I really like that Cady doesn't just turn from sweet to outright bitchy, she is convinced all the way that she is a good person and what she does is justified because "Regina deserves it" and most of her "mean" moments are supressed anger (ex: when she complains about Mr Norbury or snaps at her mom) , it´s very organic and it makes realistic to believe when she realizes what she did wrong.
yes- and she has to learn that Janice saying getting "revenge" on Regina will fix all the social problems in the school that isn't actually true- it just creates more problems as Janice is just another version of Regina- she judges and puts down anyone she's decided tries too hard to fit in. So by the end Cady has to realize that she was getting the wrong messages from everyone around her and that's what really needs changing.
This was such a well-written movie. They really nailed the psychological games of bullying between girls and the social hierarchy. They don’t spoon-feed it to you, but they do a really great job laying out all the details so you can understand how and why these people are doing what they do. I feel like Cady and Janice were both great examples of finding ways to justify being a bully. Regina just owned it, because that was where half of her power came from in the first place.
Please do a video essay on Karen. She seems to be the Happiest, most well adjusted Plastic, and is genuinely friendly and pleasant, unlike the other girls, who put on a front of liking each other. She only does unkind things when following Regina, Gretchen or Cady's lead.
I've seen some analyses on her say that she may be autistic. She thrives with the structured rules of Regina while not fully seeming to understand the social rules themselves. An example I saw from someone on TikTok (I can't find the username, but if I do I'll insert it here), she doesn't understand the oddness of dressing up as a sexy mouse since everyone else is dressing as other sexy animals. As an autistic person, I love this idea, and I think it fits well.
There was a Real-life Cady Heron at my school and I never got over it!! She was a Pale freckled redhead: Kinda nerdy, wore glasses, came in first day, terrible outfit, it was like an I’ll-fitting grey pantsuit. and sat next to a blonde and brunette who wore make up and had much better style, the brunette was slightly prettier with braces, the blonde, however, was objectively STUNNING. Although they didn’t actually end up becoming friends, they still sat together in home room, and after a couple smemsters sis had ditched the pantsuits and came in wearing much more fashionable fitted skirts and kitten heels and started wearing make up to match the other two. It was like a real-life mean girls that I got to watch in real-time! It’s funny bc me and my friend actually looked at her on the first day and actually said to each other “watch that girl completely change to become like the other two” and it actually happened! I never forgot it. Peer pressure really does a number on us. 😅
That’s literally crazy how similar it is to the film, at my old school I got bullied because I wore pink and skirts LOL (everyone wore hoodies and jeans)
On an unrelated note, 9:16 i actually find cute the scene where Gretchen teases Cady about (she thinks) having a crush on Kevin instead of going "ew! that guy?" or something like that , because it feels like they are talking like real friends for a little second.
Yeah I always loved that too. Heck Regina strangely could have been sticking up for Cady because Cady said that she didn’t have a crush on Kevin. Yet it could also be Regina showing off how stupid Mathletes are and Cady shouldn’t be with him. Lol
@@andreasmeelie1889 I think Regina had enough with hearing "fetch" all the time and was already on a short fuse with Gretchen for messing up the dance, even though Cady managed to redeem it
As much as I appreciate the overall theme/point of "better to be yourself", I think it would have been good to include some perspective about the realistic cost of being yourself. Life is not a Hollywood movie. If you have divergent interests, you're not going to magically dismantle the social hierarchy around you, which means there's often a level of emotional strain that comes with the prolonged feeling of never fitting it. Damien and Kevin were clearly anomalies, and we see that most of the people trying to be themselves actually _struggled_ with the emotional toll of doing it. People like to say "be yourself" is an easy and simple choice, but realistically it's not. I think it would have been appropriate to cover how ultimately it did take adult intervention to keep the school from literally tearing itself apart in order to rebuild that social order. Let's not ignore the role that adults should play in creating environments where kids CAN "be themselves" without suffering emotional turmoil in doing it.
Solid point. "Be yourself" is very recent idea, we forget that we are social/tribal in nature. We need to belong to some group to feel safe and protected. This is apparent when people who are isolated suffer from depression and anxiety because they don't get the socialization that a young person needs growing up and it also adds up in difficulty in later years. "Wanting to fit in" is a very very natural/evolutionary human need.
What people don't realise is that the price of "be yourself" is that you can be so unique that you end up lonely. You will end not relating to anyone around you.
@LittleHobbit13 -- Very well said, and very true. As an autistic, I fully agree. That's one reason I actually appreciate technology, making it just a bit easier than before to find like-minded people to "be yourself" with, who can appreciate your 'self' just as it is. It's still hard in day-to-day life, though, surrounded mostly by not-like-minded people who will at best ignore and exclude anyone noticeably different, and at worst actively socially punish (aka bully aka harass -- sometimes even to suicide or manslaughter) anyone who's true 'self' that they're being is too different than the local mob.
P. S. Also, good point about the adults. Adults often turn a blind eye to bullying, because they don't care (or worse, agree with it), or it brings up their own trauma memories, or they are afraid to rock the boat. Adults in leadership and authority positions have a responsibility towards those they teach and mentor, to guide them towards better choices, or to do what they can to protect and help them when others won't. That is how they should model being the change they want to see in the world, and the next generation.
It's funny - when I first watched this film in high school, I thought Kevin was one giant nerd. When I watched it again as an adult, I found I appreciated what this video points out - that Kevin is actually one of the more well-adjusted and confident of the students, and that my inability to see that when I was a teen was due to my own insecurities. In summary, we stan Kevin G.
lol Kevin is what I aspired to be in highschool: high achievements, do what actually makes you interested, confident and don’t give shit about what other people have got to say
I like how there’s a meaning behind the title of it being mean “girls” instead of just mean “girl” showing that all girls can be pressured into being mean when they don’t even realize it and they get caught up trying to prove something to other girls and prove something to society. You don’t have to be wearing pink and be all girly to be mean, that’s why janice was also a mean girl who didn’t realize or take responsibility for being mean just like regina but with different style. The scene where all the girls were in the gym after the big fight in the hallway showed that they were all mean to eachother at some point and putting eachother down, regina wasn’t the only one doing it. I also liked cadys quotes towards the end of the movie, “calling someone fat won’t make you any skinnier, calling someone stupid won’t make you any smarter and ruining regina george’s life definitely didn’t make me any happier”.
