{"id":11061,"date":"2016-11-05T21:02:28","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T13:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=11061"},"modified":"2016-11-05T21:02:28","modified_gmt":"2016-11-05T13:02:28","slug":"mean-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2016\/11\/05\/mean-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"An Analysis of Power And Social Dynamics In ‘Mean\u00a0Girls’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Theory: The movie has such enduring power and is quoted so much because it sheds some incredible light on real sociological phenomena.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s compelling because it\u2019s believable. It feels real. It might seem like a show about teenage girls, but it\u2019s as nail-bitingly exciting as Late Night Poker, because it demonstrates decision-making, with stakes.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s dig in.<\/p>\n

Our story begins with\u00a0Cady.<\/h3>\n

Cady\u2019s been homeschooled her whole life, which makes her a perfect \u201cblank slate\u201d character to explore social reality with. What is “normal” to us is strange and foreign to her.<\/p>\n

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Cady is compelling as a fish out of\u00a0water.<\/h3>\n

She has no preconceived notions of how people behave or ought to behave in cliques and groups. She\u2019s \u201cfresh\u201d, almost alien.<\/p>\n

We relate to her immediately. We all know what it’s like to be thrust into an environment where we don’t know the rules.<\/p>\n

The first thing that happens when she shows up at school is\u2026 overwhelming chaos. She\u2019s unable to make sense of the elaborate, cascading complexity that are high-school social relations.<\/p>\n

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Fish out of water, Alien visits Earth, you name the trope. We all sympathize with a character like this, and more importantly, she allows us to reveal and acknowledge the unique characteristics of our\u00a0habitat. She\u2019s unaware of all the unspoken rules, and takes appearances to be reality.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cSeeing is believing\u201d is a natural human tendency, and we all know what it\u2019s like to play by one set of rules before discovering that there\u2019s a second, unspoken set of rules that actually govern the game.<\/p>\n

Like all newcomers, Cady gets pushed\u00a0around.<\/h3>\n

This is standard operating protocol. It happens to the new girl in prison in Orange Is The New Black, it happens to each new employee that shows up in The Office.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s actually happening? Jostling for position.<\/p>\n

Groups need to sniff new individuals out to see where they ought to stand in the heirarchy. A social group typically has a clearly defined Alpha and Omega, and everything in between is largely illegible<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The alpha group in Mean Girls are the Plastics, while the Omega are Janis and Damien- the suspected lesbian and the fat gay boy. Both relatively unattractive, relatively unremarkable. The Asians, etc are the in-between groups. Insignificant in the grand scheme of things.<\/p>\n

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The second likeliest group to take Cady in would\u2019ve been the math\u00a0nerds.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The Omegas (Janis and Damien) are the likeliest group to take Cady in from the\u00a0start. They have nothing to fear from her presence, because they have nothing to lose. <\/em><\/p>\n

The movie could actually have ended here- Cady becomes friends with Janis and Damien and they live happily ever after, hanging out together, mocking the hallowed Plastics from a distance.<\/p>\n

The story only progresses into conflict and complexity because Cady is attractive.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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If Cady were unattractive, she would happily join the Math club, stay friends with Janis and Damien, and everything would go happily-ever-after. It would be a sitcom, and probably quite an amusing one.<\/p>\n

But\u2026<\/p>\n

Cady’s attractiveness makes her a threat to the Plastics.<\/h3>\n

This is absolutely central <\/em>to the plot. It isn\u2019t a coincidence that the Plastics invited Cady to sit at the table with them. They effectively ‘talent-scouted’ her.<\/p>\n

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This is a classic Shit Test from Regina. She\u2019s basically trying to suss out exactly how socially intelligent Cady is. Is she cunning like Regina, naive like Gretchen, or plain stupid like\u00a0Karen?<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Regina noticed Cady for the potential threat that she was. If the Plastics subsume her into the group (keep your enemies close!), they can control her.<\/p>\n

If she were left as a free agent, she would earn the attention of the attractive boys (Aaron, for instance), and she would threaten the alpha status of Regina and the Plastics. She would delegitimize them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alpha groups still have in-group politics.<\/h3>\n

