Socialization In Mean Girls

After watching the film “Mean Girls”, there are some realistic aspects which can be applied to an actual high-school scenario. Though, most of the social context is purely based off of Hollywood creation, which allows for larger drama within and between cliques. Furthermore, there are many aspects which must be considered in comparing this fictional society to an actual high school scenario. This would include agents of socialization, social institutions, primary and secondary groups, and many other factors.

In regards to agents of socialization, some aspects witnessed within this movie can relate to actual high-school. This is because, during adolescence, peer groups, school, culture and media will play increasing roles as socializing …show more content…
This can be witnessed with “the plastics,” which is composed of Regina, Gretchen and Karen. They represent the A-list clique where all other individuals and groups are considered inferior. They focus on the social aspect of high-school where dress-code and daily activities must be held to a certain standard in order to remain a member. Furthermore, Janis and Damien also influence Cady by stating that joining the mathletes is “social suicide”. In comparison to the actual high-school experience, this rarely occurs. This is because a sense of popularity doesn’t really exists, where there is rather different groups and shared connections between them. As well as this, the idea of joining a math club is not generally taken in negative context. It represents your ability to understand different concepts and powerful intellectual ability. Furthermore, Cady’s school also has an influence in her high-school experience. This is because Ms. Norbury, the math teacher, pressures her to join mathletes, where she then temporality declines the offer. After this, her crush on Aaron influences her decision to purposely lower her math mark in order to be more connected on a social …show more content…
These are people that are hard to replace and provide warmth, security and are highly valued. Together, Janis and Damien plotted schemes to ruin the lives of the Plastics. An example of this would be exposing Regina’s “burn book,” and destroying their social status they have within the high-school. This is as a result of constant bullying from Regina to Janis, who called her a lesbian. This scenario is realistic as drama between individuals is quite common in the high-school environment, but mainly on smaller scales. Furthermore, it escalated quickly as being called a lesbian would have been very negative to Janis’ social life and would have caused “social suicide”. Another example of a primary group would be Cady’s family, as she is very close with them and are impossible to replace. In continuation to this, Cady also has secondary groups. They are more impersonal and formal groups, where there is a smaller else of belonging. Within the story, this can be witnessed with “the plastics”. Cady spends time with them but is not particularly close with the group, as a result of helping with the schemes set up by Janis and Damien. Though, through her efforts to get revenge on Regina, Cady gradually loses her individual personality and remakes herself in the image of Regina. She soon becomes as spiteful as Regina, abandoning Janis and Damien and focusing more on her image. She later reverts to her former self,