Mean Girls: Homosexuality

The movie of the 21^st century, the highest grossed in box offices, Mean girls (2004)  is a sensational story of how a young girl known as Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) from South Africa will initiate in the adventure of her life time. Experiencing social climax and un-expecting drastic environmental changes, Cady Heron will ambulate from her homeschooling lifestyle in a captivated environment in sunny South Africa, to a socially corrupt school lifestyle inhibited by Regina George (Rachael McAdams).

Regina and Cady

The approach towards sexuality is conveyed in an open manor, from flamboyant attributes to stereotypical homophobic, Country Christians, Mean Girls expresses every type of prejudice stereotype in the book through all sorts off characters, thus making the subject of ‘homosexuality’ an occurring subject in Mean Girls.

  
Homosexual Stereotypes are delineated very conspicuously throughout Mean Girls, which makes the movie correlate with its target audience - Teenagers (Predominately the female audience). The lead Homosexual character 'Damien' (Daniel Franzese) is portrayed as a very effeminate character, leading to the homosexual stereotype.

Damien

Damien is a perfect example for the stereotypical homosexual - you can grasp the stereotype through either his mise en sense, attributes or flamboyant personality.

When trying to capture a perfect stereotype you need to take every single detail into consideration. Throughout Damien's time on screen if you notice the camera shots always focus on his gestures - take into account the gestures homosexual stereotypes are associated with.

Damien wears very vibrant clothing (majority of the time) - clothing on a stereotype isn't very elusive, which essentially makes his clothing a first judgemental thought, which is what a stereotype is all about, thus achieving the intended billet for his character. 

So, how does his personification correlate with his stereotype?

Well, firstly his clothing is a factor which represents his personification. 

Damien at his prom

As a viewer, would you expect Damien to dress like he does in the movie? Damien the initial stereotype, in my opinion does captivate the role of the homosexual, i began to apprehend the difference in clothing with Damien verses the other male characters in the movie - the difference is very distinct. Damien's flamboyant, generic personality conveys and correlates with clothing, as he lends a 'pink' t-shirt to Cady - The colour Pink is associated with female stereotypes, which makes his stereotype more persuasive.

Notice at the prom, majority of the male characters have a black/grey colour scheme for their suits, however Damien is wearing an ambiguously purple suit which creates and concludes the clothing for a perfect, generic homosexual stereotype in a bourgeois High School. 

Daniels Character Damien, stands out in the film far differently to the other characters and how they're portrayed. Damien has a very angelic personality which meets the criteria intended for a generic homosexual - this makes his character transparent compared to the characters in the film. The other characters in the film, ironically the 'Mean Girls' all have similar attributes which highlights the story, which also makes it a very surreal High School Society, intentionally so that allows Daniels character to be protruded. 

Janis Ian

Janis Ian's (Lizzy Caplan) Character is very peculiar because off her appearance and distinct personality.
Lizzy's Character is portrayed as a Heterosexual Individual, per contra her attributes allows us to believe and assume she is homosexual because of her stereotype when actually its not been proven wether she's homosexual or not, this basically forces us to question the understanding of homosexual stereotypes, which essentially curdles up an issue.
The fact that when we see Janis, we instantly presume she is homosexual (I speak from reviews of the movie) highlights todays narrow minded society and the understanding of a certain sexuality. 
If you feel discombobulated when you think off Lizzy's characters sexuality, this allows you to question the 'actual' stereotypical homosexual, which is due to the creator off the story, which also correlates with the idea of questioning Damien's sexuality.

In my Opinion, I find the idea of Janis not being homosexual surpassing which is essentially confusing to a big part of the storyline, in someways. This is forcing a stereotype on a characters when their presumed sexuality doesn't correlate with their actual sexuality.

Viewers feel the idea off confusion in a characters sexuality should be rectified to allow a understanding off the character fully. However, I feel confusion in a characters sexuality makes the overall story more intriguing for a viewer which interests them to watch on. I find the idea of Janis' actual sexuality not being released enchanting. 

I feel Compelled to share my final thoughts on how the portrayed sexuality in particular characters is actually conveyed. I think the relationship between both of the initial Stereotype character works, because off Janis attributes, it correlates with the Mean Girls storyline, which makes it more engaging. I find myself not questing the way Damien has been presented and portrayed - as it is perfect, like the movie.  

By Oliver Mason