You can't feel good about yourself by making someone else feel bad about themselves. Also, I can't believe it took the teachers and principal so long to put an end to that hallway throwdown, and it took the principal getting punched by a female student to turn on the sprinkler system. But I guess that's supposed to happen in a film about the peer pressure of high school teenagers. But in a normal setting, someone would have told a teacher if they either caught students fighting on school grounds, or found the pages of a burn book and reported them to a teacher or the principal. I remember when I was in high school, I witnessed a couple girls arguing, then they pushed off each other, as if they were going to start brawling. Fortunately, a teacher arrived just in time before any damage could be done and dealt with the matter.
As a neurodivergent female, this is good for me to watch. There is pressure on women in general to conform in society, but its worse for neurodivergents because we often have difficulty understanding social cues and norms, and since many of us inherently know that we are somehow different and dont actually know what is 'right', we watch other's actions and mimic them as opposed to acting from within.
It was so weird at school. Likely due to my autism I had very little interest in socialising and "fitting in", but if it wasn't for my seriously crippling social anxiety I probably would have anyway because the way the *school itself* worked was built on the assumption that the kids would all be talking and interacting with each other in a way that just didn't come naturally to me. I legitimately missed out on important information, opportunities, or just did stuff "wrong" because of that
I'd personally partly thank my own neurodivergence and the fact that I've been diagnosed as autistic at the age of 2-3 years old therefor spend most of my school-years at neurodivergence-friendly schools instead of typical school for neurotypical for feeling barely to never felt the pressure of fitting into these weird sometimes even ridiculous stereotypes and societal expectations I could never seem to wrap my head around.
@@kayleighdriessen hope this is ok to say, but I envy your early diagnosis. Didnt get mine until my 30s, and I feel my school years, let alone my whole life, would have been easier with one....
@Chrissie M -- I hear you, same story! I wonder how much less my anxiety and depression might've been if I'd known it was normal for me not to understand the neurotypical social Game of Thrones, and that they were all based on fakery and cruelty that I didn't really want a part of anyway.
The moral of the story is quite simple: "Better alone or with a pet than badly accompained". Whenever i see these arrogants, know-it-all, superficial jerks, my first response is get away from them as far away as possible.
Yes, Cady is a great example of how high school can be so toxic, i'm glad that she ended up knowing that toxicity wouldn't make anything better and you should never act like what you're not to get likes from anyone
The forerunner of Mean Girls was Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion where they return to school for a reunion knowing that they were outcasts there. But it turned out they were part of a hierarchy where they were looked down upon by the popular girls who were cheerleaders and at the same time they looked down on the science geeks. One of those science geeks had made a lot of money inventing a fast burning cigarette that you can start smoking and finish in a ten minute break at school or work. They find that all of the popular girls but one were now married to members of the football team. The one who wasn't is a fashion magazine editor who recognises their talent in designing the clothes they wear and offers them exposure. Generation Z and Alpha school tribes are different now as they include e girls and VSCO girls but there is no longer a hierarchy.
throughout the story Cady thinks she's being ironic but is truly turning into a plastic. She keeps validating her behavior by saying it's to tear down regina, and it is a good lesson for real life.
I think people forget that Janice is the main reason Cady did what she did. I believe Janice needs a breakdown, as a character too. I believe that she was also a Mean Girl before her friendship ended with Regina.
I can totally relate with Cady's experience. Back when I got into third grade, my family changed my school. And girls in the new school were really harsh, mean and bullies. To survive that environment, I became exactly like them. I was both physically and verbally dangerous. That's how I was safe. Unfortunately, those traits stuck with me to adult life and did a lot of damage before I realized that I need to change.
My high school experience was a whole different one, not about peer pressure but racism, I was a loud disruptive class clown who just got into physical fights, more like Jonah from Summer Heights High, the main point is we all have moments we regret, especially from school.
@@musahaque2000 and hilariously, those moments of innocent stupidity shape our personalities and somehow, in our adult life, we forget about those moments.
Watching this video and realising that Kevin G's actor Rajiv Surendra is a multitalented renaissance man who doesn't take part in the hustle culture just feels really full circle
Happy October 3rd! 🎊💗Lindsay Lohan had such a bright career ahead of her, I hope that she's doing better for herself now. She really captured Cady's transformation from Naive, Clueless Transfer Student into fully fledged plastic.
Having a few friends who know & love you well is so much better than having lots of friends. Plus it's more likely you'll keep in touch over the years when you aren't in school and around each other all the time.
This is like really good analysis. I now understand why mean girls turned into such a classic icon of the 2000s. It taps into something way deeper while being hilarious. Thank you the take, I really love your channel❤
Today there's such an emphasis on the individual, on being yourself that we've really undercut the impact of peer pressure- but working in education I can promise you it's at an all time high. Because now, it's not just the kids in your school or your friend group- it's the entire world. kids of all ages feel the need to perform, the need to impress, the need to engage with what everyone else is doing to the point where they don't think twice about it. It's what led to a string of false bomb and active shooter threats in schools last year thanks to a tik tok challenge. It's warped their sense of reality. And thanks to social media people of all ages are getting swept up in the pressure to be someone they're not, to have that internet validation, to present a certain way so that it's appeasing to strangers who don't care about you.
The same can be said of mob mentality. I don’t believe that people feel as strongly as they claim they do over certain topics and that because they don’t wan to appear to be on the wrong side they go with the vocal minority instead of the silent majority. The younger generation is afraid to admit that they oppose something that isn’t liked, that they don’t like something that is praised, or just don’t care about soemthing when it appears to be incredibly important. The consequences for being your own person with your own thoughts and perspective are sky high and they can follow you for the rest of your life.
I've seen this exact same type of pressure at my old job among 30+ year old men. They did everything to seem likable to each other but behind each other's backs, they would say the most heinous things. One guy even passed on the woman of his dreams because his coworkers (not even private life friends) didn't think she was cool enough. This might be a fun subject to analyze in a video: corporate life pressures on men 🙃
The girls relationship with math is the most interesting part of the movie. I have a fan theory that Aaron Samuels already knew how bad he was at math and he knew right away what was going on when Cady feigned stupidity. Regina would have given him the guided tour of Girl World already. A more in depth exploration of the relationship between Girl World and math would have had a lot of potential in this movie.
