Adapting Mean Girls: Fiction From Non-Fiction

[Music] did you know mean girls is based on a book queen bees and wannabes by rosalind wiseman is a self-help book aimed at mothers of teenage girls wiseman is the co-founder and president of the empower program through which she teaches girls and boys to recognize the ways they are socialized into hostile abusive and violent behaviors queen bees aims to share this knowledge with parents so they can understand how their daughters experience high school and what wiseman calls girl world that is to say it is a non-fiction book without a plot or characters so how from this do we get mean girls the 2004 film about kd heron a new arrival at north shore high school who is adopted by a popular clique known as the plastics and oh come on you know mean girls i mean we're still quoting it today on wednesdays we wear pink mean girls was written by ann stars the comedian writer actor best-selling author golden globe host and the sarah palin doppelganger you wouldn't shoot and i can see russia from my house tina fey and mean girls is probably what she's most known for it is at least partially based on faye's own experience of high school there was a girl when i was a freshman who said to me you're like really pretty thank you so you agree what you think you're really pretty and i was like faye has spoken openly about how she herself was a mean girl the film is set in faye's hometown the character damien is based on a real damian who was face friend in school kady is named after another friend as is glenn coco you go glen coco some of the film's discussion of female beauty standards is strikingly similar to passages of faze autobiography bossypants i used to think there was just fat and skinny apparently there's a lot of things that can be wrong on your body and the way regina compliments girls on things she hates about them oh my god i love your skirt that is the ugliest epping skirt i've ever seen it's based on a similar thing faye's mother used to do aside from anything else mean girls is written in phase distinctive voice that's what makes it so quotable is butter a curb it's like i have espn or something she doesn't even go here at first glance it seems like the bulk of mean girls must have been invented by fey sure queen bees might have been the inspiration but it's clearly transformed a lot in the process of adaptation right well let's have a look shall we [Music] before we begin two disclaimers pay attention because these will be on the test disclaimer number one all the quotes i've used from queen bees are taken from the 2002 edition because that's presumably the one fae had access to when she wrote mean girls new additions have since been published that are quite different wiseman has updated some of her ideas and added a lot of stuff about social media and the like i hope it goes without saying that if you want to reconnect with your teenage daughter that's not what this video is for actually considering the amount of quotes i've used it's only fair i give queen bees and wannabes a soft plug here it's a genuinely fascinating book if you want to learn more about the ideas this video touches on i recommend giving it a read i'll put a non-amazon link in the doobly-doo disclaimer number two though queen bees and mean girls have similar messages they have different goals queen bees wants to educate mean girls wants to entertain it is a comedy and it is certainly unafraid of being funny just for the sake of it there will be times when i point out aspects of wiseman's ideas that mean girls omits or translates only in part at times i will offer an opinion on that but generally this is neither good nor bad mean girls is not aiming to be authentic to queen beings it's not necessarily wrong for it to draw inspiration from the book but end up saying something slightly different everyone got all that good now get in loser we are going shopping on this [ __ ] [Music] though queen bees may not have any real characters it does have a lot of the raw material which can be fashioned into characters wiseman presents a lot of hypothetical situations with hypothetical teenage girls some with names some with short scripts of dialogue to exemplify the social roles and dynamics that are common in girl world furthermore wiseman bolsters her arguments with testimonies she's collected from real girls and parents she's met through her empower workshops some of these quotes have even been translated almost verbatim into the film's dialogue it's like buying a shirt without your friend telling you whether you look good in it or not you may like someone but you could be wrong well i mean you wouldn't buy a skirt without asking your friends first if it looks good on you oh and it's the same with guys like you may think you like someone but you could be wrong the book paints such a rich impression of girl world it's easy to see why faye felt it was worthy of adaptation but if this is going to be a story whose story is it being a self-help hook the closest thing queen bees has to a protagonist might be the reader themselves wiseman assumes she is speaking to the mother of a teenage girl she often asks the reader to reflect on their own experiences at that age and writes hypothetical conversations the reader might have with their daughter including the reader in the quote-unquote narrative as such the reader's daughter might also be considered a character she's described vaguely enough to represent any daughter but she's referenced frequently it is this relationship between mother and daughter which wiseman is most concerned with so by the same logic that would make wiseman herself a character as well she speaks directly to the reader and often relays her own experiences involving herself in what she's describing if the book does have a plot it's the story of a mother whose relationship with her daughter has broken down and wiseman is teaching them how to repair that relationship which is not the plot of the film nevertheless i suspect a framework similar to this formed the foundation of phase screenplay and in my head i was like i could play rosalind she's the same age as me but as i started to write my part got tinier and tinier in the final version of the film faye's character ms norbery shares only a passing resemblance to wiseman miss norbery