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Family is an important step in socialization because they teach you the basic rules and norms that you are supposed to follow.

1. Her parents taught her to be herself and resist falling into social norms. When she first went to North Shore, she was an outcast since she didn't directly fit into any social groups.

2. Her family shaped her morals, attitude, and social ethics. She started off kind of honest, and unaware of the social hierarchy at North Shore. But as she spent more time with the plastics she drifted from her family’s values, becoming manipulative and mean to fit in.

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Socialization:  The plot and connection to the term

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Socialization:  The plot and connection to the term

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Socialization

1. the process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable to society.

2. We learn what our personalities will be and where we fit in.

Mean Girls, follows Cady Heron, a teen who moves from homeschooling in Africa to to public high school. She gets pulled into the popular group, "The Plastics," and changes to try fit in. Becoming mean and manipulative like the other plastics. After losing herself, Cady realizes the damage she’s caused and tries to make amends with the people shes hurt including her original friends when she moved to the school.

The movie connects to socialization by how people learn to fit into society. Cady changes her behavior to match the group's norms, showing how friends and peer pressure can shape who we become.

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School is a major agent of socialization because it teaches kids rules, values, and how to interact with others. It also introduces peer groups that influence behavior.

In Mean Girls, Cady’s school experience shapes her socialization:

1. Rules and Social Structure: Cady adjusts from homeschooling to following schedules and class rules.

2. Cultural Expectations: She learns high school’s social rules, like where she fits in and what makes someone popular.

3. Peer Influence: Cady changes how she looks and acts to fit in with The Plastics, even pretending to be bad at math to impress a boy.

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Peer groups are social groups whose members have interests, social positions and have an age in common.

Cady’s first friends, Janis and Damian, show her the school’s social structure and who everyone is and what they are in the social hierarchy encourage her to spy on the plastics. When Cady becomes close to the plastics, they shape how she acts. She also changes her appearance, lies, and even goes so far that she sabotages Regina to climb the social ladder.

Eventually Cady loses her sense of who she is. It’s only after she loses her friends, her crush, and her social status that she realizes how much her peers controlled her. By the end she apologizes, fixes her mistakes, and finds a balance between fitting in and staying true to herself.

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The Functionalist perspective stresses the ways in which social groups work together to create a stable society without basic norms that dictate how groups interact.

At North Shore High School, there are different groups/roles that the students have determining their social status. These roles are like a ranking tåo show where they stand in popularity. Cady first fits in with Janis and Damien who are the Omega group. She learns about the different groups that the school consists of and how they differ. Each group has different motives and tasks to fulfill their roles. Janis wants Cady to infiltrate the most notable group, the plastics, who are the popular girls in the school. They are seen as the most important group out of anyone and are many people's role models. They have the highest standing in this society. Cady follows Janis's plan and joins The Plastics, taking on a new role. At first, she pretends to fit in to help Janis, but over time, she becomes part of the group for real. She starts acting like them caring about looks, gossip, and popularity. This shift shows how each group at North Shore has a specific role that keeps the school’s social structure running smoothly. The Plastics hold the top spot, influencing trends and behavior, while groups like Janis and Damian’s stay at the bottom, pushing back against the system. In the end, Cady realizes the social rankings cause more harm than good, and she helps break down the divisions, creating a more balanced, stable school environment.

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The Conflict Perspective views socialization as a process that reinforces and perpetuates existing power structures and inequalities rather than promoting a sense of shared values and harmony.

At North Shore High, The Plastics control the social scene. They decide who’s popular and who’s not. Cady starts as an outsider with no power. To fit in, she joins the plastics and slowly becomes like Regina, using lies and manipulation to rise to the top.

Instead of changing the system, Cady becomes part of it, taking Regina’s place as queen bee. In the end, she realizes the social hierarchy only causes harm. She apologizes, rejects the power game, and helps the school become more equal.

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The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective emphasizes how a person's self-concept evolves throughout their life as they interact with what they are taught during socialization.

1. Cady's self-concept at the beginning of the film is as a normal and generic high school girl. She doesn't believe shes any different from anyone and knows everyone for being the same. She knows she is really good at math, she is a nice and well taught person,and has a good family.

2. Her looking glass self changes when she hangs out with the plastics. She believes she must do whatever she has to fit in with them. She starts to see her self more based on looks now that she is part of the group. Her appearance is now something that matters to her which prior to joining the group didn't. She acts more like them now. She started to get deep in the role almost ignoring her real friends. She starts to hang out with the plastics a lot more than hanging out with Janis and Damien, her real friends.

3. Cady's significant others change over the course of the film. These are the people whose judgments are most important to a person and developed ones self-concept. Her first significant others are her parents who gave her the basic concept of a public high school. This gave her a simple idea of what to expect from her new school. When her parents guidance gave her a clear idea of school, she then made friends with Janis and Damien who would now be her new significant others. They gave her a more in depth concept on what she can expect from others going to the school. They told her how different groups interact with each other and how they can differ. They gave her a solid background of North Shore High School

4. Cady joins the plastics, the most popular and powerful group at North Shore HS. Once she becomes part of the group, her priorities definitely shift, she starts caring more about how she looks, what she wears, and what Regina thinks of her. Cady begins acting like the plastics. Gossiping, lying, and being mean to others. This causes her to drift away from her real friends, Janis and Damian, and she becomes distant from her family too. She gets so caught up in her new role that she forgets who she really is.

5. Cady reaches the generalized other stage near the end of the film, after everything falls apart she loses her friends, her crush, and her social status. This is when she realizes how selfish and cruel she’s become. At the spring fling dance, she takes responsibility for her actions in front of the whole school, apologizing to everyone she hurt. She stops caring about what the popular crowd thinks and focuses on being a better person. This shows she finally understands the bigger picture that everyone’s feelings and experiences matter, not just her own.