Topic > Feminism in the films "The Duff" and "Mean Girls"

Feminism is basically the belief that men and women should have equal rights and feminist theory is the extension of feminism that further aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. Gender inequality recognizes the differentiation between men and women and also how it influences the life experiences of an individual and others. A relationship between male and female, both genders should have equal opportunities because we all deserve this world equally. Equal in many ways, education, responsibility, mutual trust, mutual respect and of course love for everyone equally. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Mark Waters' production of Mean Girls, he specifically focused on how to stay true to yourself and not succumb to the pressures of popularity that teaches teenage girls to incorporate feminism. Home-schooled protagonist Cady Heron, who comes from Africa to America, joins the "real" school where she quickly makes two friends, Janis and Damian, who are kind to her and also considered in the "crowd outside" at school. . She later meets "The Plastics", a group of three popular girls in which Regina is the leader of her two friends, Karen and Gretchen. While, in the film, “The Duff”, directed by Ari Sandel, introduced a trio of longtime best friends, Bianca, Jess and Casey. Bianca was later known as "The Duff", designated ugly and fat friend, who is basically the approachable, unnoticeable and sloppy caretaker of her otherwise beautiful friends. Her two friends never thought of her as an idiot, but she was labeled an idiot by her other classmates, mainly Madison. Perhaps, Mean Girls seems to have more feminist goals and an accurate portrayal of women even as it propagates similar goals to The Duff on how women are treated in society. I chose to compare these two texts as they both apply to feminist theory and my argument to simply be who you are and not change yourself for someone else. The main idea of ​​both films seemed to me to have something to do with the personality of women who attract men thinking that men are only attracted to women because of their physical appearance. As for the generation we live in right now it seems to relate to this because teenage girls still believe that men are only attracted to you by your body, which is somewhat true but not entirely. I say this, not entirely because even if men are attracted to you by your beauty, they will definitely change their opinion when they get older because they will learn what true beauty is which is the heart and not the looks. Since Mean Girls, Cady, the main protagonist of the story famous for her talent in mathematics, tends to change after some time. So at first he believed that beauty wasn't everything. And when she later finds out it's all to attract her crush, Toby. Cady knew about his incredible talent in math, but purposely fails the tests to get closer to Aaron. It was an interesting idea of ​​women changing themselves just to attract the opposite gender, which seemed so stupid to me. Why should women change themselves to get a guy? Why didn't Cady realize that she could impress Aaron with her math talent even though she was a feminist? Later in the film, Aaron mentioned that he cared more about people's talents rather than their personalities and that was the part where Cady realized he was ruining her life. The reason whyCady changed somewhat was the group "The Plastics" in which Regina, Gretchen and Karen were known for their popularity and beauty. I think the trio in this group are called "The Plastics" because they are as fake as plastic materials. Plastic materials are quite impressive at first but when we realize that it doesn't last longer, we stop taking care of it and leave it behind. I got this idea at the beginning of the film, when the three girls were introduced as The Plastics. When Cady was later found as Regina, meaning part of "The Plastics", people left her behind. Her two good friends, Janis and Damian, and Mrs. Norbury who once told her, "Cady, I know having a boyfriend might seem like the only thing that's important right now, but you don't have to sell yourself short in order to have a guy who likes you ." Cady didn't care about her teacher's words and was later ignored by everyone in her school as they were all angry with Cady's behavior because she was changing herself to get the attention of others, especially Aaron, which seemed stupid even to Aaron . He was focused on the inner being rather than the outward appearance or physical attributes, as was Mark Waters' intention. The portrayal of the disabled person and Aaron seemed commendable in the film as disabled people. The idea of ​​women changing themselves to impress someone else was shown differently in the movie “The Duff”, where Ari Sandel portrayed the similar idea using the main character, Bianca. She was also a bright student, just like Cady, but when she arrived she was "The Duff", she thought she should change herself and maybe that's why Toby, her crush, doesn't approach her Really. Later, when she finds out that Toby was close to her, she can talk to her other two friends, Jess and Casey. Ari Sandel intentionally distorted the story in this way to show that most men depicted on television focus primarily on the woman's physical appearance and viewers may not realize that appearance is not what is important. This reinforces the idea that women shouldn't change themselves to get a guy. If the guy is really impressed with you in some way, he will come back to you one day just like Aaron goes back to Cady in the end and Wesley goes back to Bianca. Both male characters liked the female protagonists for who they really are. This supports my hypothesis that both films send a similar message that we can apply to our lives at any stage and anywhere of being who we are and not to change ourselves to attract others. Sandel and Waters' aim to develop this idea is really effective because teenagers think that personality is everything, and these parts of the films would definitely change the point of view of many women and men. Another idea explored by both Waters and Sandel through their films was the aim of making women feel uncomfortable with their personalities in America. This highlighted the way women were treated in the years between 2004, when Mean Girls was released, to 2015, when The Duff was released. So, obviously, this problem is not completely solved yet. Both directors produced their texts in America that clearly showed American teenagers the need to point out flaws with their friends and make them change in turn. For example, in the scene where the Plastics list their flaws and Cady, who was new to the group, watches them say, "My hips are huge." "I have the shoulders of a man." “My hairline is so weird.” "My pores are huge." And in that moment, Cady.