‘Irregardless! Ex-boyfriends are just off limits to friends. I mean that’s just like the rules of feminism.’
Mean Girls, on the surface, might seem as frivolous as the quote above, but it has managed to speak to real people time and again and gain the title of the cult film it so deserves.
The greater realization that we are striving here for is the fact that EVERYONE IS MEAN. There are mean boys, mean parents, mean strangers and so on and so forth. The term ‘Mean girls’ has always produced a very conventional image in my mind. Tall girls, rich, overconfident, stylish and exotic. This is what I felt the ‘Mean Girls’ were like. And for ‘mean boys’, ‘mean parents’ and ‘mean strangers?’ Well, just the fact that they are…mean. Of course, it was a very over-simplified notion and completely incorrect. Thanks to the movie itself. It was later when I re-watched it that I understood it at a deeper level. This idea of mine was also shattered when I met someone meeting the above mentioned ‘characteristics of the mean girl’,but turns out to be very opposite of it.
The common perception that walks around is that ‘gossiping, hating or jealousy’ is a girl’s thing. This is something I have witnessed from the beginning. So when I was going forward with joining Lady Shree Ram of College, there were many people (including a significant amount of females) who said that I shouldn’t go? Why? Because it is an all-girls college and, ‘you know girls!’ and from this proclamation, they are trying to basically denote that girls are bitchy, shallow and hypocrites. Ironically, most of these opinions of are girls themselves. But I want to ask these people, ‘what kind of girls are you talking about?’ Because the girls I have met in the college are nice, smart, kind, strong, loud, quiet, intelligent, beautiful and much more. Sure there are some who bitch about others but the question is who doesn’t. Sure there are some hypocrites around but the question is who isn’t. The people naming others as shallow and nasty are actually establishing their meanness. There is meanness present but it’s not specific to girls. There are some ‘people’ who are mean. And we don’t like them and that’s okay. But naming or labelling girls for something they aren’t, isn’t that mean? We have to realize that we all are one and everything is just not gender specific.
With all this hoopla going around feminism, and everyone claiming to be a feminist, it is crazy and surprising that not many people know what it means. It is too tiring to ignore people who make ignorant comments about feminism or crack jokes to belittle the movement or try to define it according to their misjudgment. Does feminism mean berating men? NO. Does Feminism mean superiority of women? NO. Feminism means that women are allowed to make same choices as men have been allowed to since the beginning without being judged for it. If a woman wants to stay at home and cook, that’s HER CHOICE. If a woman wants to make out with her boyfriend in his home, that’s HER CHOICE. THAT’S ALL!!! These self-proclaiming feminists’ have the worst stereotype for girls. The path of equality is a long way but we girls need to bring other girls up not typecast them. We need to change the pattern.
The 2004 hit movie Mean Girls, written by Tina Fey and directed by Mark Waters, DO NOT talk about that ‘girls are mean’, it talks about ‘girls who are mean.’ This is a high school movie which discusses about the pressure of being in high school. The utter ‘obsession’ with fame and popularity, trying to fit in and the other social life struggles. What the Lindsay Lohan character Cade was dealing was with those three ‘plastic girls.’ And yes, we have dealt with these people. And no, not all of them have been girls. The topic Mean Girls filled me up with the voices that have said to me about girls being mean and bitchy and slut. As Cady remarks, ’No one has told me about the Girl World’s Rule.’ It’s because there isn’t any. And if someone tries to categorize you, just go with Grechen,’ I’m sorry that people are so jealous of me. But I can’t help it that I’m popular.’ Sometimes it is not over-confidence but self-assurance.
Go over and watch ‘Mean Girls’ again. This iconic film speaks much more to us than we realize.
Originally published at mockingharsh.blog on November 5, 2017.
