Mean Girls are everywhere. No matter where you go to school or where you work, there is always that group of girls who think that they are God’s gift to the world. You can identify these girls by the following traits. They will be the girls at the lunch table who have food but sit and pick at it (who wants to be seen eating out in public?), these girls also love to play follow the leader (why would you think when somebody can do it for you?). If cattiness was an Olympic sport, they would win the gold medal every time. The mean girl can also be found in a shopping center of some kind, (they love for the little people to see how much daddy’s plastic can buy), speaking of plastic, most of them are half made up of some kind of man made material. It may seem like I am going to talk about the 2004 movie, Mean Girls, but I am going to analyze the original mean girls movie, Heathers
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opening credits from the movie Heathers
Heathers, the 1989 movie by Michael Lehmann, considered by many to be the original Mean Girls a comical but true view into the life of a girl who gets sucked into a clique of mean girls all named Heather. The Heathers rule the school with an iron fist and lots of creative language. In this movie Veronica Sawyer is an unhappy member of the Heathers clique, she despises Heather number 1, Heather Chandler, and grudgingly goes along with the Heathers schemes. Enter new kid Jason Dean, a bad boy who Veronica immediately notices. What she does not realize is that he is actually crazy, and will kill to ‘make the world a better place’. As the body count rises, Veronica sees that Jason will do anything to make his dream come true.
I will admit this is one of my favorite movies of all time. While some things in this movie are exaggerated, most are scarily accurate. I have been friends with people like this, I am ashamed to say. They are the people who have to put others down and do the ‘cool’ thing to make themselves feel like they are worth something.
In Heathers a scene that stands out is one where Heather Chandler, played by Kim Walker, takes Veronica to a Party at Remington, a local college. Heather brings her along as a favor to her ‘boyfriend’ so his friend will have a date at the party. He gets Veronica drunk, and then tries to take advantage of her.
so...uhh...you like my cowboy shirt?
She gets angry and leaves. Heather confronts Veronica in the hallway, where Veronica proceeds to vomit all over the hallway. We then see Veronica standing in an alleyway and Heather Chandler storming out saying that she will ruin Veronica at school on Monday. “I brought you to a Remington party and what's my thanks? It's on a hallway carpet. I got paid in puke” (Lehmann).
LEARN TO HOLD YOUR LIQUOR!
This scene shows how much pressure teens put on themselves to be considered ‘cool.’ Many will do whatever it takes to be on top of the social food chain and to stay on top. Heather # 1 knows that her reputation is on the line with the older wiser college kids because Veronica would not put out. Many girls feel the pressure to act in a promiscuous manner to make themselves seem more attractive to guys. They are subjected to over sexed pop stars, raunchy T.V. shows from such an early age, that many teens feel this is the way they are supposed to act and that these are the things they have to do to be considered cool. Going to a college party and guzzling beer sounds like fun to almost every teen and they think that if they get invited by an older person they will become popular over night. The other Heathers, Heather Duke and Heather McNamara, follow Heather Chandler with out questioning. After all Heather Chandler is the most popular girl at school. Veronica goes along with Heather Chandler’s plans I think, because even though she hates her friends, she still wants their acceptance and approval. She is a lazy sheep following the bitchy Sheppard, like everyone else.
Veronica’s character is someone we see daily, that person who is just along for the ride because it is easier for them to do. She goes along with the Heathers cruel pranks with barely any remorse. She lets them treat her like she does not matter just so she can stay on top of the social food chain. I honestly think that she is just as bad as the Heathers, she has the chance to walk away from the group. But does she, no, she stays and writes in her diary about how much she hates her friends. The only way it seems to me that she can be happy is by killing off her friends and anyone who says something bad about her. And then she meets Jason Dean, the kid who would be voted ‘most likely to become a serial killer’ in the senior superlatives, and he starts to take care of all of her problems for her.
Do you think I could be the next Iron Chef?
He gives Heather Chandler his special liquid drain cleaner hangover cure, and then convinces Veronica to write a suicide note. She goes along with it and then thinks that all of the drama is over. Then two of the schools football stars,Kurt Kelly and Ram, say that Veronica preformed favors for them. Veronica is furious and JD runs to the rescue saying that they will scare the boys by shooting them with blanks,only they are not blanks. Veronica realizes this and quits shooting, but JD chases and guns down Ram. And finally at the end of the movie after JD tries to blow up the school, we see Veronica grow a spine.
I feel like going out with a bang...
Many will think that JD is the only one to blame for these deaths,but Veronica was there too. She watched all of these things happen and really did not try that hard to stop them. She also never alerted the authorities, who could have protected her from JD. Why did g as the pressure she felt from the Heathers.
From the movie I think that a message we are supposed to receive is that peer pressure can make a person do crazy, irrational things. And that when you stand up to these people that are holding you back, your life will become the life that you want it to be. Although this movie is greatly exaggerated in some parts, we have to remember that we are our own person and we cannot let someone else run our lives for us.Veronica not tell, was it love? She was pressured into the relationship by JD, which is almost the same thing as the pressure she felt from the Heathers.
From the movie I think that a message we are supposed to receive is that peer pressure can make a person do crazy, irrational things. And that when you stand up to these people that are holding you back, your life will become the life that you want it to be. Although this movie is greatly exaggerated in some parts, we have to remember that we are our own person and we cannot let someone else run our lives for us.
Works Cited
Heathers. Dir. Michael Lehmann. Perf. Winona Ryder, Christian Slater and Shannen Doherty. New World Pictures, 1988. DVD.
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