Pop Culture's Influence in High School

High school is a complete reflection of pop culture. The movie Mean Girls depicts what high school life is like for many teens in America. Mean Girls is all about high school cliques interacting with each other and how the more popular cliques usually consist of girls who aren’t very intelligent and wear short skirts to attract guys. However, the movie goes on to show that girls in these cliques don’t always have things go their way and that a girl can get a guy to like her without degrading her value and trying to enhance her appearance.

In the movie, Lindsey Lohan plays the role of Cady Heron. Cady is an exchange student from Africa and is not familiar with the teen pop culture that she is exposed to in America. She is a math geek and doesn’t have a very good eye for fashion. Rachel McAdams plays

the role of Regina George. Regina is the “queen bee” of a clique on campus known as the Plastics. The Plastics is the school’s most exclusive clique. Everyone at school is intimidated by the Plastics because of their perfect appearances and reputation of being very judgmental.

Hanging out with the Plastics begins to change Cady. She begins following stereotypes and loses her own individual personality. She dresses like all of the other Plastic girls and also gains an attitude. The Plastics were first embarrassed to be seen with Cady when she wore her own baggy clothing. Once they influence her to change her outfits and get her wearing short skirts and more revealing outfits they are satisfied with Cady’s addition to their clique. In one scene Cady takes part in a dance performance at a talent show with the rest of the Plastics. Her performance is very promiscuous and her parents are appalled by her new behavior. Cady very casually joins the Plastics in their dance because it seemed like it was her place to join them.

Along with changing her appearance, Cady’s geeky side becomes hidden and she pretends to be bad at math just to attract a boy in her math class. Regina tells Cady that being good at math is too geeky for guys and isn’t very attractive. To get a guy to like you it is important to let him dominate and be better than you in subjects like math and science. Having this kind of mentality gives the Plastics a very unsophisticated look.

The Plastics are greatly influenced by the standards that pop culture has set for teen girls and follow those standards like puppets. This prevents them from developing their own personalities and educational interests. Maintaining this look also causes the Plastics to hold emotional burdens as they are pressured to be the best looking girls on campus and to go out with the best looking football players at their high school. They are secretly unhappy inside as they are limited to what friends they have and are forced to segregate themselves from anyone who doesn’t follow their standards. Though they may become tired from having to keep up with such a classy reputation, they can never break away from their already known look. It is unthinkable for them to ever show their skills in class or to wear the clothes that Cady once wore. They must be perfect. Perfect is what pop culture tells them attracts guys. But, perfect doesn’t always win in the end.

When Regina and Cady are both after Regina’s ex-boyfriend, Aaron, they go out of their way to impress him. At first Cady believes that being more like Regina would get him to like her. Being pretty and dressing like Regina may attract him at first but it’s not what he was looking for in a girl. When Cady shows who she truly is in front of Aaron she finally catches his attention and doesn’t seem like the plastic Barbie doll that Regina strives to be at school.

The perception that pop culture gives on women is never truly accurate. Following it like Regina and her clique can actually cause you to gain negative feelings from the ones in your surroundings just as the Plastics had. Being natural and sticking to what you love is really what matters. You might catch a guy’s attention by looking like a perfect Barbie doll but you only catch his heart by being who you truly are.

References

Mean Girls. Dir. Mark Water. Paramount Pictures, 2004. Film.

Varma, Sujit R. “Plot Summary for Mean Girls.” 2004. Internet Movie Database. Web. 12 October 2011.