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00:00Katie Heron's story arc in Mean Girls is really a study of the dangers of peer pressure.
00:04When Katie starts going to a normal high school after a life of homeschooling, her journey
00:08showcases how seductive peer pressure can feel.
00:11At first, Katie doesn't fit any of the clearly delineated categories that her peers are neatly
00:16sorted into.
00:17You got your freshmen, ROTC guys, prems, JV jocks.
00:23And as a result, she feels completely alone, ostracized by the student body.
00:26I'm a new student here.
00:27My name is Katie Heron.
00:29Talk to me again and I'll kick your ass."
00:31So Katie lets herself be directed, first by Janice, and then by the plastics.
00:35She learns to blend in and eventually achieve social validation by following others' rules
00:40and copying their behavior.
00:41But this means completely losing sight of herself and denying her true interests.
00:46And ultimately, her popularity comes at the expense of her happiness.
00:49Here's our take on how Katie Heron illustrates that adolescence is about figuring out who
00:53you are, not who other people think you should be.
00:56After a childhood of warm, nurturing homeschooling and open-minded travel, Katie is suddenly dropped
01:05into a high school experience that's defined by intense pressure.
01:08I had never lived in a world where adults didn't trust me, where they were always yelling at
01:12me.
01:13Within this environment, where there is little trust from the adult authority figures and
01:17a plethora of arbitrary rules that dictate daily routine,
01:20Don't read ahead.
01:21No green pen.
01:22No food in class.
01:23It makes sense that students look to their peers to establish a sense of order.
01:28Initially, peer pressure is what helps Katie get over her culture shock.
01:32That peer pressure doesn't come at first from the popular group The Plastics.
01:35It comes from outsiders, the so-called art freaks Janice and Damien.
01:39They trick and manipulate her into skipping class to hang out with them by dangling the
01:43promise of friendship in front of her.
01:44I know it's wrong to skip class, but Janice said we were friends, and I was in no position
01:49to pass up friends.
01:50This feels like a warm and friendly thing to do, but it still pressures Katie to ignore
01:54her own instincts.
01:56Her new friends then present her with a map of the lunchroom as a guide to who's cool and
02:00who's not, and encourage her to be fearful of the situation, as they warn her about who
02:04she should and shouldn't get caught up with.
02:05Where you sit in the cafeteria is crucial."
02:08They also tell her not to join the group that she, as someone with a natural gift for math,
02:12probably has the most in common with — the mathletes.
02:15You can't join mathletes, it's social suicide.
02:17And this advice actually echoes the words of Queen Bee Regina George, who earlier gave
02:21Katie the same tip.
02:23You cannot do that.
02:24That's social suicide.
02:25Proving that rules like how uncool it is to join the mathletes actually come from the
02:30top down.
02:31When Katie is asked to join The Plastics for lunch, it doesn't feel like she has much of
02:35a choice, much like she, Karen, and Gretchen don't have a choice when it comes to wearing
02:38pink on Wednesdays.
02:39You can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week.
02:42If you break any of these rules, you can't sit with us at lunch.
02:45Well, I mean, not just you, like, any of us.
02:48These rules don't have any meaning behind them, as Regina later admits, they're purely
02:52about enforcing assimilation and imposing the superiority of the person at the very top.
02:56Those rules aren't real.
02:57They were real that day I wore a vest, because that vest was disgusting.
03:02But because almost everyone follows them, no matter how miserable they might feel, they
03:06believe that there's no alternative.
03:08At first, Katie's journey of following peer pressure appears necessary to her and not
03:11all that draining.
03:12But over time, it comes at a cost.
03:14And that cost is herself.
03:16Love ya, bye.
03:17She eventually metamorphoses into a plastic, a cold, artificial person with little relation
03:22to her inner self, and in clear contrast to the organic world she's come from.
03:26As she rises up the social hierarchy, there's an erosion of her personality that she doesn't
03:30realize is happening until she's alienated all of the people who truly care about her.
03:35All my friends hate me, and now my mom hates me.
03:37Your mom does not hate you.
03:40She's afraid of you.
03:42She has to start from scratch again, once more isolated from the student body, eating
03:47lunch on her own in the cafeteria toilets.
03:49But this time, she gets her happy ending by not giving in to peer pressure, following
03:53her heart, and doing what she thinks is the right thing.
