Don’t be fooled…it may look like your typical back-stabbing chick flick, but in reality it’s so much more than that.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Progressive for its time, Mean Girls was THE cliché high school chick flick hybrid with no shortage of conflict to satisfy the Kevin-G bad ass alter-ego in all of us. Unless you’ve deliberately been avoiding popular culture references for the last 12 years?? (can you believe) then there’s really no excuse for not having seen Mean Girls yet. If you haven’t witnessed the escapades of Cady and ‘The Plastics’ in their quest to wreak havoc 1) You’re missing out 2) Tina Fey and I are disappointed and 3) You sure as heck won’t understand why Janis Ian didn’t have an awesome time (You let it out honey, put it in the book).[/vc_column_text][thb_gap height=”20"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://vine.co/v/OeF3QBlnwlV" el_width=”40" align=”center”][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][thb_gap height=”20"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
So it not only includes the greatest plot twist of the 21st century, but the dream cast still resonates with us 12 years on and continues to both matter and grow in esteem. We owe our cakes made out of rainbows and smiles to Rosalind Wiseman — the brains and backstory behind Mean Girls’ representations of cat fights and conflict. With issues so on point, the plot’s relevance today undertones sincere anger with society’s way of teaching women to relate to each other and to boys. Exhibit A:
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What Chick Flick culture [Means] to us today: Cold Hard Shiny Plastic
With the subtext of victimization even more rife in light of today’s squad goals, Mean Girls still manages to permeate its way into our everyday lives through ironic solidarity of drama, a musical, an open letter and empowerment. Chick flicks in feministic light are stereotypes both celebrated and commodified for their story lines of girly-ness/flawless-ness, manipulation/genuinity and self awakening/self-fulfilling prophecies. Female powerhouse and acting gun, Rowan Blanchard believes that the “squad goals” agenda sends exclusionary Gretchen Weiners vibes in the “you can’t sit with us” group-dynamic.
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One dimensional feminism and polarising anyone who is not white, thin, and tall came after Katy Perry tweeted that T-swift’s Bad Blood video was a “Regina George in sheep’s clothing.” This likely paradox was a blatant dig at the ‘feminist manifesto’ that really just turned out to be Queen T-swizzle reigning over her minions.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][thb_gap][thb_image alignment=”center” image=”9340" img_size=”600x600"][thb_gap][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAOmTMCtGkI" el_width=”50" el_aspect=”235" align=”center”][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]I’m a Chick Flick Duh
Post-Mean Girls era is a cascade of subtle feminist lessons teaching us women that it’s okay to have a wide set vagina and a heavy flow, but it’s definitely not okay to dumb yourself down for a boy, even if his hair looks sexy pushed back. (#flashbackfeministfriday). In all seriousness though, Scott Mendelson from Forbes paid tribute to the movie during its 10 year anniversary, celebrating it as a female-centric film that not only operates on the rules of male escapist fantasy (character develops + gains respect = prize hot girl), but leads by example with its disruption of the school hierarchy slash social strata slash entertainment factor.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
“Men are expected in society to be selfish, are given a selfless arc while women, expected to be the caregivers and the selfless ones in society, are given films that celebrate a little selfishness. One is about selfish people stepping up for the greater good of others, while the other involves selfless people allowed to be selfish for a while”
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“So you agree. You think you’re really pretty.”
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It’s social suicide to think that female characters are critiqued on a much harsher scale all because they tap into the bitch narrative of being popular as the social imperative. For decades now, the double standard montage of the heroine, as an exaggerated shopaholic, has been a cult classic staple of the chick flick culture. Thanks to the grool-fetch-liberating sentiments of Mean Girls, women have reclaimed the ‘bitch’ title and refashioned sexuality so that the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype and the primacy of beauty that we’ve loved in the past now perpetuate a new visibility of women in pop culture (#IWantMyPinkShirtBack). And by new, its attributes have really just been reinscribed with self-deprecating humour of the camaraderie, as Janis refers to: an army of skanks.
[/vc_column_text][thb_gap height=”20"][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][thb_image alignment=”center” image=”9307" img_size=”450x450"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][thb_gap height=”20"][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]You Go Glen Coco
Mean Girls was the new wave of predominantly female chick flick that, for the first time ever, the male population admittedly enjoyed for reasons beyond Karen’s fifth sense, rain-intuitive breasts and Regina George dressed as your favourite Halloween bunny. Whether or not you agree with Tina Fey’s attempt at ‘humourising’ everything wrong with sexism, internalised misogyny and homophobia, you can agree Mean Girls undoubtedly contains some kickass one-liners that you still quote today as your go-to conversation-stimulus in every situation ever. So thank you Mean Girls for letting us return to our rights as boss bitches, and for not betraying us like Mean Girls 2.[/vc_column_text][thb_gap height=”20"][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][thb_image alignment=”center” image=”9337" img_size=”500x500"][/vc_column][/vc_row]