Janice is equally bad if not worse. She works her own angst and trauma through Cady which is not cool, at least the plastics are what they are. You literally posted a vlog about it 2 years ago😅😅😅😅
Aaron is turned off that Cady is like Regina, but when she kissed him, he began wrapping his arms around Regina. If he was truly into Cady like that at that time, he wouldn't have been weak to that.
I always love your videos. Just wanted to say great work and I appreciate all the hard work you do. I've been lurking on the channel I think for over a year now and it's just so much quality.
I don't know if Cady really "chose not to give in to peer pressure" by the end. She was pressured into taking all the blame for the "burn book", she was pressured into joining the "mathletes" and she was basically dictated what her "true self" was. I think she did give in to the peer pressure, only from those, who she probably felt more comfortable to share her feelings with. But she was still just as acceptance-seeking as she was with the plastics - she was still worrying what others thought of her, she wasn't being herself.
@@EMunaBee It’s a long one. In short, the Plastics are the 3 Witches and Janis is Lady Macbeth. Cady is Macbeth who is seduced by the trappings of power.
It blew my mind when I realized the 'mean girls' aren't just the Plastics... it's Janis and Cady, too! Like, who spends that much energy hating somebody and trying to sabotage them?! Like when we're younger, it feels natural to root for Janis since she's so relatable at the time and seems like an underdog, but in reality, all those girls are bitches, lol.
God I wish we actually took any of these lessons onboard when we were in school, instead it became a social hierarchy thing to be able to quote as much of this film as possible lmao
Yesterday I wore a life jacket at a blue Laguna in Greece, because I can’t swim. I am 6and half months pregnant. I probably looked huge and a little clumsy but it did matter because I had fun and made amazing memories with my family and new people I met there. I felt so happy and blessed. You can wait to look or be certain way to live.
Effin' love Kevin. He makes me laugh. Everyone should be like Kevin! Also, the actor is actually amazing artist. Like legit. Look him up. Charismatic, fun to listen to and humorous.
I LOVE IT, can you guys talk about the popular girl dating with the quirky guy, like summer and seth in the O.c or Nancy and Jonathan in stranger things ?
I love the sentiment of being your true self at the end of this video and the movie. But how come every girl I know would rather be Regina (sometimes including me but I really identify more with Kady) 🤔 maybe I need new friends 😂
I actually feel bad for Katie in this movie I just really wish we could have gotten a sequel with her trying to stop others from falling into social clicks and just teaching them how to to be themselves.
The ending will always be unsatisfying to me. Cady only added one mean thing to the Burn Book. The other girls started it and Regina spread it around the school.
Maths was one of my favorite classes back then and also one of the classes where I was the best and always wrote A's. However, when I got out of elementary school into middle school, maths was considered as "uncool" and for a period of time, I pretended to dislike maths and didn't pay attention to the boring maths classes, not purely for external validation, but for my own sense of self, the internalized hatred against myself. Maths class was boring, because I already knew everything, I learned quickly at maths, but I pretended it was boring, because maths isn't something, a normal kid should like. Later however, I stopped that behavior and I started learning for maths aand liking maths and writing straight A's and that's the point where I started liking maths again. Now, I'm somewhere in the middle after having to experience university maths, or what I call it: next level maths. I don't like maths as much as I like other subjects like physics or chemistry, because it doesn't have as much practical relevance in life due to being solely theoretical, but I still like the idea of maths because I know how maths work. I still enjoy teaching other people about maths and tutoring middle and high school students. As an average maths and science enjoyer, I'm so delighted to see myself represented in Cady Heron, a beautiful but book smart woman, female people we do not often see in media. I'm glad that Cady found to herself again and found a way to pursue her passion without prejudice. My story shows that there are many people out there who can sympathize with Cady, especially female read people. Sadly, even in the 21st century, people still think you can only be one thing when you're a woman: pretty/street smart or book smart. That's the same with the blonde prejudice. Blonde people are perceived as dumb but charismatic and sexy, brunette's as smart but ugly. Cady, a red hair, is in the middle. She shows that beauty and intelligence doesn't contradict with each other
Election was not as mainstream because it has some uncomfortable subjects matter. The characters are not exactly likeable, and the story is not as relatable to all. It harkens back to older movies where not everything is tied up with a nice little bow. It’s a great movie , but I can understand why Mean Girls is more popular.
I hate to break it to you but the majority of entertainment that we consume are basically socializing reinforcements. That is the reason why a lot of these tropes are repeated. They reinforce experiences. Once I realized this I started looking at movies and television shows completely differently. As a matter of fact I stopped watching them.
@Ks it is. You don't realize how deep it is until your decisions are based around peoples opinions and social constructs that are taught to you that you don't question. 🤷🏾♀️
Omg I literally just finished watching Mean Girls for the first time in my life And opening youtube like :0 I was watching and thinking of how cool it'll be to finally watch the viedoessays on Mean Girls, now that I know 😭👁️
"Stop making fetch happen. It's not going to happen." It's not clear what 'fetch' is other than a made up word for being cool. Often close friends have their own private language which isn't official using words that normally mean something else that they give a different meaning to. We used to use the word 'fishy' for useless public servants and professionals in the workplace who are at the beck and call of their bosses using an interpreter at the European Commission that my flatmate worked for as a stagiare as the prototype. He was German and would interpret from German into misprounced Italian at meetings instead of the other way round and my flatmate being Italian took offence at that. French was the main working language at the European Commission so presumably he spoke that as well. He had to keep his passport or identity card on him at all times and an overnight bag packed in his office ready to go on a mission to another EU member state at a few hours' notice. In the European Parliament the interpreters there only spoke in their native language. There were only nine languages used while I was visiting in 1992. There was a piggy back system so when a Dutch or Flemish MEP for example spoke it would be interpreted into English, German and French and then from there into the other languages. Belgian interpreters were usually used to interpret between Dutch and French. The Flemish speaking Belgian interpreters would be sitting with the Dutch interpreters and the Francophone Belgian interpreters would be sitting with the French interpreters. Rather like Officer Crabtree in the 80's sit com Allo Allo. He was a British member of the French resistance in disguise as a gendarme and who mispronounced French vowels so they became double entendres. He would say "I have a massage for Renee" when he meant "I have a message for Renee".