Cady alludes to this when describing how she found herself desiring Alpha Regina\u2019s approval despite hating her. (This is a very common trope. I’m reminded of the toxic relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights<\/em>, and well, abusive relationships everywhere. People get drawn to power even if it burns them.)<\/p>\n

Gretchen too chooses to be miserable within the Plastics rather than leave it, because the Plastics as a collective are the Alpha group. <\/em>Better to be the bottom-feeder in the best group than to be outside of it.<\/p>\n

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Their sexuality and their attractiveness is their chief source of social currency.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The Plastics maintain their alpha status through attention, by being sexually desired by everybody else. They’re effectively the “tip of the spear”, desired and envied and loathed by everyone.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to study the social dynamics within the Plastics themselves.<\/p>\n

Regina is rightfully Queen\u00a0Bee.<\/h3>\n

Regina George\u2019s character was partly inspired by Alec Baldwin’s character in Glengarry Glen Ross, a super-alpha, manipulative Wall-Street hotshot.<\/p>\n

She’s attractive, and more importantly, she’s the most socially intelligent. That’s what gives her the power to manipulate others so well. She understands people’s fears and insecurities. She\u2019s also rich, and she drives\u2013 all of which are assets that she can leverage.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWalk home, bitches,\u201d she goes, when her clueless followers side with Cady instead of her, and attempt to use her arbitrary rules agains her- rules that she<\/em> invented to control them <\/em>and keep them <\/em>in line.<\/p>\n

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Poor clueless Plastics don’t realize not to fuck with a Sociopath.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She demonstrates her sociopathic intelligence several times, and it\u2019s clear that she derives pleasure from this.<\/p>\n

The moment that spoke to me the most was when she phoned Cady with \u201cI know your secret,\u201d and then went on to say \u201cDon\u2019t you hate Gretchen for ratting on you?\u201d while Gretchen was on the phone.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Gretchen was in on this conversation- Regina’s way of keeping all her peons in check by playing them off of each\u00a0other.<\/figcaption>
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She deliberately plays people off against each other, manipulating them and their insecurities. She lies to Aaron about Cady. I\u2019d go so far as to say that she built the burn book all along as blackmail capital- it\u2019s a Dead Man\u2019s Switch, which she can use as leverage against anybody who contemplates backstabbing her.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Socially manipulative people like Regina \u201cstore bullets\u201d.<\/h3>\n
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Gathering Blackmail Material\u00a0101<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

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It\u2019s like Batman keeping kryptonite in case he ever has to kill Superman. They know a lot about everybody, they have superior information- people like Gretchen (clueless) seek Regina\u2019s approval, and freely divulge information to earn that (supeficial) approval.<\/p>\n

Notice how insidious Regina is- she got Cady to insult Ms. Sharon in the burn book! All of this is leverage that Regina puts together to shore up her own social capital.<\/p>\n

It took a deus ex machina to defeat\u00a0Regina.<\/h3>\n
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The conflict is resolved by a random act of God- the antagonist gets hit by a bus. and decides not to antagonize anymore.<\/figcaption>
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This is the \u201cnear death\u201d trope- when a player experiences significant trauma and decides they don\u2019t want to play anymore. This is a bit of a copout, and probably an artistic choice for the sake of the limitations of the movie.<\/p>\n

Think about this- what would\u2019ve happened if Regina didn\u2019t <\/em>get hit by the bus? Even if Cady decided to \u201cquit the plastic scene\u201d, Cady\u2019s continued existence would threaten Regina\u2019s dominance (as long as Regina cares about her social status). So Regina would have no choice but to decimate Cady altogether. It took a bus to take her out and make her decide that she didn\u2019t want to play.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no defeating people like Regina in a simple face-to-face confrontation.<\/h3>\n

She has too many assets (her own looks, the attention she gets from boys, and above all, her shrewd understanding of interpersonal relations, people\u2019s insecurities, fears, wants and needs, and all the blackmail content she has).<\/p>\n

I suppose maybe Cady could\u2019ve gone the \u201cexile\u201d route and kept to herself and the math kids. That would have been a less satisfactory movie, of course.<\/p>\n

