Karen: God. My hips are huge!
Gretchen: Oh please. I hate my calves.
Regina: At least you guys can wear halters. I've got man shoulders.
Cady: [voiceover] I used to think there was just fat and skinny. But apparently there's a lot of things that can be wrong on your body.
Gretchen: My hairline is so weird.
Regina: My pores are huge.
Karen: My nail beds suck.
[pause. All look at Cady.]
Cady: I have really bad breath in the morning.
Karen: Ew!
In the social world of high school (as opposed to solitary world of the African jungle), cliques develop as a means for students to feel good about themselves, like the function of property as Rousseau asserts.
Janis: You've got your freshmen, ROTC guys, preps, J.V. jocks, Asian nerds, cool Asians, Varsity jocks, unfriendly black hotties, girls who eat their feelings, girls who don't eat anything, desperate wannabes, burnouts, sexually active band geeks.
Janis: the greatest people you will ever meet, and the worst. Beware of Plastics.
 |
| The Plastics (Gretchen, Regina, Cady, and Karen) |
Rousseau says that the social man needs to have a good reputation in order to be content. The social man's sense of self is entirely dependent upon what others think of him. He writes that the social man "pays his court to men in power, whom he hates, and to the wealthy, whom he despises; he stops at nothing to have the honour of serving them." In Mean Girls, Cady and the rest of the Plastics basically worshipped Regina, the most powerful, even though they didn't actually like her. They did whatever Regina told them. The rest of the Plastics just needed Regina's approval in order to enhance their own status's. Eventually, opinions and reputations are proven to matter so much that they cause a riot at school. The Plastics had created a book called the "Burn Book," in which they wrote vulgar and rude things about various people at school. Chaos broke out when its contents were revealed.
Like Rousseau's social men, reputations were of utmost importance to the students in Mean Girls. Rousseau writes, " [The] social man lives constantly outside himself, and only knows how to live in the opinion of others, so that he seems to receive the consciousness of his own existence merely from the judgment of others concerning him." This is clear in the climax of Mean Girls. Everyone in the school was a "social man" and valued so highly what others thought of them. This created a dramatic contrast between "savaged" people such as the initial Cady (fresh from Africa), who initially didn't care at all of others' opinions, and "social" people, such as the clique-oriented students, which Cady became.
Images used:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/87/MeanGirlsSoundtrack.jpg/220px-MeanGirlsSoundtrack.jpg
http://popculturenotguns.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mean_girls.jpg
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ReplyDeleteElizabeth,
ReplyDeleteReally insightful comparison between Mean Girls and Rousseau. I think you might have hit the nail on the head. There are so many similarities between the social theories of Rousseau, and the dynamic of high school. We've all been through the cliques, gossip and stupid drama that goes on in high school. I really loved high school towards the end, and I even miss it. However, lots of kids were very immature especially freshman and even sophomore year. Then, a magical thing happened. People grew up, and life was good. Everyone in high school really is a social man. I don't care what anyone says, in high school everyone cares what others think of them. Its pretty clear based on first hand experience. Even I found myself caring what other thought of me in high school. We all had this image in our mind of what we wanted others to think of us. Whether we wanted to be thought of as the jock or the nerd (I wanted, and was known as a nice, funny guy to the people who know me. My identity was a huge sports fan). But anyway, this was evident in Mean Girls. In the movie and even in high school you are who your friends are. Rousseau was right: people care about what others think and are constantly comparing themselves to one another. This is evident especially in high school, but also throughout life.
-Matt McCool
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteYour blog was a very good comparison because I agree that Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality and Mean Girls tie into one another in many ways. I think your reference to Cady as a savage may be a little bit exaggerated but I definitely see your point in that overseas people may live much more simply from a social standpoint. In America, especially in high schools there is a lot of emphasis put on cliques and who hangs out with who. In this country, people have grown to become very social which is a good thing but sometimes people feel that they are not as "popular" as others just because they are not a certain type of person. I think that is the main difference we learn transitioning from high school to college is that everyone is different and that is what makes the world so amazing.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteYour post was genuinely interesting! I actually mentioned Mean Girls earlier in a blog post, using it to make a connection to how we still exist in a State of Nature. The movie is an excellent portrayal of many political theorist's ideas, and you've definitely made the argument that it relates to Rousseau's ideas.
High school is a perfect example of how social inequality is created. Teenagers, not posessing the maturity of adulthood, are quite insecure, and they therefore need to use any method possible to expell this insecurity. One of the easiest ways is to make themselves appear stronger, more athletic, smarter, and cooler than the people around them. This trend of trying to improve social equality makes all the different groups significantly more prevalent.
I do have a concern with this idea, though. Not every human is the same, and it makes me wonder if everyone in high school is concerned with social standing. Some Mean Girls groups, like the art freaks, aren't especially concerned with their social standing. They may not be highly ranked socially, but that's because they're not playing the game everyone else is. If these people exist, that means there are a lot of people "on the bottom" simply because they choose not to participate in the social game. If this is true, it means that getting to the top is more about wanting to be at the tops as opposed to being better than everyone else because you're guranteed a relatively high position just by entering the competition.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteYou wrote an engaging post on one of my (as well as many others, I’m sure) favorite movies, and I think you did an excellent job applying it to Rousseau’s “Discourse on the Origin of Inequality”. You put a modern-day spin on Rousseau that makes it a little easier for students to understand -- or at least see in a different perspective.
