Can we briefly discuss how good Rachel McAdams was: even at her worst she’s completely charismatic. She could have been written as dumb but Regina is simultaneously completely superficial and fiercely intelligent. Rachel was great casting.
yea aren't "mean girls" usually intelligent? I mean not just girls but anyone who is capable of manipulation and plotting like that cannot be total meatheads.
Bee aren’t high school nothing but a simulator of society at large. You have your prédisent, celebrities and influences as powerful as multinational corporations. It’s all one big microcosm!
@@unSeife That line puts Cady in a catch 22. If Cady says 'yes' she will sound conceited. If 'Cady says 'no' she will seem like she's trying to conflict with Regina.
@@trajayjayheyyayy8276 Yep, the question is a double-edged sword. I was never asked this specifically but I was bullied by older girls in school and they would give me backhanded compliments like this and it really sucked.
I'd reply "I just thought that _you_ thought that I was really pretty. I mean that's what you said, right?" to checkmate Regina. I'm not as susceptible to manipulation like that because I've done too much research on it.
I like how you touched on Regina's rage! I've always found it to be one of the most compelling parts of her character. I feel like high school movies don't usually touch on the profound rage of being a teenage girl.
yea I mean it's understandable to be angry or frustrated at times. yet some individuals are just angry for no reason. why is she always angry? it could just be how she naturally is. people say it's how you're raised but no. I think some people make lemons out of lemonade and others crumble under the lightest pressure
@@oooh19 Being always angry could be a sign of depression. It's not what we usually think of when we think about depression, but it's one way it can affect some people
Regina isn't like the typical movie mean girl these days, she isn't going to pour a drink on your head, or intentionally trip you in the halls, or dump gunk over you on prom night, she's going to orchestrate, plan, and calculate your demise, which I think is all the more worse
the meanest people are the most suspicious and deceiving when your in the room they can say nice stuff to your face but when you walk away its the total opposite theyre liars, theyre compulsive, theyre manipulative, selfish, etc. they just dont give a damn and they dont even know theyre mean so its even worse.
SHHHIIIIT, i made a mistake.,,I wanted to portray Hitler the way he was always ment to be portrayed". Sorry, despite long years of practise, i still made dumb mistakes
Something that's interesting about her is the way she is very... conscious of ways to manipulate her fellow students. The first thing she says to cady is, "you're really pretty". Cady says thanks, like any normal human being, when Regina then turns around with "so u agree". This is a genius move for several reasons. It traps cady emotionally. See, if she says yes she'll look bad, but if she says no she'll be basically calling Regina a liar and exposing the fact that she was kinda being 'fake' in accepting the compliment. When cady inevitably stutters, Regina swiftly changes the topic before she can stand up for herself. This does several things. Firstly, it asserts her dominance as the manipulator of the conversation and thus of the group. Second, it makes cady want to prove herself to an obvious leader. Third, it makes her feel insecure so that she'll want to be loyal to Regina so that Regina compliments her and eases her fears. Fourth, it traps her emotionally, making her easy to control. I just think that small line of dialogue tells us so much about the characters and the methods Regina uses to control her minions. Just a genius scene.
I think the question was really meant to test if Cady was insecure or not, and her level of confidence, where it lies. To kinda have an idea if she was easy to manipulate or not. If she said yes definitely, it would make Cady come across really cocky and confident, almost seen as a true threat and Regina would feed off of that to truly create her strategy of manipulating Cady. And if Cady said no, it would’ve showed her right away that Cady is insecure and needs Regina to reassure her in her looks. But kinda stuttering and almost saying nothing gives the answer that Cady has the potential to be aware of her looks but is to nice to be out loud about it, and as a dictator she sees how with that potential threat she needs to end that by pretending to be close with Cady so she wouldn’t overshadow her, which kinda was her plan in the movie. The strategy was used to test the waters basically to get a first impression of her personality traits to use against her.
I wonder how you could reply to that without coming off as insincere or cocky. If I had time to think it out, I'd probably say "I suppose. Do you think that *you're* pretty?" But in real life, I'd probably just end up stuttering like Cady.
The most interesting thing about someone like Regina George to me is how we can all collectively hate her and acknowledge her problematic oppressive power, but we actively glamorize her (Thank You Next by Ariana Grande), admire her, feel captivated by her, and remember her. I think that's so fascinating.
I just like her because I've been told I share the same characteristics and I genuinely enjoy her manipulative personality, she's interesting. People like entertainment whether it's morally good or not. I'd love to be friends with Regina or atleast fight with her, I think a war between us would be outstanding
Yeah I hate this so much. I know, her style is cool and everything, everyone likes fashionable and charismatic icons. But this movie and the book it was inspired from were made to expose this kind of toxic people in youth and we should remember it, and try not to glamourize bullying.
that’s how sociopathy works in real life lol even knowing someone is manipulative, self absorbed and toxic you still find them very intriguing and captivating because of their charisma and the way they make everyone fall in love with them (not literally) but you get the point , rachel really did a good job portraying her , it was very realistic
I feel like the fact Regina said Gretchen isn’t “pretty” is bc she isn’t blonde and fair skinned which was the standard of beauty at the time. The reality is Gretchen is just as pretty if not prettier (depending on your taste) but you can tell Gretchen doesn’t think she (herself) is pretty. Regina knows this and plays on Gretchen’s deep insecurity to keep her in her place and so she herself doesn’t become a threat to Regina.
@@lmatt88 yeah theyre attractive but that's not the universal beauty standard. Which is the big underline here. The point of them being mentioned but not playing a bigger role or seen as a threat to the plastics is the fact that simply being attractive isnt enough to do what regina did. The fact is that people arent going to react to you in the same way as a white person. You wouldnt be able to gain the same level of control regina or cady has for the exact same reasons because black vs white beauty are measured and valued differently. You would have to be attractive enough In the way that appeals to the highest amount of people to do what regina did. Which means you have to satisfy western beauty standards, which typically means white, skinny/fit, upperclass and fair skinned. This also leads into a conversation about black beauty vs. white beauty and the reactions they can uniquely elicit, the influence they uniquely have on a micro/mass scale and their standards and limitations. And an entire movie could be made on just that alone. I would love to see a mean girls movie that uses his as a jumping off point to explore this aspect further. I wouldnt say tina Fey Is the right person to do that, neccesarily, but I'm sure theres someone out there who would do execute this well.
This video is amazingly accurate. Also, for the Gretchen, she is the media. Regina control her to spread about information that she approves or not. Which is why she is so important in taking down the dictator, as the media is always crucial in completely changing ones image.
Why is nobody talking about how Janice manipulated Cady in to bringing Regina down? She wasn't even her friend, she just pushed her to hang out with Regina and then got mad when she started being influenced by her. And at the end, exposing Cady in front of everyone. I always thought Janice was toxic.
It's because Janice admits in the movie that's she's a bad person before later apologizing and we all know they were friends in middle school where it's hinted Janice was as shady as Girl Hitler lol 😂 I mean Regina
I think Janice goes the way a lot activists do. She gets so obsessed with regime that she's looking to take down, she doesn't care who she has to step on to achieve her ambitions.
The thing that’s the most interesting to me about Regina’s character is that even though every other background character and supporting cast sees her as someone who has everything and has the perfect position in life, Regina is never actually portrayed as genuinely ‘happy’. She’s somewhat cavalier about her popularity when she’s not being catty, and the only scenes where she’s smiling are superficial moments, or when she feels powerful-but she’s never portrayed to be *_satisfied_* with her life, or even herself. She’s envied and admired by everyone, power and all, but she’s angry and miserable under the mask of superficial plastic.
yea and honestly in real life we all never truly know what others actually feel or think like unless they open up to us. they do many things in private, we all do. people who are happy most likely WOULDN'T feel the need to put others down all the time especially their friends.
In fact Regina actually seems a lot happier and genuine at the end when she’s joined the lacrosse team. She’s got an outlet to express her aggression in a healthier way, and the best part? She actually has friends who are on equal footing with her instead of subservient ‘yes man’ minions.
@@yamato6114I also believe her home life is another cause of her anger/controlling nature. The way she speaks to her mom was telling enough. And where was her father in all this chaos?
I love the fact that Regina wasnt "defeated" at the end of the movie. Instead of being bullied by her teenage peers, she finds a spot on the lacrosse team. The masses didnt ostrisize her for her dictorial crimes, the masses integrated her for her newfound humility.
Right. Now I do think she was able to be forgiven is because she had the literally whole student body and staff under her thumb; it wasn’t like she just went after a few. And with the exception of the “wannabe”girl she punched in the face (it was awesome lol) she didn’t physically hurt anyone. I’m not condoning Regina’s behavior at all, however, when bullies are genuinely sorry, apologize, and actively change…forgiveness just happens sometimes. Besides, the girls oppressed by The Plastics truly get it…they know what it’s like to be a girl.
I took it as a commentary on high school, senior year most of the "established" hierarchies generally break down when people start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 10+ years of built up school-age drama disappears when people realize it's all meaningless. No matter what, the "Plastics" would have been irrelevant 2 years later anyway, right? High School ends. All that backstabbing and drama carving out a top social position, and no matter what eventually people would stop caring senior year. It only holds value if people buy into it.
Newfound humility? Please. She has calculating sociopathic tendencies (if not the full-blown disorder) and just like in real life, that does not change. However, what changes is How those traits are inevitably expressed. At the beginning of the movie, she’s on top of her game and literally carried on the shoulders of those who worship her for no goddamn reason other than the fact that she’s Regina George. We witness her systematic destruction that is eventually celebrated by the very people she once emotionally overpowered, spearheaded by her former best friend Janice, executed by Cady who literally becomes insult to injury. She didn’t magically grow the empathy and humility bones afterwards though, no. There was just nobody left to leverage, and yet she must keep going, so while her physical therapist was the one to suggest sports, that was only possible once Regina learned how to do one thing: Blend in. Most people with Dark Triad traits - or even the full-blown personalities - don’t go on to become violent killers. Most are never famous or high profile at all, but most people know at least one. The ones who function, keeping up with their jobs/family/commitments, do so by channeling their traits into something that is both productive And self-serving. Regina discovered lacrosse as an outlet for her aggression, thus blending in to the satisfaction of everybody else, but make no mistake - she’s as Machiavellian as she was before, she just no longer stands out for it. Blending will be a life skill for her long after high school is over, and trust me, it’s another weapon in her arsenal.
I'm so glad you did this, obviously everyone loves Mean Girls but I feel like not everyone acknowledges just how clever it is!!! Its 15 years old this year which is so crazy because I think the humour and messages are still so relevant!
Totally, the messages are so timeless and relevant to any decade or period, because it's really tuned in to how teenage girls operate, and what makes them "tick". The same can also be said for fellow "Teen Girl Movies" such as "Clueless", "Heathers", "Never Been Kissed" or "10 Things I Hate About You".💕
I didn't know people loved this film so much! I've only seen it once and I thought it was alright, but that might be because I'm not american and I can't relate to the high school thing as much. I did think it was clever, just not particularly relevant to me maybe. my experience involved a lot more cramming for exams and significantly less of a hierarchy haha. though i do have to point out that I'm not a very socially aware person. I might have just missed all the drama lol
The movie is based on the book "Queen Bees and Wannabes" by Rosalind Wiseman. Rosalind Wiseman is the consultant on the movie. Reading the book makes it really clear on how clever the movie is :)
@BLAIR M Schirmer It's a metaphor though. And I totally agree not only with the video itself, but also with the comments above which talk about how clever the film is. and its timelessness.
