth about these social norms. According to the mean girls, we see that hegemony is the main characteristic of the movie. Critical rhetoric is used in the movie, which exposes certain truths concerning the dominant group. In the movie, the ‘mean girls,’ the dominant group is oppressing the non-popular group. Cady uses very critical rhetoric and exposes these truths about the dominant group. She exposes how the practices, norms, and values of the dominant group are oppressing others Oppliger, P. A. (2013). The expectation is that the good looking girls will be friends and won’t leave each other without taking into considerations that the good looking girls will have nice things. Cady provides us with another angle of empowerment. The popular girls are not her real friends, that’s why she doesn’t thrive in this group. The movie rejects the homogeny outright. This is seen by Cady opposing this clique by not following their ways and still being their friends. The movie also tells us how popular ladies are viewed. They are thought to be sexually active, the date, and they dress slutty and are thought to have particular behaviors
Conclusion
This movie has proven to be significant by the issues that it has brought to the limelight. This, through the perspective it has brought on how the culture of the youths are, the expectations that most adolescents have. It has also expressed what most young adults consider to be important to them and the social expectations that they are required to meet, such as having a good appearance, dominating other groups, and trying to make themselves more accepted than others. The movie acts as an explanation of the neo-Marxist perspectives on the subcultural style and exploitation of the youth. The Mean girls is about the horrors and drama faced by high school adults.
References
Oppliger, P. A. (2013). Bullies and mean girls in popular culture. McFarland.
Ringrose, J. (2006). A new universal mean girl: Examining the discursive construction and social regulation of a new feminine pathology. Feminism & Psychology, 16(4), 405-424.
Ralph, S. (2020). Mean Girls. The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication, 1-4.
Hemmings, A. (2002). Youth culture of hostility: Discourses of money, respect, and difference. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 15(3), 291-307.