Mean Girls and The Devil Wears Prada: Comparison of The Perfect Female Gender Role's Impact on Women

In a variety of social contexts throughout today’s modern world, there exists an idealized female image that is produced and used to fuel a girl’s desire to transform into this model, gaining both acceptance and popularity, each of which are pertinent to the successful “doing” of the quintessential female gender role. The films Mean Girls and The Devil Wears Prada both follow the transformation of a main female character from an unpopular and socially naïve member of each unique social situation, into the epitome of their ideal; in turn allowing these women to climb up the ladder of success established by a social hierarchy in a culture where physical appearance is valued, displaying each woman’s overall accomplishment of gender. Analyzing what it means to accomplish the “doing” of gender in Cady’s role as a high school student and Andrea’s role as an assistant at a fashion magazine dictates how each woman’s transformation was driven by need to feel accepted and successful among their peers, and how these changes impacted each character’s popularity and relationships with the one’s around them.

The female gender is continually portrayed through the media as an ideal that must be achieved in a life plagued with aggression, popularity, and validation. This is particularly true in the film Mean Girls in which the social hierarchy within a high school context glorifies the beautiful, and often unintelligent, female students who use their dominance to assert power over the lesser female student population; this film refers to this group of girls as “The Plastics.” At the start of the movie Cady begins school as a “home-schooled jungle freak,” (MG 1:16:10) but she quickly learns that to other girls her popularity “has everything to do with her appearance, the way she speaks, the friends she has, the boys she attracts, and how smart she is or chooses to reveal she is” (Brown 136). Regina refers to Cady as “socially retarded and weird” (MG 28:01) because she is not well versed the common pop culture knowledge that influences this generation of girls. Cady’s decision to join the Mathletes team at her school is also criticized to be “social suicide,” (MG 22:27) although Cady did not know any better. Friendship with “The Plastics” teaches Cady the proper way to dress and act in order to achieve popularity high school. The female gender “is a socially scripted dramatization of the culture’s idealization of feminine…natures, played for a audience” (West and Zimmerman 203); the audience then reacts to a person’s “doing” of gender, and judges the quality of their actions in relation to the ideal. Because Cady is not in a position of power in among her high school peers at the beginning of this film, she is relatively unknown and treated with little respect because she does not emulate the typical ideal expected from the accomplishment of “doing” the female gender. Her decision to change how she “does” feminine gender affects how she is treated by those around her.

The Devil Wears Prada displays how the importance of conforming to the female ideal is not only a concept found in adolescent settings, but is also part of a woman’s adult life. Andy, a journalist suddenly thrust into the world of the fashion magazine, must adjust to embracing the significance that her new coworkers hold toward the ideal model that can be found in the pages of their publication. She is instantly criticized for having “no style, or sense of fashion,” (DWP 8:57) and her presence in this context is questioned as the possibility of a sad, unknown “before-and-after piece.” (DWP 9:59) Women’s magazines are known for creating a “self-hating, ever-failing, hungry, and sexually insecure state of being” (Wolf 66) that substantiates a “transfer of guilt” (Wolf 65) between the publication and the reader. This guilt causes girls to go to drastic lengths to achieve their ideal, as Andy remarks to Nigel that it appears “none of the girls here eat anything.” (DWP 20:12) Andy is constantly reminded that “a million girls would kill for [her] job,” (DWP 10:39) which acts as additional motivation in initiating her transformation. Because “people depend on social relations with others to attain most of what they want and need in life” (Ridgeway 191), the need to conform to the feminine ideal expected of an assistant at such a prestigious fashion magazine is key to Andy’s accomplishment of gender. Her constant work toward accomplishing what the Runway team characterizes as the ideal leads to her ultimately gaining the approval of her peers and the infamous Miranda Priestly.

The “doing” of gender is performed for an audience; this audience then judges how this act compares to “culture’s idealization of feminine…natures” (West and Zimmerman 203) and responds accordingly. After Cady has fully transformed into “cold, shiny, hard, plastic,” (MG 1:00:39) her popularity gives her power in this social setting. Other girls who only dream of achieving such a social status show their respect by following the fashion trends set forth by the ideal girl. When questioned about Cady Heron, one girl says that because she “saw Cady Heron wearing army pants and flip flops, [she] bought army pants and flip flops.” (MG 43:40) The validation of accomplishing an ideal image by male peers is an important part of the female gender. After her transformation, one male student claims that Cady “might even be hotter than Regina George.” (MG 43:45) In addition to altering her outward appearance, Cady changed her actions to reflect that she is considerably less intelligent because “culture stereotypes women to fit the myth…beauty-without-intelligence or intelligence-without-beauty” (Wolf 59) are the only two options of existence for the female gender. After being handing back a math assignment that received a failing grade, Cady uses this opportunity to interact with Aaron Samuels and claim “[she] thinks [she] needs a tutor” (MG 45:18) in order to be alone with him. The voice over used in the film reveals that Cady actually understands the material in her math class, and is only faking her lack of intelligence to fit the feminine ideal. Although it may appear that Cady has lost the respect of her friends and family during her transformation, the resolution that it “was better to be in the plastics, hating life, than to not be in at all” (MG 43:23) gave meaning to her new role.

Andy’s course in conforming to the ideal image as an assistant at Runway magazine is driven by her need to succeed in her career. Women’s magazines “must be alert to what social roles are demanded of women to serve the interests of those who sponsor their publication.” (Wolf 64) In response to serving the interests of the sponsors, the employees at Runway strictly enforce the application of their magazine’s ideal fashion and feminine image in their daily lives. When Nigel is picking out clothes for Andy to wear he goes through the names of designers “Jimmy Choo’s, Manolo Blahnik, Nancy Gonzalez;” (DWP 35:12) although at first these names mean nothing to Andy, they will soon hold a large significance in her life. Nate mocks Andy after her transformation, exclaiming that she “use to make fun of the Runway girls, [and] now [she’s] one of them.” (DWP 1:16:19) In her climb to successfully accomplishing the ideal feminine gender, Andy destroyed her relationships with both her boyfriend Nate and coworker Emily. When questioning whether these sacrifices were necessary, Miranda tells Andy that she “chose to get ahead. [She] wants this life,” and that these types of “choices are necessary.” (DWP 1:37:55) Miranda’s assumption that “everybody wants this. Everybody wants to be us,” (DWP 1:38:12) demonstrates that society views these women as graceful and successful, which shows how their sacrifices result in the accomplishment of “doing” the ideal female gender for the larger audience.

Both the adolescent and adult lives of female women in today’s society are hostage to the successful production of their ideal feminine gender in order to receive acceptance and validation from their peers. The films Mean Girls and The Devil Wears Prada each explore the influence that the idealized female image has on the identity of women in relationship to their classmates and coworkers, respectively. Cady and Andy each transform from naïve members of their social context, into the epitome of the quintessential female gender. As each woman conforms to culture’s ideal image, they risk sacrificing their emotions and interpersonal relationships for popularity and success. This life of conformation, influential media, and sacrifice is portrayed as typical for the lives of women in our culture.