 |
| (Illustration: Stephen Gillis) |
Whoever said 鈥済irls are sugar and spice and everything nice鈥� has obviously never seen the movie听Mean Girls.
听
In the 2004 movie, Lindsay Lohan plays a home-schooled kid raised in the African bush by zoologist parents who enters public high school for the first time. 鈥淪urvival of the fittest鈥� takes on a whole new meaning as she tries to find her place among the preps, jocks, nerds, desperate wannabes, burnouts, band geeks, and the meanest species of all 鈥� the 鈥淧lastics,鈥� the most popular, prettiest, most fashionable girls at school.
There鈥檚 something to this scathing portrayal of high school which rings true for researcher Nicole Landry. While obviously satirical, its depiction of popularity, power and meanness is borne out by her research on adolescent girls and how they negotiate playground politics. Her findings, based on her master鈥檚 thesis, have just been published in the book, The Mean Girl Motive: Negotiating Power and Femininity (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing).
鈥淕irls are not brought up to be assertive. They鈥檙e raised to be nice and pretty and have lots of friends,鈥� says Ms. Landry, a research coordinator with the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology in the Faculty of Medicine. 鈥淏ut they themselves recognize meanness as an integral part, even a normal part, of their growing up.鈥�
As an undergraduate at Saint Mary鈥檚 University searching for a topic for her honour鈥檚 thesis, it struck her that girls were excluded from research on childhood aggression, presumably because aggression was thought to be almost exclusively a male phenomenon.
In a society where being rough and tumble is regarded as an important part of being a boy, it is different for girls, who are not taught to express aggression. Instead, hostility and anger are conveyed passively through meanness. As shown in movies, from Mean Girls to Bratz: The Movie and Disney鈥檚 Camp Rock, girls tend to bully by gossiping, backstabbing and excluding others from activities.
鈥淜ids are like little adults, but they don鈥檛 have the things that we have to give them status and power: a good job, a nice house, wealth. They use meanness as a way of negotiating their place in the hierarchy,鈥� she says.
鈥淚t鈥檚 what girls do to get by. They need to dress the part and look the part and gather their army of friends around them. Their capital is their friends, their hair, their name-brand clothing 鈥� that鈥檚 power for them.鈥�
In conducting her research, Ms. Landry met with 24 tween girls, ages eight to 11, split into four focus groups. The majority of the girls, all members of a nonprofit youth organization, came from predominantly working-class families. The majority were white, while one-quarter of the girls were black or mixed race.
Through meetings held over several weeks, Ms. Landry initiated discussion by showing movie clips and pictures and asking questions. Each of the girls was also asked to record her thoughts and feelings in a 鈥渞eflection journal.鈥�
According to the girls, popularity is affected by class and race; popularity, which is equated with power, is awarded to rich, white girls who can afford the coveted labels but also to white girls from less-well-off families as long as they are pretty.
But one thing the participants stressed about popular girls is that they are always mean; that鈥檚 how they maintain their place at the top. At the same time, these popular girls are inundated with rules, about how they must look, behave and who they can associate with. According to the girls Ms. Landry talked to, some of rules for popular girls include: 鈥淎lways sass everyone;鈥� 鈥淕et boys to like you;鈥� and 鈥淲henever you have a chance to make fun of someone else, do it.鈥�
鈥淚t was an amazing experience. I had forgotten what it was like to be nine, 10, 11 years old and it all came rushing back,鈥� says Ms. Landry, 27, who grew up near Pictou. 鈥淚t鈥檚 such a frustrating, confusing time for them when they鈥檙e really developing their identities. And on top of that, they鈥檙e concerned about how they look, their friends, getting a cute boyfriend 鈥� it鈥檚 all so important.鈥