The Film "Mean Girls" a Portrayal of Real Life

by Junyang

The film Mean Girls is about a girl, played by Lindsay Lohan, who moves from a remote part of Africa to a suburban high school in Illinois. She experiences a culture shock from all the politics that goes through an American high school. As she is introduced to the social landscape, she discovers the social divides of the student body through the cliques. Although the film is supposed to be humorous, the description of the cliques does portray a stereotypical suburban high school. 

I have not been to many American high schools, but Walnut High School’s cliques are very similar to the one’s described in Mean Girls. The “cool Asians,” and “nerdy Asians,” are very well represented in that high school. And the “sexually active band geeks” are also strongly represented at that school. The film showed a whole table of band members kissing; that is not a rare sight to see at Walnut High School. The description of how cliques are divided by where they eat lunch and when you pass by the table of burnouts, the smell of marijuana overpowers the smell of bad cafeteria food and pizza. There were a few cliques missing that were described in the film, but they were possibly eating lunch away from the main lunch area. But the “mean girls” of the school could be spotted from a mile away. I feel the “mean girls’” arrogance and glamorousness from the distance. These girls were not necessarily beautiful, but they were stylish and they had the vibe that they felt better than everyone around them.

With the social divide among students comes bullying. The film Mean Girls makes the bullying humorous, but it can become a serious matter and really affect the young girls who are the victims of this mindless crime. It is not the confidence of the “mean girls” that I despise, but their ability, attitude, and will to make everyone else around them feel inferior. I think education and exercises to raise the self-esteem of every young woman would help minimize the effects of bullying. I also think that educating young women about the rewards of making others feel good, is better for the ego than making others feel inferior.