I didn't feel like it was like that at my high school. I went to an all girls Catholic high school. Take the boys out of the mix and the girls get along just fine.
This is even more evident in the 2024 mean girls. Janis was more manipulative of Cady, and we saw the steps of that throughtout the film, and was very dictative of the naive Cady.
I'm still impressed that Gretchen actually sticks to her rules, even if the person, who's breaking them is Regina. Often, in girl cliques, those rules are hypocritical and only apply to the unpopular one, but you get a free pass when you're pretty and popular, which drives me so mad. Mean Girls also has a lot of rules, but at least those rules are consistent, objective and universal, just like Gretchen said: "Not just you. Any of us."
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; these excessively stratified and popularity-based depictions of high school really seem like total fantasies. Admittedly, my high school experience was more atypical than most, but virtually no one I knew gave a damn about social currency (probably because there wasn’t much to be had for anyone). Far from being the “peak” time of my life, I couldn’t wait to leave all the idiots behind and go to college.
I saw high school as a prison sentence, "Only four years, then I'm busting out of here," so I never really cared what bullies/mean girls thought of me. I mean sure, it sucked when they hassled me, but I didn't care if they liked me, I just wanted them to leave me alone. If someone's an a-hole, why care about their approval?
I think peer pressure is worse for adults than for kids. Being an outcast has little to no real economical consequences when you're a child, it does as an adult. Oddly enough, the acceptance I get by bending does not feel good emotionally. Also, as an adult, the peer pressure aspects gains a sexual component, which is a lot more tempting than friendship because it appeals to much more primitive instincts, and sometimes it leads me to do things that are against my own values and I feel bad afterwards. Being likeable and accepted wasn't even a consideration for me before I started university, because there the consequences are more steep if one isn't socially accepted. Also, as a teenager, I had bigger issues and having a social life wasn't a priority for me. I had issues regarding my parents and there was a lot of change going on in my life, plus at 14, my best friend died. I was not ready to bend to the demands of social life, nor was interested in whatever benefits I would get from it, because I simply wasn't emotionally ready for it. I am someone with rather conservative values, but because my interests are in art and history, most people I share interests with oppose my values, and I oppose theirs. I simply keep them silent, but I would never change my belief system just because peer pressure. strength
I have no idea what social norms are, I’m autistic. In middle school I became obsessed with The Lion King and even pretended to be a cat. I had the best time during those times. Now as an adult I love historical clothing. Still happy, though maybe I should stop being so mean to people.
A person who is psychologically attracted to narcissists/ mean people is not a good person eventually he/she will act like them to gain their liking and will act mean to other innocent people to be like their idols. regina is a narcissist like many other narcissists people idolize and people with narcisstic tendencies are attracted to narcissts
@@heartlesslove9084and also by my logic people who hurt innocent people also follow and idolize narcissists because they want their praise and for them to like them by any cost !! And idc how many are they as long as they are hurting others because what they are doing is bad !! And to be more logical and realistic by looking at the rates of domestic violence and bullying at the workplace, schools,and collages,...etc the world is sadly seems to be full of narcissists
It does a lot, in special in sex, so many midle aged women have become Karens becouse during youth they gave their all to men, they have let their boundaries be destroied.
What's your fav Mean Girls line?
That is so fetch
I was half a virgin when I met him.
I’m not a regular mom, I’m a cool mom 😎✨🙌🏼
"One time, Regina punched me in the face. It was awesome!"
She doesn’t even go here!
I really like that Cady doesn't just turn from sweet to outright bitchy, she is convinced all the way that she is a good person and what she does is justified because "Regina deserves it" and most of her "mean" moments are supressed anger (ex: when she complains about Mr Norbury or snaps at her mom) , it´s very organic and it makes realistic to believe when she realizes what she did wrong.
yes- and she has to learn that Janice saying getting "revenge" on Regina will fix all the social problems in the school that isn't actually true- it just creates more problems as Janice is just another version of Regina- she judges and puts down anyone she's decided tries too hard to fit in. So by the end Cady has to realize that she was getting the wrong messages from everyone around her and that's what really needs changing.
This was such a well-written movie. They really nailed the psychological games of bullying between girls and the social hierarchy. They don’t spoon-feed it to you, but they do a really great job laying out all the details so you can understand how and why these people are doing what they do.
I feel like Cady and Janice were both great examples of finding ways to justify being a bully. Regina just owned it, because that was where half of her power came from in the first place.
Please do a video essay on Karen. She seems to be the Happiest, most well adjusted Plastic, and is genuinely friendly and pleasant, unlike the other girls, who put on a front of liking each other. She only does unkind things when following Regina, Gretchen or Cady's lead.
Yesss
Please!!! This would be awesome!!
i loved karen such a girlboss !!
Gretchen is more interesting. Karen wasn't very multi layered to me.
I've seen some analyses on her say that she may be autistic. She thrives with the structured rules of Regina while not fully seeming to understand the social rules themselves. An example I saw from someone on TikTok (I can't find the username, but if I do I'll insert it here), she doesn't understand the oddness of dressing up as a sexy mouse since everyone else is dressing as other sexy animals. As an autistic person, I love this idea, and I think it fits well.
Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron was such an iconic performance. Also, Tina Fey did a brilliant job making every character count.
ayye pokhraj i see you commenting on lisa fevral videos all the time!! heyy
@@yohjinonoki Oh hello! Nice to see you
There was a Real-life Cady Heron at my school and I never got over it!! She was a Pale freckled redhead: Kinda nerdy, wore glasses, came in first day, terrible outfit, it was like an I’ll-fitting grey pantsuit. and sat next to a blonde and brunette who wore make up and had much better style, the brunette was slightly prettier with braces, the blonde, however, was objectively STUNNING. Although they didn’t actually end up becoming friends, they still sat together in home room, and after a couple smemsters sis had ditched the pantsuits and came in wearing much more fashionable fitted skirts and kitten heels and started wearing make up to match the other two. It was like a real-life mean girls that I got to watch in real-time! It’s funny bc me and my friend actually looked at her on the first day and actually said to each other “watch that girl completely change to become like the other two” and it actually happened! I never forgot it. Peer pressure really does a number on us. 😅
That’s literally crazy how similar it is to the film, at my old school I got bullied because I wore pink and skirts LOL (everyone wore hoodies and jeans)
On an unrelated note, 9:16 i actually find cute the scene where Gretchen teases Cady about (she thinks) having a crush on Kevin instead of going "ew! that guy?" or something like that , because it feels like they are talking like real friends for a little second.
