Sexism in Popular Culture? The Limit Does Not Exist

Rayna Southart

Sexism in Popular Culture? The Limit Does Not Exist

            Susan Douglas’ sarcastic tone and witty comments throughout her writing made me immediately want to choose her piece The Rise of Enlightened Sexism. Enlightened sexism is described by Douglas as a response and that “insists that women have made plenty of progress because of feminism – so now it’s okay, even amusing, to resurrect sexist stereotypes of girls and women” (Douglas 9).  During the course of her piece, she points out many as she calls them, media-created fantasies that are shoved into the minds of today’s youth. She talks about the many contradictions that come with these media-created fantasies, and the way they try to portray women as being in control. When Douglas talks about spring break programs that are aired on TV, and the way they encourage girls to flash their breasts to the camera, I initially thought of the movie Mean Girls. Why you ask? I mean one, it’s a cult classic to which I watched an endless amount as a fourth grader. But, besides that, I was thinking of that (funny?) scene when Regina’s younger sister is watching a spring break television program, and lifts up her shirt in response and gives out an enthusiastic wooo! Then, I started thinking about how much this movie actually had an effect on me as a young girl who watched it about a million times. Disclaimer, my Mom didn’t give me permission to watch this movie as a fourth grader, I stole it from my older sister. Ah, my rebellious days. Anyways, I loved this movie, I wanted to be just like these girls. They were popular, in control, and beautiful. Obviously, when I was younger I didn’t really realize the types of standards this movie was putting into my head
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Douglas talks about how movies such as Mean Girls tell young women that they should dress provocatively and not be very bright, but this is still empowering towards them because although they may seem like they’re being objectified, they really aren’t. They aren’t being objectified because they chose to be these sexual objects, and that gives them power over men who just can’t help themselves. Douglas states “through women’s calculated deployment of their faces, bodies, attire, and sexuality that they gain and enjoy true power – power that is fun, that men will not resent, and indeed will embrace” (Douglas 10). Throughout the whole movie of Mean Girls we see the plastics, Regina, Gretchen, and Karen as they take this seemingly innocent and helpless girl Cady (it’s pronounced like Katie!) and transform her into one of them. These girls literally rule the school by hooking up with guys, wearing the best clothes, and knowing all the gossip. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP2XtYbIgD0) So, this reinforces Douglas’ idea, these girls are dressed super provocatively and are not very smart (ok mainly Karen), but they have power over the whole school. Douglas touches on a point and says that media like this gives off the idea that having power, especially sexual power, is much more gratifying than having economic or political power. In Mean Girls, we see Cady slowly turn into one of the plastics and gain power by completely changing how she looks and conforming to social norms. At one point she actually pretends that she is really bad at math, when she is actually really good at it. She does all of this in order to have Aaron Samuels, the hottest guy in school and Regina’s ex-boyfriend (gasp), tutor her in math. So, in this case, Cady is shedding her smart girl status in order to get the guy. Once she gets the guy, she will in essence gain power over him and over people at school. 
                                                                                   Also, we see girls in this movie such as Janis Ian, who is totally hilarious and awesome, have basically no power and popularity at school. She doesn’t have any because she is seen as an outcast, a girl who doesn’t dress provocatively, and doesn’t act dumb. Janis isn’t seen as attractive to guys, therefore, she has no sexual power which in turn means she isn’t really that important. Ms. Norbury is another character that is seen as undesirable and somewhat annoying because she wasn’t provocative or unintelligent. In fact, Ms. Norbury was an awesome character who actually touched on things such as slut shaming and tells Cady that you don’t have to act dumb to get guys to like you. Yet, all of the girls don’t like her and Cady even writes a mean entry about her in the burn book.

Another interesting point, is how Cady and the plastics plan to take Regina out of power. They do this by essentially making her unattractive. They try many different tactics in order to do this, but at one point they give her Kalteen Bars and tell her it’ll help her lose weight, when in reality it makes her gain weight. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJKdTOPJDPQ) After this we see Regina struggling to keep her place as queen bee due to the fact that she can only wear sweatpants, which clearly violates their dress code. We then see Cady claim the title of queen bee by becoming more attractive and sexually powerful. Regina’s status slowly declines because of her decreasing sexual power.

“Enlightened sexism is especially targeted to girls and young women and emphasizes that now that they “have it all,” they should focus the bulk of their time and energy on their appearance, pleasing men, being hot, competing with other women, and shopping” (Douglas 10).                                                                        

In this quote, Douglas has summed up the majority of what Mean Girls is actually about. The whole movie is based upon a changing power dynamic and the means in which these girls go to gain it. We see Cady, Regina, Gretchen, and Karen constantly competing with one another in order to be the most powerful, get certain guys, and to be the “hottest.”

Works Cited

Cloud909. "Mean Girls - Scream!" YouTube. YouTube, 2008. Web. 24 Sept. 2016. 

Douglas, Susan Jeanne. The Rise of Enlightened Sexism. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2010. Print. 

Guillaume, Jenna. "29 So Fetch Items Every “Mean Girls” Fan Needs Right Now." BuzzFeed. N.p., 13 Oct. 14. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.

"Mean Girls - Meet the Plastics - YouTube." YouTube. YouTube, 2013. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.

Tyrrell, Rebecca. "Guy Who Played Aaron Samuels Says No to a Mean Girls Reuinion." Metro Stop Trying to Make Mean Girls 2 Happen Its Not Going to Happen Says AaronSamuels Comments. N.p., 17 May 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.