03:59High school movies are all about social currency.
04:02What are the traits that move you up the social ladder, and what are the ones that keep you
04:05down?
04:06To everyone here who matters, you're vapor.
04:08In She's All That, Lainey Boggs is clearly beautiful, a quality prized by her classmates.
04:13But because she's interested in art and has unique style, she remains at the bottom of the
04:17ladder until she's effectively socialized by Zack.
04:21Do you always wear those glasses?
04:23Yeah, why?
04:24Do you ever think about contacts?
04:26The popular teens in these stories are also keenly aware that social cachet is conditional
04:30and can go away if a popular teen breaks the rules.
04:33In The Faculty, Stan has peak social status as a star football player dating the head cheerleader.
04:38But his girlfriend makes it clear that popularity won't endure if he quits the team to focus on
04:43his studies.
04:44The accepted social order is head cheerleader, stage star, quarterbacks, not academic wannabes.
04:49Katie has an advantage in rising up the ranks due to a social currency she naturally possesses,
04:53her beauty.
04:54Oh, you'll get socialized, all right?
04:55A little slice like you?
04:57It's telling that both Janice and Regina remark on this when they first meet her.
05:01You're a regulation hottie.
05:02You're, like, really pretty.
05:04What differs is how each group reacts to this social currency.
05:07For Janice, it's almost with a tone of resignation.
05:10She sees quickly that Katie will have more social currency than she does, which does ultimately
05:15become a threat to their budding friendship.
05:17Damien, who seems more content with himself and his place in this structure, urges Katie
05:21to embrace her hotness.
05:22Own it.
05:23Meanwhile, Regina's reaction is combative, treating Katie's beauty as a potential threat
05:28to her position at the top of the pecking order.
05:30So you agree?
05:31What?
05:32You think you're really pretty.
05:33In fact, it's not a desire for friendship, but this beauty and resulting social currency that
05:37motivates Regina to bring Katie into her group, so that she can control the outside threat
05:42of a hot new girl.
05:43Get in, loser.
05:44We're going shopping.
05:45Katie's growth in popularity is mirrored by her showing off her looks more as the film
05:49goes on.
05:50This is illustrated in how differently she approaches the two parties she goes to in the film.
05:54At the early Halloween party, she goes as a zombie bride-esque ex-wife, making herself
05:58as ugly as possible, because her goal isn't to look hot, but to have fun.
06:02Hey!
06:03Why are you dressed so scary?
06:06It's Halloween!
06:08But she learns a key lesson when the other girls dress for maximum sexiness.
06:12Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut.
06:16And Regina scores a kiss from the hot, popular guy Katie is pining over, Aaron Samuels, while
06:20dressed in a revealing bunny costume.
06:22By the time Katie's the plastic throwing her own party, she's got great hair and makeup
06:27and is wearing a far more glamorous, revealing party dress.
06:30Still, rather than truly owning her hotness, as Damien encouraged her to do, she's just
06:34imitating Regina's styles and mannerisms.
06:37She's still obviously beautiful, but in a way that's inauthentic and not truly attractive
06:41in a deeper sense.
06:42I know it may look like I'd become a bitch, but that's only because I was acting like
06:46a bitch.
06:47And whereas Aaron seemed to like her initially when she was being herself,
06:50And you are a zombie bride.
06:54An ex-wife.
06:56Love it.
06:57He's turned off by this more appearance-obsessed Katie because he recognizes she's not being
07:02herself.
07:03You are just like a clone of Regina.
07:05The reality is that Katie can be hot and authentically her.
07:09She can be in the mathletes and still get the guy.
07:11It's a lie perpetuated by these hyper-intense social structures that any of these things are
07:15mutually exclusive, but Katie has to realize on her own that there don't have to be rigid
07:20rules about what behaviors you have to engage in to make other people like and accept you.
07:24If you dare to break supposed social laws that don't make sense to you, you might find that
07:28others are willing to go along, too.
07:30Why is everybody stressing over this thing?
07:33I mean, it's just plastic.
07:39Katie is far from the only person in this film who feels unhappy because she diminishes
07:43some aspect of herself in order to fit in.
07:45Gretchen may be the second most popular girl in school, but she, too, is a victim of Regina's
07:49peer pressure.
