1. Contemporary representations of youth and youth culture

2. Mean Girls is a teen comedy film which shows female high school social cliques. The aim of the film was to show how these cliques have damaging effects on girls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRteokw7m80

3. The main character, Cady is a new student at the school. Quickly she becomes friends with the ‘plastics’, the most popular clique. Cady soon begins to fit in with her new clique and becomes very popular. Along with her popularity, she begins to lose old friends and develops a new personality. Later in the film, after throwing a huge house party, things quickly go down hill. The former leader of the ‘plastics’ become jealous and sets Cady up and gets her in to a lot of trouble at school and she loses all of her friends. At the end of the film, Cady takes full responsibility for what she has supposedly done and returns to her former humble self. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT8wMBeVffk

4. Regina George-Leader of the ‘Plastics’ Everyone wants to be like her, she makes herself look as though she’s royalty in comparison to other people. She is shows as the perfect idol for girls, even though she is a horrible person. Despite her horrible personality, peer pressure has forced all girls obsess over her and want her life. Erin Samuels Erin is the stereotypical boy that every girl likes at high school. At the beginning, he dates the ‘queen bee’ and because of their joint popularity, they are seen to be a power couple. This supports the stereotypical view of teenagers being obsessed with relationships.

5. Despite being a more American convection, groups of sporty boys, as well as ‘Jocks’ and typically seen and being dumb and the most popular male group. This particular clique represents youths only caring about their relationships and also represents them as being sexually obsessed.

6. Mainly, the film is about ‘Queen bees’ and ‘Wannabes’. The main clique in the film act superior to everyone else which is shown through the attitude of the wannabes. In an early scene, a girl describes here experience of being punched in the face by the leader of the ‘Plastics’ as awesome, this suggests a large amount of peer pressure at the school as everyone is expected to look up to the ‘Plastics and want to be them. This gives a bad impression on school as it suggests that many high schools socially force girls to want to be popular and have everything. It also implies that all teenagers are mouthy, rude and are obsessed with their appearance to gain attention, perhaps in a sexual way. This is a very stereotypical representation of teenagers.

7. The stereotype is also represented in another early scene at a Halloween party. Usually, at a fancy dress Halloween party the guest dress up as something scary. However, at this party, all of the girls wear as little clothes as possible with the aim to look attractive. Cady, the main character comes to the party dressed as a zombie, when she shows up all of the guests look down on her as though she has done something wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqB-Y6ZBynI

8. Overall, the film portrays youths in a very bad way. The constant bitching and house parties show teenagers to be rowdy and unpleasant. However, this film has put across a message of peer pressure by showing girls how easily they can be pressured in to wanting to be a certain person, usually this idol is not found to be realistic and so teens often become indulged in trying to change their appearance to fit to what the see and ‘perfect’