Mean Girls and feminism: triumphs and shortcomings

Tonight, I was watching the 2004 classic Mean Girls on TBS. I was looking for something to have on as comforting background noise while I browsed the internet, but despite the fact that I have seen this movie no fewer than a dozen times, I found myself repeatedly glancing up from the article I was reading about gender-variant boys (it's here and a very good read if anyone's interested) to watch. Eventually I abandoned my reading and decided to commit myself to watching the movie.

I haven't seen Mean Girls since my freshman year of college. I always enjoyed it, but could never quite put my finger on why. I'm not usually the kind of person who enjoys hyper-popular and oft-quoted movies (I'll be the first to admit that I'm kind of a movie snob), but this was an exception. Now, having just graduated with a BA in Women's Studies, the movie took on a whole new meaning for me. It is by no means a feminist manifesto, but on this viewing I was surprised to find some nuggets of positivity. I felt compelled to write down my thoughts on it, after doing a cursory google search for other such musings.

Mean Girls addresses a huge problem that affects not only teenage social circles, but women of all ages: girl-hate. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, it refers to the so-called "catty" behavior that women are often portrayed engaging in that stems from competition with one another. Many feminists point to this as a locus of misogyny, and call for female solidarity in its stead.

In the beginning the film attempts to relate to its audience by establishing the protagonist, Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan), as the new kid in school, and, as a result, a misfit. This isn't exactly an innovative approach, but just by virtue of the fact that she's female and represented as sympathetic puts it a cut above similar movies. Cady is basically a math genius, and is mentored by her teacher Ms. Norbury (Tina Fey). Already, we have two female characters portrayed as intelligent and good at math. I don't have to point out that gender stereotypes dictate that women are bad at math (but I just did).

Cady befriends Janice and Damian, two other outcast students. Janice and Damian are both represented as queer--Damian is "too gay to function" according to Janice, and Janice herself has been accused of being gay. It is never clearly stated whether this is true or not, although at the end of the film she is implied to be in a heterosexual relationship. Either way, she is certainly gender variant and wears a purple tuxedo to the dance at the climax of the movie.

Together, the misfit trio concoct a plan to infiltrate the popular clique at school, which they refer to as "the Plastics." This scheme consumes the majority of the movie, during which Cady compromises her morals on several occasions to climb up the social ladder. She fakes being bad at math to get closer to a guy she has a crush on, lies to her friends, and finds herself becoming more and more legitimately concerned with her popularity. This is all decidedly Not Feminist, but after all hell breaks loose when queen bee Regina George publishes the Plastics' "Burn Book," Ms. Norbury leads all the women in their grade in what reminds me of a consciousness raising group. They have an open conversation about "girl-on-girl crime," and Ms. Norbury points out that as long as they all call each other sluts, they are giving men permission to do the same thing. In the end, Cady abandons her girl-hate once and for all, and there is a semblance of female solidarity--albeit, it is soured by the fact that everyone has seemed to neatly couple off into heterosexual relationships. I think if this one small detail was changed, or played down, the film's feminist message would have been much more explicit.


This is more of an aside, but there were a few small details that pleased me. I'll just make a list.

• The word "vagina" was uttered.
• There was a character who was in a wheelchair.
• Another character used the phrase "women of color." 
• Feminism is brought to the table, if only in jest. Gretchen Wieners says not dating your friend's ex-boyfriend is one of the rules of feminism, which I chose to read as irony.

There are also a few small details that I'd like to criticize. I'll make another list!

• When Regina went up a pants size, she was said to have lost her "'hot' body." She was still a size 7, tops. 
• When Cady participated in the math competition, she was pitted up against another young woman--one with no fashion sense, which the voiceover pointed out. Cady had supposedly learned her lesson about girl-hate but that scene undermined it a little bit. 
• The only explicitly gay character is a walking stereotype.
• There are fat people present, but only so they can be made fun of for being fat. When Cady compliments a fat girl on her appearance at the dance, she seems saintly for having bestowed her superior approval on someone so lowly.

I'll always love Mean Girls, because it is downright entertaining. Although it leaves much to be desired by way of feminist commentary, it was refreshing to see what positive attributes it had while being such a popular movie.