Well I was enjoying this movie until it got to that very unnecessary misogynistic part. That whole ridiculous stereotype of how all girls are "total bitches" is disgusting. What made me especially role my eyes was finding out this movie was written by men. Good grief, they really like to keep those nasty stereotypes alive for some reason. That entire part was just uncalled for.
shareWho said the line? I'm struggling to remember this as well as the book. Pretty sure that a statement like that would have been through the eyes of one of the characters, expressing their perspective. If it was Tip, it would actually fit her character because she was young and she saw things in very simple black/white terms. As for the reality, a lot of bullying goes on in middle school and the first couple of years of high school. When people refer to "mean girls", I always assume they are describing the ways groups of girls will bully others as opposed to the ways that boys tend to bully.
shareWell, Tip was a new girl who joined a school that had most of the students know each other since probably elementary. What makes it more stress inducing is that she transferred around the middle school (6th grade) to junior high (7th to 8th) years, which actually can be quite horrible for some people.
At that age, kids think they are over being 'children' and want to show how 'adult' they. While everyone is different and all that jazz, there are groups who do enjoy making life miserable for other people in order to appear 'strong and awesome.' I just recently had conversations with friends, who come from various schools, about groups they encountered that ended up making them feel insecure about themselves or made them 'toughen up' in order to avoid getting hurt. For pretty much all of them, there was always a girl or group of girls involved that basically helped contribute to their misery.
I imagine it was just as hard for Tip when she went to those first few days of school. Some girls, especially in a group, just love to make life miserable for girls outside their circle. Depending on the location and make up of the school, she could have been the only outsider there, had an accent that the 7th grade girls judge to be "so weird and totally not cool", a nerd that made them feel 'let's pick on her!' or threatened their standing in the class (smart people can be just as mean, believe me), or Tip might have 'looked at them funny' or *gasp* said "Hi" to them when they didn't her to. Either way, kids at that age can hold grudges for the most pettiness of things or are trying to assert their 'coolness' over everyone else. For girls, it seems to be worse either cause it really is or it just doesn't feel as horrible when boys act the same. Either way, the "girls are so mean!" trope and stereotype exists and still makes people lightly anxious because it does still happen.
I myself experienced it a bit when I went into junior high my 7th grade year. I was a bit of an outcast because I didn't go to elementary or have the same classes in 6th grade with them (my middle school only had that grade and we were on different 'tracks' dependent on academic performance. I was on the average track and they were on the smart one. 7th grade is when I joined their classes). While they admittedly didn't bully me, I could feel that they didn't want me around and wanted to keep to their circle. My saving graces were a good friend or two, a weird combination of 'want to be friends, but not gonna change who I am no matter who you are' approach, good books to distract myself, and a general good attitude that attracted the ones not in the main circle but still on good standing with them. High school ended up being a lot better for me and the circle weakened out (not fully, but enough for us to be pleasant with each other) as we moved up, but I still think back to those years and wonder why I even wanted such people to like me.
Thanks for sharing that, it's insightful. The last part you came to, wondering why you wanted such people to like you, shows a lot of growth. If kids didn't care what the mean kids thought of them, the mean kids would lose much of their "power" over others. It's really hard to get kids to that point, however.
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Well I was enjoying this movie until it got to that very unnecessary misogynistic part. That whole ridiculous stereotype of how all girls are "total bitches" is disgusting. What made me especially role my eyes was finding out this movie was written by men. Good grief, they really like to keep those nasty stereotypes alive for some reason. That entire part was just uncalled for.
7th grade girls *are* mean though. Remember that film Mean Girls?
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