offers some comic relief and a romantic subplot but largely functions simply as the teacher giving voice to our lead character's school performance you know what's weird about your quizzes katie is that all the work is right and just the answers are wrong nevertheless ms norbery often speaks with a version of wiseman's voice people often blame girls low self-esteem as the root cause for the problems girls face i respectfully disagree and i'm asking you to look at it another way there has to be something that you can say to these young ladies something to help them with their self-esteem it's not a self-esteem problem i think they're all pretty pleased with themselves where miss norbery most embodies wiseman is during her workshop which is loosely based on wiseman's empower workshops i start the class by asking the girls to close their eyes and answer by show of hands i want you to raise your hand if you have ever had a girl say something bad about you behind your back all hands immediately shoot up i asked the girls to keep their hands up and open their eyes open your eyes they laugh then i have them close their eyes again and this time i want you to raise your hand if you have ever said anything about a friend behind her back much more slowly some bending from the elbow instead of extending their hand all the hands go up open them they laugh again but nervously there's been some girl on girl crime here writing confessions onto notes is also similar to wiseman's workshops although with wiseman this is done anonymously aside from that this is where the similarities end i do not do trust false i have never done trust falls it would be easy to write wiseman into the story as a mary poppins style character who floats in and solves teenage girlhood but that's not really what the book is about rather wiseman shines a light on how girl culture reinforces common problems and that's really what ms norbury is doing at times it is useful to contextualize things with wiseman's perspective identifying that these problems are not unique to these characters but exist in the culture and it seems like every clique had its own problems okay but even without wiseman it would still be a more natural adaptation for the story to focus on the relationship between a mother and daughter queen bees is a self-help book for parents naturally it talks a lot about parenting and some of that is parroted in the film it's not like a regular mom i'm a cool mom the hip parent this parent will do anything to be liked by the daughter and her friends believing that if the kids are going to drink they may as well do it under their own roof is there alcohol in this oh god honey no what kind of mother do you think i am why do you want a little bit cause if you're gonna drink i'd rather you do it in the house easily manipulated and disrespected by their children especially in front of others please stop talking okay it may be that katie's relationship with her mother was more of a focus in earlier drafts there's a deleted scene about katie and her mother's failure to communicate these are on sale these are well made those are hideous i don't think those are appropriate which closely mimics one of wiseman's hypotheticals and concisely sums up her major points about it remember it's never just about the shoes nevertheless it's easy to see why this scene was deleted though katie's relationship with her mother does break down i don't know what to believe anymore mom believe me i'm your daughter unlike the book it's not the relationship the film is most concerned with the book may be aimed at mothers but it is about girl world it aims to inform mothers about a place and culture they are not privy to but if you want to write a film about girl world we need to see it you need to set the story there and the more scenes you have involving the mother the fewer you have in the setting the film is actually interested in the reader's daughter may not be the viewpoint character of the book but it is her story so faye centers the film on a daughter unfortunately presenting girl world from her perspective creates its own problems the mother's viewpoint is objective but her daughter's is not she is part of the culture the film wants to investigate but it's harder to examine something when viewed from the inside that's why many protagonists are recent arrivals to the setting so the audience can learn things as they do which is precisely how faye solves this problem but kd is not only new to the school she's new to school in general having been homeschooled her entire life she can have girl world explained to her in much the same way wiseman disseminates it for her reader the book aims to tell parents how the world looks through their daughter's eyes but the advantage of fiction is that you can just show that perspective what's more this decision presents other opportunities which aid adaptation firstly fay makes katie the child of zoologists being homeschooled because she grew up in africa the script says namibia but africa is as specific as the film gets by giving katie a zoology background she can observe the culture of girl world in the style of a nature documentary being at old orchard mall kind of reminded me of being home in africa by the watering hole and the animals are in heat [Music] which mimics wiseman's perspective of girl world tina came down hannah with me i said to her i look at this like a watering hole where you've got the predators that's the way i look at group dynamics with young people she takes that and makes an incredible scene out of it a lot of queen bees is about deconstructing teenagers words and behaviors to identify what they truly think and feel katie regarding her classmates as wildlife is another way of exposing those hidden meanings but the biggest advantage of having kd begin as an outsider to girl world from an adaptation standpoint is that it sets up a character arc for kd which is ideal for demonstrating wiseman's ideas welcome to the wonderful world of your daughter's adolescence ten seconds ago she was a sweet confident well-beaten little girl who looked up to you now she's changing before your very eyes she's confused insecure often surly lashing out katie begins not just as an outsider but emotionally speaking free adolescent having no knowledge of adult concepts like