Mean Girls Movie Project

AP Psychology Project

How Hollywood exploited or helped the field of psychology? Was the movie biased? Did it help the field of Psychology or did it hurt the field.

Although Mean Girls is a Hollywood movie, it gets its inspiration from real life. Like any good movie, it starts with real life and exaggerates it to tell a compelling story.

Mean Girls is the story of Cady, who just moved to America from Africa where her parents worked. She was home schooled before and is moving to conventional schooling for the first time. One the first day of school, she embarrasses herself on her first day. (apprehensions??) This plays up the apprehensions people have on the first day that they will embarrass themselves. (example what she does) When she finally sits down, she meets outcasts Janis and Damien. Janis does not fit into a clique, although she might be considered to be a goth because of her black hair. Damien is labled as "too gay to function" by one of the students. The school does not seem to have a goth or gay clique so the two hang out together.

Later, going to lunch, Janis hands Cady a map of the school cafeteria. In a brilliant sequence, the film breaks down the different tables of the cafeteria (example:). In my personal experience at Haverford High School, this is exaggerated to be a bit more clear cut. In general people sit with their friends and their friends usually share similar interests.

In the cafeteria, Cady meets "The Plastics", a group of gorgeous girls, so named because they are rumored (?) to have had plastic surgery. The Plastics want to make Cady one of them. Cady, however finds out that they have a lot of rules which they must follow, for example, not going out with someone else's boyfriend and requiring approval before she buys any new clothes.

Cady however, finds out that being a Plastic was not very fun. They were always stabbing each other in the back and making fun of others. Cady remains friends with Janis, who wants revenge on Regina George, the head of the Plastics, who .... to her a few years ago. So Cady remains friends with both groups.

As the movie goes on, Cady finds herself liking the Plastics more and more (quote) while continuting to try and sabatauge them for Janis.

According to A New Universal Mean Girl: Examining the Discursive Construction and Social Regulation of a New Feminine Pathology by Jessica Ringrose (http://fap.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/16/4/405.pdf) this...

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