I've been the girl with her skirt pulled high
Been the outcast never running with mascara eyes
Now I see the world as a candy store
With a cigarette smile, saying things you can't ignore
Like mommy I love you
Daddy I hate you
Brother I need you
lover hey f**k you
I can see everything, here with my third eye
Like the blue in the sky
In the film the teenagers are from quite a range of backgrounds like for example Cady heron played by Lindsay Lohan is an intelligent teenager brought up and educated in Africa by her parents. She then moves to America and joins a new school within weeks she is swept up into a totally different world of the Plastics the A-list girl clique at her new school who rule over the rest of the school. She faces problems she never had to face in Africa which we ironically think would be far more complicated than an average “civilized” high school. She faces the daunting prospect of having to find new friends which is hard for any newcomer to face. She is swept into the high school system of hierarchy she is then transformed into a bitching girly girl very different to the moral, child of the earth when she arrived at the school not too long ago. Cady falls into the plastics evil ways of sneering behind other peoples backs and spreading malicious rumors. She uses her knowledge of African wild animals and relates to the way that the teenagers at her school are not to different that our predecessors.
In the category of teen genre some of the issues are quite true to life although the characters are at times not. The issues of drink, drugs, sex and partying are very true in our teenage culture today. In the school where Cady attends a math’s teacher is labeled as a drug pusher. Cady starts to go off the rails by disobeying her mother and fathers trusting relationship and having a house party where she gets wrecked something she hasn’t experienced before and as a result begins to throw up. Also Cady and Regina fighting for the affection of the same boy. A book is unearthed by Regina who in fact is the main culprit of the book takes into school and shows the headmaster the book creates hatred and bitterness throughout the school like an infection, infecting all those who read about the rumors.
The rooms of the characters show us a path into there life we could retrieve no other way showing there personalities through materialistic objects. Regina’s room is very girly and pink with lots of mirrors and a big “Princess” showing that in the family unit she is the real princess there are no pictures of her family only herself showing her selfishness the pictures of herself showing her vanity and pictures of pretty shallow idols like pop stars whereas Cady’s room is plainer but has things only Cady know the true meaning of and would be totally worthless to anyone else. which reflects her personality it shows the life she’s left behind in Africa lots of pictures of her friends in Africa and of her family showing she loves her family and unlike Regina where they are pictures of herself she is not vain her room is very earthy and shows African themes. Unknowingly we make a mental note of these and remember the kind of people they are or were in Cady’s case.
The soundtrack will often change from genre to genre i.e. in a romantic film like “Romeo and Juliet” included a soundtrack by garbage which was a very moving and emotional song. For a film which is for teenagers the music can be chosen from a list full of artists on the popular music scene in 2004 pink was big and had released some big hits like “like a pill” which showed the ways she was bullied at school and felt she had to turn to drugs to solve these problems that escalated in her life.
The film mean girls conforms with its genre extremely well because it represents a funny stereotypical overview of a typical American high school in the present time they show issues that lots of teenagers face throughout there adolescent years at least once. This mise-en-scene helps you to eventually relate to the characters and what makes them the way they are and how they could be helped to change and often most teenagers know someone a bit like Regina George and have seen someone a bit like Cady fall into the traps of such people and take there time to realise just how much they have changed. This is why I think Mean Girls conforms with the teen genre.