alcohol sex or sex appeal you're a regulation hottie what but when placed into this competitive environment she has to grow up fast she is co-opted and corrupted by girl world participating in a cycle of abuse katie's arc is a microcosm of what wiseman describes as a typical experience of high school for a teenage girl concluding in the outcome the book aims to help girls achieve kd breaks the cycle of abuse and achieves true emotional maturity structuring katie's arc in this way makes the broader point of the book whilst also providing a convenient framework to house the book's more specific ideas now all fey has to do is slot in whichever of wiseman's points and observations most interest her so we have our lead character and her arc let's build on that by placing it in the context of our setting trapped in the life raft i know this is a dramatic metaphor to demonstrate girls fear but it shows how trapped many girls feel forced to be a certain way in order to be accepted by their peers they perceive that their only choices are to be trapped in the life raft or thrown into the water to girls the life raft of the clique can truly feel like a matter of life and death of all the chapters in queen bees mean girls takes most direct influence from chapter one cliques and popularity which is all about the social dynamics of cliques and how they dominate the high school landscape sometimes in a very literal sense in this chapter wiseman includes two high school maps drawn by real girls from her empower workshops to show how a high school looks through their eyes how corridors and cafeterias become territory for the tribes that roam there even taking the wrong path might land you into danger just how kd is ensnared by the plastics simply for walking past their table these maps strongly resemble the map janice gives to katie when she first arrives at north shore they paint a similar picture of harsh social divides centered around sports extracurriculars social exile sexual activity body image and most uncomfortably race at this point i should quickly acknowledge criticisms of tina fey's handling of race in her work mean girls has its fair share of race-based humor maybe a little too much but it has been particularly criticized for portraying its asian characters as hypersexual as well as muddling different asian and african cultures i won't comment too much on this because it's mostly not relevant to the subject of adaptation though wiseman writes a lot about how race intersects with the issues she covers mean girls mostly doesn't engage with that side of it and that might be for the best the one exception is the book's observation that cliques can be centered on race mean girls reflects this but with little deconstruction faye might be attempting to challenge the racial aspect of greek culture or at least acknowledge it by having gretchen integrate with the asian clique of the film's conclusion suggesting once girl world is toppled it no longer reinforces these divisions which is a simplistic interpretation of wiseman's arguments but then this is a very minor plot point whether paying lip service to this real racial issue is better or worse than ignoring it altogether is not my place to say if you want to leave a comment about it please keep it civil what mean girls mainly lifts from wiseman's chapter on cliques are the social politics within and between the groups after five minutes or so without exception the following occurs a girl usually generically pretty and surrounded by four or five girls will raise her hand defiantly and say can i just say that we don't have a click problem at this school as she's speaking there are many expressions of disbelief and eye rolling from the other girls in the room without exception three things will be true about this girl first she'll always be one of the meanest most exclusive girls in the room second she honestly believes what she's saying third her parents will be in total denial about how mean she is how many of you have ever felt personally victimized by regina george wiseman describes a social hierarchy enumerating seven different roles girls can occupy within it in later editions wiseman has rejigged this list into eight slightly different roles but naturally it's the original seven which are reflected in the film and none more deliberately than [Music] she's the queen bee i call her the queen bee through a combination of charisma horse money looks will and manipulation this girl reigns supreme your daughter is a queen bee if her friends do what she wants to do she isn't intimidated by any other girl in her class she can argue anyone down including friends peers teachers and parents she can make another girl feel anointed by declaring her a special friend she won't take responsibility when she hurts someone's feelings if she's been wronged she feels she has the right to seek revenge the queen bee has the most power within the group everyone else's social position depends on her gaining her approval grants you more power but also means abiding by and enforcing the law of the clique as she lays down we have rules about what we wear you can only wear your hair up like in a ponytail once a week you can't wear a tank top two days in a row if you break any of these rules you can't sit with us at lunch you can't wear a tank top two days in a row and you can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week now if you break any of these rules you can't sit with us at lunch gretchen's role is the sidekick she is the minion regina sends to do her dirty work of all the plastics her identity and status is most defined by regina and gretchen is devastated when she fears she's lost regina's approval however gretchen doesn't fit into this role comfortably though she does modify her behavior at the queen b's behest like refraining from using slang regina doesn't like gretchen stop trying to make fetch happen it's not going to happen she's not happy about it which reflects how restrictive these roles can be despite her frustrations gretchen still craves regina's approval because everything she is depends on having it regina wait talk to me well almost everything gretchen's other role is the banker she exerts power over her peers by hoarding sensitive information about them she knows everything about everyone that's why her