Mean Girls starring Lindsay Lohan before she was addicted to coke (and adorably red headed) actually came out 10 years ago?! I remember bringing aforementioned boyfriend to the movie, convincing him that Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Tim Meadows, all being talented SNL performers, had enough wit to distract him from the plot that he had little interest in.
Multiple times to Bangor cinemas later, and watching it repeatedly on the DVD I purchased at Bull Moose the day of release, my 16 year old self couldn't find anything wrong with this movie. Through several viewings you learned to relate in some way to each character. Cady, because of her red hair and freckles. Regina (Rachel McAdams, we never let you go after this), because sometimes you were a total bitch to your friends. Even the girl that starts crying over her emotions during the trust fall scene, those who know me know that I can especially relate to her.
When I decided to study to become a teacher, I knew there wasn't a single part of me that wanted to teach above fifth grade. In middle school, I terrorized my mother by lying about my math grades because I was too busy hanging Josh Hartnett pictures in my locker. I remember first being called fat, ironically while standing outside of a vending machine, by a girl a grade older than me but it was okay "because your boyfriend is pretty chubby too".
Pretty sure that I had this exact one.
In high school, I saw too many similarities to my own actions in even the smallest, mindless acts that were exaggerated in Mean Girls. I wore skin tight dresses from DEB, and had a few "shooters" myself at those sneaky house parties.
This past summer, I taught summer school to fourth graders. I hadn't dealt with many of these students, despite teaching third grade the previous school year, and I had never seen 9 year old girls be so cutthroat. The phrase "you can't sit with us" made so famous by "The Plastics" of that movie was heard way too often by myself and my co-teacher. These girls were more fashionable than me, probably even as an eighth grader. No matter how many times I told them they couldn't wear their strappy flip flops on field trips, they had their way, "this is all I wear in the summer". These days (I hate saying that, but it has been ten years) , it seems like kids are finding more ways than ever to be mean to each other. Besides just being openly vocal about it, as seen in Mean Girls, now kids connect to one another basically any way they can, whether it be in a positive or a negative way.
Tina Fey had the right idea, adapting the script from the novel Queen Bees and Wannabes, to better expose how cliques can basically ruin ones high school experience. What makes me sad, as a teacher especially, is to see the slow formation of these cliques at such an early age. This was my first year of teaching where my co-teacher and myself had to set aside a few days to simply talk about bullying and how to resolve it, and we will see how behavior changes as the year goes on.
Not to toot my own horn, but I am a very positive and kind teacher to my students, and I try to set an example for the "anti-Plastic" development of my students. I can't say where they will be when middle school and high school comes around, but I've come a long way from high school parties and prom dresses myself, I hope I can set an example for them to model themselves after.
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