Yeah I always loved that too.
Heck Regina strangely could have been sticking up for Cady because Cady said that she didn’t have a crush on Kevin.
Yet it could also be Regina showing off how stupid Mathletes are and Cady shouldn’t be with him. Lol
@@andreasmeelie1889 I think Regina had enough with hearing "fetch" all the time and was already on a short fuse with Gretchen for messing up the dance, even though Cady managed to redeem it
As much as I appreciate the overall theme/point of "better to be yourself", I think it would have been good to include some perspective about the realistic cost of being yourself. Life is not a Hollywood movie. If you have divergent interests, you're not going to magically dismantle the social hierarchy around you, which means there's often a level of emotional strain that comes with the prolonged feeling of never fitting it. Damien and Kevin were clearly anomalies, and we see that most of the people trying to be themselves actually _struggled_ with the emotional toll of doing it. People like to say "be yourself" is an easy and simple choice, but realistically it's not. I think it would have been appropriate to cover how ultimately it did take adult intervention to keep the school from literally tearing itself apart in order to rebuild that social order. Let's not ignore the role that adults should play in creating environments where kids CAN "be themselves" without suffering emotional turmoil in doing it.
That's a great point that I didn't even think of with this movie! 😊
Solid point. "Be yourself" is very recent idea, we forget that we are social/tribal in nature. We need to belong to some group to feel safe and protected. This is apparent when people who are isolated suffer from depression and anxiety because they don't get the socialization that a young person needs growing up and it also adds up in difficulty in later years.
"Wanting to fit in" is a very very natural/evolutionary human need.
What people don't realise is that the price of "be yourself" is that you can be so unique that you end up lonely. You will end not relating to anyone around you.
@LittleHobbit13 -- Very well said, and very true. As an autistic, I fully agree. That's one reason I actually appreciate technology, making it just a bit easier than before to find like-minded people to "be yourself" with, who can appreciate your 'self' just as it is. It's still hard in day-to-day life, though, surrounded mostly by not-like-minded people who will at best ignore and exclude anyone noticeably different, and at worst actively socially punish (aka bully aka harass -- sometimes even to suicide or manslaughter) anyone who's true 'self' that they're being is too different than the local mob.
P. S. Also, good point about the adults. Adults often turn a blind eye to bullying, because they don't care (or worse, agree with it), or it brings up their own trauma memories, or they are afraid to rock the boat. Adults in leadership and authority positions have a responsibility towards those they teach and mentor, to guide them towards better choices, or to do what they can to protect and help them when others won't. That is how they should model being the change they want to see in the world, and the next generation.
It's funny - when I first watched this film in high school, I thought Kevin was one giant nerd. When I watched it again as an adult, I found I appreciated what this video points out - that Kevin is actually one of the more well-adjusted and confident of the students, and that my inability to see that when I was a teen was due to my own insecurities. In summary, we stan Kevin G.
He was definitely wild! So funny! Love that he’s nerdy yet confident and outgoing
Intelligence is something worth being proud of, he's the real baddie for enjoying himself!
lol Kevin is what I aspired to be in highschool: high achievements, do what actually makes you interested, confident and don’t give shit about what other people have got to say
I like how there’s a meaning behind the title of it being mean “girls” instead of just mean “girl” showing that all girls can be pressured into being mean when they don’t even realize it and they get caught up trying to prove something to other girls and prove something to society. You don’t have to be wearing pink and be all girly to be mean, that’s why janice was also a mean girl who didn’t realize or take responsibility for being mean just like regina but with different style. The scene where all the girls were in the gym after the big fight in the hallway showed that they were all mean to eachother at some point and putting eachother down, regina wasn’t the only one doing it. I also liked cadys quotes towards the end of the movie, “calling someone fat won’t make you any skinnier, calling someone stupid won’t make you any smarter and ruining regina george’s life definitely didn’t make me any happier”.
You can't feel good about yourself by making someone else feel bad about themselves. Also, I can't believe it took the teachers and principal so long to put an end to that hallway throwdown, and it took the principal getting punched by a female student to turn on the sprinkler system. But I guess that's supposed to happen in a film about the peer pressure of high school teenagers. But in a normal setting, someone would have told a teacher if they either caught students fighting on school grounds, or found the pages of a burn book and reported them to a teacher or the principal. I remember when I was in high school, I witnessed a couple girls arguing, then they pushed off each other, as if they were going to start brawling. Fortunately, a teacher arrived just in time before any damage could be done and dealt with the matter.
As a neurodivergent female, this is good for me to watch. There is pressure on women in general to conform in society, but its worse for neurodivergents because we often have difficulty understanding social cues and norms, and since many of us inherently know that we are somehow different and dont actually know what is 'right', we watch other's actions and mimic them as opposed to acting from within.
It was so weird at school. Likely due to my autism I had very little interest in socialising and "fitting in", but if it wasn't for my seriously crippling social anxiety I probably would have anyway because the way the *school itself* worked was built on the assumption that the kids would all be talking and interacting with each other in a way that just didn't come naturally to me.
I legitimately missed out on important information, opportunities, or just did stuff "wrong" because of that
I'd personally partly thank my own neurodivergence and the fact that I've been diagnosed as autistic at the age of 2-3 years old therefor spend most of my school-years at neurodivergence-friendly schools instead of typical school for neurotypical for feeling barely to never felt the pressure of fitting into these weird sometimes even ridiculous stereotypes and societal expectations I could never seem to wrap my head around.
@@kayleighdriessen hope this is ok to say, but I envy your early diagnosis. Didnt get mine until my 30s, and I feel my school years, let alone my whole life, would have been easier with one....
