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Elizabeth Carrillo
English 114B
Professor Azeem
22 March 2015
Space in Mean Girls
There is a lot one can relate to in the movie Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters and
based in part on Rosalind Wisemans non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes, especially
if one is watching it during their high school years. The movie might be a bit of an exaggeration
compared to a real life experience in high school but nonetheless the movie reflects a lot of what
happens in the real world. Many observations in reference to personal space,
interpellation/ideology (ISA), and panopticism can be made from this movie based on the way
space is set up, which can reflect on society today. The space in this movie is made to portray
the conformity that exists within society, making one act or dress a certain way, to make one feel
like they fit in or approved and in a way assimilating.
Everyone has a personal space, which is considered to be the way one truly is inside and
the way one acts in accordance with the way they truly think and feel. Many today alter their
personal space for approval of someone else, just like Cady alters her personal space for Reginas
approval. In the movie there is a big difference between Cadys, the main character, personal
space, like the way she is when she is home, and public space, being the way she is when at
school and around her friends. Cadys personal space is more evident in the beginning of the
movie before she was corrupted, if you will, by the plastic girls in the attempt of sabotaging

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Regina Georges reputation as a favor for Janice by spying on her. Coming from Africa, where
Cady was home schooled, she was not exposed to the large amount of gossip or fashion trends in
the high school public system. Cady was supposedly a girl brought up by her parents to be a
well behaved, responsible, and trustworthy daughter. Well what else could be expected of her
from her parents? Cady had not shown a change of behavior otherwise and continued not to
even when she was in the process of becoming a plastic girl herself. The way Cady acted at
home when she was with her parents is considered her personal space but it is soon seen how her
personal space transforms when she is around Regina George and her two friends Gretchen and
Karen. Cady becomes a self-absorbed, backstabbing, pretentious character in order to be
accepted by Regina George. The alteration in Cadys personal space puts into perspective the
way people in society today may alter their personal space for approval.
In a similar way Violet in Feed, by M.T. Anderson, alters her personal space to seem
normal to Titus friends. Violets personal space can be described as genuine knowledge. She
loved to read books and write a lot which enriched her vocabulary that nobody, except her father,
understood. She was well informed of events happening around the world. Whenever she used
her extensive vocabulary or shared her knowledge or information about global issues she was
considered snotty. It is seen on pages 110-113 of the book how Titus describes her knowledge
and awareness of many things and how that bothered him,
I hated it when she got like this, because then she wasnt like herself, I mean, she wasnt
like this playful person who drags me around the mal doing crazy shit, she was suddenly
like those girls in School^TM who sit underground and dress all in black with ribbing and
get an iron fixture for their jaws and theyre like, capitalist foolpropaganda tool, hold
up both their hands, etc (111).
There was another incident when Violet realized that not only Titus din not appreciate her
extensive knowledge, but also his friends. The scene when they were trying to promote Coke

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and she made a smart remark Loga replied with a smart remark to show her annoyance and said,
Oh, sorry. I thought it was good to use stupid, long words that no one can understand (164).
To prevent such judgement towards her most of the time she kept her smart remarks or
comments to herself. She altered her personal space and used the feed when she was around
anyone that was not her father who is much like her. When Violet went out with Titus and his
friends such alteration of her personal space gained approval of Titus friends for the most part.
Violet made her hardest to fit in with Titus group and gain approval of all of them which lead to
her acting a different way around them and altering her personal space.
There is a reason why many people alter their personal space for approval of others and
what causes them to partake in such alteration. The cause for such alteration, as seen in the
movie, is due to the social systems and institutions that mediate the way we act and behave
which is known as the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA). ISA is a category of interpellation and
examples of ISA include family, friends, school, language, and media. These social systems and
institutions surround us all day every day! At the end of the day these social systems and
institutions do have an effect on the way we look, dress, act, talk, and much more.
Friends and school are the manipulative factors in this movie falling under the category
of ISA. The whole school is under the rule of Regina George for some reason. They show small
clips of students getting interviewed about their opinion of her and they all praise her for no
particular reason, one even thought it was an honor to get punched by her. And in that scene we
can see how ISA plays out, one of the girls interviewed said Regina bought army pants, so I
bought army pants. Just because Regina did something it caused not only that girl to do it but
others as well. Another scene that reflects ISA is when Janice cuts holes into Reginas shirt
where the breast are located and when Regina put the shirt on she did not mind and walked out

