Advanced Sociology
Name:_________________________________
Movie Analysis Sheet – Mean Girls
Mr. Slocomb
Period:________
CHANGE PART 2 TO 5 IMPLICT AND 5 EXPLICT NORMS, ADD A PART ABOUT APPLYING SPECIFIC THEORISTS AND THEIR
IDEAS (E.G. FREUD, ROSTOW, KOHLBERG, PIAGET, DURKHEIM, WEBER, ETC…)
Part 1 – Look at the list of major concepts in each chapter. Pick a unique concept for each person and explain something
about them in the movie using those concepts. Underline the concept you pick in your explanation.
Cady Heron
(Lindsay Lohan)
Regina George
(Rachel
McAdams)
Cady’s Mom
(Ana Gasteyer)
Gretchen
Wieners (Lacey
Chabert)
Ms. Norbury
(Tina Fey)
Janis Ian (Lizzy
Caplan)
Mrs. George
(Amy
Poehler)
Damian
(Daniel
Franzese)
Cady’s Dada
(Neil Flynn)
Aaron Samuels
(Jonathan
Bennett)
Mr. Duvall (Tim
Meadows)
Karen Smith
(Amanda
Seyfriend)
Kevin Gnapoor
(Rajiv
Surendra)
Chapter 1 Concepts – Sociology: Perspective, Theory, and Method
Chapter 2 Concepts – Culture
Chapter 3 Concepts – Socialization: From Infancy to Old Age
Chapter 4 Concepts – Social Interaction in Everyday Life
Chapter 5 Concepts – Groups and Organizations
The major sociology concept that is addressed in Mean Girls (in a humorous manner) is norms. During the movie, norms
are either explicitly mentioned as rules (e.g. you can’t date your friend’s ex-boyfriends), or they are implied (e.g. Regina
says “I really want to lose three pounds,” then looks around until everyone reaffirms her…the rule here is that if a friend
says something bad about themselves you have to reaffirm them).
For this part of the assignment, you need to state 10 norms (rules) that are implied in the movie and 10 norms (rules)
that are explicitly stated in the movie (20 total). State the rule first, briefly explain the rule according to the movie, state
if the rule is explicit or implicit, then state if you think the norm is a folkway or more. Finally, explain why you think the
norm is a folkway or more, citing a value or belief in U.S. culture that is related and an example from your life, the real
world or another unit of popular media that demonstrates this. Here is an example…each of your explanations should
be about this long and include the parts mentioned above…
Don’t date your friend’s ex-boyfriends/ex-girlfriends – This norm is explicitly stated by Gretchen in the cafeteria to
Cady when she says she thinks Aaron Samuels is cute. I believe that this rule is a more because our society values loyalty
very strongly, and dating someone’s ex is seen as disloyal. For example, I have seen this at West Fargo High School
where a student will break up with another student and then start dating a friend of the previous student. In these
instances, I can tell that there is some strain on the friendship based on the nonverbal communication between the
students (e.g. not wanting to sit by anyone anymore, not smiling as much, etc…).
You can write this on another sheet of lined paper, or you can type it if you would like to…
Lindsay Lohan
Rachel McAdams
Ana Gasteyer
Lacey Chabert
Tina Fey
Lizzy Caplan
Amy Poehler
Daniel Franzese
Neil Flynn
Jonathan Bennett
Tim Meadows
Amanda Seyfriend
Rajiv Surendra
Cady Heron
Regina George
Cady’s Mom
Gretchen Wieners
Ms. Norbury
Janis Ian
Mrs. George
Damian
Cady’s Dad
Aaron Samuels
Mr. Duvall
Karen Smith
Kevin Gnapoor
Scenes – (for notes to help you…you do not need to do complete anything for this part)
1. First Day of School
2. The Plastics
3. Entering Girl World
4. The Burn Book
5. Costume Party
6. Sabotage
7. Winter Talent Show
8. Gretchen Cracks
9. Word Vomit
10. A Pusher
11. The New Queen Bee
12. Actual Vomit
13. Regina’s Revenge
14. Jungle Madness
15. Attitude Makeover
16. Suck Out the Poison
17. Prom Night
18. Spring Fling Queen
19. Girl World At Peace