I for one was never a fan of the movie "Mean Girls." I didn’t like it the first time I saw it at a fourth-grade sleepover. I didn’t like it when I watched in my psychology class senior year, and I certainly do not like it now. I know it’s supposed to be a funny movie, and it does have its moments, but I just don’t see the humor or enjoyment in girls intentionally being mean to other girls. Being nice was never something that I thought was particularly difficult. Call me naive, but I really just didn’t understand why everyone couldn’t get along.
This rang true in real life too. Throughout high school, I witnessed lots of what Tina Fey would call “girl-on-girl crimes.” I saw the Cadys become Reginas. Some of my closest friends freshman year were some of the nastiest people by senior year. I heard girls talk badly about other girls and then see them all hanging out that weekend at parties. It confused me. Why were girls so mean and two-faced to each other? Maybe it was immaturity, or jealousy. Maybe once we all got to college, girls would stop competing and antagonizing and being mean to each other, and just learn to get along. At least, that’s what I hoped would happen.
For the most part, I was right. I live with my best friends. My female floormates are like my family. I’ve made friends with girls in the line for the bathroom at parties, in math class and even in the library. The majority of the “mean girls” have finally laid their horns to rest.
But there’s always an exception. College is a time of new beginnings, so while some girls choose to turn over a new leaf of kindness, some decide to let their inner Regina George come out to play. Everyone knows one. Whether they be the girls who give you a bitch stare when you cross paths on the way to the caf, to the girl from your hall you met once at a party who randomly decides to come to your lounge while you’re in class and come up with elaborate stories to tell your friends about how “crazy” you are. The end of high school doesn’t equal the end of mean girls, and they only get more and more bitchy as you get older.
I wish people could see that being rude or two-faced or flat out mean doesn’t make you seem cool. No one wants to be friends with someone who constantly has a negative thing to say about someone else. It’s way more fun to be friendly, genuine and funny. Light attracts light, and by being kind to those you meet you’re far more likely to have good people in your life, rather than having a friend group of lousy, negative and mean girls. It’s hard enough being a girl in today’s world. We should work on building each other up, not tearing each other down.
