How We Function

Today in class we watched Mean Girls!! It really helped the three hour class go by a lot faster. We started with going over what we think ideology, culture and hegemony mean. That lasted a lot longer than I thought it could. BUUTTT back to the main point....the movie Mean Girls has examples of ideology, culture, and hegemony which are shown through high school. Ideology is a social term where you can stick to the status quo (dominant ideology) or where you can oppose it (oppositional ideology). In the movie, Cady has to find where she belongs. She starts traditional school and has to find friends and her path. As she does so, she gets help from people that keep her on the dominant ideology. For example, when Cady debates on whether or not to join the mathletes, her opinion is swayed because Janis tells her it is “social suicide.” Cady wants to fit in, she doesn’t want to be an outsider especially in her new situation. Next, culture is a particular way of life influenced by surroundings such as media, religion, politics, books, etc. Her old culture revolved around the African animals and the “fertility vase of the Ndebele Tribe.” Now she is supposed to only wear pink on Wednesdays, wear her hair up once a week, and track pants on Fridays. Her culture is controlled by hegemonists named Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith. They control the school. The other junior girls look to them for fads and how to act. For instance, when Regina’s shirt gets cut, the next day, all the girls have cut holes in their shirt. They know at heart it’s stupid, but they have such a desire to fit in that they put aside their thoughts, and match Regina. 

In “Flapper Americana Novissima” by G. Hall, I saw immediate connections to Mean Girls. He states, “her gait was swagger and superior” (Hall 772) which made me think of when Regina and the plastics are walking into the school with their hair waving in the wind because they know they are cool. Also he notes how girls are “insecure” (776) which is when the plastics are in Regina’s room looking at the mirror commenting on how their hips are too big or their pores are too big and Cady has to jump in and say she has bad breath in order to fit it. The ideas that both Hall and Frith dabble on revolve around how teenagers get dressed up in order to have fun and fit in. Another connection is that they are always wanting to be with boys. Hall says that the teenage girls are “found in classes where there are most boys” (775) and Frith comments on dating and how it could give girls the “bad girl” (185). The teenage girls dress to impress the boys because they are interested in them and want their attention. Overall, the conception of teenagers/flappers revolves around the same thing--how the girls look and how they act.