Mean Girls - Not Me

While watching the teen flick, "Mean Girls", I quickly recalled the girls in my high school who were the meanest. I envisioned their faces on the faces of the "plastic" (fake, too much makeup, popular, exclusive)characters in the movie .

Then, in the movie, the plastics did an annual dance routine to "Jingle Bell Rock" and my heart sank. Yes, I did an annual Christmas dance routine to "Jingle Bell Rock" in high school. And, upon more reflection, I realized that I might have been considered "plastic" in high school. I always had on makeup, always had my hair curled (too much most of the time, couldn't let go of the big hair era), and was in fact a pom pom girl. I stereotyped (great map in the movie on that), gossiped, excluded and talked bad about people, not separating them from their actions.

Denial. We all struggle with it, especially while watching such a movie. We see the mean behavior and think, "Shame on those people." A teacher explained an 8th grade group of girls to me recently, "They're the type of girls who will go to see 'Mean Girls', think it's hilarious, and have no idea it's about them."

A classic youth ministry scenario: In a normal class with cliques, popular people, loners, kids who are ignored or made fun of, etc., the more "in" crowd announces that their class is so wonderful because everyone gets along. It happened in the movie as well. Don't we just love the denial?!? If we're not directly hurt, we forget it happens at all, or that we can possibly be part of the problem.

Maybe I wasn't the meanest person in school, but no one would define themselves as such. Yet, even my goth, nerd and sexually-active band geek friends (see the movie) were guilty of mean behavior. Even the best youth groups have been criticized for excluding and stereotyping. "Mean Girls" struck me as much more than just about the awful plastics.

I may not wear as much makeup anymore, but I am still have a mean streak that I am not proud of, that flares it's ugly head more than I'd like to admit. I'd like to say I'm getting better, but I'm taking the movie as a reminder that I still need to grow in how I view, and even participate in, mean behavior.