hair is so big it's full of secrets wiseman characterizes this role as more machiavellian than gretchen is the banker uses secrets to generate conflict or manipulate others whereas gretchen is more like a gossip who is bad at keeping secrets but while she's not skilled enough at this to gain much power by it on occasion she uses it vindictively to reclaim some of the power regina has over her make sure you check out her mom's boob job karen's role is trickiest to identify she's more of a comic relief character her primary trait being she's dumb but being an empty vessel is evocative of the pleaser wannabe messenger role whilst the approval of the clique may influence all its members this girl mimics her peers to such an extent she has very little concept of who she actually is well there must be something you're good at i can put my whole fist in my mouth wanna see yeah she hasn't figured out who she is or what she values she's constantly anticipating what people want from her and doesn't ask herself what she wants in return karen tends to just agree with the others i think i'm joining them athletes no no no no no you cannot do that that's social suicide damn you are so lucky you have us to guide you which places her in the middle of conflicts acting as a go-between for the injured parties let's go out okay hold on i'm on the other line with gretchen don't invite gretchen she's driving me nuts it's regina she wants to hang out with me tonight but she told me not to tell you of the three og plastics karen is lowest on the pecking order which makes her place in the clique most precarious teetering on the edge of becoming the target when a clique rallies against a girl who has broken their social law that girl becomes the target an object of ridicule and exclusion in mean girls the most obvious example of this is janice once a member of the plastics or a middle school version of them she was exiled from the group after losing the queen b's approval however it's also important to note wiseman says these roles are not unique to the popular crowd janus and damien's clique what gretchen calls the art freaks is subject to the same social hierarchy here janice is the queen bee in this group she is the one with most social power you just do it please [Music] okay fine so it is just as true to say in the social hierarchy of the art freaks regina is the target even more so than janus is to the plastics but it is also also important to note wiseman describes the target as not necessarily outside of the clique sometimes a social order is maintained by keeping somebody at the bottom a target may endure humiliation and abuse because it's better than being thrown out of the life raft the meaner regina was to her the more gretchen tried to win regina back she knew it was better to be in the plastics hating life than to not be in at all this is also true of katie when she is first inducted into the plastics there's a sense the reason they let her in is because they are baffled and amused by her katie do you even know who sings this um spice girls i love her she's like a martian this is the key thing to understand about these roles they are flexible it is possible to be multiple roles at once and though they are difficult to escape they can change girls can switch roles wannabes can become targets bankers can become queen bees switching usually happens at the beginning of the school year or when a new student arrives katie is the catalyst for revolution her arrival upsets the existing social order over the course of the film kd rises through the ranks of all seven roles i know it's wrong to skip class but janna said we were friends and i was in no position to pass up friends she's not going out with anyone okay that was so fetch gretchen switch sides with katie the whole dance will be backwards i'm always on your left she's cheating on you what katie she's not pretty i mean that sounds bad but whatever well she's not mad at you was i the new queen bee do you know what everyone says about you katie's crimes land her as the target for the entire school but while this is no picnic for katie it is at least educational there's nothing like being targeted to teach your daughter about empathy and understanding for people who are bullied and or discriminated against she can see the costs of fitting in and decide she's better off outside the clique and with this lesson katie assumes the 7th and most desirable role the floater because in the metaphor of the life raft the best thing to do is float school used to be like a shark tank but now i could just float the floater is not beholden to a single clique and can float between them she has less power over others than a queen bee does but it's still always better because the queen bee has less sense of self kady had to sacrifice her identity to become queen bee as the floater she doesn't have to do that her peers like her for who she is as a person she'll be less likely to sacrifice herself to gain and keep social status by the film's conclusion everyone is a floater the cliques aren't gone exactly wiseman even says cliques are natural and can be supportive what's gone is the exclusivity everyone can move freely between different social groups without fear of judgment or exile now this is a utopian ideal which may not be possible in reality in queen bees wiseman's goal is to help girls recognize the culture rather than overturn it and even mean girls makes it clear the culture has not been eradicated check it out junior plastics but by concluding the film in this way faye presents this as the goal girl world should be aspiring towards making wiseman's point that cliques create a divisive culture as soon as you define your role in group you perceive others as outsiders it's harder to put yourself in their shoes and therefore it's either to be cruel to them or watch and do nothing so we have our characters and we've put them in the treacherous waters of clique culture to get a plot all we need to do now is throw these blood thirsty piranhas some meat understand that your daughter still lives in a culture where boyfriends are crucial validation for three interrelated reasons they increase her sense of self-worth her friends will hold her in higher esteem and a boyfriend is proof that she fits into teen culture in faye's original script there