Lacey Chabert

High School is a period in adolescence where identities are found within the self by figuring out where they belong in this world. That can be hard especially for teens like Cady Heron in the 2004 movie Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters based on the book Queen Bees and Wannabes which encompasses females in high school cliques and how damaging it can be for development to girls. Cady Heron is a 16 year old who has just moved back to the states after living in Africa for her parents zoology research. Being home schooled by her mother her whole life, she has never experienced public school but is eager to begin what she calls “a regular teenage life”. Although she is knowledgeably prepared for what is to come academically having a strong side in math, no one could prepare her for the social culture that is deeply but sometimes dramatized rooted in high school. Her struggle is described by Erikson as an “identity crisis”; figuring out where one fits in society (Erikson, 1956). Throughout the duration of the film, Cady’s identity formation phases in and out of negative identity In her first days of institutionalized high school. Negative identity is an identity based on all the identifications and roles which were described at critical stages of development as dangerous and undesirable and yet also so real (Erikson, 1956). She narrates the film through her perspective and stereotypes that are present in the film. At the beginning of the plot Cady’s parents talk to her as though…

Traditionally, femininity is associated with a particular set of personality traits and behaviours, which are deemed acceptable for women to perform by the most influential institutions of the dominant culture. The teen makeover movie is a visual medium that reinforces these expectations through the types of female characters they present. Gender stereotypes reveal a distinct correlation between performances of idealized femininity and the distribution of female power in their high school…

Media, in the forms of photography, film, and writing are similar in that they often reveal a particular message, or comment on a societal aspect. For some, these messages may be underlying, while in others, they are evident and transparent. This idea helps distinguishes differences in media. Photography is widely open for interpretation. In the case of Errol Morris’ “Will the Real Hooded Man Please Stand Up?” the lack of context and textual clues make it hard to discern what was true or what…