I feel more like Janis Ian is the true villain of the story. She single-handedly brought down Regina and the Plastic s' regime by pretending to sympathise with Cady's feelings and using her as a pawn to get revenge for what happened to her in the eighth grade, which she even admits later in the movie.
Please analyse Cady. I think she deserves more attention than just a typical naive turn bad girl. She is a prime example of how a innocent naive individual can be manipulated and corrupted by superficial temptations such as wealth, popularity,...how she is just as human as we r
Cady is more of a blank slate character experiencing high school culture with an outsider's perspective. Making Cady spend most of her life in the african savannah and never having contact with anything close to normal school was a brilliant move, because she notices and points out things about high school culture and the political aspects of popularity with an outsider perspective that a lot of us who grew up in that environment wouldn't notice. Like the part where Regina, Gretchen and Karen all begin to talk about how awful their bodies looked in the mirror, and expected Cady to do the same. Cady then voices how she's confused because all her life she thought there was only fat and skinny, she didn't know there were so many things that could be wrong with your body. Implying this ritual of putting themselves down like that (which a lot of girls constantly do due to societal pressure) is insane.
I'm a history teacher and I'll totally use this analysis to teach my students about authoritarian regimes. I love this move each day more! Thank you for the amazing video
Ok wait so you used to post fmvs, your name is Baby Bat, your profile pic is draculaura from monster high (I'm assuming idk), u have a pic of Harley as your header image and you're planning to use this to teach ur students? You're literally the most amazing teacher omg 👑
+Alia-Also, the question the principal refused to ask was just how Regina knew all this information, why she was turning in this information now, and just how she was able to acquire it so easily if Cady was supposedly the one in charge of the burn book. The principal was aware of who Regina truly was, he even admitted later that he felt personally victimized by her several times, but not only does he refuse to press Regina further over how she knows this much about the burn book, but when Cady, Gretchen, and Karen are called in for questioning, the principal allows her to go completely free. He should've known that Karen and Gretchen were Regina's underlings, and given that they were afraid to talk, clearly they were guilty and had a part in this. But probably Regina was the one who was behind all this and that was they were too afraid to talk. It just proves that even with the adults in the school, Regina had all of them under her thumb.
Mean Girls is one of those movies i can watch and never get bored or tired of the jokes. Thank You for the video, it made me appreciate the movie even more.
The amount of work pit into this movie is probably why these modern high school movies that wants to be the next Mean Girls so badly fails. Personally, i believe it's because they're really only there to bring back the iconic moments from the movie. They try too hard to make the mean girls seem petty and the whole plot as relatable to us or something. Basically, when they watched Mean Girls, they most likely only focused on what the surface showed: iconic lines, jokes, mean girls being mean girls but they never bothered to look deeper into the real meaning and theme the movie is trying to reach for
Honestly nobody acknowledges how pretty Gretchen is as well. She's just as pretty as Karen and Regina, And her beauty going unnoticed by most people is irritating.
I've always suspected colorism played a role in that. Regina and the dumb one are fair skinned blonds; the pretty archetype. Gretchen is brown haired, darker skinned, and Jewish. The opposite of that. Cady is fairskinned BUT a red head, however you can attach fiery and new. Something different for those bored with blonds but not too big a jump for comfort.
+Hazel Jade-Gretchen probably would've been the Queen Bee had Regina not co-opted her into Regina's squad. Even then it's doubtful because even though Gretchen is not as dumb and naive as Karen, she's also also not nearly as smart and cunning as Regina is. Gretchen probably has a host of self esteem issues of her own. That people only like her because she is pretty and because her father is the inventor of Toaster Strudel, so she is a daughter of "royalty." At least in the high school world. So Regina, when she was still manipulating Gretchen to co-opt into the ranks, Regina probably made Gretchen feel special. Like Regina truly cared about her and loved her just for who she is, not for being the "daughter of royalty." And Gretchen believed that Regina's power and privilege exceeded even her own to where it was also a power grab on Gretchen's part. She could be a "hand maiden" to the Queen Bee, but it was far better than her power without Regina. But when Cady was dismantling Regina from the inside, Gretchen's own pettiness and mean girlness had the ability to grow and foster with the Queen Bee being taken down. As Gretchen grew more and more angry at Regina for "betraying her", however Gretchen perceived it, Gretchen let the secrets slip more often. Even eventually make nasty remarks at her own Queen to cut her. Even when she was trouble, she didn't hesitate to use her power and privilege as the "daughter of royalty" aka the daughter of the inventor of Toaster Strudel to get her way out of a mess she helped caused. So Gretchen easily could have tried to snatch the throne away from Regina when Cady was working to take Regina down. It's just that Gretchen is just not as confident and narcissistic as Regina. So she lacks the ambition to want to be the Queen Bee herself. It's good enough to be the "hand maiden." When Cady took Regina down, Gretchen switched her support to a new Queen, a Queen she felt treated her far nicer. It was also because Gretchen could probably sense that the power was shifting over to Cady instead of Regina, and she didn't want to be taken down with Regina either.
Shivon Spicer A sequel from Regina’s perspective as she finds her new niche in athletics could have been a cool movie. Although Mean Girls had a very satisfying ending so I’m not complaining, just musing about what could have been.
Totally, while it WOULD be easy to make Regina a one-dimensional villain with no depth, the movie instead show her to be complex and bored. The group workshop scene, where Ms. Norbury asks everyone whether they've been personally victimized by Regina, shows us that even bullies and enforcers get upset with being disliked, because at the core, we all desperately yearn for acceptance and approval. An especially interesting deleted scene, which can be found on the DVD extras, has Regina relate a story to Cady at prom of how she threw her dollhouse down the stairs because she didn't want anyone else to have it. It adds a layer of depth to Regina, and marks the beginning of the end of her "reign of terror".
the part "gets" throws me off. No one was forcing regina to go to the lengths she did for popularity. It's one thing if she was once the cady to someone else's regina and the only way to get from under her was to usurp her throne or because she grew up not knowing how to relate to her peers and she never learned any other way but that's not who she was. She just intimidated and manipulated the people around her ,which wasnt neccessary (for what end?) or justified. I think I'd go as far to say the whole school would prefer for her to blend into the crowd rather than be the queen bee of the school. It's possible she wouldnt have been accepted due to the damage she caused, realized that so kept her reign of terror going (it's better to be able to reject other people and have others validate your rejection than to be rejected by everyone who once admired you) but even still, that would've been the bed she made and it would've been rightfully so that she laid in it. But at the end of the day, there was no justifiable reason for regina to behave the way she did and ultimately it didnt give her anything lasting or worth having.
Honestly when I took AP Psych and Sociology we used Mean Girls as a perfect example for so many things. Social norms and Taboos, social structures and dynamics as pointed out here, and so many other things. It's a golden films that go along side Legally Blonde, Heather's, and Scream Queens.
@@katherinemorelle7115 Jawbreaker is fantastic in its own right. While I think it's meant to be a campier, more over-the-top film rather than a psychological one, it holds up really well. Not to mention it bridges the gap between its successor and predecessor; it's lighter than Heathers, but darker than Mean Girls.
Ryder Dane-As well, Mean Girls was based off the book Queen Bees and Wannabees, which was written by a psychologist. Rosalind Wiseman even spent over over a decade as the founder of Empower talking directly with teen girls over their experiences. Tina Fey is a pretty whipsmart person and a remarkable satirist. And I believe very well Fey herself understands how much catty mean girl Queen Bees share in common with dictators and the influences and callbacks to the movie to dictators are very much intentional. This is a very sharp, well made film and always has been.
I’m so glad y’all did this. Sometimes people forget that there is LOT we can learn from Mean Girls. It’s not just a iconic chick flick it’s a story that is relatable and a reflection of real world.
I'm really interested in the psychology of Regina. She seems like she has a Machiavellian personality very similarly to Avatar Last Airbender's Azula. They're super similar in that regard. Everything that comes out of her mouth is calculated, she doesn't reveal things about herself, everything is a ploy or an objective to obtain intel on others and use it to her advantage, she's hardly ever sincere and a lot of times she doesn't bother to hide that either. I've always loved this movie and found Regina's character compelling lol
Azula is very similar to Regina in her ruthlessness, but Regina is even more scary in some ways, because she’s socially adept, charismatic and deceptively nice. Azula is not a dictator. She is royalty by birth, a firebending prodigy, and a tactical genius. She doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone because she truly believes her right to rule is divine. She says so to Long Feng too. She never was exposed to normal social hierarchies, and because of her emotional abuse at Ozai’s hands, she’s emotionally and socially stunted. As can be seen in ‘The Beach’ episode.
I agree with the attraction to actually strong female character, even if and possibly especially if they are an antagonist, even if the female character is objectively the “bad guy” or morally corrupt, or just straight up not kind or a bad person, there’s something so captivating about a female character being unapologetically powerful, cunning and even a bit evil sometimes 😅 the way Regina has a deep understanding of her connection with social power/ hierarchy and now that relates to her beauty and public persona is so intriguing because she’s a teenager! These are all high schoolers, but she’s basically the complete opposite of cady, cady is so clueless about high school and the typical life of her peers there, that there’s a montage of her being confused and teachers scolding her over things she doesn’t understand, meanwhile Regina seems to have it way more figured out than even her peers, I mean she’s the queen bee, she knows how the game works and she plays it well. It’s an interesting character type for sure :3
The fact that irl people have the audacity to idolize her, shows how much of a dictator she truly is. And how much of an amazing actress Rachel McAdams is, she killed this role.
Please do a analysis of how Janice herself is corrupted by popularity and how her judgement of the Plastic's for their feminity and sexuallity, is just as manipulative as judging someone who isn't as girly or sexual and confident.
This is interesting, because is obvious she rejected everything Regina was when their friendship ended, and spent a lot of time hating on those things, but at the end we see her happily in a relationship with a guy that saw her "feminine hotness". Also interesting, that as much as she rejected "highschool bullshit, and feminine shit" she was bestfriends with Damien, who was heavily invested in Highschool drama, was himself a part of the whole thing and wanted to be acknowledged (prom, talent show...) and was as "feminine" as the plastics.
Yes, I love how Janis isn't quite so different from her old best friend as she'd like to believe. It's hinted that prior to Janis' falling out with Regina in middle school, that she was just as manipulative and calculating as Regina is now.
@@thunderstorminmyblood3705 So how she doesn't like the Plastic's and is clearly agasint women who use their hyper femininity and sexual attractive nature to torment women, as we see evidence of this calling Regina a slut and hating Cady for enjoying the lifestyle the Plastics have; but this is just as posionous as she judges girls based on enjoying traditionally girly stuff, and it is contradicting as she says how bad the Plastics are and states/ pretends she doesn't care about that when she tells Cady she wants to know what they do, and tells Cady the same rules for how to act in high school e.g. not joining the maths club.
What is also interesting is that Regina was originally friends with Janice before. Many dictators started off as common people who were actually quite likeable, however they got corrupted by power, the same way Regina got corrupted when started disassociating herself from Janice.
@@stephj505 not really she threw her barbie house down the stairs as a seven year old because she did not want her cousin to have it. The obsessive controlling behavior was always there
No Regina thought that Janice was a lesbian because she's Lebanese. Personally I believe that she is a lesbian who is denying it and was scared to be associated with them
I looked up the etymology cuz I was curious. Both replies are correct. Brute does come the Latin word Brutus but it existed before the Ides of March. Also there are different versions of Brutus in Spanish, Italian, French, and English. Language is amazing :)
When a video about a high school queen bee teaches you more about political theory than your own class professor. (In a more understandable way that is).
