Today on this here day, ten years ago, April 30th, 2004 a little movie written by Tina Fey inspired by the nonfiction book “Queen Bees And Wannabes” by Rosalind Wiseman called Mean Girls weaseled its way into theaters around the country. No one, certainly not me, expected much from the movie. We thought it would be another She’s All That or Drive Me Crazy, another teen movie about a loser becoming the popular kid and learning it’s shallow and vapid. But it wasn’t just another teen movie, it was funny, smart and strangely realistic. Mean Girls didn’t just satire the problematic and complicated interpersonal relationships between young women, it exposed the worse parts about growing up in a “girl culture” where women are pit against each other. The result wasn’t that instead of being popular you should be the “smart girl,” the real message was that we should choose solidarity amongst ourselves as girls, we should choose acceptance otherwise we’ll end up destroying each other worse than any patriarchal institution.
We’ll be celebrating Mean Girls throughout the day today because the movie will probably be a part of generations of girls’ lives until something better (doubt it) comes along. We’ve carefully and scientifically broken down the anatomy of a “mean girl.” Consider these instructions on exactly how not to be . . . or exactly who you’d like to be someday. Was I the new Queen Bee?
[Images via. Shutterstock]
The Anatomy Of A Mean Girl Or How To Be A Basic Betch
