Deviance Behavior
SOC 460Z
Mean Girls is a movie that takes place in the metaphorical jungle that is the American public high school. The movie is a hilarious exploration of the dysfunctional way that teenagers interact and systematically destroy each other and themselves. Cady Heron, played by Lindsay Lohan, is the new girl in school. She has been home schooled and living in Africa for fifteen years because of her zoologist parents. She is now being integrated into American society and its school system for the first time. She is a sweet but completely naïve girl unfamiliar with basic social graces. Cady befriends two unpopular social outcasts early on - Damian and Janis. However, she unintentionally manages to fall in with the three most popular girls in school, nicknamed The Plastics. Karen is the pretty but extremely dim-witted blonde. Gretchen is the wealthy, privileged follower and gossip queen. Regina is the beautiful but ruthless alpha female and leader of the pack. The collective task that the Plastics face is to continue their streak as the most popular girls in school. Cady is convinced by Damian and Janis to keep hanging out with the Plastics so that they can learn their inner workings and find out what they do and say about other people. Cady’s lack of cultural insight into the unwritten social rules of how teenage females interact, manipulate, and wage psychological warfare in high school is a formula for status deviance. An examination of the situation allows for the application of this preliminary theory on the social control of status deviance.
A Preliminary Theory of the Social Control of Status Deviance
Definition 1 (Status violation): A status violation is a pattern of behavior in a task-oriented group that deviates from expectations for task performance held by other group members.
Labeling theory results in others attaching labels to our behavior. A status violation means that an actor is varying from their label and trying to have the group
Mean Girls is a movie that takes place in the metaphorical jungle that is the American public high school. The movie is a hilarious exploration of the dysfunctional way that teenagers interact and systematically destroy each other and themselves. Cady Heron, played by Lindsay Lohan, is the new girl in school. She has been home schooled and living in Africa for fifteen years because of her zoologist parents. She is now being integrated into American society and its school system for the first time. She is a sweet but completely naïve girl unfamiliar with basic social graces. Cady befriends two unpopular social outcasts early on - Damian and Janis. However, she unintentionally manages to fall in with the three most popular girls in school, nicknamed The Plastics. Karen is the pretty but extremely dim-witted blonde. Gretchen is the wealthy, privileged follower and gossip queen. Regina is the beautiful but ruthless alpha female and leader of the pack. The collective task that the Plastics face is to continue their streak as the most popular girls in school. Cady is convinced by Damian and Janis to keep hanging out with the Plastics so that they can learn their inner workings and find out what they do and say about other people. Cady’s lack of cultural insight into the unwritten social rules of how teenage females interact, manipulate, and wage psychological warfare in high school is a formula for status deviance. An examination of the situation allows for the application of this preliminary theory on the social control of status deviance.
A Preliminary Theory of the Social Control of Status Deviance
Definition 1 (Status violation): A status violation is a pattern of behavior in a task-oriented group that deviates from expectations for task performance held by other group members.
Labeling theory results in others attaching labels to our behavior. A status violation means that an actor is varying from their label and trying to have the group