Mean Girls - Janis Ian

It was only a matter of time before I tackled Mean Girls. While this movie has a diverse cast of female characters, I've picked Janis Ian (Lizzy Caplan) as our beta-friend. This movie was incredibly popular when it was released in 2004, and was Lindsay Lohan's most successful film. The story is about Cady Heron (Lohan), but we actually have an alpha-female who is not the main character: Regina George (Rachel McAdams). Based on the book Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, and written by Tina Fey, Mean Girls is essentially an anthropological satire about bullying, cliques and the social hierarchy in high school. It also addresses friendship, relationships, trust and identity.
One of the most interesting moments regarding identity is prior to Cady's first house party hosting experience:

What makes this short, strapless satin dress any less of a costume than the dead bride costume she wears at Halloween? She put it on to emulate Regina George and attract Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), and come off as a mature, sexually available woman, rather than an insecure girl. Cady acts as though she has done nothing wrong when she betrays Janis and Damian, and accuses them of making her a Plastic, when all the while she has been complicit in joining them with the goal of undermining the clique's leadership.

Janis Ian is pretty unapologetic about her own goals and her feelings about other people. Also interesting is the fact that she is named after a singer-songwriter from the 70's whose most successful single was entitled "At Seventeen". (See video below) Cady, newly arrived in Michigan from Africa, has no sense of self when she enters mainstream high school. She's good at math and fairly good at analyzing the behavior of those around her in the context of the animal kingdom, but she is very naïve when it comes to what constitutes friendship in this context. I mean, she says that she had lots of friends in Africa, but how is it that on her second day she believes that Janis and Damian are actually her friends when they've just met? Sure, high school can be overwhelming, and teenagers are always looking for peer approval and a space to fit in, but I'm still dubious as to how the start of their friendship is portrayed. Janis and Damian guide Cady through the social hierarchy, according to their perspective. Cady doesn't fully understand Janis's hatred of Regina George, but goes along with the plot to usurp her reign as Queen Bee. It's not quite fair to say that Cady is manipulated, because she goes along with the plan anyway, to serve her own desires. Janis Ian is much more self aware than Cady, as she admits that the things she does are cruel. At the end, when she confesses her plan to destroy Regina George to everyone, she is celebrated for her boldness. Janis is a champion of the underdog here, certainly not above the pettiness and drama of high school. She's still a stereotype, as an alternative, artsy goth girl. That's the thing about stereotypes, though, that they are something we recognize and relate to, even as they generalize and pigeon-hole people. Mean Girls does end on a positive note, however, with everyone growing up a bit come senior year. As a cultural microcosm, it's definitely a valuable work of mainstream cinema, and is bound to become a classic along the same lines of The Breakfast Club. I mean, look at Ally Sheedy's character. She's quite similar to Janis Ian...

Stats:
Screen time: 10 minutes, 15 seconds
Memorable quotes: "This is Damian. He's almost too gay to function." "And evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don't be fooled because she may seems like your typical selfish, back-stabbing slut-faced ho-bag, but in reality she is so much more than that" "Wow, Damian, you've truly out-gayed yourself." "...She's a life ruiner. She ruins people's lives." "There are two kinds of evil people in the world. People who do evil stuff and people who see evil stuff being done and don't try to stop it." "I love seeing teachers outside of school. It's like seeing a dog walk on its hind legs." "I am so sorry, Regina, really I don't know why I did it. I guess it's probably because I have a big lesbian crush on you."