Popular culture and mass media has a large influence on our identities, behaviors, and interacts with people in society. Thousands of movies are made and watched throughout the globe, it is a form of entertainment that presents a bigger picture than most of us can capture. When we begin to analyze films using sociological theory, we are introduced to new themes, conflicts, and emotions that we do not originally notice. In this case, I will be analyzing a clip from the movie Mean Girls, one of the most popular films in mass media today, and use it to demonstrate how class conflict and dramaturgy occur. A well-known sociological theorist by the name of Karl Marx spent his time analyzing and understanding how class conflict arises. For Marx,
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Let’s begin with the scene where Janis and Damian ditch class and bring Cady, a new student who just moved from Africa, along and begin to inform her about the reality high school. Cady explains to Janis and Damian that her parent’s wanted her to attend high school in order to socialize with others. After Cady said this, Damian stated “Oh you’ll get socialized, a little slice like you” implying that her appealing looks would help in high school. After this statement, a group of students step out to the football field for P.E. Amongst these students were “the plastics”, which were three well-known girls named Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith, and Regina George. This moment is where we begin to see and understand the different classes amongst the students. Damian and Janis then begin to Cady who “The Plastics “are, Damian refers to them as “team royalty”. Here we can compare “the plastics” to Marx bourgeoisie class because “The Plastics “hold all the power and everyone knows who they are. Janis continues talking about each plastic individually, she describes Karen Smith as the dumb one, Gretchen Wieners as small but rich and knowing everything about anything, and Regina George is the ‘queen bee star”. Although “The Plastics “can already be seen as the elite group, there is still a power distinction amongst the three. In this case, Regina is the superior one, Karen and Gretchen are “her workers” who do whatever it takes to make Regina
Let’s begin with the scene where Janis and Damian ditch class and bring Cady, a new student who just moved from Africa, along and begin to inform her about the reality high school. Cady explains to Janis and Damian that her parent’s wanted her to attend high school in order to socialize with others. After Cady said this, Damian stated “Oh you’ll get socialized, a little slice like you” implying that her appealing looks would help in high school. After this statement, a group of students step out to the football field for P.E. Amongst these students were “the plastics”, which were three well-known girls named Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith, and Regina George. This moment is where we begin to see and understand the different classes amongst the students. Damian and Janis then begin to Cady who “The Plastics “are, Damian refers to them as “team royalty”. Here we can compare “the plastics” to Marx bourgeoisie class because “The Plastics “hold all the power and everyone knows who they are. Janis continues talking about each plastic individually, she describes Karen Smith as the dumb one, Gretchen Wieners as small but rich and knowing everything about anything, and Regina George is the ‘queen bee star”. Although “The Plastics “can already be seen as the elite group, there is still a power distinction amongst the three. In this case, Regina is the superior one, Karen and Gretchen are “her workers” who do whatever it takes to make Regina