Gender Issues In Mean Girls

Through the juxtaposition of such scenes the viewer learns how

these women miners were subjected to cruel sex jokes, sexual assault, juvenile pranks, and

various derogatory comments from their male co-workers. Despite the “promise” management

gave to the women to help them deal with such problems, their “advice” offered ridicule. The

fact that women worked in the mines became an issue for their family, friends, the community,

and with themselves. With the help of open-minded people the nation’s first class-action sexual-

harassment lawsuit entered and triumphed on the legal ground.

Several gender issues arise in this film. The men get away with indecent and cruel acts while the

women, many of whom have done nothing wrong, are
considered whores for working in the

mines. In one scene another hockey mom shouts up as Josey into the crowd for her to stay away

from Bobby Sharp, the woman’s husband and current assaulter of Josey. Traditional gender roles

and ideas are presented multiple times throughout the movie. Josey’s mother gives a talk to Josey

about how a mother’s purpose is to her children. Josey’s boss tells her at the beginning of her job

that women have no business at the mines and that if she runs into any , since

they have to “pull the cover-alls all the way down.” Even so, the women were not given enough

bathroom breaks though men seemed to go whenever they wished, which led to a bladder

infection in one female miner.