Who's the Meanest? Therapists React to MEAN GIRLS with guest Dr. Stephanie Sarkis

We all know Regina George is a "mean girl" but she's definitely not the only one being manipulative and mean in Mean Girls.

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are joined by Dr. Stephanie Sarkis to talk about Regina, Cady, Janis, and the toxic patterns of manipulation and narcissism we see in this movie. They also talk about the social structures and what it means to be a "mean girl," how both Regina and Janis try to manipulate Cady, and the awesome performances from Rachel McAdams, Lindsay Lohan, Lizzy Caplan, and the real hero of the movie - Tina Fey.

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Cinema Therapy is:
Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright & Alan Seawright
Edited by: Jenna Schaelling
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis

[sunshinedaydream]

I love that there isn't a clear antagonist in this movie. How often in real life is one person wholly 'good' and another person is wholly 'bad'? People are more complicated than that.

[pmcatnip]

When Janis is yelling at Cady from the car and calling her out for being a mean girl, that’s the only time she pronounces Cady’s name correctly. It adds that much more emphasis that Janis isn’t playing around anymore.

[CocktailsConsoles]

"Janice acting like a mean girl while calling Cady a mean girl"

I appreciate that they called this out. The "I'm bad but your worse" defense should never be a get-out-of-jail-free card for someone's actions. Victims can have victims too.

[needyverse]

There’s a reason Regina and Janis were best friends until they suddenly weren’t, and you see it throughout the power play of the movie. The two queens controlling the pieces in some way or another.

[camillaclay]

My favorite thing about this movie is that even though it’s about high school and it has the basic characters like the popular girls and the nerds and the jocks, every character actually has a real personality. In most movies with the stereotypes of the popular girls and the nerds, everyone is just a one demential plank of wood with no emotional depth. I think that’s why this movie was such a hit.

[cameronbennett]

One thing I just realized about Mean Girls is that Regina uses manipulation to make people think she is better than them, but Janice uses manipulation so that they think she's "one of them."

Throughout the movie, we see Regina tearing people down by making them feel "less than." When Janice confesses everything in the trust fall scene, she knows that Regina has said and done things to everyone there to make them feel like crap, so she knows that they'll all rejoice by confessing the lengths she's gone to to bring Regina down. She makes them feel like she's just like them, but in fact, her and Regina are a lot alike; they're just using their manipulation skills differently.

[BubblesBear]

The fact that Janis is just as mean as Regina isn’t weird to me. She admitted herself that she is in that scene where she fights with Cady. Regina and Janis were friends first. So they did likely have a lot in common, including their toxic and manipulative behavior as you can see in the movie. Could you imagine what they would’ve been capable of if they were still friends 😳

[melinaaguirre]

I've always understood that Janis was the original leader of The Plastics. I mean, the jingle bell dance was coreograhped by her and the truth is, the leader picks the coreography. That's like... a rule. There are a lot of hints that tell you that Janis was on top around middle school but then gets overthrown by Regina. So yeah, Janis could be an even meaner girl, she's just lost her position when Cady shows up.

Love you, guys! I wasn't expecting a react video of this movie, it made my day :)

[sorayatorchic]

Wow. “Homeschooled. That’s interesting” I never realized just how predatory she looked in that moment. I thought she was just being fake. Turns out she wasn’t. She was being a manipulative crazy. Then she turned right around and offered praise and compliments like love bombing.

[trinaq]

Mean Girls holds up so well, and really understands how teenagers operate. Regina is never outright mean at first, just subtly passive aggressive and manipulative. This is best shown when she compliments Cady, and then tries to make her question herself by saying "So you agree? You think you're really pretty?"

[whatever]

i'm a bit disapointed they did not talk about the scene where Regina writes herself in the burn book and then presents herself as a victim, i would love to hear their take on that

[varivivid]

Victims are at risk of becoming like their aggressors because they spend too much time studying what hurt them.

[kzisnbkosplay]

The book that Mean Girls was based on, "Queen Bees and Wannabees" was written by a woman who had spent years researching the dynamics of teenage girls. It was actually a book to help parents help daughters get through their teenage years.

[Paolamusic]

The name change is also meant to sound like a “golfer’s assistant” or a caddie, a person who has to follow others around. It’s incredibly clever!

[katelynwhitmore]

I love that Alan said that everyone in Cady's life was trying to program her into the kind of person they wanted because that is so true. She's like a blank slate at the start of the movie and everyone wants her to be something else! It's so sad

[Zuyuri]

I never would have considered the “Janis is an antagonist” angle until recently, thus making her a parallel to Regina. It makes this seemingly silly film super complex.

[starrsmith]

One of the best things about it honestly is that it shows everyone can be mean, not just the popular kids

That’s some smart writing

[cuteladybug]

Something they didn't address when discussing what's at the root of the mean girl dynamic is that girls are socialized to be nice and it's not "nice" to have a physical fight, like guys often do. So feelings of jealousy, resentment etc that come between girls and women come out in more subtle ways. Instead of having a face-to-face discussion about what's going on; girls ostracize each other without explanation, get other people to hate the girl because of the issue that isn't being directly addressed between them.

[slightlydistressedslug]

When I saw this film as a kid, I assumed Janice and Regina were _both_ portrayed as mean? I mean Janice literally says “At least me and Regina know we’re mean”. Did not everyone see it that way?

[tweetthang]

I think the manipulation from Janice and Damian is more obvious in the musical. A whole number from them called "Where do you belong?" that ends with them telling Cady they'll be good friends to her after dissing every other group....Anyway, this will always be in my top ten movies I think. Just really well done, and funny no matter how many times I watch it