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of the locker room with style. Shortly after a girl saw her wearing that style she cut holes into
her own T-shirts and wore the same style and eventually all the other girls in the school followed.
If anyone that was not Regina tried to start that trend they would be considered ridiculous, but
since Regina was the one that started it, it became a trend that very instant. These two scenes are
just minor examples of the way ISA plays out throughout the movie that mediated the way
people in the school acted and behaved for approval of Regina George.
The biggest example of ISA in the movie is the way Karen and Gretchen behave; they
both conform to the ideology of Regina George. They both conform to the set of rules Regina
George has set up at the lunch table they eat at that includes only wearing a ponytail once a
week, wearing pink on Wednesdays and no hoop earrings because it is only her thing. The true
personality of Gretchen and Karen are seen when they open up to Cady. When Gretchen
explodes after English class after reciting her essay of Brutus and Ceaser and tells Cady that she
had to pretending like she did not like the hoop earrings they gave her for Hanukah because
Regina told her she could not wear them because they are her thing. Regina at some point blows
up and hurts Karens feeling by calling her stupid and Cady begins to comfort her. Karen is
actually a very sweet and sensitive girl as one realizes when she opens up to Cady. ISA is even
seen in Cadys case because she definitely acted, dressed, and talked the way that Regina wanted
her too for her approval, The weird thing about hanging out with Regina was that I could hate
her, and at the same time, I still wanted her to like me. All of them, even though Regina hurts
them and they do not like the way she runs things, still obey her and do not take a stand against
her until the end when Cady basically takes over and Gretchen and Karen listen to her more
often than Regina, but until then Cady, Gretchen, and Karen behave, act, dress, and talk the way
Regina expects them to and they do so for her approval and conform to Reginas ways.

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The whole act of interpellation that plays out throughout the movie leads to panopticism
that consists of the idea of permanent surveillance. Basically the way the plastic girls
behave and act is because of the belief of being under permanent surveillance. They have to
keep their image of perfect, beautiful, well dressed, popular, and of course bad bitch attitude. In
doing so they act the way do under Reginas rules so that they can even consider themselves part
of the group. Because of this idea of panopticism Cady keep a lot of her desired actions to
herself in her mind because she is under the permanent surveillance of Regina. We see these
scenes in the movie when there is a situation and the movie shows two different reactions of
Cady: one is the way Cady would react in the animal kingdom like in Africa, which are the
scenes describing Cadys real desired actions, and the other scene, which is the reality, are the
actions Cady takes for Reginas approval. For example when Regina gets back with Aaron
Samuels and Regina tells Cady to tell him that his hair looks better pushed back. Since Cady
knew that Regina knew she liked Aaron this obviously infuriated her and she thought of the way
she would react in the animal kingdom in Africa which would be to beat Regina up but she ended
up as Regina told her and told Aaron he looks better with his hair pushed back. Cady does the
same thing in other parts of the movie and it all comes to show Cady containing herself and
conforming to Reginas power for her approval.
In the end there is major interpellation acquired by Cady because of the dramatic and
constant change of behavior required for Reginas approval. What started off as Cady acting a
certain way so that Regina would like her ended up being a part of her. She was no longer
acting, behaving, dressing, and talking the way she was because it was expected of her from
Regina but because it was something she did now without realizing it, she had assimilated. Her
parents and both her friends Janice and Ian noticed her change and no longer recognized the

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person she was. Thankfully at the end when the Burn Book came out and chaos broke out she
realized what a mess she had contributed to. Cady found herself again and realized her true core
values and morals that she was brought up with and changed back to her true self in the end for
the better. In the end of this great classic chick flick, that many can relate to, one can see the way
personal space, interpellation, and panopticism not only plays out in the movie but in our real
world society today.