I love how you guys bring up how literally no one talks about how Regina changes. Instead, we just remember the Queen Bee stereotype. Granted, she was this for 99% of the movie so what else would we expect, but still, no one ever brings up Regina by the end.
because people like beautiful and powerful people like her, by and large. when she calms down and is more humble, she's not as "compelling" anymore. people love dictators and narcissists and to worship them. just look at all the "i love regina" comments!
@@corsicanlulu I think it's because people like the thrill of toppling a dictator, of fighting for dignity, the exciting nerves that come from the uncertainty of being around a tyrant, humble Regina had no more edge to her, you have no dignity in check anymore.
OMG **drumroll pls** THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA NEEDS A VIDEO LIKE THIS Edit: 2.6k likes, damn never got that many before, thxs Anne Hathaway & Meryl Streep
Never has there been a more antagonistic, catty, backstabbing, manipulative, yet strangely compelling "Alpha Dog" in a teen movie since Regina George first hit our screens. What's especially interesting about Regina is how she preys on people's insecurities by turning a complement back on them, and getting them to doubt themselves: "You're like, really pretty"... So you agree, you think you're really pretty". This goes double for the skirt exchange, and purposely dangling Aaron in front of Cady when she knows that she's crushing on him. All of the fighting is subtle, passive aggressive and petty. I also speculate that Cady and Regina's dynamics parallels that of the former friendship between Janis and Regina, in that Janis, like Regina, was the Queen Bee who was "stung" by her own worker bee, who in turn, gets a taste of her own medicine by a slowly evolving Cady. Teenage politics at their finest!👑🐝💅👛
@@thunderstorminmyblood3705 Thank you so much for your comment. Upon thinking it over, I've realized that there isn't really much evidence provided for Janis having been manipulative when she was younger. However, she WAS popular, and Regina felt threatened by this, as well as getting her first "real" boyfriend at the time. As Janis was part Lebanese, she spread a rumor that Janis was a lesbian, and possibly convinced their class of impressionable preteens that they'd heard "lesbian" instead of "Lebanese". After Janis willingly embraces being an outsider as a teenager, she unknowingly becomes more like Regina and tries to use similar tactics through Cady to get back at her frenemy.
@@trinaq no problem! It's 2 am where I am and what better to do than dissect Mean Girls, eh? ;) I agree with you that Janis is also not as "above" the high school pettiness and bullying as she might think. We see that she is, in fact, and ironically, almost "obsessed" with taking Regina down (the same charge levelled against her which she so despises). However, I think Janis's methods are different to Regina's dictatorial ones. I haven't thought about it enough to coherently explain, but one aspect is how reactionary Janis's crusade is, even though she is a political dissident - her frustration and complaints still revolve around REGINA instead of the hierarchial, oppressive system. This is another similarity Regina shares with dictators and even many far right "cult of personality" politicians being elected these days in different countries. In some ways, this obsession only serves to strengthen the legend surrounding Regina.
@@thunderstorminmyblood3705 No worries, obsessively analysing films happens to be my forte!😁 I concur with what you mean about Janis and Regina's methods being slightly different: Janis fixates on overthrowing the dictator themselves, while Regina is more invested in controlling the nation of the student body around her ,and forcing them to bow down to her every whim.
I think the reason why people love Regina, is because she is both likable, pretty, and powerful - and doing everything you know you are not supposed to by society rules, but everything your 'animal' nature is telling you to do. In many ways, she gives us the same fascination as we have with a tiger or other predators. Stunningly beautiful, expertly skilled hunters, and they have a very primal strength. She also have the glamour and femininity factor, in a time where it is almost shameful to be too girly or feminine. (it actually takes a lot of courage to use your feminine power like Regina does) It is kind of like how many people used to kill their sims when they were children, or play them as gold diggers or serial killers. You would never do it, and you know it is wrong, but somehow it is so much more interesting than doing 'the right thing'. It allows you to explore a part of your nature, that you are not 'allowed' to show in real life. (not that you actually want to)
Ok I just rewatched the video again. I gotta say, as a history buff with a penchant for dissecting the brains of dictators as well as a cinephile, this is incredible content. Not only does screenprism provide an in depth analysis on the film, but a comprehensive political history lesson on what qualifies a dictator with a relatable example. This should be shown in high schools and colleges. Hats off to the entire team.
The movie is good....the book, for parents and teenagers...aah I've seen better psychologists explain it the intricacies of that age where everyone tries to be a bully or to be cool!
@@Jna01615 It was extreeeeeemely loosely based (you're about to see what I mean by that) on a non-fiction 'parent's guide to teen girls' called Queen Bees or something. It's not really regarded as 'correct' or anything, but it was an influential book trying to explain year ~2000 teen girls to their parents with this 'bully or victim' thing, and the assumption that all teen girls are chasing coolness or popularity. Tina Fey then wrote a movie, with some of those broad concepts in mind.
Mean Girls is literally based on the sociological text about female social heirarchies, Queen Bees and Wannabes, which helps explain why it works so well! Also, it’s interesting that you wrote that Cady and Janice “took Regina down but didn’t finish her off”. In the recently produced Mean Girls musical, Regina’s solo “World Burn”, which takes place right before and during her publishing of the Burn Book, some lyrics include “you took me down, bur you didn’t finish me off”, as well as “Cady may have won the battle but I will win the war”. Check it out!
+Heather Loschen-And what's interesting when you look at it, it wasn't Cady, Janis, Gretchen, Karen, etc. that brought Regina down in the end. Cady had manipulated her, toppled her down from power. Janis destroyed every last piece of integrity and control she ever had. But what truly brought Regina down in the end was just the fact she didn't stop to check for an oncoming bus. Regina was slapped with a cold, hard hit of pure life. Where even though she didn't die, she very easily could have. She was forced to face her own mortality, that after all her power and control and grand schemes, she was simply human at the end of the day. She was a teenage girl, whose life could have easily ended before her next birthday. Where all she would have been left with. . .was nothing. Just an entire school of people who feared her and hated her. And only when Regina nearly died was when she truly lost everything she knew. And that was when she started to come back to being an actual human being.
When I first watched "Mean Girls", I thought that it was good, but I didn't understand why many people upheld it as one of the best teen movies of this generation. I think this video helped me understand why the movie is so good, and taught me a bit about political theory. Well done.
Melissa Perez r u kidding me? Dan was just Nate part 2! Claiming that he loves her while secretly never stopped loving her best friend. Blair deserved someone who chose her and only her and that was Chuck. And while I agree that he and their relationship was toxic at times, they outgrew that and became a healthy couple.
and I agree with many of the comments; Janice is arguably the most toxic character in Mean Girls because she is so absorbed with Revenge. She's arguably the Sasuke Uchiha of girly world.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this (I'm sure someone has) but the line "That's why her hair is so big, it's full of secrets." holds more than we think. At first Cady's hair is straight then as she gets closer to the plastics, her hair is curled and quite a bit bigger. She's holding the secrets of the plastics just like Gretchen's role.
I love how a movie that looks so shallow at first teachs so close to home that is a classic; doesn't matter wich role you fit, you def see your younger self (and sometimes not even just the younger self) on at least someone of the main cast.
This is so awesome!! Really great. The only thing, it’s not really the psychology of dictatorship, but the *sociology* of dictatorship. It’s about how groups of people get manipulated and played by autocrats etc. I’m a sociologist myself and I see a lot of sociology gets labelled as psychology, probably because no one really knows what sociology is. But everything about interaction, manipulation, groups, traditions, rituals, behaviour in relation to others in a social world; that’s sociology. Not psychology perse. But really interesting!! Very much enjoyed this video
Sour Puss did you have sociology in high school? That’s so cool! Where I’m from we don’t, so no one really knows what it is until some of them go to uni and study it there like I did 😂
@@SK22520 It could just differ high school to high school. I feel psychology is still taken more seriously though, since that one has an Advanced Placement course. Meanwhile, sociology's kind of thought of as that "easier" class for the "regular" students and below to take. The teachings are just as good, anyway, but I agree that sociology does get brushed under the rug a lot.
@@SK22520 I also forgot to mention that he also used it for his psychology course, but he puts more focus on it for sociology. I believe we were going through the concepts of conformity when we watched it.
Can you do an analysis video on Veronica from the Heathers? I would love to see about how her toxic relationships with both JD and the Heathers influenced her and her morality when all the shit hit the fan
*A note to prevent possible misinterpretations:* _"Just like Caesar, Regina ends up being the last dictator before a new form of leadership."_ This implies that Rome moved from being autocratic to being more democratic when in reality it was the other way around. Caesar pretty much marks when the Roman Republic transitions to become the Roman Empire. He was succeeded by a whole line of dictators beginning with his adopted son and great-nephew Augustus. Thank you and have a nice day.
+lazyperson2000-And the end of the movie hints that what happened to Rome could come to pass for the high school. With The Plastics dissolved, a new group of Plastics rose to try and take their place. These young girls already had the markings to become the brand new high school dictators. However, those young wannabe(e) Plastics soon faced the same cold hard dose of life that Regina was forced to go through. They nearly got ran over by the bus just like Regina did and only narrowly avoided making that same mistake Regina did by not checking that a bus was coming by. So the movie hints that the next succession of "dictators", the wannaBEES, will not last very long. If they still tried to accolate power for themselves after that incident, everyone had grown so much, learned so much from the previous regime to where those three girls would learn their place real quick and real soon. Perhaps even Regina would be willing to steer them straight soon enough if they got too far out of line.
OMG, is this really happening?? This is so fetch 😍😍😍 Please do an analyze on the other Mean Girls too 😍😍 Fun fact: Rachel McAdams was wearing a wig during this movie, since her hair could never grow out longer than to her shoulders 😊
@@MsTropicandy Not really :) But for this one I was, because it was a childhood movie, so my entire world just changed, when I heard about the wig recently :D
" and so like a true dictator, her legacy lives on " This literally gave me chills. Who would have thought so much work would have been put into making a high school bully. Hats off to Tina Fey. Also I would like to ask any Mean Girls superfan here if there was any scene that confirmed Regina's IQ. I mean yes I know about that cafeteria scene when she asked the rest of the Plastics to count how much calories there are in the thing she was going to eat but come on, sometimes we are just too lazy for mind calculations am I right ? And in the movie it is never clearly stated if she is academically gifted or not whereas it was stated clearly by different events that Karen was THE dumb-blonde in the movie. So what do you guys think ? Is Regina considered stupid or smart ? And also to the Americans, would the majority of the student body really prefer some dumb students who fails constantly but is a regulation hottie or someone that excels in education and has a mediocre appearance ?
Regina is notably intelligent, cunning and conniving. She has to be to orchestrate an enter hierarchy to bend to her whim and influence with such skill. And for your last question it depends on the school.
Regina knows that words are often misinterpreted as being a promise to follow with action. She knows that by actively “complimenting” people it will instantly give her that glamorous and charming reputation. She works in such an intelligent way that she doesn’t need to prove she’s trustworthy by showing it, she proves it by saying it. In other words, it’s quite literally to work smarter rather than harder. It’s the ultimate form of genius that can only be defined as manipulation. This is also why she connects to dictators-because many make false promises; or seek to blind their audience with false provision.
