Mean Girls (2004) and Mean Girls (2024) Semiotic Analysis by Emma Schaefer
Mean Girls (2004)
Genre: Mean Girls (2004) is a teen comedy/drama. It focuses on the life of high school stereotypes and cliques. This is conveyed through humor.
Main Focus: It focuses on the life of Cady Heron, a high school student, as she navigates high school cliques, bullying, and popularity. The movie revolves around the social hierarchy of high school. The biggest example of this is the “Plastics.”
Ideology: This film illustrates the pressures of social conformity within high school and the social hierarchies that are prevalent.
• Cady is pressured to change her behavior in order to fit in with the “Plastics.”
• Specific body images are enforced like being tiny and having a small waist by Regina and her followers.
• There are several racist remarks made about African Americans throughout this film like, “Unfriendly Black Hotties” and the dehumanization of Africa.
• Many different social cliques such as:
o The Plastics: Most popular girls in high school, all White.
o Unfriendly Black Hotties: Portrayed African Americans as unfriendly and aggressive
o Girls Who Eat Their Feelings: Making fun of overweight women
Social History: This film became iconic for its portrayal of the “mean girl.” This was released in 2004. It reflects the social dynamics of that era. Considering internet was just merely emerging, technology played hardly any role in this film. The “Burn Book” played the role of an object maintaining the brutality. During the early 2000s, social stereotypes and hierarchies became a central focus. This film played as an influence for future teen movies, which adopted the same themes regarding navigating high school and the difficulties that come along.
Mean Girls (2024)
Genre: Mean Girls (2024) is a teen musical comedy. It blends the teen comedy/drama with a musical element, enhancing the storytelling in a different way. The musical elements allow the characters to express emotions in ways other than humor (like Mean girls (2004)).
Main Focus: It is still focused on Cady Heron’s life, but in a more theatrical way.
Ideology: This film has removed a lot of the slurs and negative speech that was used in the original Mean Girls. A lot of the stereotypes were changed.
• Still focuses on social conformity and social hierarchies
• Humor related to body images, ableist language, and racists stereotypes were changed
• Janis’ sexual orientation is not used to ridicule her; she is queer, but it does not define her
Social History: As it was released in 2024, the social history has changed a little bit. Things like fashion, language, and social media have changed in this film.
• There is a lot of use of social media in this film, which makes it more appealing and relatable for the current teen audience.
• The cast is a lot more diverse. The film consists of many different people of color, different sexual orientations, and different body sizes. This reflects a larger cultural movement that has picked up within the last few years.
When going about analyzing this movie, tackling the issue of racism is a perfect idea because there is much more representation in the second. When going about your thesis, you could also bring into light the more diverse casting. The trio wasn't all white in the newer movie, and that will contribute to the overall portrayal of your message.
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