was much more explicit sexual content amber d'alessio didn't just make out with a hot dog she with one but this was toned down to get a pg-13 rating that said the film still emulates many of wiseman's observations of sexual politics they want to check out the whole boy thing and be involved in the drama but without putting themselves on the front line in many different ways girls push each other to be the first one to jump off the cliff hey good job africa thanks katie's blushing oh my god you totally have a crush on that guy i don't gretchen is the worst for this type of behavior wishing romance into existence even when it isn't there it's not just that she wants to know the gossip she also wants to push her friends into relationships so gretchen came to talk to me perhaps that is why she told regina about katie's crush on aaron perhaps if she hadn't pressed kd to reveal this information in the first place a lot of drama could have been avoided getting together with another girl's boyfriend is one of the most common conflicts between girls regina's decision to take aaron back is clearly not about any genuine interest in aaron she was hooking up with shane omen before during and after her relationship with aaron no this is a clear power move directed at katie queen bees are careful to regulate the popularity of other girls the girl set up for her first boyfriend and hence her moment in the sun as the focus of attention is beholden and bonded to the queen bee the queen bee can also influence when a girl stops liking the boy it may be that regina genuinely intended to speak to aaron on katie's behalf because the gesture helps maintain her power it's only when she realizes aaron might genuinely reciprocate katie's feelings that she seems to change her mind you know that girl katie yeah she's cool i invited her tonight well be careful because she has a huge crush on you aaron is a popular senior and therefore raises the social status of whichever girl he's in a relationship with perhaps regina was concerned that if katie dated aaron kd's social profile might rival regina's own the girls of higher social status feel like this girl who isn't as cool or pretty as they are takes their guys they feel threatened because of regina because you're her property her property the plan to split up regina and aaron was not just about getting aaron together with katie but also because aaron is part of what gives regina her power gina would be nothing without her high status man candy to regina aaron is just another pawn she can manipulate in the politics of girl world but katie believes the exact same thing she blames regina entirely never considering aaron's agency in what happened no matter who in the new couple took the initiative rarely do girls blame the boy as much as the girl if they blame him at all like regina kd treats aaron as an object a prize she manipulates away from regina and towards herself as if aaron is helpless to resist the advances of any girl who throws herself at him girls will excuse his behavior by saying that the girl was all over him she was being a [ __ ] and what was he supposed to do who here has ever been called a [ __ ] in mean girls whenever anyone calls somebody else's [ __ ] it has less to do with the behavior of the accused and more to do with the accuser's own feelings be it jealousy resentment she may seem like your typical selfish backstabbing slut-based hoe bag or superiority britina says everyone hates you because you're such a [ __ ] she said that the fear of being accused of acting like a [ __ ] controls girl's actions in a particular situation for example when your daughter chooses what to wear to a party she's trying to balance looking sexy while not coming off a [ __ ] i.e being attractive to boys yet not incurring the wrath of other girls girls accuse each other of seeking male attention whilst secretly craving it themselves any overt displays of sexuality will be interpreted as a threat as such the only way girls can explore their sexualities safely is to find loopholes halloween immunity these situations are cease-fires and girls battles with each other where they get to dress as sexy as possible with less fear of recrimination like it or not she's test driving her power in girl world halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total [ __ ] and no other girls can say anything about it what are you i'm a mouse duh katie however finds a different loophole hey um i'm totally lost can you help me but i wasn't lost yeah i knew exactly what mrs norbury was talking about at some point a girl would pretend to not be as smart strong or capable around a boy she likes she may be embarrassed by her behavior but not know how to stop wiseman calls this behavior the fruit cup girl based on a story from one of her empower girls who pretended to be unable to open a fruit cup in order to get help from a guy she liked it's not necessarily about acting dumb it can be about acting dainty or silly performing a gendered stereotype to get male attention because it works but once you start it's difficult to stop and if you're always playing the fool you'll start to feel like one i'm athlete you hate math oh look how red she is however what faye omits from wiseman's observations of all these behaviors is how they put girls at risk of sexual violence or abuse blaming other girls instead of supporting them not holding boys accountable for their behaviour using alcohol as an excuse to behave the fruit cup girl faye borrows enough from wiseman that she veers close to these issues but stops short of actually addressing them for instance in her chapter on parties wiseman describes the party from hell which is strikingly similar to the party katie throws nikki's parents are going away for the weekend leaving nikki alone in the house for the first time anna and gria convinced nikki to have a party that saturday night and invite all their friends including colin on who nicki has a huge crush aaron samuels was going to be in my house at my party everything had to be perfect the door was ringing again more people are coming nikki isn't sure she recognises the group of guys that they greet anna and gria like family she lets them in do i know you see what up dog nikki is miserable she just went into her parents room get out i found two random people