"My name is Regina George And I am a massive deal Fear me. Love me. Stand and stare at me. And these These are real. I've got money and looks I am, like, drunk with power. This whole school Humps my leg Like a chihuahua. I'm the prettiest poison you've ever seen. I never weigh more than 115. My name is Regina George And I am a massive deal. I don't care who you are. I don't care how you feeeeeeeellll."
"Yes, Regina No, Regina Every waking hour I spend making sure Regina George can stay in power If Regina is the sun Then I'm a disco ball 'Cause I'm just as bright and fun If you've had alcohol I rip your secrets out of you And bring them to my master Then I watch Regina make your life a big disaster Disaster! Regina is the queen But I'm the head of worker bees I am seated at her right hand Like a Jewish Princess Jesus"
My name is Karen My hair is shiny My teeth are perfect My skirt is tiny It barely covers my perky hiney My name is Karen I may not be smart... That's it!😂
8:33 I always thought Cady had to make a choice wether she tells Janice the truth because: *•If she tells Janice she’s in it, Janice would be angry and ask her what Regina wrote* *•If Cady said she’s not in it ( which she did ), Janice would still be angry because she would think in Regina’s eyes she’s not a girl and the Burn Book is for girls*
And it turned out Cady was right. When Cady lied and said that Regina wasn't in the book, Janice still went, "That. . .bitch. . ." Janice would despise being put in the book but to not be in the book was the greater insult. Regina put people in the book that she perceived to be legitimate threats. People important enough for her to notice. Even if it was just a book cooked up by three bored, petty high school bullies, being put in the book carried a certain weight and reputation. Even though Janice hates Regina, she still wants Regina to know her. And that's the twisted relationship with a Queen Bee. You hate everything about them but you're still gravitated to them to where you WANT them to still know about you.
Regina’s a more compelling ‘Queen bee’ character than most of the ones we see on Disney Channel because she’s actually smart. She knows how to manipulate people to get what she wants.
Another thing about Regina's manipulation and repression is how fast it is. She's always on top of things, and it never takes her more than a moment to come up with a plan - it only took seconds to call the girl from the mall's mom and tell her a lie, and she immediately runs home to write her own name in the Burn Book as soon as she finds out what Cady did. She's smart, swift, and ruthless in a way that's kind of terrifying.
I didn't realise how crafty and sneaky regina is. I didn't even realise in the movie that she is a genius. Planning all these sneaky tactics to stay in control that I had no idea she was doing. Well done to the people who made the movie.
I love how an avarage youtube video has comments like: Nobody: no one: literally no one... And this video has comments that should be in a complex theory
seriously, what I really love about your channel, aside from your genius analyses, is your comment section. i'm always so happy to see people engaging in these discussions with intelligent and well thought out/articulated comments, continuing the debate you start in your vids. such a rare thing on TH-cam. I hope you are proud of your community as well
YESSSS Thanks for this, I'm a dude who always loved this movie but my best mate refuses to watch it coz he thinks it's too girly, this will be the perfect vid to pique his interest
Fun fact: the name Regina translates to queen, which suits very well for her character, but it could also make an reference to King George III (the crazy one)
Brilliant! The world needs to watch this! Heck, this needs to be shown in high school political science classes everywhere. Save the cheerleader, save the world.
i love how this channel is like watch mojo or all those other channels with a female voice speaking over a bunch of tv/movie clips but this channel has so much more substance and i honestly learn so much through these videos. thank you so much for making this channel ♡
I've always thought that Regina was just as mean as what Janice did lmao. Like she must have had her own plan when she befriended Cady, so Cady and Janice's plan was not only the bad thing from the movie.
This film was honestly before it's time. I learnt so much from it as a young girl. From the get go it seems like a typical high school trope movie, but It really brings in so many great themes such as bullying, oppression, conformity, social class, insecurities, feminism, primal instincts for survival. Our teen years are the most misunderstood years of our lives. This highlights a few of many struggles we go through although on a dramatized, Hollywood-esque level. Although the actors don't demonstrate the realism of a teenager looks wise in this film, the themes presented are real. Imagine this film now with the added social media pressures, fancy smartphones, those scary internet challenge/dares etc..I feel for the teens growing up now!
You hit the nail on the head. Mean Girls is really about how uncomfortable it is to be young. You face the pressure and adversity of adulthood in many ways, but haven't yet developed the emotional maturity/learned the tools to deal with that discomfort, anxiety, and frustration. You also don't know who you are yet because your brain and body are still changing, nor do you have much control over your surroundings. It's such an miserable time.
i love how this movie is a microcosm for dictatorships. everything is symbolic and it’s honestly so genius. this movie doesn’t get enough credit for that.
There’s one more advantage to Cooption: when the competition is likable and they become a part of the regime, the regime itself becomes likable. Dictators rely on popularity of coworkers and policies to enforce their rule.
Can we briefly discuss how good Rachel McAdams was: even at her worst she’s completely charismatic. She could have been written as dumb but Regina is simultaneously completely superficial and fiercely intelligent. Rachel was great casting.
yea aren't "mean girls" usually intelligent? I mean not just girls but anyone who is capable of manipulation and plotting like that cannot be total meatheads.
Chris Parkes they all we’re
Yeah. Regina may not be a good student, but she's NOT dumb when she's planning or manipulating people.
I feel like the audience can tell Rachel is a smart person. It shows through her performance
Lol you know a woman wrote this, because the female characters are the main characters, and they aren’t one dimensional bimbos...
This just further proves that Mean Girls is a true work of art
😍❤
Exactly!
Lacy Cherbert is a work of art
It's close enough to Heather's depth.
I was about to comment the same idea .. it actually deeper than people give it credit for
did y'all just....teach me political theory through mean girls? I'm shook
Even Mad Men too.
Bee aren’t high school nothing but a simulator of society at large. You have your prédisent, celebrities and influences as powerful as multinational corporations. It’s all one big microcosm!
You & me both
Hey shock, I’m dad
Mean girls is literally political
"So you agree? You think you're really pretty?"
The absolute most toxic line in this film.
Caitlyn That's the line I always remembered from the movie!
I don't understand why people think this line is toxic!
@@unSeife That line puts Cady in a catch 22. If Cady says 'yes' she will sound conceited. If 'Cady says 'no' she will seem like she's trying to conflict with Regina.
@@trajayjayheyyayy8276 Yep, the question is a double-edged sword. I was never asked this specifically but I was bullied by older girls in school and they would give me backhanded compliments like this and it really sucked.
I'd reply "I just thought that _you_ thought that I was really pretty. I mean that's what you said, right?" to checkmate Regina. I'm not as susceptible to manipulation like that because I've done too much research on it.
I like how you touched on Regina's rage! I've always found it to be one of the most compelling parts of her character. I feel like high school movies don't usually touch on the profound rage of being a teenage girl.
yea I mean it's understandable to be angry or frustrated at times. yet some individuals are just angry for no reason. why is she always angry? it could just be how she naturally is. people say it's how you're raised but no. I think some people make lemons out of lemonade and others crumble under the lightest pressure
@@oooh19 Being always angry could be a sign of depression. It's not what we usually think of when we think about depression, but it's one way it can affect some people
@@oooh19 Probs just her natural personality combined with a mother that didn't impose personal boundaries.
Keeping up such a facade and never being free to fully be yourself or to crumble and fail takes its toll on human psyche.
Cannot agree more.
Regina isn't like the typical movie mean girl these days, she isn't going to pour a drink on your head, or intentionally trip you in the halls, or dump gunk over you on prom night, she's going to orchestrate, plan, and calculate your demise, which I think is all the more worse
Blue and co. And is more realistic.
the meanest people are the most suspicious and deceiving when your in the room they can say nice stuff to your face but when you walk away its the total opposite theyre liars, theyre compulsive, theyre manipulative, selfish, etc. they just dont give a damn and they dont even know theyre mean so its even worse.
ah reminds me of a friend
@@Oshin_Life "friend"?
@@marimidoriya6059 sorry frenemy
,,I wanted to portray Hitler the way he was almost ment to be portrayed; as a fancy highschool teenange girl"
Bruno Ganz, 2004
Rip to him by the way.
@@Skadi609 I hope you mean Ganz, not Hitler.
Hitler was soooo a mean teen girl - with a serious anger problem! Mega lol! The history books should refrence Hitler too Mean Girls!!
SHHHIIIIT, i made a mistake.,,I wanted to portray Hitler the way he was always ment to be portrayed". Sorry, despite long years of practise, i still made dumb mistakes
@@ohwellwhateverr Of course I was referring to Bruno Ganz😀. He died recently.
Something that's interesting about her is the way she is very... conscious of ways to manipulate her fellow students. The first thing she says to cady is, "you're really pretty". Cady says thanks, like any normal human being, when Regina then turns around with "so u agree". This is a genius move for several reasons. It traps cady emotionally. See, if she says yes she'll look bad, but if she says no she'll be basically calling Regina a liar and exposing the fact that she was kinda being 'fake' in accepting the compliment. When cady inevitably stutters, Regina swiftly changes the topic before she can stand up for herself. This does several things. Firstly, it asserts her dominance as the manipulator of the conversation and thus of the group. Second, it makes cady want to prove herself to an obvious leader. Third, it makes her feel insecure so that she'll want to be loyal to Regina so that Regina compliments her and eases her fears. Fourth, it traps her emotionally, making her easy to control. I just think that small line of dialogue tells us so much about the characters and the methods Regina uses to control her minions. Just a genius scene.
Nice analysis
@@LapisGarter really nice I agree a lot
I think the question was really meant to test if Cady was insecure or not, and her level of confidence, where it lies. To kinda have an idea if she was easy to manipulate or not. If she said yes definitely, it would make Cady come across really cocky and confident, almost seen as a true threat and Regina would feed off of that to truly create her strategy of manipulating Cady. And if Cady said no, it would’ve showed her right away that Cady is insecure and needs Regina to reassure her in her looks. But kinda stuttering and almost saying nothing gives the answer that Cady has the potential to be aware of her looks but is to nice to be out loud about it, and as a dictator she sees how with that potential threat she needs to end that by pretending to be close with Cady so she wouldn’t overshadow her, which kinda was her plan in the movie. The strategy was used to test the waters basically to get a first impression of her personality traits to use against her.
regina is a malignant narcissist, and this one of their many tactics to destroy a person
I wonder how you could reply to that without coming off as insincere or cocky. If I had time to think it out, I'd probably say "I suppose. Do you think that *you're* pretty?" But in real life, I'd probably just end up stuttering like Cady.
The most interesting thing about someone like Regina George to me is how we can all collectively hate her and acknowledge her problematic oppressive power, but we actively glamorize her (Thank You Next by Ariana Grande), admire her, feel captivated by her, and remember her. I think that's so fascinating.
I just like her because I've been told I share the same characteristics and I genuinely enjoy her manipulative personality, she's interesting. People like entertainment whether it's morally good or not. I'd love to be friends with Regina or atleast fight with her, I think a war between us would be outstanding
Lmao. And u are proud of that?
Yeah I hate this so much. I know, her style is cool and everything, everyone likes fashionable and charismatic icons. But this movie and the book it was inspired from were made to expose this kind of toxic people in youth and we should remember it, and try not to glamourize bullying.
that’s how sociopathy works in real life lol even knowing someone is manipulative, self absorbed and toxic you still find them very intriguing and captivating because of their charisma and the way they make everyone fall in love with them (not literally) but you get the point , rachel really did a good job portraying her , it was very realistic
@@user-bd6hn THIS.
