However, in the film directed by Tina Fey that depicts the cruelty of an exclusive group of "Mean Girls," ordinary things for which there is already descriptive language is rendered into slang so adults do not understand the full cruelty of what is being said. Some adults may know that Regina and company are 'mean' but not to the extent which they rule the school and use exclusion as a way of enforcing their own mini-regime of terror. One of the strengths of the teacher played by Fey, Ms. Norbury, is that she is 'hip' to the language used by the mean girls, like when she tells them to stop using slang like "sluts" and "skanks."
The exclusive nature of the language of adolescents is underlined by the fact that the main character, named Cady Heron, in "Mean Girls" has grown up in South Africa, so she is initially uninitiated to the social structure of a typical American high school and the language of adolescents. She may speak English fluently, but she is not fluent in the mannerisms and interplay that is expected of her as a teenage girl. She was homeschooled, so she does not even seem to understand the 'adult vs. adolescent,' 'us vs. them' mentality of slang adolescent culture in general. Adults like her parents have always treated her and talked to her like equals, so the covert subtext of hostility in adolescent dialogue initially escapes her.
Cady immediately gravitates to the least popular students in school, not by design, but because...
However, the Plastic girls begin to incorporate Cady into their social circle, although her unusual background, which might be considered a social 'plus' in some arenas, instead turns her into a "homeschooled jungle freak," in their words, when they wish to be conniving and cruel. The fact that growing up with anthropologists parents who are university professors in a remote location might be fascinating is reduced, in the language of slang, to a social deficit because it is deemed deviant, when they wish to put Cady down.
Thus "Mean Girls" shows that language, even seemingly innocent language, can be a weapon. Beauty and social smarts put Regina on top, but so does her generation of cruel words that solidifies her position in high school society. And only when opponents like Cady speak Regina's language can she compete with the 'mean girl' on her terms. Slang, love it or hate it, the film suggests, is a necessary weapon for survival in the hothouse culture of adolescence.
Works Cited
Mean Girls." Directed by Tina Fey. 2004.