in their bed ali is now sitting on derek's lap still playing drinking games anna walks into the kitchen derek can i talk to you for a minute it's important i have to talk to you they talk intensely anna falls apart crying and derek tells her that he still cares a lot about her but wants to be able to do his own thing anna starts to drink a lot of punch while she's drinking she thinks how could he do this to me do i mean nothing to him was aaron blowing me off derek asks ali if she'll go upstairs so they can talk privately they go to a bedroom you want to go downstairs no no let's stay here he closes the door locks it so we can be alone and sits on the bed with her the point of wiseman's story is to show how easily girls can find themselves in this situation all the other girls present are drunk busy with their own drama or distracted by girl world politics nobody is looking out for ally which leaves her inebriated separated from the herd and locked in a room with a boy and maybe she'll be fine or maybe she won't in that situation girls will almost always do what the other person wants including having sex against their will whereas mean girls imagines the worst thing that can happen is embarrassing yourself by vomiting on the guy's lap perhaps the party scene is a relic from an older draft which followed wiseman's example more closely in the final film nothing really comes of regina walking in on them perhaps the original intention was that she'd inadvertently save kd putting their petty squabble into perspective like being hit by a school bus does then again even faye's original more explicit draft ends the party in the same way the finished film does perhaps fey simply wanted a party set piece and used building blocks from wiseman's example a lot of it is fairly common teen party tropes after all either way the decision to omit the most crucial detail of wiseman's party from hell is surely a conscious choice the boys of mean girls are pretty benign not to mention fairly simple characters aaron is a nice guy jason is a bit of an [ __ ] kevin g is kinda sexist but too much of a nerd to actually be dangerous though wiseman talks a lot about what we would now call toxic masculinity and even writes a whole chapter on boy world very little of that makes it into the film maybe it's a little irresponsible to ignore the subject of male violence then again a pg-13 teen comedy might not be the best vehicle to discuss it at least not in that kind of detail instead faye hints at the subject as part of a broader cultural issue you all have got to stop calling each other [ __ ] and [ __ ] it just makes it okay for guys to call you [ __ ] and [ __ ] it would be difficult to confront such a charged topic without that becoming the focus the thesis statement of the film becoming something like women have to support each other as protection against male violence which is a point wiseman makes but it's not the main point of the book to decide which aspects of a complex issue to include in a narrative it helps to be guided by a theme and the side of wiseman's observation fay seems most interested in is girls relationships with other girls and how that perpetuates a toxic culture our culture teaches girls a very dangerous and confusing code of behavior about what constitutes appropriate feminine behavior we like to blame the media and boys for enforcing this code but we overlook the girls themselves as being forces the film is only interested in boys insofar as how they affect the ways girls treat each other sure katie only agrees to janice's revenge plan because of aaron but in the end it becomes about more than just him aaron samuels for example he broke up with regina and guess what he still doesn't want you so why are you still messing with regina katie i'll tell you why because you are a mean girl naturally wiseman has much to say about why girls turn mean but in choosing the themes for the film there's one theme in wiseman's work which seems to interest fey most of all [Music] another exercise from wiseman's empower workshops is the act like a woman box wiseman has the girls list the traits that affect a girl's social status desirable traits are placed inside the box undesirable traits are placed outside thus identifying the behavior girl world values and encourages as well as the transgressions which will get you shunned it's this which decides the pecking order of the cliques though some girls are perfectly happy existing outside the box and some cliques may even define themselves by these undesirable traits everyone is still beholden to the culture even those most harmed by it may uphold it just as much as those who benefit i think i'm joining them athletes no no no no no you cannot do that that's social suicide you can't join athletes it's social suicide you cannot escape the culture so you either comply or rebel kd complies she learns how to benefit from girl world by modeling herself after regina you are just like a clone of regina but this version of herself is an image she's constructed without being fully conscious that's what she's been conditioned to do as far as katie is concerned she's pretending it's a persona she's putting on in pursuit of her revenge but when that revenge is achieved the persona doesn't come off anymore somewhere along the way girls start believing their impress who they are their character sense of self and personality gets tangled up with their reputation and image hey buddy you're not pretending anymore you're plastic cold shiny hard plastic janice on the other hand has rebelled even so what she's doing is not all that different similar to how regina is clearly based on wiseman's queen bee archetype there are clear inspirations for janice peppered throughout the book in eighth grade there was a girl in my clique no one liked one of the girls spread a rumor that she was a lesbian with another girl in her class i hate to admit it but i was mean to her too she was forced out and then she started having sex with all these guys her parents didn't know what happened but they knew something was wrong so they took her out of school and homeschooled her weissman observes that cliques are at their worst in middle school because as girls enter adolescence they feel the need to figure out their identities and where they fit in society when