I feel like the fact Regina said Gretchen isn’t “pretty” is bc she isn’t blonde and fair skinned which was the standard of beauty at the time. The reality is Gretchen is just as pretty if not prettier (depending on your taste) but you can tell Gretchen doesn’t think she (herself) is pretty. Regina knows this and plays on Gretchen’s deep insecurity to keep her in her place and so she herself doesn’t become a threat to Regina.
Na Gretchen is average. There are hot black people in the movie. Check when Janice names them "unfriendly black hotties" in the dining tables.
Lindsay Lohan is not a blonde either tho
@@lmatt88 yeah theyre attractive but that's not the universal beauty standard. Which is the big underline here. The point of them being mentioned but not playing a bigger role or seen as a threat to the plastics is the fact that simply being attractive isnt enough to do what regina did. The fact is that people arent going to react to you in the same way as a white person. You wouldnt be able to gain the same level of control regina or cady has for the exact same reasons because black vs white beauty are measured and valued differently. You would have to be attractive enough In the way that appeals to the highest amount of people to do what regina did. Which means you have to satisfy western beauty standards, which typically means white, skinny/fit, upperclass and fair skinned. This also leads into a conversation about black beauty vs. white beauty and the reactions they can uniquely elicit, the influence they uniquely have on a micro/mass scale and their standards and limitations. And an entire movie could be made on just that alone. I would love to see a mean girls movie that uses his as a jumping off point to explore this aspect further. I wouldnt say tina Fey Is the right person to do that, neccesarily, but I'm sure theres someone out there who would do execute this well.
Regina and Karen are hot but Gretchen is beautiful!
Yeah because if her minions gain confidence and independence from Regina, they can completely break free from her
yes, indeed we do want a video on every mean girls character
But after the Wire
Blair Waldorf please
Ciara Able I feel like she acknowledges she’s a dictator though 😂
Glen Coco please
Dont Fuck With Me TH-cam Karen
This video is amazingly accurate.
Also, for the Gretchen, she is the media. Regina control her to spread about information that she approves or not. Which is why she is so important in taking down the dictator, as the media is always crucial in completely changing ones image.
Oh wow i never thought of that
Awesome analysis!! Was it Goebbels that controlled the media for Hitler (communication)
@Sarah Regime?
that’s an amzing anylasis!!
@@caliewithonel it means "reign"
Why is nobody talking about how Janice manipulated Cady in to bringing Regina down? She wasn't even her friend, she just pushed her to hang out with Regina and then got mad when she started being influenced by her. And at the end, exposing Cady in front of everyone. I always thought Janice was toxic.
It's because Janice admits in the movie that's she's a bad person before later apologizing and we all know they were friends in middle school where it's hinted Janice was as shady as Girl Hitler lol 😂 I mean Regina
Everyone in the movie is toxic 😂😂😂😂😂 it’s high school
@@Stefy876 Amen!
I think Janice goes the way a lot activists do. She gets so obsessed with regime that she's looking to take down, she doesn't care who she has to step on to achieve her ambitions.
Anja Vrčon good point
The thing that’s the most interesting to me about Regina’s character is that even though every other background character and supporting cast sees her as someone who has everything and has the perfect position in life, Regina is never actually portrayed as genuinely ‘happy’. She’s somewhat cavalier about her popularity when she’s not being catty, and the only scenes where she’s smiling are superficial moments, or when she feels powerful-but she’s never portrayed to be *_satisfied_* with her life, or even herself. She’s envied and admired by everyone, power and all, but she’s angry and miserable under the mask of superficial plastic.
yea and honestly in real life we all never truly know what others actually feel or think like unless they open up to us. they do many things in private, we all do. people who are happy most likely WOULDN'T feel the need to put others down all the time especially their friends.
bullies are often insecure
In fact Regina actually seems a lot happier and genuine at the end when she’s joined the lacrosse team. She’s got an outlet to express her aggression in a healthier way, and the best part? She actually has friends who are on equal footing with her instead of subservient ‘yes man’ minions.
@@yamato6114 because Regina's internal struggle is identity and people often equate environment with identity.
@@yamato6114I also believe her home life is another cause of her anger/controlling nature. The way she speaks to her mom was telling enough. And where was her father in all this chaos?
I love the fact that Regina wasnt "defeated" at the end of the movie. Instead of being bullied by her teenage peers, she finds a spot on the lacrosse team. The masses didnt ostrisize her for her dictorial crimes, the masses integrated her for her newfound humility.
Right. Now I do think she was able to be forgiven is because she had the literally whole student body and staff under her thumb; it wasn’t like she just went after a few. And with the exception of the “wannabe”girl she punched in the face (it was awesome lol) she didn’t physically hurt anyone. I’m not condoning Regina’s behavior at all, however, when bullies are genuinely sorry, apologize, and actively change…forgiveness just happens sometimes. Besides, the girls oppressed by The Plastics truly get it…they know what it’s like to be a girl.
I took it as a commentary on high school, senior year most of the "established" hierarchies generally break down when people start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 10+ years of built up school-age drama disappears when people realize it's all meaningless. No matter what, the "Plastics" would have been irrelevant 2 years later anyway, right? High School ends. All that backstabbing and drama carving out a top social position, and no matter what eventually people would stop caring senior year. It only holds value if people buy into it.
Newfound humility? Please. She has calculating sociopathic tendencies (if not the full-blown disorder) and just like in real life, that does not change.
However, what changes is How those traits are inevitably expressed. At the beginning of the movie, she’s on top of her game and literally carried on the shoulders of those who worship her for no goddamn reason other than the fact that she’s Regina George. We witness her systematic destruction that is eventually celebrated by the very people she once emotionally overpowered, spearheaded by her former best friend Janice, executed by Cady who literally becomes insult to injury. She didn’t magically grow the empathy and humility bones afterwards though, no. There was just nobody left to leverage, and yet she must keep going, so while her physical therapist was the one to suggest sports, that was only possible once Regina learned how to do one thing: Blend in.
Most people with Dark Triad traits - or even the full-blown personalities - don’t go on to become violent killers. Most are never famous or high profile at all, but most people know at least one. The ones who function, keeping up with their jobs/family/commitments, do so by channeling their traits into something that is both productive And self-serving. Regina discovered lacrosse as an outlet for her aggression, thus blending in to the satisfaction of everybody else, but make no mistake - she’s as Machiavellian as she was before, she just no longer stands out for it. Blending will be a life skill for her long after high school is over, and trust me, it’s another weapon in her arsenal.
I'm so glad you did this, obviously everyone loves Mean Girls but I feel like not everyone acknowledges just how clever it is!!! Its 15 years old this year which is so crazy because I think the humour and messages are still so relevant!
Totally, the messages are so timeless and relevant to any decade or period, because it's really tuned in to how teenage girls operate, and what makes them "tick". The same can also be said for fellow "Teen Girl Movies" such as "Clueless", "Heathers", "Never Been Kissed" or "10 Things I Hate About You".💕
I didn't know people loved this film so much! I've only seen it once and I thought it was alright, but that might be because I'm not american and I can't relate to the high school thing as much. I did think it was clever, just not particularly relevant to me maybe. my experience involved a lot more cramming for exams and significantly less of a hierarchy haha. though i do have to point out that I'm not a very socially aware person. I might have just missed all the drama lol
The movie is based on the book "Queen Bees and Wannabes" by Rosalind Wiseman. Rosalind Wiseman is the consultant on the movie. Reading the book makes it really clear on how clever the movie is :)
The movie definitely aged very well. The writing was so well done. Kudos to Tina Fey.
@BLAIR M Schirmer It's a metaphor though. And I totally agree not only with the video itself, but also with the comments above which talk about how clever the film is. and its timelessness.
I feel more like Janis Ian is the true villain of the story. She single-handedly brought down Regina and the Plastic s' regime by pretending to sympathise with Cady's feelings and using her as a pawn to get revenge for what happened to her in the eighth grade, which she even admits later in the movie.
Tina Fey's a genius. It was entirely on purpose but it never gets enough attention as analysis on the popular girl trio.
She’s like the Rasputin of this story.
And she was basically calling cady a hypocrite and told her something like u with your innocent girl act from africa or something along those lines.
I think she's more of an anti hero than a true villain? She wanted to topple her regime but she used really bad means to do it.
@@acatindisguise by manipulating cady. Everyone manipulated cady.
Please analyse Cady. I think she deserves more attention than just a typical naive turn bad girl. She is a prime example of how a innocent naive individual can be manipulated and corrupted by superficial temptations such as wealth, popularity,...how she is just as human as we r
Cu Xoan exactly!
Daenerys from GoT
Exactly
I also really loved what Cady said as she won that math thing
Cady is more of a blank slate character experiencing high school culture with an outsider's perspective. Making Cady spend most of her life in the african savannah and never having contact with anything close to normal school was a brilliant move, because she notices and points out things about high school culture and the political aspects of popularity with an outsider perspective that a lot of us who grew up in that environment wouldn't notice. Like the part where Regina, Gretchen and Karen all begin to talk about how awful their bodies looked in the mirror, and expected Cady to do the same. Cady then voices how she's confused because all her life she thought there was only fat and skinny, she didn't know there were so many things that could be wrong with your body. Implying this ritual of putting themselves down like that (which a lot of girls constantly do due to societal pressure) is insane.
The way Regina works is: Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer
Wow, so true
Except she has no friends so she just keeps her potential enemies close
More like keep enemies closer
And yet , in real life if you cannot make your enemy closer , you make everyone hates your enemy by playing victim.
I'm a history teacher and I'll totally use this analysis to teach my students about authoritarian regimes. I love this move each day more!
Thank you for the amazing video
Baby Bat, I love that you teach using this movie. It definitely makes me understand politics and power and influence more.
@Soniya Kabdwal thankfully not, this is kinda an anon profile, but I think that if they knew they'd find it funny lol
@Soniya Kabdwal LMAO
Can I be your student
Ok wait so you used to post fmvs, your name is Baby Bat, your profile pic is draculaura from monster high (I'm assuming idk), u have a pic of Harley as your header image and you're planning to use this to teach ur students? You're literally the most amazing teacher omg 👑
I hope Tina Fey sees this. She would be so proud!
She really would!
Regina picked a good photo of herself for the burn book. That should have been a clue.
There are no bad pictures of Regina George
angel88 - If she wanted to be more convincing, she could have taken one.
+Alia-Also, the question the principal refused to ask was just how Regina knew all this information, why she was turning in this information now, and just how she was able to acquire it so easily if Cady was supposedly the one in charge of the burn book. The principal was aware of who Regina truly was, he even admitted later that he felt personally victimized by her several times, but not only does he refuse to press Regina further over how she knows this much about the burn book, but when Cady, Gretchen, and Karen are called in for questioning, the principal allows her to go completely free. He should've known that Karen and Gretchen were Regina's underlings, and given that they were afraid to talk, clearly they were guilty and had a part in this. But probably Regina was the one who was behind all this and that was they were too afraid to talk. It just proves that even with the adults in the school, Regina had all of them under her thumb.
Fera Flauna yup
Fera Flauna holy shi-
Mean Girls is one of those movies i can watch and never get bored or tired of the jokes. Thank You for the video, it made me appreciate the movie even more.
Same!! It's such a classic
joel delacruz same. I love it.
