In history we can see the ideologies of Karl Marx in many societies and we can still see them today. This theory of Marxism was created to analyze the roles of society. With increased economic power, this group, the bourgeoisie, is able to gain power through political and social means. Using these forces, the upper class can control the lower class and effectively push their ideologies into society, shaping the social norms of these classes as they wish. Using the ideologies of Marxism, we can study classes and the different roles of these social forces and structures and highlight these elements to find out how this lower class is affected by oppression by the upper class. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay This article will analyze the cult film Mean Girls by comparing the characteristics of the social order based on the theories of Karl Marx. Mean Girls is a stereotypical high school comedy involving a group of popular girls known as "The Plastics", who are feared by most students and who control the social aspects of the school. On the other side of social status is the new girl who finds herself caught up in the popular crowd and eventually becomes just like them. In the film, "The Plastics" are girls who run the junior class at North Shore High School. They would represent Karl Marx's term, the bourgeoisie, which means they believe they are the most powerful clique and have the economic power and therefore control the social aspects of the school. Then there is the underclass of this theory, the proletariat, which consists of people who want to bring about social change – the students who felt personally victimized by Regina George. Their idea is to sabotage this hierarchy that has been created by ruining this social game of “The Plastics”. Karl Marx explains that when analyzing a society, there is always a series of ongoing conflicts between social classes. Ultimately, this essay will argue that, using Max's theory, we can see how the ideals of Marxism can influence every social class, including even high school cliques. It shows that the ideology of the bourgeoisie (The Plastics) controls and oppresses the proletariat (the other cliques) through social control. Cady Heron, having been homeschooled her entire life up to this point, doesn't understand the social cliques of high school. Skipping gym time with her new friends Janis and Damien, "the only art geeks" as described in the film, she is given a map of the school cafeteria. This is when he begins to understand how social cliques work: “You have your…freshmen, ROTC kids, preps, JV athletes, Asian nerds, cool Asians…the best people you've ever met and the worst: watch out for plastic" (Bad Girls). Already in this film we see the ideals of Marxism and how everyone has their place in the canteen environment. This scene shows Marx's idea of alienation, which is aimed at suppressing every clique in school. The Plastics, whose leader is Regina George followed by her two wannabes, Gretchen and Karen, "She's the queen bee. The star. Those other two are just her little workers. (Bad girls). Regina George being the boss of the clique, she rules it alone and surrounds herself with a group of followers or advisors. The main task of her follower is to praise her and give her the recognition she needs ideals of Marxism, creating a system created to allow her to succeed in high school “The capitalists,not the working class, they control society's ideology and its social conscience. They are the ones who determine the acceptable standards of behavior and thought in their society” (Bressler 177). Of course, just as history has shown us several times in the past, there is always a rebel alliance that plans to overthrow their leader and make changes that would then benefit the middle and lower classes. Regina sees that Cady has the potential to pose a threat to her government, which leads her to invite her to sit with the Plastics for the rest of the week. Regina tries to get into her head by first complimenting her that she's really pretty. When he says thank you, Regina asks "So you agree. You think you're really nice" (Mean Girls). By joining the group, he is now attempting to eliminate the threat. Where Marxism really plays an important role is the consumerism shown through the film. The Plastics, just like the government, likes to tell the middle class what is acceptable to be more socially acceptable in society, and in high school an example of this was wearing army pants and flip flops: "I saw Cady Heron wearing army pants and flip flops" . slippers, so I bought military pants and flip flops” (Mean Girls) In addition to their role in consumerism, they also use the power of intimidation and blackmail, creating what they call the “Burn Book,” which lists the girls in their class and mean comments from them “Ambra D'Alessio. He made out with a hot dog” (Mean Girls). This was the other girls' way of feeling in control. Cady Heron in the film is considered our middle class or working class society. He connects much of his high school experience to that of the animal kingdom in Africa, but realizes that high school clique problems are handled very differently: “I knew how this problem would be solved in the animal world. But this was the world of girls” (Mean Girls). With the help of his friends, the "proletariat", he creates a plan to overthrow Regina George. “All working peoples can free themselves from the shackles of social, economic and political oppression if they recognize that they are currently not free agents, but individuals controlled by an intricate social network dominated by a self-declared, self-enhanced power and social elite that self-perpetuating” (Bressler 177). By uniting and rebelling against this elite leader, they can break down the social hierarchy, eliminating the bourgeoisie. According to Marx, this hierarchy can only be broken by human action. This human action is the plan created by her friend Janis: “How do you overthrow a dictator? You cut off her resources. Regina would be nothing without her high-ranking man… a technically good physique… and an ignorant group of loyal followers” (Mean Girls). After many attempts, the secret to ruining her relationship "is her hooking up with Shane Oman in the screening room above the auditorium", turned her boyfriend against her. Her nice body - giving her Kalteen bars, "Coach Carr makes us eat them when we want to move up." Finally, the group members slowly began to break up with sneaky three-way calls, sending candy canes pretending to be from Regina George "I would have used three candy canes to break Gretchen Wieners... One time Gretchen thought Regina was mad at her , secrets began to leak out. All I had to do was wait for someone we could use. (Bad Girls) This eventually led to Regina's followers betraying her attire established by her (which also leads to one of the most famous lines): “Regina, you're wearing sweatpants. So this is against the rules and you can't.
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