janice and regina were in middle school it seems they developed in different directions which caused their friendship to fray so it wasn't just one thing that led to the breakup accounts of their history is basically a hit list of all the worst things wiseman says can happen when girls fight when we were thirteen she made people sign this petition saying that janice was a baby please like if i would blow her off to hang out with kyle she'd be like why didn't you call me back so then for my birthday party which was an all-girls pool party i was like janice i can't invite you because i think you're a lesbian i mean i couldn't have a lesbian at my party so then her mom called my mom and started yelling at her it was and then she dropped out of school because no one would talk to her when she came back in the fall for high school all of her hair was cut off and she was totally weird now i guess she's on crack as a direct result of being ostracized janice changed her image entirely similar to the roles of the clique wiseman lists a number of reputations or images a girl might adopt or more likely be ascribed by others of these janice is a combination of two the in your face angry girl she's not afraid to dress differently and be [ __ ] she has no patience for popularity and the people in the popular cliques northwest stand in your heart exterior she's easily hurt by others and feels like the world is against her and the lesbian butch some girls have adopted a butch look because that's how they feel most comfortable some adopt the look to desexualize themselves the decision to conclude the film with janice in a heterosexual relationship has often been criticized because janice is strongly queer-coded she presents as alternative she's named after a lesbian musician she's frequently the victim of homophobic slurs she spends most of the film rebuffing male attention and yet her story ends with her macking on a boy it's almost played for a joke did regina think she was a lesbian because she misheard are you puerto rican lebanese lebanese is the same letters it's still a shock ending you're supposed to come out as a lesbian we're supposed to be kissing this criticism is very valid enough that the musical adaptation felt the need to change this ending and make it semi-explicit that yes janice is a lesbian i think that's a good change it works for the character and as a gay man i champion representation so it brings me no pleasure to say however to be clear i'm not about to argue that janice should be straight i'm just observing that the motivation behind queer coding a straight character might have some basis from the book of all the characters i suspect janice is the one most modeled on faye's younger self janice's arc of getting sucked into the revenge i think like that was definitely me so it may be that janice is straight simply because faye is straight and she didn't think to do otherwise or it may be that because faye connected with wiseman's descriptions of girls like janice faye is trying to emulate wiseman's observations of the role homophobia plays in creating genesis wiseman talks at some length about homosexuality mainly advice to parents of lesbian daughters but she also talks about how homophobia is systemic in the culture of girl world generally it's not so much if you really are a lesbian but how you present yourself if you're more masculine appearance people will give you a harder time than if you look feminine whether a girl is or isn't gay is less important than if and when homophobia is used as a weapon against a girl to put her down and isolate her it's a little more evocative of how genuine homophobia works if instead of simply making fun of janus for being gay regina is conferring gayness upon janus as a means of exerting power over her at a time when regina was in the process of constructing her own image one that would become reflective of the ideal as determined by the act like a woman box she pushed janice outside the box as a form of control and used her influence to convince others to do the same after being excluded janus responded by excluding the clique in return excluding what they represent i hate girls you can't trust them girls are petty stupid and jealous kate doesn't trust girls and she has good reason not to they have rejected her in her mind all girls are bad janice embraces the reputation she's been given so it can no longer be used to hurt her janice presents as queer coded in order to co-opt regina's attack and reclaim some of the power regina took from her probably because i've got a big lesbian crush on you [ __ ] all that [Music] which granted is a thing queer people often do as well i'm not surprised many queer people identify with janice and as wiseman says whether or not janus is actually gay has very little to do with regina's actions it's the same power move either way so why not just make janice gay well perhaps by presenting janice as straight fay was trying to make the point that janice's image is just as constructed as everybody else's it's more rooted in what regina did to her than it is to janice's authentic identity now none of this invalidates the criticism this can be both a point about image as well as queer erasure and while i feel janus does emulate ideas in the book i'm not sure faye communicates them entirely effectively unlike most of the other characters janice's image is not deconstructed by the end of the film if her image is meant to be inauthentic shouldn't she have grown beyond it in some way when girl world was overthrown even if faye is making a point about image i'd argue ending janus in a relationship is still not the best conclusion partly because one thing faye overlooks from wiseman's observations is how homophobia drives straight girls into unhealthy and unsafe relationships with boys the consequence is that girls in this position are pressured to prove their heterosexuality but mainly because i feel what janice needs to learn is who she is as an individual independent of her relation to others defining yourself in opposition to girl world is still letting girl world define you janice has been hurt and the experience changed her she's still carrying a lot of resentment which is like a poison it spreads it's janus who encourages katie to seek revenge which leads to kd treating janus in much