@@chrissiem3958 I'm so sorry to hear that, I cannot imagine how terrible that must have felt but I hope you've persevered well through them anyway.
@Chrissie M -- I hear you, same story! I wonder how much less my anxiety and depression might've been if I'd known it was normal for me not to understand the neurotypical social Game of Thrones, and that they were all based on fakery and cruelty that I didn't really want a part of anyway.
The moral of the story is quite simple: "Better alone or with a pet than badly accompained". Whenever i see these arrogants, know-it-all, superficial jerks, my first response is get away from them as far away as possible.
Yes, Cady is a great example of how high school can be so toxic, i'm glad that she ended up knowing that toxicity wouldn't make anything better and you should never act like what you're not to get likes from anyone
The forerunner of Mean Girls was Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion where they return to school for a reunion knowing that they were outcasts there. But it turned out they were part of a hierarchy where they were looked down upon by the popular girls who were cheerleaders and at the same time they looked down on the science geeks. One of those science geeks had made a lot of money inventing a fast burning cigarette that you can start smoking and finish in a ten minute break at school or work. They find that all of the popular girls but one were now married to members of the football team. The one who wasn't is a fashion magazine editor who recognises their talent in designing the clothes they wear and offers them exposure. Generation Z and Alpha school tribes are different now as they include e girls and VSCO girls but there is no longer a hierarchy.
throughout the story Cady thinks she's being ironic but is truly turning into a plastic. She keeps validating her behavior by saying it's to tear down regina, and it is a good lesson for real life.
I think people forget that Janice is the main reason Cady did what she did. I believe Janice needs a breakdown, as a character too. I believe that she was also a Mean Girl before her friendship ended with Regina.
I can totally relate with Cady's experience. Back when I got into third grade, my family changed my school. And girls in the new school were really harsh, mean and bullies. To survive that environment, I became exactly like them. I was both physically and verbally dangerous. That's how I was safe. Unfortunately, those traits stuck with me to adult life and did a lot of damage before I realized that I need to change.
My high school experience was a whole different one, not about peer pressure but racism, I was a loud disruptive class clown who just got into physical fights, more like Jonah from Summer Heights High, the main point is we all have moments we regret, especially from school.
@@musahaque2000 and hilariously, those moments of innocent stupidity shape our personalities and somehow, in our adult life, we forget about those moments.
Kevin gnapoor is the true star of this movie
I was really hoping they'd use the "don't let the haters stop you from doing your thang" line in this video
bad ass MC
The g's silent when I walk in the door...
glen coco*
I love how he does absolutely everything with confidence 😁
Watching this video and realising that Kevin G's actor Rajiv Surendra is a multitalented renaissance man who doesn't take part in the hustle culture just feels really full circle
Happy October 3rd! 🎊💗Lindsay Lohan had such a bright career ahead of her, I hope that she's doing better for herself now. She really captured Cady's transformation from Naive, Clueless Transfer Student into fully fledged plastic.
And I hope she is VERY FAR AWAY from her profiteering parents
@@veronicapiccinini7956 And siblings!
It’s my birthday hahah
came to the comments for this!
Amy Poehler as Mrs. George was brilliant! 😂
Yes.
Having a few friends who know & love you well is so much better than having lots of friends. Plus it's more likely you'll keep in touch over the years when you aren't in school and around each other all the time.
Sadly even if you’re super close good friends you do grow apart
Such a great analysis! Cade's arc is so realistic Andy relatable, yet so underrated.
This is probably my favorite movie about high school of all time, and this take just made me love it even more. 🎀
This video reminded me why I love this movie so much
This is like really good analysis. I now understand why mean girls turned into such a classic icon of the 2000s. It taps into something way deeper while being hilarious. Thank you the take, I really love your channel❤
This video told me everything i learned in two years of therapy.
love that
Today there's such an emphasis on the individual, on being yourself that we've really undercut the impact of peer pressure- but working in education I can promise you it's at an all time high. Because now, it's not just the kids in your school or your friend group- it's the entire world. kids of all ages feel the need to perform, the need to impress, the need to engage with what everyone else is doing to the point where they don't think twice about it. It's what led to a string of false bomb and active shooter threats in schools last year thanks to a tik tok challenge. It's warped their sense of reality. And thanks to social media people of all ages are getting swept up in the pressure to be someone they're not, to have that internet validation, to present a certain way so that it's appeasing to strangers who don't care about you.
The same can be said of mob mentality. I don’t believe that people feel as strongly as they claim they do over certain topics and that because they don’t wan to appear to be on the wrong side they go with the vocal minority instead of the silent majority.
The younger generation is afraid to admit that they oppose something that isn’t liked, that they don’t like something that is praised, or just don’t care about soemthing when it appears to be incredibly important.
The consequences for being your own person with your own thoughts and perspective are sky high and they can follow you for the rest of your life.
I've seen this exact same type of pressure at my old job among 30+ year old men. They did everything to seem likable to each other but behind each other's backs, they would say the most heinous things. One guy even passed on the woman of his dreams because his coworkers (not even private life friends) didn't think she was cool enough. This might be a fun subject to analyze in a video: corporate life pressures on men 🙃
that movie is American Psycho
Tell me about it. Immature teens just become immature adults sometimes without anybody to check and balance that behavior.
The girls relationship with math is the most interesting part of the movie. I have a fan theory that Aaron Samuels already knew how bad he was at math and he knew right away what was going on when Cady feigned stupidity. Regina would have given him the guided tour of Girl World already. A more in depth exploration of the relationship between Girl World and math would have had a lot of potential in this movie.
HAPPY MEAN GIRLS DAY to everyone who celebrates! It’s a ‘GROOL’ kind of day.
So fetch!
came to the comments for this!
Janice is equally bad if not worse. She works her own angst and trauma through Cady which is not cool, at least the plastics are what they are. You literally posted a vlog about it 2 years ago😅😅😅😅
Okay, this was released on OCTOBER 3rd for a reason! Well played!
Aaron is turned off that Cady is like Regina, but when she kissed him, he began wrapping his arms around Regina. If he was truly into Cady like that at that time, he wouldn't have been weak to that.
