To view the movie Mean Girls though the mind of a functional
analysis would be an accurate view. Functional Analysis is a study of society
as a complete system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and
stability. It focuses on five basic needs of society including socializing new
members, producing services, preserving order, replacing new members, and
providing a sense of purpose. All of these five topics can be related back to
the movie Mean Girls.
At the beginning
of the movie, Cady was introduced to life at a public high school. She was originally
homeschooled and was looking for a group of friends she can assort herself
with. The “Plastics,” a group of the most popular girls in school invite her to
sit at their table and be friends with them. When she joins their group, she is
socialized with a set of new rules and regulations that need to be upheld while
being in the group such as wearing pink on Wednesdays.
The group
provides services to others such as a sense of place and purpose. The Plastics
are located at the top of the social ladder and everyone else falls beneath
them. The order within the school is preserved because everyone knows their
place and where they belong.
When one of
the members is replaced, chaos consumes everyone. When Cady overthrows Regina,
the leader of the Plastics, the order of society is skewed making it hard for
everyone to function because people question their sense of purpose and where
they belong. A new “leader” is needed to fulfill the role of Regina that was
lost. Since Cady was the one that overthrew her, she is the one to take her
place.
A
functional analytic view on the movie Mean Girls provides a hilarious yet sad
representation of the truth of social structure in most schools. All the girls
within the group of the Plastics work together to provide stability to schools
through socialization, providing services, preserving order, replacing new
members, and providing a sense of purpose.