Mean Girls is very stereotypically “high school,” where jocks and and pretty people reign supreme and nerds and art freaks are outcasted. This movie clearly depicts the effects of social standings and just how much self-esteem and self-confidence is dictated by how popular or unpopular you are. I do agree that high school is a place to be judged, as well as to judge others yourself. There is a lot of comparison of yourself to others, just like how the “social man” compares himself to others and wants to reach a level of acceptance and belonging.
Mean Girls can also refer back to the state of nature Rousseau describes. Cady refers to the high school atmosphere as like living back in Africa (the scene where the students start acting like animals in the cafeteria, and Cady pounces on Regina). This is the start of Rousseau’s state of nature, which leads to social and physical comparisons and gender and sex divisions.
Thank you for putting some intellectual insight on a movie that I used to think was purely for entertainment and for it to be acceptable to casually say “On Wednesdays, we wear pink” every day of the week. Good job!
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteMean Girls, essentially a “chick flick” movie that I was actually not embarrassed to watch was indeed a very clever movie. It is an excellent portrayal of what Rousseau was getting at in his novel, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality. Although the movie can be an extreme example of how a high schools social life happens, nonetheless it epitomizes the ferocious nature of humans even in a seeming placid environment like high school socializing.
The Ironic thing about this movie is it is actually based off of my high school (New Trier Township high school) in Winnetka, Illinois, because the writer of the script, Tina Fey, lived in the Chicago area for many years. My high school was extremely clique-ish, somewhat stereotyped by the plastics, nerds, theater kids, etc. I remember walking through the hallway full of music/theater classes and kids were harmonizing with the announcements made through the intercom. The band kids would spend their lunchtime practicing instruments with each other while enjoying themselves. No one really socialized with other groups; I was one of the exceptions with friends spread out through several groups.
In the movie, the most powerful ‘plastic,’ Regina George, is considered what keeps the plastics together. Rousseau would argue that there is moral inequality in a civil society where the powerful try to keep others weak. The plastics clearly feel as though they are superior to other cliques at the school, and in order to maintain their power they need to interact with only the most popular guys in school and belittle those who are not at the top of the social hierarchy.
Rousseau is also correct in the idea that we are all judged, especially in high school, about how we look and act and therefore immediately categorized into groups. The cool kids, who party on the weekends and are friends with all of the girls typically do not talk to or ever associate themselves with the less popular (nerdy) kids who talk about the newest video game on the market.
Overall I really enjoyed your blog post; there is a very clear connection between the movie and Rousseau’s novel. You would not typically consider a theory of nature written over 250 years ago so clearly explaining a movie from 2004. But a very good job indeed.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Mean Girls but from your blog post I can tell that it draws a great comparison to Rousseau's discourse on many levels. In general, high school is definitely a great example of a social construct in which inequality is created between people. Caring about appearance, popularity, and other's opinions of you are all part of Rousseau's conception of modern society, which he is, on many levels, totally against. I think that an overall hierarchy (therefore inequality) within the student body is more prevalent in middle school, however. In middle school it seems that there are "cool" people that everyone knows, however its in high school where the different cliques seem to dominate. Although there might be a hierarchy between these cliques, in each clique different skills are valued. For example, popular girls value appearance, jocks value athletic ability, nerds value smartness, etc, meaning that you would have a better shot at being respected in your own clique. This seems very comparable to the dancing village Rousseau describes, in which those who are the best at dancing, best looking, best at singing are most considered by others. Also I think that one thing that might've been overlooked is how property plays a huge role in high school just as Rousseau suggests it plays a role in society. For example, girls might make themselves feel better by purchasing the most expensive designer purse, or a guy might make himself feel coolER by driving an expensive car to school every day. Just as Rousseau puts it, this obsession with property is one of the most basic and prevalent forms of inequality we see in modern society today.
AND NONE FOR GRETCHEN WIENERS! With that aside, I want to tell you what an excellent post you wrote. I am always one for linking what we learn in class to movies, and you picked a great movie that provides a great example of Rousseau's conception of social men.
ReplyDeleteYour analysis of Cady's social shift she experiences moving from Africa to American high school is a unique manifestation of a character to analyze. As you noted, Rosseau suggests that a person must have a good reputation in order to be content. Cady is an excellent representation of this idea, as she soon becomes consumed with the social hierarchy of high school. Her actions soon become solely motivated reputation and how she can improve it. And by improve it I mean become popular.
I think it is interesting to analyze Lindsay Lohan (the actress that plays Cady) and her public exploits. Her string of DUIs, incarcerations, rehabilitation stints, and other questionable public behavior. This is certainly contrary to Rousseau's idea of reputation. As an actress it is assumable that Lohan would want a good public reputation to sustain her image, however her behavior has given her a pretty bad reputation. This considered, she can't be too content in Rousseau's terms.