He apparently still had some kind of feelings for Regina, at least enough to take her back. Nonetheless he was still intrigued by Cady
I love your essays, and ever since I found my sensitivity again, they often move me to tears. Thank you.
I always love your videos. Just wanted to say great work and I appreciate all the hard work you do. I've been lurking on the channel I think for over a year now and it's just so much quality.
I don't know if Cady really "chose not to give in to peer pressure" by the end. She was pressured into taking all the blame for the "burn book", she was pressured into joining the "mathletes" and she was basically dictated what her "true self" was. I think she did give in to the peer pressure, only from those, who she probably felt more comfortable to share her feelings with. But she was still just as acceptance-seeking as she was with the plastics - she was still worrying what others thought of her, she wasn't being herself.
Happy Mean Girls Day! I think everybody has been Cady at one point in any way
Happiness is not found in fame or wealth, but in living according to one’s nature!
I love that this was uploaded on October 3rd
LOVE YOUR VIDEOS! Please keep doing more of these
‘Mean Girls’ is a great Political Satire. Also, I have a great thesis on the parallels between ‘Macbeth’ and ‘Mean Girls’.
That's interesting
Pokhraj Roy what is your thesis on the parallels between Macbeth and Mean Girls?
@@EMunaBee It’s a long one. In short, the Plastics are the 3 Witches and Janis is Lady Macbeth. Cady is Macbeth who is seduced by the trappings of power.
It blew my mind when I realized the 'mean girls' aren't just the Plastics... it's Janis and Cady, too! Like, who spends that much energy hating somebody and trying to sabotage them?! Like when we're younger, it feels natural to root for Janis since she's so relatable at the time and seems like an underdog, but in reality, all those girls are bitches, lol.
Love that you posted this on October 3rd!
Happy October 3rd to everyone! 🥰
God I wish we actually took any of these lessons onboard when we were in school, instead it became a social hierarchy thing to be able to quote as much of this film as possible lmao
Yep! Me too
Yesterday I wore a life jacket at a blue Laguna in Greece, because I can’t swim. I am 6and half months pregnant. I probably looked huge and a little clumsy but it did matter because I had fun and made amazing memories with my family and new people I met there. I felt so happy and blessed. You can wait to look or be certain way to live.
Just realized they posted this on October 3rd 😁
Love that you uploaded this on the day Cady asked Aaron Samuels what day it was!
It’s October 3rd 💖🙌🏼
Thankyou for this video. So well timed.
SHE DOESN'T EVEN GO HERE!
I really needed this, thank you.
Effin' love Kevin. He makes me laugh. Everyone should be like Kevin! Also, the actor is actually amazing artist. Like legit. Look him up. Charismatic, fun to listen to and humorous.
I loved this movie when it came out and on television so soon because I was a floater in high school. I didn't have a clique.
Loved this ❤️
I LOVE IT, can you guys talk about the popular girl dating with the quirky guy, like summer and seth in the O.c or Nancy and Jonathan in stranger things ?
Mean girls on October 3rd? Beautiful.
"it's October 3rd"
I love the sentiment of being your true self at the end of this video and the movie. But how come every girl I know would rather be Regina (sometimes including me but I really identify more with Kady) 🤔 maybe I need new friends 😂
I actually feel bad for Katie in this movie I just really wish we could have gotten a sequel with her trying to stop others from falling into social clicks and just teaching them how to to be themselves.
Missed opportunity for this vid to be called the art of peer pressure
October 3rd! I was waiting for mean girls to drop into my algorithm.
The ending will always be unsatisfying to me. Cady only added one mean thing to the Burn Book. The other girls started it and Regina spread it around the school.
Maths was one of my favorite classes back then and also one of the classes where I was the best and always wrote A's. However, when I got out of elementary school into middle school, maths was considered as "uncool" and for a period of time, I pretended to dislike maths and didn't pay attention to the boring maths classes, not purely for external validation, but for my own sense of self, the internalized hatred against myself. Maths class was boring, because I already knew everything, I learned quickly at maths, but I pretended it was boring, because maths isn't something, a normal kid should like. Later however, I stopped that behavior and I started learning for maths aand liking maths and writing straight A's and that's the point where I started liking maths again. Now, I'm somewhere in the middle after having to experience university maths, or what I call it: next level maths. I don't like maths as much as I like other subjects like physics or chemistry, because it doesn't have as much practical relevance in life due to being solely theoretical, but I still like the idea of maths because I know how maths work. I still enjoy teaching other people about maths and tutoring middle and high school students.
As an average maths and science enjoyer, I'm so delighted to see myself represented in Cady Heron, a beautiful but book smart woman, female people we do not often see in media. I'm glad that Cady found to herself again and found a way to pursue her passion without prejudice. My story shows that there are many people out there who can sympathize with Cady, especially female read people. Sadly, even in the 21st century, people still think you can only be one thing when you're a woman: pretty/street smart or book smart.
That's the same with the blonde prejudice. Blonde people are perceived as dumb but charismatic and sexy, brunette's as smart but ugly. Cady, a red hair, is in the middle. She shows that beauty and intelligence doesn't contradict with each other
The acting in this movie is excellent!
Very angry that Tina Fey didnt get an Oscar nomination for that screenplay
Great video essay 👏
was it a coincidence that this was posted on October 3rd...
Probably not
Nope. They mentioned Mean Girls Day on the community tab.
S’funny how Election, starring Reese Witherspoon is not held in equal esteem. It’s great social commentary about power and access
Election was not as mainstream because it has some uncomfortable subjects matter. The characters are not exactly likeable, and the story is not as relatable to all. It harkens back to older movies where not everything is tied up with a nice little bow. It’s a great movie , but I can understand why Mean Girls is more popular.
Happy Mean Girls Day, everyone!
I hate to break it to you but the majority of entertainment that we consume are basically socializing reinforcements. That is the reason why a lot of these tropes are repeated. They reinforce experiences. Once I realized this I started looking at movies and television shows completely differently. As a matter of fact I stopped watching them.
@Ks it is. You don't realize how deep it is until your decisions are based around peoples opinions and social constructs that are taught to you that you don't question. 🤷🏾♀️
@@Dashingdiva73 yes, case in point Jim Carrey's character in the 1996 movie The Cable Guy,
Can you talk about Gretchen and Karen?