Same! The humour never gets boring even tho I've watched it tons of times
joel dlc same
Same I’m actually watching it right now
The amount of work pit into this movie is probably why these modern high school movies that wants to be the next Mean Girls so badly fails. Personally, i believe it's because they're really only there to bring back the iconic moments from the movie. They try too hard to make the mean girls seem petty and the whole plot as relatable to us or something. Basically, when they watched Mean Girls, they most likely only focused on what the surface showed: iconic lines, jokes, mean girls being mean girls but they never bothered to look deeper into the real meaning and theme the movie is trying to reach for
ARhannah mind staying what that is-
exactly
fr or nowadays they never depict the social media side properly
Yes! They're trying to make what's the toppings of the pizza (the iconic parts) and aren't focusing on the pizza itself.
Honestly nobody acknowledges how pretty Gretchen is as well. She's just as pretty as Karen and Regina, And her beauty going unnoticed by most people is irritating.
This is my favorite movie and my boyfriend always says Gretchen is the prettiest.
I always found her to be the prettiest. Like she had the best chance to take over as queen bee.
I've always suspected colorism played a role in that. Regina and the dumb one are fair skinned blonds; the pretty archetype. Gretchen is brown haired, darker skinned, and Jewish. The opposite of that. Cady is fairskinned BUT a red head, however you can attach fiery and new. Something different for those bored with blonds but not too big a jump for comfort.
+Hazel Jade-Gretchen probably would've been the Queen Bee had Regina not co-opted her into Regina's squad. Even then it's doubtful because even though Gretchen is not as dumb and naive as Karen, she's also also not nearly as smart and cunning as Regina is. Gretchen probably has a host of self esteem issues of her own. That people only like her because she is pretty and because her father is the inventor of Toaster Strudel, so she is a daughter of "royalty." At least in the high school world.
So Regina, when she was still manipulating Gretchen to co-opt into the ranks, Regina probably made Gretchen feel special. Like Regina truly cared about her and loved her just for who she is, not for being the "daughter of royalty." And Gretchen believed that Regina's power and privilege exceeded even her own to where it was also a power grab on Gretchen's part. She could be a "hand maiden" to the Queen Bee, but it was far better than her power without Regina.
But when Cady was dismantling Regina from the inside, Gretchen's own pettiness and mean girlness had the ability to grow and foster with the Queen Bee being taken down. As Gretchen grew more and more angry at Regina for "betraying her", however Gretchen perceived it, Gretchen let the secrets slip more often. Even eventually make nasty remarks at her own Queen to cut her. Even when she was trouble, she didn't hesitate to use her power and privilege as the "daughter of royalty" aka the daughter of the inventor of Toaster Strudel to get her way out of a mess she helped caused.
So Gretchen easily could have tried to snatch the throne away from Regina when Cady was working to take Regina down. It's just that Gretchen is just not as confident and narcissistic as Regina. So she lacks the ambition to want to be the Queen Bee herself. It's good enough to be the "hand maiden." When Cady took Regina down, Gretchen switched her support to a new Queen, a Queen she felt treated her far nicer. It was also because Gretchen could probably sense that the power was shifting over to Cady instead of Regina, and she didn't want to be taken down with Regina either.
I definitely agree, I was waiting for someone else to bring it up
Awwww I kinda like how Regina grows as a person too and actually gets to be a normal person
Shivon Spicer A sequel from Regina’s perspective as she finds her new niche in athletics could have been a cool movie. Although Mean Girls had a very satisfying ending so I’m not complaining, just musing about what could have been.
Yes!
Totally, while it WOULD be easy to make Regina a one-dimensional villain with no depth, the movie instead show her to be complex and bored. The group workshop scene, where Ms. Norbury asks everyone whether they've been personally victimized by Regina, shows us that even bullies and enforcers get upset with being disliked, because at the core, we all desperately yearn for acceptance and approval.
An especially interesting deleted scene, which can be found on the DVD extras, has Regina relate a story to Cady at prom of how she threw her dollhouse down the stairs because she didn't want anyone else to have it. It adds a layer of depth to Regina, and marks the beginning of the end of her "reign of terror".
Mollytov Xx I sorta want a character study movie about Regina.
the part "gets" throws me off. No one was forcing regina to go to the lengths she did for popularity. It's one thing if she was once the cady to someone else's regina and the only way to get from under her was to usurp her throne or because she grew up not knowing how to relate to her peers and she never learned any other way but that's not who she was. She just intimidated and manipulated the people around her ,which wasnt neccessary (for what end?) or justified. I think I'd go as far to say the whole school would prefer for her to blend into the crowd rather than be the queen bee of the school. It's possible she wouldnt have been accepted due to the damage she caused, realized that so kept her reign of terror going (it's better to be able to reject other people and have others validate your rejection than to be rejected by everyone who once admired you) but even still, that would've been the bed she made and it would've been rightfully so that she laid in it. But at the end of the day, there was no justifiable reason for regina to behave the way she did and ultimately it didnt give her anything lasting or worth having.
Honestly when I took AP Psych and Sociology we used Mean Girls as a perfect example for so many things. Social norms and Taboos, social structures and dynamics as pointed out here, and so many other things. It's a golden films that go along side Legally Blonde, Heather's, and Scream Queens.
Yeesss! Heathers!!!! I love the movie and musical. I feel like heathers is the original Mean girls minus the murders.
Heathers is another perfect example of it
What about Jawbreaker? A criminally underrated teen flick. It was Mean Girls before there was a Mean Girls.
@@katherinemorelle7115 Jawbreaker is fantastic in its own right. While I think it's meant to be a campier, more over-the-top film rather than a psychological one, it holds up really well. Not to mention it bridges the gap between its successor and predecessor; it's lighter than Heathers, but darker than Mean Girls.
Ryder Dane-As well, Mean Girls was based off the book Queen Bees and Wannabees, which was written by a psychologist. Rosalind Wiseman even spent over over a decade as the founder of Empower talking directly with teen girls over their experiences. Tina Fey is a pretty whipsmart person and a remarkable satirist. And I believe very well Fey herself understands how much catty mean girl Queen Bees share in common with dictators and the influences and callbacks to the movie to dictators are very much intentional. This is a very sharp, well made film and always has been.
I’m so glad y’all did this. Sometimes people forget that there is LOT we can learn from Mean Girls. It’s not just a iconic chick flick it’s a story that is relatable and a reflection of real world.
I'm really interested in the psychology of Regina. She seems like she has a Machiavellian personality very similarly to Avatar Last Airbender's Azula. They're super similar in that regard. Everything that comes out of her mouth is calculated, she doesn't reveal things about herself, everything is a ploy or an objective to obtain intel on others and use it to her advantage, she's hardly ever sincere and a lot of times she doesn't bother to hide that either. I've always loved this movie and found Regina's character compelling lol
this was my exact thought after rewatching Avatar
Azula is very similar to Regina in her ruthlessness, but Regina is even more scary in some ways, because she’s socially adept, charismatic and deceptively nice.
Azula is not a dictator. She is royalty by birth, a firebending prodigy, and a tactical genius. She doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone because she truly believes her right to rule is divine. She says so to Long Feng too.
She never was exposed to normal social hierarchies, and because of her emotional abuse at Ozai’s hands, she’s emotionally and socially stunted. As can be seen in ‘The Beach’ episode.
Sad thing is that Azula didn't get the same ending.
@@shreshthadavi141 Azula is my favorite antagonist of all time! I enjoyed reading her little review about her! And I agree a lot!
I agree with the attraction to actually strong female character, even if and possibly especially if they are an antagonist, even if the female character is objectively the “bad guy” or morally corrupt, or just straight up not kind or a bad person, there’s something so captivating about a female character being unapologetically powerful, cunning and even a bit evil sometimes 😅 the way Regina has a deep understanding of her connection with social power/ hierarchy and now that relates to her beauty and public persona is so intriguing because she’s a teenager! These are all high schoolers, but she’s basically the complete opposite of cady, cady is so clueless about high school and the typical life of her peers there, that there’s a montage of her being confused and teachers scolding her over things she doesn’t understand, meanwhile Regina seems to have it way more figured out than even her peers, I mean she’s the queen bee, she knows how the game works and she plays it well. It’s an interesting character type for sure :3
The fact that irl people have the audacity to idolize her, shows how much of a dictator she truly is.
And how much of an amazing actress Rachel McAdams is, she killed this role.
Please do a analysis of how Janice herself is corrupted by popularity and how her judgement of the Plastic's for their feminity and sexuallity, is just as manipulative as judging someone who isn't as girly or sexual and confident.
This is interesting, because is obvious she rejected everything Regina was when their friendship ended, and spent a lot of time hating on those things, but at the end we see her happily in a relationship with a guy that saw her "feminine hotness". Also interesting, that as much as she rejected "highschool bullshit, and feminine shit" she was bestfriends with Damien, who was heavily invested in Highschool drama, was himself a part of the whole thing and wanted to be acknowledged (prom, talent show...) and was as "feminine" as the plastics.
Yes, I love how Janis isn't quite so different from her old best friend as she'd like to believe. It's hinted that prior to Janis' falling out with Regina in middle school, that she was just as manipulative and calculating as Regina is now.
@@trinaq ooh interesting. But maybe I missed how it was hinted that Janice was manipulative before their falling out - could you please explain?
i think the same analysis can be applied to Juno
@@thunderstorminmyblood3705 So how she doesn't like the Plastic's and is clearly agasint women who use their hyper femininity and sexual attractive nature to torment women, as we see evidence of this calling Regina a slut and hating Cady for enjoying the lifestyle the Plastics have; but this is just as posionous as she judges girls based on enjoying traditionally girly stuff, and it is contradicting as she says how bad the Plastics are and states/ pretends she doesn't care about that when she tells Cady she wants to know what they do, and tells Cady the same rules for how to act in high school e.g. not joining the maths club.
What is also interesting is that Regina was originally friends with Janice before. Many dictators started off as common people who were actually quite likeable, however they got corrupted by power, the same way Regina got corrupted when started disassociating herself from Janice.
Yeah. I bet Regina was nicer as a little kid too.
I think Regina felt threatened and jealous by Janice so tried to destroy her. That happened to me
@@stephj505 not really she threw her barbie house down the stairs as a seven year old because she did not want her cousin to have it. The obsessive controlling behavior was always there
No Regina thought that Janice was a lesbian because she's Lebanese. Personally I believe that she is a lesbian who is denying it and was scared to be associated with them
The one thing I took away from this movie is that bus drivers brake for nobody!
I think this bus driver is a psycho that hates teenage girls.
@@valentinli332 or had a daughter/girlfriend who was personally victimized by Regina George.
And the weird thing is that Bus drivers are just lile that in every country
wait a minute...is it called brute force BECAUSE of Brutus stabbing Ceaser?
Brutus is where the word "brutal" came from, yes.
No, the meaning of the word brutus existed long before the Ides of March. Just look it up in any dictionary.
I looked up the etymology cuz I was curious. Both replies are correct. Brute does come the Latin word Brutus but it existed before the Ides of March. Also there are different versions of Brutus in Spanish, Italian, French, and English. Language is amazing :)
@@mischr13 also portuguese
JANICE WINS
BRUTALITY
When a video about a high school queen bee teaches you more about political theory than your own class professor. (In a more understandable way that is).