the same way regina did once again janus is excluded by a friend who was careless with their friendship and it prompts regina to take her own revenge which ends up hurting everybody i think janice kind of deserves the blame for that too because her revenge was always going to pan out this way don't forget publishing the burn book was originally janice's idea we could publish it and then everybody would see what an axe rule she really is neither janice regina or even katie care who else gets hurt in their quests for revenge even if it's everybody all three of them believe themselves to be entirely morally justified there are two kinds of evil people people who do evil stuff and people who see evil stuff being done and don't try to stop it some of us shouldn't have to take this workshop because some of us are just victims in the situation you're the one who made me like this so you could use me for your 8th grade revenge morgan vowed revenge although she assured me her behavior was morally correct because it was only equal to what she did to me each of them constructs an image that is flattering to themselves because that's what girl world encourages them to do it allows them to justify mean behavior to gain or reclaim power within girl world at the cost of their identities it is only by giving up their power that they can free themselves of the power girl world has over them to break the cycle of revenge they must take responsibility for themselves and what they've done you can help your daughter develop a strong sense of self you can teach her personal responsibility confidence in her abilities and empathy towards others you want her to be an authentic person able to realize her full individual potential while being connected to her loved ones and community [Music] when i first had the idea for this video i just thought it might be interesting to compare the book to the film but in my research i found out a bit more about rosalind wiseman that i feel would be dishonest not to include while she has spoken very positively about the film itself it seems she's not been treated very well by the filmmaking process according to wiseman when she sold the rights to her book she received a sizeable advance 440 thousand dollars as well as the promise of five percent of the film's profits assuming it made a profit which wiseman was told it still hasn't i'm not going to pretend to know the ins and outs of paramount's finances but that's a little hard to believe i imagine this is due to some dodgy fine print according to wiseman when she sought legal advice her lawyers laughed when they saw her contract i'm told it's now being used as an example for what not to do wiseman also says she's received nothing from the broadway musical even apart from proceeds wiseman had hoped to use the musical as a vehicle for her workshops to combat a rising trend of bigotry she was noticing in schools owing to the political situation and while paramount initially made plans with wiseman to fund this it all fell apart by the time the musical opened leaving wiseman's organization with all the expenses for the work they'd done throughout all this according to wiseman faye had been on good terms with wiseman had been very vocal about wiseman's work as the inspiration for mean girls and had even promised to advocate for wiseman after learning about these problems however at some point faye stopped responding to wiseman's emails i want to stress the reason wiseman has not been more vocal about this is because of how easily the story could be memified into a feud between two women tina fey is the real regina george says mean girl's author or something to that effect which is at odds with wiseman's goals she wants to be supportive of other women and while wiseman's story raises questions about faye's actions fae is not ultimately responsible the real issue is how the hollywood machine treats writers now i'm not a legal expert i only have wiseman's side of the story and there may well be more to this that we don't know so i'm not going to take a strong stance on this i'm just paraphrasing things wiseman has said because it's relevant what i will say is that it's a shame wiseman's role in the film is not better known i was surprised at quite how much of mean girls is reflected in queen b's every few pages there's another clear inspiration for one of the film's iconic moments i haven't even mentioned all of them it's tempting for girls to have conference calls where one girl listens to the conversation without the knowledge of another i guess she just likes the attention secrets i told you she's not mad at you i can't believe you think i like attention so it saddens me to think that many people don't even realize mean girls is an adaptation the film is still its own thing of course it's very different from the book and there are whole chapters it misses out tina fey certainly deserves credit for her skill at adaptation she didn't go with the obvious choices and the film is stronger for it at the same time i think a huge part of why mean girls is so popular is because it's built on wiseman's observations there's something very recognizable here which people connect with it wouldn't be what it is if it weren't for rosalind wiseman so the next time you watch mean girls i hope you'll remember beneath all the quotable lines and timeless gags beneath the set pieces and soundtrack beneath the characters setting plot and themes there is another woman's voice and she has something to say this video was made with the support of my patrons i really do rely on your support so if you want to see more videos like this please consider joining that's patreon.com woodhall you can also support me at kofi.com jameswoodall or follow me on twitter at james b woodall don't forget to comment like share and subscribe and thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: James Woodall

Views: 204,878

Keywords: Mean Girls, Tina Fey, Queen Bees & Wannabes, Queen Bees and Wannabes, Rosalind Wiseman, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyfried, Jonathan Bennet, Amy Poehler, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Franzese, Cady Heron, Regina George, Ms. Norbury, Video Essay, Adaptation

Id: 9irdn0a3F5U

Length: 53min 51sec (3231 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 20 2022