Mean Girls Research

 

This picture is from a scene in mean girls. It is a mid-long shot showing 3 girls, each looking in a mirror. This shot type allows the audience to see what the characters are wearing but also their body language and facial expression. The characters are teenaged girls as teen angst films are mostly targeted at girls between the ages of 12-18 years as they can relate most to the characters. Two of the three girls are wearing skirts which connotes that they are very feminine girls and this is a stereotype of teenaged girls. Another reason they could be wearing skirts is to catch the interest in boys as this is stereotyped as the main focus of girls this age. One other possible reason could be that they are trying to rebel against rules of school/society that has a certain expectation of what they should wear. This is done purposely so that the audience can relate to this as they may also be thinking/feeling this way. The blonde girl is in the middle as she is blonde, pretty and often the leader of the group of friends. Putting her in the centre of the shot and the three girls portrays her as the centre of attention which may reflect on her attitude to most things in life. Also the lighting is fairly low key around the edge of the room but is high key on the girls, particularly the one in the middle. Again this portrays her as the centre of attention and the leader of the group. The girl on the right is the only one wearing trousers and not doing her make up. This is a countertype of girls in teen angst films as they are usually wearing girly clothes such as skirts and these clothes are often pink. Also girls are stereotyped to care a lot about their appearance and this is shown in this picture as two of the girls are looking in a mirror and doing their make up while the other girl is looking in the mirror at herself

In this picture from mean girls, it shows that the group of girls are in a shopping centre. This is a stereotype of girls as they are often thought to enjoy shopping and socialising with their friends. This shot is a long shot as you can see clearly what they characters are wearing but also what is around them. The setting is a nice setting as it looks like it is high quality and somewhere that could be expensive. This connotes that the girls are not lower class and more likely to be middle class. It also shows that they are not scared to spend money and so probably care about how their peers look at them. This is a stereotype of teenaged girls as they often want to be popular and looked up at by their friends. There is high key lighting that shows that this is a light hearted scene and that nothing terrible is happening and they are enjoying themselves. All four girls are wearing pink which is stereotypically a girl’s colour. 3 of them are also wearing skirts which is, again, another thing that portrays them as stereotypical very feminine girls. An example of iconography is that they have handbags and this is very common in teen angst films since many teenaged girls will have handbags to look after their belongings.

The main narrative in the video is that a new girl, called Cady, joins the new school after leaving where she grew up in Africa as her parents were conducting research out there. This was her first time in a public school so she was unfamiliar as too how the social hierarchy works. At first she befriended two people called Janis and Damien. She learns from them that the highest social status she could have is from being friends with the 'Plastics'. Cady is accepted into the plastics and her and Janis hatch a plan to bring down the leader of the plastics, Regina George. Cady learns about the 'Burn Book' and also falls in love with Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels.
Cady carries on ruining Regina's reputation and her popularity. She turns her friends against her by telling them that Regina sees her as a better friend. She also tells Aaron that Regina has cheated on him with another boy. She also goes on to trick Regina into eating high calorie nutrition bars by telling her that they will help her lose weight. After this it turns out that Cady has lost her personality and has changed and become more like Regina.
Regina decides to leak the contents of the 'Burn Book' and spread rumours around the school. She makes up a fake rumour about herself in order to put the blame onto the other members of the 'Plastics', including Cady. The girls are made to apologise to their peers and when it comes to Janis, Regina makes a joke about her sexuality. Janis them reveals about her and Cady's plan to ruin Regina's reputation, with the support of the rest of the school. Regina runs out of the school upset, where she gets hit by a bus and rumours start that Cady pushed her.
Cady is distrusted by everyone, and she takes the blame for the 'Burn Book', she feels less guilty after this and even joins the matheletes where she realises that insulting people's appearance won’t help her with her situation.