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  • Essay / Analysis of the movie "Mean Girls", based on the theories of Karl Marx

    In history, we can see the ideologies of Karl Marx in many societies and we can still see them today. This theory of Marxism was created to be able to analyze the roles of society. With greater economic power, this group, the bourgeoisie, is able to achieve power through political and social means. Using these forces, the upper class can control the lower class and effectively impose their ideologies on society, thereby shaping the social norms of these classes as they wish. Using Marxist ideologies, we can study the classes and different roles of these social forces and structures and highlight these elements to find out how this lower class is affected by the oppression of the upper class. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay This article will analyze the cult classic film Mean Girls by comparing the characteristics of the social order based on the theories of Karl Marx. Mean Girls is a stereotypical high school comedy that involves a group of popular girls known as "The Plastics", whom most of the students fear and who control the social aspects of the school. On the other side of social status, there is the new girl who gets involved with the popular crowd and ends up becoming like them. In the film, "The Plastics" are girls who lead the junior class at North Shore High School. They would represent Karl Marx's term, the bourgeoisie, meaning that they believe that they are the most powerful clique and that they hold economic power and therefore control the social aspects of the school. Then there is the underclass of this theory, the proletariat, made up of those who want to bring about social change – the students who felt personally victimized by Regina George. Their idea is to sabotage this hierarchy created by ruining this social game of “Plastics”. Karl Marx explains that when we analyze a society, there is always an ongoing set of conflicts between social classes. Ultimately, this essay will demonstrate that using Max's theory, we can see how the ideals of Marxism can affect all social classes, including even high school cliques. This shows that the bourgeois ideology (The Plastics) controls and oppresses the proletariat (the other cliques) through social control. Cady Heron, having been homeschooled her entire life, until now, doesn't understand the social cliques of high school. While skipping her gym period with her new friends Janis and Damien “the unique art lovers,” as the film describes it, she receives a shot of the school cafeteria. That's when she begins to understand how social cliques work: "You have your... freshmen, ROTC guys, prep guys, JV jocks, Asian nerds, cool Asians... the best people you you will ever encounter and the worst: beware of plastics. » (Mean Girls). Already in this film we see the ideals of Marxism and how everyone has their place in the cafeteria environment. This scene shows Marx's idea of ​​alienation, which aims to eliminate every clique in the school. The Plastics, whose leader is Regina George followed by her two aspirants, Gretchen and Karen, “She is the queen bee. The star. The other two are just his little workers. (Mean Girls). Regina George being at the head of the clique, runs it alone and surrounds herself with a group of supporters or advisors. The main job of her followers is to praise her and give her the recognition she needs. She gotimposed as being above everyone else. She mastered the ideals of Marxism, creating a system designed for her to succeed in high school. “It is the capitalists, not the working class, who control the ideology and social consciousness of society. They are the ones who determine the acceptable standards of behavior and thought in their society” (Bressler 177). Of course, just as history has shown us many times before, there is always a rebel alliance that plans to overthrow its leader and make changes that would benefit the middle and lower classes. Regina sees that Cady has the potential to be a threat to her reign, leading her to invite her to sit down with the Plastics for the rest of the week. Regina tries to get in her head by first complimenting her by telling her she's really pretty. When she says thank you, Regina asks, "So you agree." You think you're really pretty” (Mean Girls). By becoming part of the group, she now tries to eliminate the threat. Where Marxism really plays a big role is in the consumerism shown throughout the film. The Plastics, much like the government, like to tell the middle class what is acceptable to be more socially acceptable in society, and in high school an example of this was wearing military pants and flip flops: "I saw Cady Heron wearing military pants and flip flops. flip-flops, so I bought army pants and flip-flops” (Mean Girls) In addition to their role in consumerism, they also use the power of intimidation and blackmail, creating what they call the “Burn Book,” which lists the girls in their class. and mean comments from them “Amber D’Alessio. She made out with a hot dog” (Mean Girls). It was a way to feel in control of the other junior girls. Cady Heron in the movie is considered to belong to our middle class or working class of society. She connects much of her high school experience to that of the animal kingdom in Africa, but realizes that clique issues in high school are handled very differently: “I knew how it would be handled in the animal world. But it was Girl World” (Mean Girls). With the help of their friends, the “proletariat” develops a plan to overthrow Regina George. “All workers can free themselves from the chains of social, economic and political oppression if they recognize that they are not currently free agents, but individuals controlled by a complex social network dominated by a self-proclaimed, empowered and independent. self-perpetuating social elite” (Bressler 177). By uniting and revolting against this elite leader, they can bring down the social hierarchy and eliminate the bourgeoisie. According to Marx, this hierarchy can only be removed through human action. This human action is the plan created by her friend Janis: “How to overthrow a dictator? You cut off his resources. Regina would be nothing without her high-ranking man goodies… a technically good physique… and an ignorant band of followers” ​​(Mean Girls). After many attempts, the secret that ruined her relationship, "she's dating Shane Oman in the projection room above the auditorium," turned her boyfriend against her. His good physique – giving him Kalteen bars, “Coach Carr makes us eat those when we want to move up a weight class.” Eventually, the group members slowly began to fall apart with sneaky three-way calls, sending candy canes pretending they were from Regina George. “I was going to use three candy canes to break Gretchen Wieners... Once Gretchen thought Regina was mad at her, secrets started to come out. Everything that.