Essay on Stereotypes in 'Mean Girls'

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The media is where half of the world’s population stays updated on news and trends, as well as to find and enjoy entertainment. Due to its massive influence, it has slowly affected how we view the world and the people living in it. It’s as if our values, attitudes, and beliefs depended on the films, shows, newspapers, and magazines people have made about our day-to-day lives. Its huge influence has either helped us or hindered us from finding our own identity through the use of “role models to emulate and characters to condemn”. Within this concept of identity, gender is central. Unlike men who seem to almost have it all, women have long been fighting for their rights since the 1800s. Their image in the media is filled with stereotypes about who they are and what their roles ought to be in the public eye. As a woman, you are relied upon to consistently be below men. You are limited from the duty of earning money for the family as you are expected to remain at home, deal with the youngsters, and do chores, while men deal with having occupations and paying the bills. All the little stereotypes that women have made a huge impact on their everyday lives. Not only has it affected their capabilities to join a certain workforce, but they are also treated like how society portrayed them to be: weak, feminine, emotional, uncompetitive, and more that have caused their self-confidence and self-belief to decrease. Although many have said women have broken free of traditional role stereotypes, a 2018 film directed by Ryan Coogler “Black Panther”, a 2004 film directed by Mark Waters “Mean Girls” and a 2019 article by Dina Gerdeman “How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman Self-Confidence' seem to show otherwise.

Mark Waters directed “Mean Girls” in 2004, and so this text is the earliest representation of women to be considered. Written in the early 2000s, women in this film see each other more like an enemy rather than a companion. The lack of belief in equality has caused their downfall in the end. Throughout the entire movie, women in the film crave nothing else but attention, sexual desires, and the highest position in school which the ‘plastics’ have. If backstabbing their friends was the key to getting to where they want, there is no doubt that they will even hesitate. The film’s main character, Cady Heron, enters an American high school for the first time. She befriended Damian and Janis who were both not in the ‘crowd’, but later on met the Plastics, three beautiful girls led by Regina George. Although she got accepted to be a part of them, she instantly gets rejected when Regina finds out about Cady’s feelings for her ex-boyfriend. This triggered Cady, Janis, and Damian to plot the destruction of Regina’s status in the school. This film attacks ‘plastic’ young girls, who have no moral substance but spend their days worrying about boys, clothes, and gossip. Young girls watching this film are quickly shown that to be popular you must be physically attractive, sexually alluring, and rich like the Plastics. To be popular, you must fit this mold. Whilst the other students look small in comparison to the Plastics who are seen entering the school grounds, a low camera angle is used so that everyone below their position is looking up at them, symbolizing the authority and power they have amongst their peers. They are dressed fashionably but in a very feminine way, with pink as their color. Their very short skirts and shirts reveal their bare legs and thin stomachs most students would die to have. This suggests the desirability these girls have, clearly positioning the viewers to understand the attributes of being popular.  

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Essay on Stereotypes in ‘Mean Girls’. (2024, April 18). Edubirdie. Retrieved October 14, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-stereotypes-in-mean-girls/
“Essay on Stereotypes in ‘Mean Girls’.” Edubirdie, 18 Apr. 2024, edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-stereotypes-in-mean-girls/
Essay on Stereotypes in ‘Mean Girls’. [online]. Available at: <https://edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-stereotypes-in-mean-girls/> [Accessed 14 Oct. 2024].
Essay on Stereotypes in ‘Mean Girls’ [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2024 Apr 18 [cited 2024 Oct 14]. Available from: https://edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-stereotypes-in-mean-girls/
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