During our years in school, we meet a lot of different and unique people. But sometimes, we tend to put people into these kind of categories that make them stand out in a good or bad way. This especially happens in high school, a place where being the jock or cheerleader puts you on a spotlight, while being a nerd or freak results in ridicule or humiliation. Whenever high school is displayed in popular culture, the statuses of students are always expressed in the same ways. Like being popular is the way to be, and if you do something out of the ordinary, you're considered an outcast. Sometimes, pop culture goes far enough to target different races; like how white people are usually the popular ones, and Asians are nerds, the black people are "gangsters", etc. For some reason, the media likes to portray high school as a place where everyone is placed in groups according to their status. One particular movie that does this is Mean Girls.
In Mean Girls, we are introduced to a girl named Cady Heron, who recently transferred to a public high school after being home schooled in Africa. On her first day of school, she is exposed to different high school groups; like the jocks, the Asians, the sexually active band geeks, the desperate wannabes, the burnouts, and last but not least: the Plastics. She meets two friends, Janis and Damian, who teaches her exclusive details about each group, especially Regina George and her “plastic” friends. After being unexpectantly invited to eat lunch with the them, Cady and Janis thought it would be funny for Cady to pretend that she was their friend. She tries to bring Regina down, to make her reveal all her secrets, tries to convince people that she’s not a queen everyone thinks she is, but actually a cold, heartless person that spreads false rumors in her Burn Book. But soon enough, Cady begins to act like the Plastics to try and fit into the high school scene. She ditches Janis and Damian, tries to get Regina’s boyfriend, and throws a party that backfires; which makes her realize that this is not what she wanted.
Watching this movie, it's easy to pinpoint where each character belongs. By the way they act, to how they dress. Even though these movies show that high school is always like this, in reality, some high schools are not. So why does the media do this? In the movie, the Plastics, or the popular girls, dominate the school. Everyone looks up to them and thinks they're legit, but behind all of that, they're just brats. I think the reason why pop culture does this is to show an image of popularity is everything. That it will get you into the hottest parties and will land you a date with the hottest girl/guy. In the beginning, Cady wasn't intending to think like that, but the more she hung out with the Plastics, the more she wanted to be like them. Time passed by and she realized that this was not what she was expecting. Most of us know that once we get out of high school, the popularity gained doesn't matter anymore. We all start from scratch the time we enter the real world.
Angela discusses the different stereotypes the media portrays about high school. Different races tend to appear separated into different groups. Like Angela mentions, this doesn't show reality. Sure there are different groups in high school, but people aren't necessarily categorized by race. In the Bay Area especially, we experience a melting pot and everyone hangs out with different people. People do what they want and there is no one that rules the school in the way shown in movies. People in high school should hang out with someone or do an activity because of who they are or because they want to; not because of a stereotype. Besides, being popular isn't everything, and like Angela said, it's only for a short time anyway. You shouldn't change who you are just to fit in with the people you think are cool. Everyone should try to create an environment where no one feels obligated to do this; an environment where everyone is accepted and fits in.
ReplyDeleteAngela,
ReplyDeleteYou bring to light the stereotypes that everyone portrays at high schools, even though the majority of people know that this is no where close to how it really it.I agree with your idea that our culture and the media wants us to think that being popular would make us feel better. In some sense they could be doing it so that we feel that we belong, but like Cady, we realize who we really are and sometimes it is after we have hurt those who were there for us from the beginning.