For most Americans, High school was a special experience. Whether you were a nerd, goth, joke, skater, or something else entirety, never will it be replicated again. High school is usually where you gain long term friends, find yourself as a person, and learn complex concepts to ready yourself for college. It is also a place of great sociological occurrences and proves to be eye opening. Some films do a great job of telling a story using what happens in High schools. In the film Mean Girls Directed by Mark Waters, agents of socialization are sociological concepts used to tell the story about a girls High school experience. By using sociological imagination, defined by C Wright Mills as "the vivid awareness of the relationship between personal
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Family is the most significant agent of socialization and for the main character Cady Heron. Language, social bonds, and most importantly for Cady, norms and values. After spending 12 years of her life in Africa for her families research she did not develop the same set of social norms and values as in America. This can be seen as she first arrives to the school and experiences culture shock . For example, seeing all the different group such as jokes and nerds. Anthropologists us the term culture shock to describe visiting or exotic foreign culture (Stein, 2010, p.12). Consequently, Cady must now learn the norms and values of her new High …show more content…
Peers play a vital role in the High School social status system in Mean Girls. Just like the students in the film, young people tend to form peer subcultures that are almost entirely centered on their own interests. For instance, the “Plastics” are a group that feeds on others peoples problems and insecurities. Cady unknowingly starts to become spiteful and superficial, and abandons Janis and Damian after being exposed the the “Plastics”. Moreover, she learned this type of behavior learned from her peers and it ended up effecting her in a negative way. All in all, agents of socialization are the predominant sociological concepts found in Mean Girls. Cadys Families research in Africa made it so she didn't learn the norms and values of her new American High school. The School is what helped fill in the gaps and where she learned about the social hierarchy present at the school. Not only did she learn about the “Plastics”, but they became her peers that influenced her to become spiteful and superficial. By analyzing the film one can see that Mean Girls is a prime example of sociological
Family is the most significant agent of socialization and for the main character Cady Heron. Language, social bonds, and most importantly for Cady, norms and values. After spending 12 years of her life in Africa for her families research she did not develop the same set of social norms and values as in America. This can be seen as she first arrives to the school and experiences culture shock . For example, seeing all the different group such as jokes and nerds. Anthropologists us the term culture shock to describe visiting or exotic foreign culture (Stein, 2010, p.12). Consequently, Cady must now learn the norms and values of her new High …show more content…
Peers play a vital role in the High School social status system in Mean Girls. Just like the students in the film, young people tend to form peer subcultures that are almost entirely centered on their own interests. For instance, the “Plastics” are a group that feeds on others peoples problems and insecurities. Cady unknowingly starts to become spiteful and superficial, and abandons Janis and Damian after being exposed the the “Plastics”. Moreover, she learned this type of behavior learned from her peers and it ended up effecting her in a negative way. All in all, agents of socialization are the predominant sociological concepts found in Mean Girls. Cadys Families research in Africa made it so she didn't learn the norms and values of her new American High school. The School is what helped fill in the gaps and where she learned about the social hierarchy present at the school. Not only did she learn about the “Plastics”, but they became her peers that influenced her to become spiteful and superficial. By analyzing the film one can see that Mean Girls is a prime example of sociological