Omg I literally just finished watching Mean Girls for the first time in my life
And opening youtube like :0
I was watching and thinking of how cool it'll be to finally watch the viedoessays on Mean Girls, now that I know 😭👁️
The Take has done a bunch of Mean Girl video essays. Enjoy!
Ahhh, Janice and Damien didn't trick her into skipping class, she made the choice to skip class and justified her reasoning in the clip you played. 🙄
Oh yes they did. They told her the building burned down. 🔥
"Stop making fetch happen. It's not going to happen." It's not clear what 'fetch' is other than a made up word for being cool. Often close friends have their own private language which isn't official using words that normally mean something else that they give a different meaning to. We used to use the word 'fishy' for useless public servants and professionals in the workplace who are at the beck and call of their bosses using an interpreter at the European Commission that my flatmate worked for as a stagiare as the prototype. He was German and would interpret from German into misprounced Italian at meetings instead of the other way round and my flatmate being Italian took offence at that. French was the main working language at the European Commission so presumably he spoke that as well. He had to keep his passport or identity card on him at all times and an overnight bag packed in his office ready to go on a mission to another EU member state at a few hours' notice.
In the European Parliament the interpreters there only spoke in their native language. There were only nine languages used while I was visiting in 1992. There was a piggy back system so when a Dutch or Flemish MEP for example spoke it would be interpreted into English, German and French and then from there into the other languages. Belgian interpreters were usually used to interpret between Dutch and French. The Flemish speaking Belgian interpreters would be sitting with the Dutch interpreters and the Francophone Belgian interpreters would be sitting with the French interpreters.
Rather like Officer Crabtree in the 80's sit com Allo Allo. He was a British member of the French resistance in disguise as a gendarme and who mispronounced French vowels so they became double entendres. He would say "I have a massage for Renee" when he meant "I have a message for Renee".
Can anybody tell me is it really something like that in American schools?
Well, Hollywood tends to dramatize school life but I can relate to the film as an American high school student...
I didn't feel like it was like that at my high school. I went to an all girls Catholic high school. Take the boys out of the mix and the girls get along just fine.
I think it is interesting that only the young men can be self-actualized, except for the teacher.
This is even more evident in the 2024 mean girls. Janis was more manipulative of Cady, and we saw the steps of that throughtout the film, and was very dictative of the naive Cady.
HAPPY OCTOBER 3RD!
Happy Mean Girls day
This movie is coming on t.v tonight 800pm 😊
I'm still impressed that Gretchen actually sticks to her rules, even if the person, who's breaking them is Regina. Often, in girl cliques, those rules are hypocritical and only apply to the unpopular one, but you get a free pass when you're pretty and popular, which drives me so mad. Mean Girls also has a lot of rules, but at least those rules are consistent, objective and universal, just like Gretchen said: "Not just you. Any of us."
Janice wasnt threatened by Cady, she was trying to warn her and keep it real
Kevin is my favorite character, but I can never forget that he said he only dates women of color and then dates Janis
early love the mean girls videos
It's October 3rd!
On October the 3rd he asked me what day it was. Guess what day it is?
THE FACULTY REFERENCE!!
I always wonder how did Cady afford that Louis Vuitton Multicolor accesories pouch that cost 950 Usd
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; these excessively stratified and popularity-based depictions of high school really seem like total fantasies. Admittedly, my high school experience was more atypical than most, but virtually no one I knew gave a damn about social currency (probably because there wasn’t much to be had for anyone). Far from being the “peak” time of my life, I couldn’t wait to leave all the idiots behind and go to college.
I saw high school as a prison sentence, "Only four years, then I'm busting out of here," so I never really cared what bullies/mean girls thought of me. I mean sure, it sucked when they hassled me, but I didn't care if they liked me, I just wanted them to leave me alone. If someone's an a-hole, why care about their approval?
that's enough Kevin....lol
Video essay of Caroline Forbes from tvd
I think peer pressure is worse for adults than for kids. Being an outcast has little to no real economical consequences when you're a child, it does as an adult. Oddly enough, the acceptance I get by bending does not feel good emotionally. Also, as an adult, the peer pressure aspects gains a sexual component, which is a lot more tempting than friendship because it appeals to much more primitive instincts, and sometimes it leads me to do things that are against my own values and I feel bad afterwards. Being likeable and accepted wasn't even a consideration for me before I started university, because there the consequences are more steep if one isn't socially accepted. Also, as a teenager, I had bigger issues and having a social life wasn't a priority for me. I had issues regarding my parents and there was a lot of change going on in my life, plus at 14, my best friend died. I was not ready to bend to the demands of social life, nor was interested in whatever benefits I would get from it, because I simply wasn't emotionally ready for it.
I am someone with rather conservative values, but because my interests are in art and history, most people I share interests with oppose my values, and I oppose theirs. I simply keep them silent, but I would never change my belief system just because peer pressure.
strength
08:47 gets me everytime 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I love how Damien throws the shoe back with such rage
Could you please do a video on the new Cyberpunk Edgerunners Series on Netflix? It has so much potential and a lot of topics to take a Take on 😅
I have no idea what social norms are, I’m autistic. In middle school I became obsessed with The Lion King and even pretended to be a cat. I had the best time during those times. Now as an adult I love historical clothing. Still happy, though maybe I should stop being so mean to people.
A person who is psychologically attracted to narcissists/ mean people is not a good person eventually he/she will act like them to gain their liking and will act mean to other innocent people to be like their idols. regina is a narcissist like many other narcissists people idolize and people with narcisstic tendencies are attracted to narcissts
By your logic whole world is filled with narcissism lmao
@@heartlesslove9084and also by my logic people who hurt innocent people also follow and idolize narcissists because they want their praise and for them to like them by any cost !! And idc how many are they as long as they are hurting others because what they are doing is bad !!
And to be more logical and realistic by looking at the rates of domestic violence and bullying at the workplace, schools,and collages,...etc the world is sadly seems to be full of narcissists
Hmmm.
It does a lot, in special in sex, so many midle aged women have become Karens becouse during youth they gave their all to men, they have let their boundaries be destroied.
Is this some half-assed attempt to relate Karen Smith to the Karen meme?
To anybody not just girls jeez💀💀💀💀💀