I love how you guys bring up how literally no one talks about how Regina changes. Instead, we just remember the Queen Bee stereotype. Granted, she was this for 99% of the movie so what else would we expect, but still, no one ever brings up Regina by the end.
because people like beautiful and powerful people like her, by and large. when she calms down and is more humble, she's not as "compelling" anymore. people love dictators and narcissists and to worship them. just look at all the "i love regina" comments!
Don’t blame people too much for that, though. I think the culture we live in basically trains people to think like that.
nkbujvytcygvujno the culture we live in is perpetuated by people. Without people, culture doesn’t exist.
@@corsicanlulu I think it's because people like the thrill of toppling a dictator, of fighting for dignity, the exciting nerves that come from the uncertainty of being around a tyrant, humble Regina had no more edge to her, you have no dignity in check anymore.
OMG **drumroll pls** THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA NEEDS A VIDEO LIKE THIS
Edit: 2.6k likes, damn never got that many before, thxs Anne Hathaway & Meryl Streep
Hipster Potato yes!
@@dignature123 YESS!!
YES PLEASE!!!!
YES YES YES
YES OMG YES! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
Never has there been a more antagonistic, catty, backstabbing, manipulative, yet strangely compelling "Alpha Dog" in a teen movie since Regina George first hit our screens. What's especially interesting about Regina is how she preys on people's insecurities by turning a complement back on them, and getting them to doubt themselves: "You're like, really pretty"... So you agree, you think you're really pretty".
This goes double for the skirt exchange, and purposely dangling Aaron in front of Cady when she knows that she's crushing on him. All of the fighting is subtle, passive aggressive and petty.
I also speculate that Cady and Regina's dynamics parallels that of the former friendship between Janis and Regina, in that Janis, like Regina, was the Queen Bee who was "stung" by her own worker bee, who in turn, gets a taste of her own medicine by a slowly evolving Cady. Teenage politics at their finest!👑🐝💅👛
Haha agreed! But could you please explain why you think Janis used to be the Queen Bee in her friendship with Regina? I must have missed it
@@thunderstorminmyblood3705 Thank you so much for your comment. Upon thinking it over, I've realized that there isn't really much evidence provided for Janis having been manipulative when she was younger. However, she WAS popular, and Regina felt threatened by this, as well as getting her first "real" boyfriend at the time. As Janis was part Lebanese, she spread a rumor that Janis was a lesbian, and possibly convinced their class of impressionable preteens that they'd heard "lesbian" instead of "Lebanese".
After Janis willingly embraces being an outsider as a teenager, she unknowingly becomes more like Regina and tries to use similar tactics through Cady to get back at her frenemy.
@@trinaq no problem! It's 2 am where I am and what better to do than dissect Mean Girls, eh? ;) I agree with you that Janis is also not as "above" the high school pettiness and bullying as she might think. We see that she is, in fact, and ironically, almost "obsessed" with taking Regina down (the same charge levelled against her which she so despises). However, I think Janis's methods are different to Regina's dictatorial ones. I haven't thought about it enough to coherently explain, but one aspect is how reactionary Janis's crusade is, even though she is a political dissident - her frustration and complaints still revolve around REGINA instead of the hierarchial, oppressive system. This is another similarity Regina shares with dictators and even many far right "cult of personality" politicians being elected these days in different countries. In some ways, this obsession only serves to strengthen the legend surrounding Regina.
@@thunderstorminmyblood3705 No worries, obsessively analysing films happens to be my forte!😁 I concur with what you mean about Janis and Regina's methods being slightly different: Janis fixates on overthrowing the dictator themselves, while Regina is more invested in controlling the nation of the student body around her ,and forcing them to bow down to her every whim.
I think the reason why people love Regina, is because she is both likable, pretty, and powerful - and doing everything you know you are not supposed to by society rules, but everything your 'animal' nature is telling you to do. In many ways, she gives us the same fascination as we have with a tiger or other predators. Stunningly beautiful, expertly skilled hunters, and they have a very primal strength. She also have the glamour and femininity factor, in a time where it is almost shameful to be too girly or feminine. (it actually takes a lot of courage to use your feminine power like Regina does)
It is kind of like how many people used to kill their sims when they were children, or play them as gold diggers or serial killers. You would never do it, and you know it is wrong, but somehow it is so much more interesting than doing 'the right thing'. It allows you to explore a part of your nature, that you are not 'allowed' to show in real life. (not that you actually want to)
Rachel McAdams is brilliant. She really turned into a different human with that blonde hair. 🤣 She'll always be one of my favorite actresses.
My favorite quote was always
*_"Uh, mom? Can you pick me up? I'm scared."_*
Ok I just rewatched the video again. I gotta say, as a history buff with a penchant for dissecting the brains of dictators as well as a cinephile, this is incredible content. Not only does screenprism provide an in depth analysis on the film, but a comprehensive political history lesson on what qualifies a dictator with a relatable example. This should be shown in high schools and colleges. Hats off to the entire team.
The movie is good....the book, for parents and teenagers...aah I've seen better psychologists explain it the intricacies of that age where everyone tries to be a bully or to be cool!
Beatrice_92 The book? Mean girls had a book before the movie?
@@Jna01615 It was extreeeeeemely loosely based (you're about to see what I mean by that) on a non-fiction 'parent's guide to teen girls' called Queen Bees or something. It's not really regarded as 'correct' or anything, but it was an influential book trying to explain year ~2000 teen girls to their parents with this 'bully or victim' thing, and the assumption that all teen girls are chasing coolness or popularity. Tina Fey then wrote a movie, with some of those broad concepts in mind.
Ttoby89 ohh I see, thank you for the explanation ☺️
The difference between Regina and Cersei is that there's a low chance that Cersei could be hit by a bus.
She could be eaten by a dragon though.
Nah Cersei isn’t nearly as clever and manipulative as Regina. I would say Regina is more like Cersei + Margaery, which is even scarier.
Can't wait to see Cersei get hit by an elephant
@Tim Evans and to be honest, if anyone DESERVES to get Cersei of the Throne, Sansa would be first in line. Probably followed by Gendry
Regina is smarter than Cersei. Cersei thinks she's smart but she gets outplayed. Regina is more on Tywin's level.
Mean Girls is literally based on the sociological text about female social heirarchies, Queen Bees and Wannabes, which helps explain why it works so well! Also, it’s interesting that you wrote that Cady and Janice “took Regina down but didn’t finish her off”. In the recently produced Mean Girls musical, Regina’s solo “World Burn”, which takes place right before and during her publishing of the Burn Book, some lyrics include “you took me down, bur you didn’t finish me off”, as well as “Cady may have won the battle but I will win the war”. Check it out!
+Heather Loschen-And what's interesting when you look at it, it wasn't Cady, Janis, Gretchen, Karen, etc. that brought Regina down in the end. Cady had manipulated her, toppled her down from power. Janis destroyed every last piece of integrity and control she ever had. But what truly brought Regina down in the end was just the fact she didn't stop to check for an oncoming bus. Regina was slapped with a cold, hard hit of pure life. Where even though she didn't die, she very easily could have. She was forced to face her own mortality, that after all her power and control and grand schemes, she was simply human at the end of the day. She was a teenage girl, whose life could have easily ended before her next birthday. Where all she would have been left with. . .was nothing. Just an entire school of people who feared her and hated her. And only when Regina nearly died was when she truly lost everything she knew. And that was when she started to come back to being an actual human being.
When I first watched "Mean Girls", I thought that it was good, but I didn't understand why many people upheld it as one of the best teen movies of this generation. I think this video helped me understand why the movie is so good, and taught me a bit about political theory. Well done.
Rachel McAdams was amazing as Regina George, she made us love the character
i agree. i usually feel hatred but i just love her even more as a character. shes really bad but interesting character
We definitely need one about BLAIR WALDORF 🌸
PLUS WITH THE JUXTAPOSITION OF SERENA VANDER WOODSEN
PLEASE
Yes and talk about how wrong it was of her to end up with her abuser instead of the man who truly loved her despite everything Dan Humphrey
Melissa Perez r u kidding me? Dan was just Nate part 2! Claiming that he loves her while secretly never stopped loving her best friend. Blair deserved someone who chose her and only her and that was Chuck. And while I agree that he and their relationship was toxic at times, they outgrew that and became a healthy couple.
YESSSS
I wish they made more teen flicks like these, unconventional romcoms with well-written characters and great humor ❤
Have you seen Jawbreaker?
Easy A is one of them.
Clueless
@@blameitoncapitalism Easy A is good but not as good as Mean Girls
My therapist: *Regina George isn't real, she can't hurt you*
This video: -
Me: *Regina George is love, Regina George is life*
Crick1952 omg
She could punch in you the face and you would find it awesome
and I agree with many of the comments; Janice is arguably the most toxic character in Mean Girls because she is so absorbed with Revenge. She's arguably the Sasuke Uchiha of girly world.
Choco Fudge yup
Good analogy
IT'S A REVENGE PARTY!!!
She even has the haircut!
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this (I'm sure someone has) but the line "That's why her hair is so big, it's full of secrets." holds more than we think. At first Cady's hair is straight then as she gets closer to the plastics, her hair is curled and quite a bit bigger. She's holding the secrets of the plastics just like Gretchen's role.
I love how a movie that looks so shallow at first teachs so close to home that is a classic; doesn't matter wich role you fit, you def see your younger self (and sometimes not even just the younger self) on at least someone of the main cast.
You cant go wrong with a Rachel McAdams video. She's the reason i watched mean girls or the notebook.
Ditto, she's such a fabulous actress, I also loved her in "Red Eye", "Time Traveller's Wife", "Midnight in Paris" and Season 2 of "True Detective"!😍
@@trinaq time traveler's wife was really really good. I was blown away with how much i enjoyed that movie.
It is and the Notebook
NOT
Or the Notebook.
You should see “the hot chick” with her and rob schneider. It’s hilarious
Rachel McAdams is a national treasure
I've never thought of "Mean Girls" in a serious matter. It's great finding new perspectives.
This is so awesome!! Really great. The only thing, it’s not really the psychology of dictatorship, but the *sociology* of dictatorship. It’s about how groups of people get manipulated and played by autocrats etc. I’m a sociologist myself and I see a lot of sociology gets labelled as psychology, probably because no one really knows what sociology is. But everything about interaction, manipulation, groups, traditions, rituals, behaviour in relation to others in a social world; that’s sociology. Not psychology perse.
But really interesting!! Very much enjoyed this video
My high school sociology teacher uses this movie to teach some chapter concepts, it's great.
Sour Puss did you have sociology in high school? That’s so cool! Where I’m from we don’t, so no one really knows what it is until some of them go to uni and study it there like I did 😂
@@SK22520 It could just differ high school to high school. I feel psychology is still taken more seriously though, since that one has an Advanced Placement course. Meanwhile, sociology's kind of thought of as that "easier" class for the "regular" students and below to take. The teachings are just as good, anyway, but I agree that sociology does get brushed under the rug a lot.
@@SK22520 I also forgot to mention that he also used it for his psychology course, but he puts more focus on it for sociology. I believe we were going through the concepts of conformity when we watched it.
how would you describe psychology so? I presume it's more innate
Can you do an analysis video on Veronica from the Heathers? I would love to see about how her toxic relationships with both JD and the Heathers influenced her and her morality when all the shit hit the fan
There actually is a video on heathers on this channel.
love and peace yes!!
