Cady's High School Culture

Cliques are determined based on stereotypes, if you're black, then you're with the black clique, if you're a jock, then you go and hang out with the jocks. A few of the cliques in mean girls included Asian nerds, unfriendly black hotties, jocks, preps, and burnouts. Each clique had their own language, hobbies, and symbols. Janice and Damien taught Cady about all of their different cliques and as she was observing all of them in the lunch room, she was having a hard time understanding where she belonged. Growing up around African Americans, she assumed that the African American clique would be accepting of her, but when she approached them they treated her as part of their out-group and were unwelcoming.

Two cliques/stereotyped groups in the novel are the cheerleaders and the Martha's. The cheerleaders are like the popular girls in schools today. When Melinda says “they are gorgeous, straight-teethed, long-legged, wrapped in designer fashions, and given sports cars on their sixteenth birthdays. Teachers smile at them and grade them on the curve. They know the first names of the staff.”

313). The cliques within Mean Girls play an important role in the movie as the movie centers around the clique known as “The Plastics.” The plastics are a group that are generally seen by others in the school to be rude and pretty, but are nonetheless the most popular group in the school. The movie also shows many other cliques such as JV jocks, preps, Asian nerds, cool Asians, varsity jocks, unfriendly black hotties, etc. Throughout the movie, Cady is shown to be attempting to gain favor with the plastics and eventually works her way up to leading the group, through this time though it is shown how much of an effect cliques have on their members as Cady’s personality changes so much that she becomes the definition of a “mean girl,” whom earlier in the movie she had despised.

In this day and time, very few people have yet to hear about the infamous Plastics from Mean Girls, but many from this generation have not heard of the Heathers from Heathers. The Plastics and the Heathers have few things in common though. For one, they are each a clique of mean girls in highly popular movies from their decades. They each have a dictating leader that belittles others in the group, as well as, others in their schools. Each group has accepted an outsider into the group that will lead to the destruction of the group itself.

The movie Mean Girls is about a sixteen year old girl, Cady Heron, who has recently moved from Africa to the United States, and is attending public school for the first time. Her first day of school was not the best, but on her second day of school she meets Janis Ian and Damian Leigh who start to guide Cady into high school by telling her about different groups (cliques/discourse communities) in the school, including the Plastics, which is made up of Karen Smith, Gretchen Wieners, and Regina George. The Plastics soon take interest in Cady ask her to sit with them at lunch. Thanks to that we learn all about the discourse community of The Plastics. According to John Swales, there are six characteristics of a discourse community which I will discuss and use The Plastics as an example.

The two compiled a map of North Shore High and how Cady will survive it. A big part of the map was the cafeteria and where all the different cliques sat. Cady was warned about a certain clique called “the Plastics”, she was told they are the worst people she would ever meet. The Plastics are the popular clique at Cady’s new

The behaviour of the Plastics influences other people's behaviour because characters such as Regina George have a strong impact on the rest of the school body because all the students want to be her or to be associated with her. Regina George has “minions” who follow her lead without thinking twice, which influences the other students to believe that her opinions and thoughts are inferior to theirs. Gretchen Wieners and Karen Smith are considered Regina’s closest friends and follow her around and always try to please Regina. Having a crowd of people who will follow you regardless of how you act gives a person like Regina George the confidence to act recklessly and maliciously. For example, when Janis cut two holes in her tank top during gym

In the movie, Claire Standish represents the popular girl and Andrew Clark represents the jock. Brian Johnson is the nerd and Allison Reynolds is the loner, and last but not least John Bender is the rebellious one. Mr. Vernon assigns them all an assignment, to write an essay about who they think they are. At first, it's answered as Mr. Vernon is crazy and shouldn't care about who they think they are. Also, it is noted how no matter who they think they are it won't change his mind on the stereotypes he placed in them.

Caty begins the movie with a real genuine friendship with Janis and Damien, two individuals who struggled with popularity because they were considered the “outside” group. However, the popular girls, infamously called the “Plastics” try to recruit Caty into their popular group, but only because she is considered one of the prettier girls in the school. The ring leader, Regina George, of the Plastics is the most popular girl in school who is really hated by alot of peers because of her horrible attitude and how she

It centers on females and how they act at that certain age. The four mean girls, Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith and Cady Heron represent the stereotypes of the popular girls of high school. The role of gender plays an important role in the movie. The movie discusses the aspects of how a “typical” teenage girl should be, in order for her to fit in.

The documentary, Merchants of cool, describes an evolving relationship between the vast teenage population and corporate America. The film provides an in-depth look at the marketing strategies and communication between these groups. Adolescents are shown as learners and adapters of the fast-paced world; they’re constantly exposed to fashions and trends. These young adults have a lot of disposable income and are willing to spend it, in order to gain social popularity. In other words, they are chasing ‘cool’.

All the girls backfired at each other, calling each other mean slurs like sl*ts and h*res. The plastics created a “burn” book that consisted of photos of girls they disliked and they wrote insults under them. Cady herself was pressured to join the Plastics and contributed to the “burn” book. Everyone at the school had something against one another especially the girls. They never recognized that the differences between us are what makes each and every one unique.

“The plastics” were the leading group of the school, consisting of three popular, attractive girls, Regina, the leader of the group and two other girls, Karen, and Gretchen. “The Plastics” then scouted Cady since she had been attractive, and got the attention of popular boys, in which Janis and Damien originally supported in order to manipulate and plan to destroy “the plastics” through Cady. Cady’s exploration with social psychology is shown through her being unaware of everything at her new high school; social psychology concepts that are shown throughout this storyline are implicit personality theory, norms and group schemas, gender roles. Implicit personality theory is the inference of co-occurrence of personality traits based on another personality trait. This can be shown by the halo effect, where one infers that someone is generally good based on a few RUNNING

The movie Mean Girls is a perfect example of many social-psychological principles. Three of the major principles that are seen in the film include: conformity, in-groups and out-groups and prejudice. Cady Herron, a naïve sixteen-year-old who has been homeschooled her entire life, is forced to start as a junior at North Shore High School because of her family’s job relocation. Throughout the movie, you see Cady struggling to maintain acceptance in the school’s in-group known as The Plastics. The Plastics, who represent popularity, high economic status and the acclaimed standard of beauty, are one of the meanest cliques at North Shore.

From the moment people are born, no one tells you to have to act in high school. People eventually conform and put on false images and hide behind masks just to hide from their real selves. This is the social norm that people blindly flow just to obey the social norm and not to feel like an outcast. In this book The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, the main character Charlie enters his freshman year of high school, and he meets two seniors Sam and Patrick. Sam and Patrick mentor him through his freshmen year of first dates, family dramas, and new friend Chbosky uses symbolism and the use of characters to reveal that teenagers use a mask to hide who they really are in order to comply with social norms.