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.