http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YjSIvmNjT8
The movie trailer for Mean Girls depicts the stereotypes of a high school. It begins by introducing the new student, Cady, and her new friends Damien and Janice. They tell Cady all about each of the cliques and go into detail about the Plastics who rule the school. Cady seems to be allowed into their group but is betrayed by Regina. She decides she needs to seek revenge sneakily. The trailer shows a lot of drama and fighting between the teens.
Did your high school represent this highly separated social structure in any way? Even though the stereotypes are exaggerated, do you think this trailer pretty much accurately depicts cliques in high school?
My high school consisted of many different types of cliques, yet different people from different cliques would still be friends and interact. Means Girls depicts cliques as strict groups of people that do not interact among other cliques. In my high school, there are simply groups of people that like doing their own thing. However, certain people, say jocks in Mean Girls, may enjoy hanging out with other people in another clique, say the asians in Mean Girls. The trailer provides a strict interpretation of cliques in a high school environment. I believe that cliques are more broad and have a loose interpretation in my high school.
ReplyDeleteI chose Prompt 3: Speak For Yourself.
DeleteMy high school consisted of many different types of cliques, yet different people from different cliques would still be friends and interact. Means Girls depicts cliques as strict groups of people that do not interact among other cliques. In my high school, there are simply groups of people that like doing their own thing. I think people from one clique can still hang out with people from another clique. Many people have different interests. A person may be in a group of friends because most of the stuff he or she enjoys to do, his or her group of friends do too. But, that person may also enjoy other things, say volleyball. He or she can hang out with other people who enjoy doing that instead of just hanging out with the same group of friends and not playing volleyball ever. Do you think that even though there may be "cliques", or say groups of friends that always stick together, people from each clique can still hang out with eachother regardless?
Edited(Final): I chose Prompt 3: Speak For Yourself
Deletecomment:
I don't think this movie is overrated. It is very popular among many teenagers and it gets the message about cliques in schools across. I feel like many people miss that message though and are too caught up in the comedy of this movie.
argument:
I believe this movie was not made to get the message about cliques in schools across. Even if the movie was created to do this task, I do not believe its portrayal of cliques in high school is theoretically correct. Mean Girls describes a strict interpretation of what high school "cliques" could be. For example, Mean girls alledgedly implies that high school cliques nearly never interact. In my high school, though, different groups of friends did interact. So, I do not believe Mean Girls was made to help people understand cliques in high school. Do you believe Mean Girls' portrayal of cliques in high school is correct?
My school did not have a separated structure anything like what was seen in the trailer. Most people got along well with everyone else regardless of personal interests. Some similar people hung out together but it was never in an exclusive way. The size of my school could also have been a factor. We didn't have enough diversity for there to be as many cliques as there were in Mean Girls and for the most part, everyone was in the same socioeconomic class so there was no sense of the "plastics". Some people were smart, some were athletic, and some were both. They all seemed to have been able to hang out with whoever they chose to and there was never enough drama to make a movie.
ReplyDeleteI am going to Speak for Myself (3)
DeleteI don't think this movie is overrated. It is very popular among many teenagers and it gets the message about cliques in schools across. I feel like many people miss that message though and are too caught up in the comedy of this movie.
My high school was not nearly as separated as the one in the trailer. Though there were cliques and some separation between groups of friends, I don't think there were any rivaling groups. Several of the cliques in my high school were represented; however, they were extremely exaggerated. People at my school were able to be part of more than one clique and hang out with different types of people. Drama escalated between individuals at times, but nothing was extreme as plotting deviantly against one another. I think the trailer does a good job of depicting the foolishness of that much exclusivity between people in such close proximity, but I think it exaggerates a little too much to be compared to my high school.
ReplyDeleteMy high school in no way resembled this type of social structure. There was an obvious division between certain groups of people, but nothing like the exaggerated displays in this trailer. The creators of this trailer show four girls that embody the catty qualities found surrounding the teenagers in this film. Although the creators are merely describing the three "plastics" as individuals, they may be implicitly suggesting that these three form one body; each contributing their own role. One that speaks before thinking, one that knows everything about everyone, and one that "evil takes a human form in." This representation could be anyone, in any high school, in any specific clique. While the authors depicted the defined lines between social cliques, they over exaggerated in one big way. Many people can still maintain friendships with others in different cliques while still being stereotyped into one specific clique that seems to define them best. For example, a stereotypical "geek" may still be friends with many jocks, and even be considered a part of their group, however when you look at them you immediately classify them as a "geek." Thus forcing cliques to form regardless of where their friendships may lie.
ReplyDeleteI’m responding to Prompt #3: Speak for Yourself
ReplyDeleteOne disagreement I found within the comments is that this movie is overrated and does not clearly depict the typical high school setting. Most commenters on this trailer have opposite views saying “I love this movie.” I commented that this movie is definitely overrated. I have never witnessed cliques as depicted in this film. What do you think about this trailer? In my high school there were groups that sat together in lunch each day, but they did not stop others from sitting there. Most of the time if someone was told they could not sit there it was because that seat was already taken. The students at my high school were like robots. On the first day of classes, everyone would go to lunch, find a seat, and sit there for the entire semester. That’s just how it was. I wouldn’t call it cliques though. I’ve witnessed the same thing here at OSU. Take a look around your classes. Have you ever noticed that most people sit in the same seat every day? That’s why I feel this film is overrated. The Jocks don’t really all sit and hang with all the jocks and the geeks don’t all sit and hang with all the geeks. This move is unreal and I’m not a huge fan of it.
Prompt 3: Speak for Yourself
ReplyDeleteIn no way did my high school represent these extreme separated social structures. Although we did have cliques,they where not as restricted with rules for who you could or could not associate yourself with. The cliques where made up of people that you resided with or talked to the most, however you could be in more than one clique. I believe the trailer accurately depicted some of the cliques in high school. For example, when Gretchen, Cady, and Karen were at lunch talking about who Cady liked, which Gretchen said, he was off limits because the boy was Regina's ex-boyfriend. This situations begins in high school between teen girls. Also since Cady is a new student when she first came nobody wanted her to sit with them at lunch simply because they did not know her. Situations like this happens in some high school because people already made friends and formed cliques. Lastly, in response to comment made about the trailer being overrated I responded "Yes it is overrated but that's the point of this movie. It was made to be funny by over exaggerating "drama" that happens in a high school within teen girls."
I'm responding to Prompt #7: The Works.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the comments on the video, it is tough to determine if the trailer had much of an impact or not. The majority of YouTube video comments are not very meaningful and well thought out, so it was difficult to find anything of significance. Several people claimed to have loved the movie itself. Others voiced the opposite opinion. The trailer, itself, seemed to get people interested in watching the movie by introducing the actors. Viewers recognized famous actors which sparked interest in the movie itself. A lot of the viewers claimed to either love or hate Lindsay Lohan; regardless her fame drew attention to the movie. The video has over a million views and a thousand comments demonstrating how helpful the trailer was in spreading the word about the movie. It doesn't seem to change many views or ideas, and the video didn't stimulate much of an emotional reaction from me.
I'm responding to prompt 5: who do you think I am:
ReplyDeleteI read several articles about Mean Girls and its appeal to the audience. Some said that the humor and wit was what attracted an audience. But what I thought was most resonant was when one review said that while teenagers can relate to the movie, adults were the truest audience. They said this because once we make it through the war zone of high school we are entitled to a lifetime of movies to look back and laugh. It also appeals to the audiences because the "quality intensifies" in both humor and moral judgement.