Mean Girls Summary

   

 

 Above is the four main girls within the film Mean Girls. From left to right; Gretchen Wieners, Regina George, Cady Heron and Karen Smith.

Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters. The screenplay was written by Tina Fey and is based in part on Rosalind Wiseman's non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabees, which describes female high school social cliques and the damaging effects they can have on girls.

 

Cady Heron was raised in Africa by her parents who were zoologists. However this all changes when her and her parents move back to America after living in Africa for 15 years. There is a whole new meaning when the home-schooled 16-year-old enters public high school for the first time and encounters psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teenage girls face today. Up until now cady had been home schooled for her entire life.

She makes friends on her second day of school. Firstly she encounters with the school 'Freaks' Janice Ian and Damian, who, in the terms of the high school, were in the "out crowd." Soon she meets the Plastics, the three beautiful and most popular girls. The plastics consist of Regina, the unofficial leader, Gretchen, Regina's full-time follower, and Karen, "one of the dumbest people you will ever meet." The plastics are usually only interested in boys as they get a lot of attention from them, however unusually they immediately let Cady into their group. Damian and Janice convince Cady to keep hanging around with the Plastics, only so that they can find out their secrets and how 'mean' they actually are. However, events do not turn to plan as Cady falls for Regina's ex-boyfriend, Aaron Samuels. This does not go down well when Regina finds out as she wants to take revenge on Cady by taking Aaron back as her boyfriend. When Cady finds out, she is fuming and "hated her!" She finds out how Regina George is what Janice always said "And evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don't be fooled because she may seem like your typical selfish, back-stabbing slut faced ho-bag, but in reality, she's so much more than that." The three of them began a plan to destroy Regina. Now, Cady, Janis, and Damian plot together to bring Regina's status down. They give her Kalteen bars which make her gain weight altough regina was told they would help her lose weight. They also give her foot cream instead of facial cream. However as the plan starts to pay off, Cady appears to be spending too much time with the Plastics and she, too begins to become one. 

Eventually everyone manages to sort all of their issues out as Regina gets hit by a bus and everyone is worried for her. Once Regina has fully recovered, the Plastics break up and everyone finds their own friends, however they still say hi to each other and everyone is civil. The end of the film is significant as Cady is watching the new 'Junior Plastics' and it makes the audience think that the whole process will happen again.

There is a long shot where you can see the costumes they are wearing around school. It shows that they are popular as everyone moves out of there way and stares in jealousy. The clothes they are wearing are based on a colour scheme of pink, which is carried on throughout the film. 'On wednesdays we wear pink'.
 The colour pink is stereotypical iconography for girls and girls are the main focus of the film. Also it is clear that Cady (the one on the far left) is the outsider of the group because she is on the end and is behind a bin, making her less significant and also suggests she is not as good as the others. The make up they are wearing is not obvious, yet still makes them look almost fake which emphasises their "plastic" reputation. They are all wearing rather short skirts. This is stereotypical of a popular 'clique' in American Teen Angst films.