Mean Girls (Post 2)

Cady Heron is a “home schooled jungle freak” according to Regina Gorge. However after Regina back pedals about an ex boyfriend she decides that she will infiltrate the “Plastics” by becoming Regina’s friend. This does not go so well. At first Regina and Cady are what seems like the best of friends, but as things continue between then Cady begins to emulate Regina. This to me was a clear example of what happens when you try to be something your not.(changing social classes because of social oppression) Cady wanted to go outside of her social class and as a result of that she was chewed up and spit out. Social classes don’t care where you start off, but when you finally get through fighting to get to a certain class you have to fight just as hard to stay there. In other words no matter how hard you work as a member of the lower class even if you achieve your goals you have to work harder than everyone else especially if your poor/lower class
Regina, Karen and Gretchen are the most popular girls in the school. By being friends with them she becomes popular but loses herself in the process. Elements of Marxism in ‘Mean Girls’ are first seen in the Cafeteria scene . Cady is being shown seating arrangements and is told where to and where not to sit. This to me was Classism because they are all seated a certain way based on who they are as individuals. She also likes Aaron Samuels, while he’s Regina’s ex boyfriend he is also the captain of the football team. Socially where she is does not permit her to date him because she is just seen as a math geek and a brain in a highschool environment that would be unacceptable. He would be expected to date someone more like a cheerleader or again Regina. This took me back to “Sara Cole” being seen with someone that was supposedly beneath you was ‘social suicide’
The idea that the boiguise class can be jeopardized by the working/middle class disproves the idea that socially we are meant to work as a group of one. This also means that this three class system that we have established can be questioned. Who is to say that someone one in the boiguise class can’t portray themselves as the opposite and vice versa. And if so would they want to or why would they want to?
Cady attempts to move up on the social chain but is only later used by Regina in order to save face. She is blamed for all the rumors that circulate around the school and becomes a social outcast. She goes from being one of the popular kids to being resented over night. Cady's story is a lot like many young girls who get caught up in popular crowds without realizing the consequences. Cady wanted to be socially accepted by her peers. This is normal, but realistically we can’t change who we are class wise. (An outside example being Black men with white wives, though they may become successful but even by marrying outside their race are still seen as the black guy with the white wife nothing is going to change their social standing or skin) She trued to do that by gaining acceptance from the popular kids and while she achieved it for a short time, everyone knows you can’t stay on top forever. Marx believed that one day there would be a social uprising among the classes. The Burn book was in a way the tool that caused that uprising. As I said earlier Cady is blamed for the circulation of rumors while this ruins her chance of ever being considered respectable by anyone the Burn book forces all the students in the school to come together and recognize that they are all the same in some way and are no different from each other regardless of social standing. Marx said that if we are born into one social class that is our social class and that is the end of the story but in the end in the case of "Mean Girls" it was proven that everyone was the same. Just a group of misguided people trying to tell everyone what to do because they didn’t want to follow rules themselves.