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Laura La Grutta
Professor Jay Williams
Communication 1050
24 November 2015

Theory Research Paper Assignment

The purpose of this paper is analyzing the movie Mean Girls under the lenses of The
Muted Theory perspective using an axiology approach. The movie Mean Girls uses certain
characteristics of this theory like the process of silencing, ridicule, ritual, and control to
demonstrate how teenagers in the American culture behave and interact. The movie exposes and
criticizes how through beauty, money and fashion a small group of teenagers manage to control
their entire high school. It demonstrates how these three ingredients seem to be the key for
success and popularity but also the key to segregate, manipulate and denigrate those whom do
not have them.
Mean Girls was released in 2004 and quickly became an iconic America movie. It tells
the story of Cady, a 16 year-old girl, who after living in Africa and being home-schooled by her
zoologist parents enters an America public high school. There, she finds a new definition of the
survival of the fittest. In her first days at the school, she became friends with Janice and
Damian, two outcasts that gave her a quick introduction of the social life with in the school. That
is how she originally identifies the group that leads the high school, the Mean Girls. At the top,
we have the Queen Bee, Regina, who is followed by her two friends, Gretchen and Karen. These

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girls are pretty, rich, vain and popular. Regina shows interest for Cady because she is pretty and
invited her to be part of her group, so in this way she can keep an eye on her. It is when Janice
and Damian ask Cady to accept Reginas invitation, so they can spy on Regina and recollect
information that they can potentially use to dethrone her. Reluctant Cady accepted and it is how
little by little she became a mean girl herself. However, Regina betrayed her by taking the boy
she likes. This is when the revenge and all the plot of the movie take action. Cady will learn a lot
about teen culture from all of these as well as the viewers.
The director of the movie does a good job by exposing and criticizing the social life of
Americas teenagers in high school through Cadys virgin eyes. We can see this from the
beginning, when all the stereotypes and cliques of teens are shown, until the moment in where
the content of the Burn Book, where the mean girls write the school gossip, is revealed to the
whole school. He also offers a better solution for all the unnecessary conflict and drama of the
age. Instead of manipulation, insult and bullying each other, the girls learn to resolve their
conflicts by facing them, confronting them and eventually supporting each other and finally
leaving behind their destructive tendencies.
According to West, The central assertion of Muted Theory is that members of
marginalized groups are silenced and rendered inarticulate as speakers (West 493). Through the
movie, we can see how The Plastics, or the mean girls, are the ones that have the power in the
whole school, leaving everyone else as just marginal subculture groups. To mention some, preps,
Asians nerds, cool Asians, unfriendly black hotties, desperate wannabes, burnouts, geeks etc. The
Plastics are the teen royalty that set the tone in the social life of their school, and everybody else
gravitates around them. Sadly, the movie shows how culturally, teenagers idolize girls that are

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pretty, skinny and popular. Even when teens know and refer to these girls as mean, they idolize
them and they want to be like them.
As stated in The Muted Theory, Silence is accomplished through a social understanding
of who holds the power and who does not (West 494). This statement also applies to the movie.
All the sub-groups mentioned before have an understanding that the ones who hold the power are
The Plastics. Even when they hate the mean girls, they respect them and try to not mess-up with
them because they know it will be a social-suicide. By doing so, these teens put themselves in
disadvantage and at the mercy of others standards and criticism. They lost their voice because
they allow a small vain group, the Plastics, decide for them and establish what is good or bad,
what is cool or not in their social circle.
Other characteristics of The Muted Theory in this movie are the situations in where some
of the characters are ridiculed by the mean girls and in this way, these girls manage to keep a
position of power in their school. For the Plastics, ridiculing others is their best tool. They know
that by gossiping, criticizing and spreading rumors they control their peers. One example of this
is the Burn book, a book where they write all sorts of nasty stuff about other students in their
school and use it with convenience for their interest. Another is when Regina spread the rumor
that Janice is lesbian and by doing so, Janice became an outcast in her high school. The movie
points out that this kind of behavior destroys teenagers self-confidence and makes them
vulnerable to the social scrutiny. Once teenagers have been ridiculed, it is difficult for them and
their peers to forget the public humiliation and consequently they end up stigmatized.
As The Muted theory analyzes, some rituals in society enforce the dominance of the
group in power. An example of this in the movie is The Spring Fling, which is the dance that

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seniors throw for the underclassmen in their high school, where whosoever is elected Spring
Fling King and Queen automatically becomes head of the Student Activities Committee. This
election is decided by popularity and of course, Regina the Queen Bee of the Plastics always
wins. It is shown how Regina always manages to keep a position of power over the whole high
school through this annual teenager ritual dance.
The Muted theory establishes that the group in control is the one that decides over the
others. Regina and her friends are the ones that decide the social life in their community. Because
they are the popular, they feel entitled to dominate their peers. Even when the whole school hates
the Plastics because they bullied everybody, the Plastics peers do not feel empowered to
overcome them; instead they quietly let the Plastics do whatever they want. The Mean Girls are
pretty, skinny and rich. They can buy fancy clothes and accessories that help them to keep a high
status in their school. Also, not everyone can go to their parties. These girls select who is invited
and who is not so in this way, they have everyone in control and in their places.
In conclusion, Mean Girls is a solid example of the Muted Theory Group. The Plastics
are the dominant group in this story. Everybody else is muted because they are just blindly
obedient to their ruler Regina. This movie is assertive in showing how bullying and body image
are a major problem in our society especially in the teenagers world. It also shows how some
teenagers are capable of doing anything and hurting anyone for popularity. If you are not a
popular kid, you are nobody. This movie may be an exaggeration of real life high school drama;
however, it hits way too close to home for many people. As we move forward into the future, we
can only hope that through education and awareness tomorrow will be a better day.

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Work Cited

Mean Girls. Dir. Mark Waters. Perf. Lindsay Lohan and Tina Fey. Paramount, 2004. DVD.
Richard West, Lynn H. Turner. Introducing Communication Theory, 4 ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill
2010.