Mean Girls, Cliques & Bullies.

Mean girls has never been a good film in my opinion.  I think it exaggerates a semi accurate depiction of high school.  In my high school it was hard to find cliques or the social groups.  It was a high school of 2,200 kids and well to me everyone was insecure and we all just blended together.  My first school consisted of Smart kids, myself, goths (some referred to them as trench coat mafia because Columbine had just happened) and metal heads.  We kind of broke the "mold" but again it was hard to find these groups in such a big area.  My second school consisted of 16-18 year old's with 22-60 year old's and everyone just chatted with everyone or you just talked to the people you knew. 

Mean Girls tells the story of a fresh faced girl coming to high school for the first time.  It highlights the fact that she is definitely a newbie to public schools but makes so decent friends.  Along the way she befriends the plastics who are the top of the social food chain.  My professor mentioned bullying during his lecture and to me the film shows that all to well.  The nice simple girl becomes a bully herself and takes "the godfather's" place.  The film also highlights girls who hate certain aspects of their body however they seemingly have perfect bodies or "ideal figures". 

If we were going to talk about a film that highlights more of the clique, social standing, or your typical stereotype it would be the Breakfast Club.  In mean girls Lacey Chabert's character Gretchen more or less tells Cady that she could be wrong about the guys she likes.  That your friends will let you know if he's right for you or not.  In the Breakfast Club Molly Ringwald as Claire says there is a lot of pressure from her friends and she hates going a long with everything they say. Mean Girls and Breakfast Club both highlight this but one is shown to us while the other is talked about.

The stereotypes from breakfast club are a geek, brain, basket case, princess, jock, and a rebel.  Those stereotypes have and will stand the test of time.  The names may change or be updated but they still remain strong 28 years later.