Lights, Camera, Action. It’s March 13, the cast of Mean Girls is about to take the stage to perform the show they have worked tirelessly toward. But…wait. Why is Mean Girls being shown at Parker? What is the significance?
The events that occur throughout the course of the not-quite fictional story brought to life by Tina Fey seem extreme considering the intense girl-v-girl drama and dance breaks. The reality is only one of these things is out of the ordinary. (I’m referring to the dance breaks, for anyone who is confused).
For as long as I can remember, there has always been conflict between girls in my life, but it hasn’t always been over a boy, lighting someone’s backpack on fire, or a “burn book.” Those are extremes. The ‘entire school idolizing and being scared of one girl’ is extreme. The ‘you have to wear pink on Wednesdays or you can’t sit with us’ is extreme. The ‘everything has gotten so bad between girls we need to do several apology ridden trust falls’ is extreme.
More often than not high school girl drama is over smaller things. It has been over hanging out with someone who a long-time friend didn’t like, going behind someone else’s back, telling the wrong person the wrong thing, acting one way to your face and being completely different behind your back, sexuality, and competition for the same thing (whether that is a position in a sport or social standing). Realistic things.
High school is a pivotal point in nearly everyone’s social life. This is magnified with girls specifically. Girls who have had our views on ourselves and each other influenced by how men view us. Girls who have been conditioned to believe we need to prove and protect ourselves and what we deem important to us so we don’t lose value. I used to think that it would be easier between girls. I thought it would be easier the older you get. I was sorely mistaken.
If you take anything from the past two paragraphs let it be this: we as girls have constantly been against the world. We have had our rights taken time and time again. We have been looked down on. We have had to prove ourselves to people for reasons we shouldn’t even have to mention. This has conditioned us to feel like we are even against each other, to feel as though we need to protect ourselves from each other.
However, being a girl is not about being against each other. Despite how we have the potential to act towards each other, being a girl is about being there for each other.
For as many acts of meanness I have seen girls show to each other, I have seen extreme kindness. I have seen girls go up to complete strangers and tell them they look beautiful. I have heard of girls lending others a coat to wrap around their waist when they get surprised by their period. I have seen girls offer for someone sitting alone to sit with them. I have seen and experienced upperclassmen supporting their underclassmen in their endeavors, even if those endeavors compete with their own. I have seen signs around Parker advertising a Big Sisters club because older girls want to make sure younger girls have a safe space where they can get advice and be with other people who are going through the same things as they are. I have seen such acts of compassion from girls who have no reason to do so other than the fact that they want to look out for each other.
When I saw the new Mean Girls movie, I couldn’t help but connect the events to things that have happened to me, interactions with other girls I have had in the past year. I am new to Parker this year so I am not 100% sure what each individual person’s experience is, but I am sure if you are a girl reading this, you know what I mean. It would not be completely unheard of if you know what it’s like to experience the stereotypical ‘mean girl’ high school experience. Parker is not completely sheltered from these occurrences. Teenage girls have the ability to act certain ways to each other no matter where we are.
This is why “Mean Girls” is important to show. Not because it’s funny (and it is) or because it is important to pop culture. Not because Regina George is an absolute icon. Not because it’s gaining popularity. It is important because it brings awareness to how girls treat each other. How we have been inherently taught to be against each other instead of standing with each other when we need it. Just like I, a 15 year old, have seen the two sides of being a girl, so has Tina Fey. She has seen how backstabbing and hate can turn to compassion and grudging respect. She saw all of it and she wrote it into Mean Girls as a representation of what it means to be a girl. It represents that there are many sides to being a teenage girl. This representation, no matter how harsh it can be at times (cough cough *getting hit by a bus * cough cough) is important to girlhood itself.