07:50Regina consistently clamps down on Gretchen's individuality, forcing her to tow Regina's
07:55party line.
07:56Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen.
07:58It's not going to happen.
08:00Even Regina's cruelty comes from a place of fear, insecurity, and being out of touch with
08:04how she's really feeling.
08:05We get hints that her home life isn't providing the order and normalcy she craves.
08:09I'm not like a regular mom.
08:11I'm a cool mom.
08:12Right, Regina?
08:13Please stop talking.
08:14She has few outlets in her life besides fixating on her appearance.
08:18My pores are huge.
08:19And she makes choices based on protecting her status, rather than doing what she actually
08:24wants to.
08:25Whether that's befriending her potential rival, Katie...
08:27She doesn't even like you that much.
08:29...or dating Aaron even though she doesn't seem into him because she can't let another
08:33girl get the validation of being with one of the school's most popular boys.
08:37Ironically, some of the characters in the film who seem the happiest are the least popular
08:41ones.
08:42Damien is a social outcast like Janice, but he's comfortable in his own skin and his sexuality,
08:46and so he can fight through any abuse he receives.
08:49Don't you break me down today!
08:53Even more confident still is Kevin, the captain of the mathletes.
08:56I'm a mathlete, so nerd isn't bird, but forget what you heard, I'm like James Bond III.
09:01Despite that group being social suicide according to her friends, he has the swagger of a popular
09:06high school jock and views himself on an equally elite level.
09:09He's in no way awed by Katie's social status or beauty, and even rejects the idea of dating
09:14her when he thinks she has a crush, despite the fact that being with a plastic would
09:18undoubtedly increase his objective popularity.
09:21I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I only date women of color.
09:24He's excited about the mathlete state championships and pleased with the size of the audience.
09:28Because even though it might not be the crowd the football games get, he's not torturing himself
09:33by making that kind of comparison to other people's lives and priorities.
09:36Excellent. Great turnout this year.
09:39Both Damien and Kevin show that, by tuning out peer pressure and tapping into what you think is
09:43cool, you'll be much more content in the long run, even if that comes at the expense of some
09:48social currency. At the end of the day, all that currency is fleeting, fragile, and relative.
09:53Within the circle that he cares about, Kevin has just as much authority as Regina does.
09:57And in a few years, being accomplished at math will probably mean more in the adult world
10:01than having been Spring Fling Queen. Damien 2 may have fewer friends, but having just one friend
10:06who loves you for you is more fun and satisfying than attracting flocks of worshipful underlings
10:12who don't really like or get you.
10:14I really want to lose three pounds.
10:18Oh my god, what are you talking about?
10:19You're so skinny.
10:20Ugh, shut up.
10:21Katie's act of sharing the Spring Fling crown is an act of recognizing the person in everyone.
10:26Because while the lie of social hierarchy is that we all have to be ranked as better or worse,
10:31the truth is, everyone has their own particular potential.
10:34I think everybody looks like royalty tonight.
10:37Katie eventually recognizes that happiness isn't tied to any markers of status she could achieve,
10:42whether that's popularity, her friend group, or her dream guy.
10:45Ultimately, none of those things are totally within her control.
10:49The fake social hierarchy of Regina's world tries to manufacture a feeling of total power through
10:54putting others down, but this doesn't work to counter the powerlessness that's inherent to
10:58teenhood and life in general.
11:00Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier.
11:03Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter.
11:05Katie realizes that the key to contentment is focusing on what you truly can control.
11:10All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you.
11:13Her happiness comes from tapping into her authentic self,
11:16because that's the only way to be a real person.
11:19I had gone from homeschooled jungle freak to shiny plastic,
11:22to most hated person in the world, to actual human being.
11:26It's telling how much happier everyone is at the end of Mean Girls when the rigid cliques
11:30have disbanded. The new social order still has friendship groups and niches,
11:34but by breaking the spring fling crown, Katie symbolically destroys the up-down framework of
11:39winners and losers. And this frees the students from that pressure to conform to an inauthentic
11:43idea of who they should be. The characters invest instead in activities that give them a
11:48satisfying outlet or a sense of achievement. And this is what actually makes people thrive.
11:53Feeling good about what we do instead of worrying about what others see when they look at us.
11:59School used to be like a shark tank, but now I could just float.
12:23School used to live forửal
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