Janis (who plays it straight) underestimated Cady.<\/h3>\n
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While she had nothing to lose by Cady joining her and Damien, she lost Cady to the Plastics. I think this happens a lot with \u201cgenuine\u201d people (clueless) who play their cards straight. We assume that our honesty and straightforwardness will be appreciated.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, social reality can be like poker- there are real stakes involved, and you don\u2019t win by \u201cplaying nice\u201d. Well, different people have different interpretations of how the game ought to be played. Janis and Regina have completely opposite interpretations. Janis believes in being a straight-talker, Regina believes in manipulation for pleasure and profit.<\/p>\n

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Will she, won’t\u00a0she?<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

Cady\u2019s interpretation of how to play the social game changes throughout the movie- that\u2019s her personal development as a character, and that\u2019s what makes the movie so goddamn compelling- she experiences multiple different social realities depending on how she wants to play her hand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gretchen and Karen aren’t mean, they’re clueless.<\/h3>\n

As I revisit quotes of the movie, I realize that both of Regina\u2019s followers are \u201cclueless\u201d (in the Gervais Principle<\/a> sense). They are eager for recognition, but they have no real idea how social dynamics actually work.<\/em><\/p>\n

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She has no idea how social reality actually works. She’s insulated and used to having Regina to take care of everything for\u00a0her.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

Gretchen isn\u2019t being a showoff when she says \u201cI can\u2019t help it if people like me cause I\u2019m popular\u201d- she\u2019s genuinely ignorant of how she comes across when she says that. That\u2019s Posturetalk, not Powertalk. She gets punished for it- her illusions are shattered.<\/figcaption>
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This ignorance of actual social dynamics explains why they immediately started following Cady around once Regina was out of the picture. Neither of them knows how to actually think for themselves. They’re programmed to follow the leader.<\/p>\n

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Cady was always too inquisitive, analytical and questioning to be an obedient follower.<\/h3>\n

Consider how Cady wanted revenge <\/em><\/strong>when Regina kissed Aaron. Gretchen and Karen wouldn’t dream<\/em> of doing that. They would have conceded defeat and yielded to Regina, and perhaps convinced themselves that it was for the best. \u201cYou might think you\u2019re attracted to him, but you\u2019re not.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Kissing Aaron was probably Regina\u2019s way of establishing dominance over\u00a0Cady.<\/h3>\n
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Regina recognizes Cady as a threat, and wants to crush her as quickly and thoroughly as possible. She didn’t anticipate that the homeschooled girl would have the guts to fight\u00a0back.<\/figcaption>
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I think that\u2019s the simplest and most rational explanation. All Regina really cares about is the pleasure of manipulating others and maintaining her top dog status. She\u2019s used to having followers, and didn\u2019t quite expect Cady to retaliate. (Cady retaliates partially because she has nothing to lose, and perhaps more importantly, she hasn\u2019t been socialized to back down.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

God, what a great bloody\u00a0film.<\/h3>\n

Janis is an example of a Gervais \u201cLoser\u201d- a person who\u2019s typically smarter than the Clueless (Gretchen, Karen), but voluntarily chooses not to play the game. She demonstrates her wit and intelligence when she outs Cady to Regina in the gymnasium.<\/p>\n

Everybody relates with\u00a0Losers.<\/h3>\n

They are the most commonly studied character in sitcoms and films. Most movies are made for Losers like us, which is why they tend to end with The Triumph Of The Loser. We’re supposed to like Janis, and choose to be like her. The straight-talking, mediocre-and-happy, better-than-average average people of the world. Some movies are made celebrating Sociopaths like Regina- see The Wolf Of Wall Street, for example.<\/p>\n

If you want to understand Clueless- Gretchen, Karen- watch Michael Scott in The Office. If you want to understand Sociopaths\u2026 Regina\u2019s a great example.<\/p>\n

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Theory: The movie has such enduring power and is quoted so much because it sheds some incredible light on real sociological phenomena. It\u2019s compelling because it\u2019s believable. It feels real. It might seem like a show about teenage girls, but it\u2019s as nail-bitingly exciting as Late Night Poker, because it… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[601,583,577],"tags":[607],"class_list":["post-11061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-peopling","category-perception","tag-bestof"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/mean-girls-e1623520628907.jpg?fit=600%2C375&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5gxNz-2Sp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}