MovieChat Forums > Mean Girls (2004) Discussion > It's entirely Janis's fault that Cady be...

It's entirely Janis's fault that Cady became a mean girl

posted 2 years ago by RustyShacklefurd (2026)
9 replies | jump to latest

Cady only became a mean girl because she joined the Plastics and hanging out with them enabled them to be a bad influence on her. And Cady only joined the Plastics because Janis wanted her to hang out with them as part of a plan to get revenge on Regina. The absurd, unspoken assumption of Janis's plan was that Cady could hang out with the Plastics without genuinely becoming just like them. And even after Cady stopped being a Plastic, Janis never apologized to her for causing her to become a mean girl or even expressed awareness of her responsibility for it.

[–] soggybotton (30) 4 months ago

Yeah, Janis definitely got the whole thing rolling, but Regina had a big part to play in it as well, and isn't Cady responsible for her own actions? Cady started looking, talking, and acting just like Regina. Janis made the mistake of thinking that Cady would always stay true to her and Damian as her real friends. And yes, Janis should've apologized at the end along with Cady.

That's Girl World for ya... Trust no one!

[–] fc31 (4776) 4 months ago

I think the mean girls include Janis, they are all mean girls.

Otherwise I think the movie would have been called 'The plastics'.

[–] soggybotton (30) 4 months ago

You nailed it fc31. Even Janis admits she's a mean girl during the drive-by scene.

[–] WandererFromYs (1833) a month ago

Janis Ian was a plastic, they just kicked out, and she went emo. That doesn’t mean she completely changed, she’s till the same person that wanted to hang out with them in the first place.

[–] fc31 (4776) a month ago

It is possible that Janis was a plastic wannabe, but was rejected, or she could have challenged Regina in some way.

Either way I think Regina did a hatchet job on her and ruined her reputation, Janis became an outcast involuntarily because of it.

There is a saying that hatred is not the opposite of love, indifference is, so in a way I think Regina was right, Janis was obsessed with her.

[–] TheArgentinian (6619) a month ago

she's a grown ass woman and can make her own decision. ain't nobody forced her to do anything.

[–] WandererFromYs (1833) a month ago

She’s not a grown ass woman, she is supposed to be like 16. And she was fairly naive.

[–] RustyShacklefurd (2026) a month ago

I said that it was Janis's fault because it was Janis's plan. Janis came up with that plan entirely on her own. Without Janis's plan, Cady never would have joined the Plastics. That's important because Janis never took responsibility for coming up with that plan. Janis attacked Cady for being a Plastic when she didn't invite her to her party and then accepted Cady's apology at the Spring Fling without ever taking any responsibility for her role in all of it. Janis can't be legitimately aggrieved for events that she helped cause.

I would add that your talk about Cady's "decision" obscures the fact that she simply didn't understand the ramifications of her decision. Cady didn't understand that hanging out with the Plastics and pretending to be one of them would lead to her becoming an actual mean girl. There was no way for her to know that would happen. Cady didn't "decide" to become an actual mean girl. It was a process that happened slowly over time due to the Plastics' influence on her.

[–] RoboReCop (2855) a month ago

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