@@harrietamidala1691 I know but I would like to see one that focusses solely on Veronica rather than the movie as a whole
*A note to prevent possible misinterpretations:*
_"Just like Caesar, Regina ends up being the last dictator before a new form of leadership."_
This implies that Rome moved from being autocratic to being more democratic when in reality it was the other way around. Caesar pretty much marks when the Roman Republic transitions to become the Roman Empire. He was succeeded by a whole line of dictators beginning with his adopted son and great-nephew Augustus.
Thank you and have a nice day.
Just like in Star Wars. A galactic republic becomes an empire
+lazyperson2000-And the end of the movie hints that what happened to Rome could come to pass for the high school. With The Plastics dissolved, a new group of Plastics rose to try and take their place. These young girls already had the markings to become the brand new high school dictators. However, those young wannabe(e) Plastics soon faced the same cold hard dose of life that Regina was forced to go through. They nearly got ran over by the bus just like Regina did and only narrowly avoided making that same mistake Regina did by not checking that a bus was coming by. So the movie hints that the next succession of "dictators", the wannaBEES, will not last very long. If they still tried to accolate power for themselves after that incident, everyone had grown so much, learned so much from the previous regime to where those three girls would learn their place real quick and real soon. Perhaps even Regina would be willing to steer them straight soon enough if they got too far out of line.
@@feraflauna3238 so oligarchy instead of a dictatorship?
I read this exactly when it was said
OMG, is this really happening?? This is so fetch 😍😍😍 Please do an analyze on the other Mean Girls too 😍😍
Fun fact: Rachel McAdams was wearing a wig during this movie, since her hair could never grow out longer than to her shoulders 😊
YES, particularly on Gretchen as the underappreciated worker bee, and Karen as the stereotypical "Dumb Blonde" with a big heart.💖
@V B Dont feel sorry at all 😁
You'd be shocked how often wigs are used in tv/film.
@@MsTropicandy Not really :) But for this one I was, because it was a childhood movie, so my entire world just changed, when I heard about the wig recently :D
I always wondered
I’ve never clicked on a video so quickly before...
You can say that again!
Ditto, "Mean Girls" and "The Take" combined?! I'm so there!✋
" and so like a true dictator, her legacy lives on " This literally gave me chills. Who would have thought so much work would have been put into making a high school bully. Hats off to Tina Fey. Also I would like to ask any Mean Girls superfan here if there was any scene that confirmed Regina's IQ. I mean yes I know about that cafeteria scene when she asked the rest of the Plastics to count how much calories there are in the thing she was going to eat but come on, sometimes we are just too lazy for mind calculations am I right ? And in the movie it is never clearly stated if she is academically gifted or not whereas it was stated clearly by different events that Karen was THE dumb-blonde in the movie. So what do you guys think ? Is Regina considered stupid or smart ? And also to the Americans, would the majority of the student body really prefer some dumb students who fails constantly but is a regulation hottie or someone that excels in education and has a mediocre appearance ?
Regina is notably intelligent, cunning and conniving. She has to be to orchestrate an enter hierarchy to bend to her whim and influence with such skill. And for your last question it depends on the school.
@@Nunofyabizzzzz I see, how about in your school?
@@Nunofyabizzzzzyeah but she doesn't have that much book smarts
Pass to their kids, for sure. It shows since young age .
@@nuramira8650 kau cakap pasal ape ni Amira ?
Regina knows that words are often misinterpreted as being a promise to follow with action. She knows that by actively “complimenting” people it will instantly give her that glamorous and charming reputation. She works in such an intelligent way that she doesn’t need to prove she’s trustworthy by showing it, she proves it by saying it. In other words, it’s quite literally to work smarter rather than harder. It’s the ultimate form of genius that can only be defined as manipulation. This is also why she connects to dictators-because many make false promises; or seek to blind their audience with false provision.
"My name is Regina George
And I am a massive deal
Fear me. Love me.
Stand and stare at me.
And these
These are real.
I've got money and looks
I am, like, drunk with power.
This whole school
Humps my leg
Like a chihuahua.
I'm the prettiest poison you've ever seen.
I never weigh more than 115.
My name is Regina George
And I am a massive deal.
I don't care who you are.
I don't care how you feeeeeeeellll."
"Yes, Regina
No, Regina
Every waking hour
I spend making sure Regina
George can stay in power
If Regina is the sun
Then I'm a disco ball
'Cause I'm just as bright and fun
If you've had alcohol
I rip your secrets out of you
And bring them to my master
Then I watch Regina make your life a big disaster
Disaster!
Regina is the queen
But I'm the head of worker bees
I am seated at her right hand
Like a Jewish Princess Jesus"
My name is Karen
My hair is shiny
My teeth are perfect
My skirt is tiny
It barely covers
my perky hiney
My name is Karen
I may not be smart...
That's it!😂
"Right.
We never normally do this.
But how'd you like to have lunch with us this week?"
Lauren Brown
you don't know how desperately I want to play Regina George
Lauren Brown well...
No need for you to thank us.
I feel like you could teach a WW2 class and use this video to explain how Hitler ruled Germany.
Lol thats funny🤣🤣
Mario John Bishop Films Eva was hitlers Shane. 😂
Hitler got elected, so starting his term he couldn't be called a dictator because he got the power in legit way
Mario John Bishop Films yup
Watch Putin.
Amazing. This gave me a different perspective on Mean Girls for sure.
8:33 I always thought Cady had to make a choice wether she tells Janice the truth because:
*•If she tells Janice she’s in it, Janice would be angry and ask her what Regina wrote*
*•If Cady said she’s not in it ( which she did ), Janice would still be angry because she would think in Regina’s eyes she’s not a girl and the Burn Book is for girls*
And it turned out Cady was right. When Cady lied and said that Regina wasn't in the book, Janice still went, "That. . .bitch. . ." Janice would despise being put in the book but to not be in the book was the greater insult. Regina put people in the book that she perceived to be legitimate threats. People important enough for her to notice. Even if it was just a book cooked up by three bored, petty high school bullies, being put in the book carried a certain weight and reputation. Even though Janice hates Regina, she still wants Regina to know her. And that's the twisted relationship with a Queen Bee. You hate everything about them but you're still gravitated to them to where you WANT them to still know about you.
Regina’s a more compelling ‘Queen bee’ character than most of the ones we see on Disney Channel because she’s actually smart. She knows how to manipulate people to get what she wants.
I spit out my chocolat milk when I saw the title, I love it😂
Classy, I did the exact same thing!😂
sure
Wow I never noticed the symbolism in almost getting hit by the bus.
Another thing about Regina's manipulation and repression is how fast it is. She's always on top of things, and it never takes her more than a moment to come up with a plan - it only took seconds to call the girl from the mall's mom and tell her a lie, and she immediately runs home to write her own name in the Burn Book as soon as she finds out what Cady did. She's smart, swift, and ruthless in a way that's kind of terrifying.
Wow this movie is so clever I didn't even realise
I thought I was going to procrastinate instead of studying politics??? YET I ENDED UP DOING BOTH????
The most messed up part of Regina is what she did to Janice , she basically weaponised homophobia to get the school to dislike her it’s gross
I love How mean girls os basicaly Game of Thrones on a teenager language
This movie is so damn complex and smart, I'm just surprised in how a great job the writers did with all their characters, seriously
Did u see how shocked she was when Aaron told her "she's cool" and "i invited her" (about Cady) that was probably what made her tell him such lies
I didn't realise how crafty and sneaky regina is. I didn't even realise in the movie that she is a genius. Planning all these sneaky tactics to stay in control that I had no idea she was doing. Well done to the people who made the movie.
Regina George is one of the greatest movie antagonists of all time.
@@JenniferBrigitteOpticalVortex Indeed!
I learned more about dictatorships in this 20 minute video than I did in one semester of political science in college
This channel NEVER failed to impress me with their amazing and comprehensive analysis. Keep up the great work!!!
I love how an avarage youtube video has comments like:
Nobody: no one: literally no one...
And this video has comments that should be in a complex theory
The take casually using Mean Girls to explain how to overthrow a dictator. You know, just in case.
seriously, what I really love about your channel, aside from your genius analyses, is your comment section. i'm always so happy to see people engaging in these discussions with intelligent and well thought out/articulated comments, continuing the debate you start in your vids. such a rare thing on TH-cam. I hope you are proud of your community as well
Finally. The Take on this wonderful movie.
This video is so FETCH! Thank you for the amazing content
YESSSS Thanks for this, I'm a dude who always loved this movie but my best mate refuses to watch it coz he thinks it's too girly, this will be the perfect vid to pique his interest
Calvo Tama Props to you for not refusing to watch it as a guy, just because it’s seen as a “girl movie”!
you should get less mysogenistic mates bro
Fun fact: the name Regina translates to queen, which suits very well for her character, but it could also make an reference to King George III (the crazy one)
Brilliant! The world needs to watch this! Heck, this needs to be shown in high school political science classes everywhere. Save the cheerleader, save the world.
I love that mean girls is the closest we get to an adaptation of Julius Caesar
"Beware the Ides of March, Regina!"
you should study Chanel Oberlin from Scream Queens
shade shade Agreeeeeeed
All right. Whe else rewatched Mean Girls because of this?
I even downloaded back that Episode game because of it.
Man it was good to see again!
I watched it for the first time because of this I had no idea it was so layered I thought it was just a chick flick
i love how this channel is like watch mojo or all those other channels with a female voice speaking over a bunch of tv/movie clips but this channel has so much more substance and i honestly learn so much through these videos. thank you so much for making this channel ♡
I...that was surprisingly educational i feel smart now
I've always thought that Regina was just as mean as what Janice did lmao. Like she must have had her own plan when she befriended Cady, so Cady and Janice's plan was not only the bad thing from the movie.
This film was honestly before it's time. I learnt so much from it as a young girl. From the get go it seems like a typical high school trope movie, but It really brings in so many great themes such as bullying, oppression, conformity, social class, insecurities, feminism, primal instincts for survival. Our teen years are the most misunderstood years of our lives. This highlights a few of many struggles we go through although on a dramatized, Hollywood-esque level. Although the actors don't demonstrate the realism of a teenager looks wise in this film, the themes presented are real. Imagine this film now with the added social media pressures, fancy smartphones, those scary internet challenge/dares etc..I feel for the teens growing up now!
Please do a analyse on Mabel Pines and how she is a representation of a more modern and human person we can relate to.
You hit the nail on the head. Mean Girls is really about how uncomfortable it is to be young. You face the pressure and adversity of adulthood in many ways, but haven't yet developed the emotional maturity/learned the tools to deal with that discomfort, anxiety, and frustration. You also don't know who you are yet because your brain and body are still changing, nor do you have much control over your surroundings. It's such an miserable time.
16 years and it still feels new
Regina: You're like really pretty.
Cady: Thank you.
Regina: So, you agree?
Cady: What?
Regina: You think you're really pretty.
Me: Bro chill.
Be more chill.
This has been in my recommended for forever and I finally watched it, it was worth it
What I learned from this
They need a new School Bus driver, that guy is psycho!
Yeah, what is up with him running students over all the time!
It's Regina's mom who is angry too
Lemur Lover yup
@@lemurlover7975 no reginas mom seems unaware and happy
The bus driver felt victimised by regina george lol
i love how this movie is a microcosm for dictatorships. everything is symbolic and it’s honestly so genius. this movie doesn’t get enough credit for that.
There’s one more advantage to Cooption: when the competition is likable and they become a part of the regime, the regime itself becomes likable. Dictators rely on popularity of coworkers and policies to enforce their rule.