Getting Discomfortable with Mean Girls: Part 3

This week’s podcast is actually a video! You can still listen to the podcast version if you prefer, or you can watch the video version below (or here) complete with footage ripped from the classic teen comedy, Mean Girls (2004).

Watch Part 1 here.

Watch Part 2 here.

Part 3: The Fall of Regina George. In this episode, we see how Cady has not only succeeded in toppling Regina’s reign, but she has actually replaced her. Cady has become the new queen bee of The Plastics, and without even realizing it, she’s completely lost her identity and sold out her integrity in the process. This is a powerful demonstration of how shame, and especially our threat response, completely blind us and take us outside of our values in order to “protect” us from the “threat” of social rejection or disrespect (which isn’t really that big of a threat anymore). We discover that Cady is no better than Regina — when we are in shame, we can easily turn into a “bitch” if we allow ourselves to be controlled by our animal instincts.

In order to make things right, Cady has to challenge the hierarchical thinking that culture and shame have coerced her into adopting. She realizes that no amount of putting other people down actually raises her up. She starts to see the value of equality instead. If you presuppose that everyone is of equal value, then gossip, backstabbing, comparison, competition, and shame all lose their power. The film dramatizes this nicely (if a bit cheesily), when Cady wins Spring Fling Queen and decides to share the crown with everyone, literally.

If you liked this video series and want to see more like it, let me know! I’d love suggestions on other popular films that would make for interesting depictions of shame and other Discomfortable themes.