In Defense of: Mean Girls' Regina George

In Defense of: Mean Girls’ Regina George

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re taking the stand to defend one of cinema’s fetchest villains, Regina George. As a skilled manipulator, Regina rules the school with an iron fist and wields her power dangerously. She’s even been called straight-up evil,2 but this claim doesn’t quite pan out by the end of the story. Although Regina may be set up as a hateable antagonist, the way the world shapes her and others like her, actually explains a lot about her character.3 Without further ado, here’s why Regina George is actually, like, not totally the worst.4

A CHARACTER WE LOVE TO HATE
With enviable confidence and a venomous bite, Regina checks every baddie box; she’s the mean girl of all mean girls.1 When we’re introduced to her, she’s being carried by a crew of lackeys, instantly signaling her place as the monarch of North Shore High. But she’s not the first to reign, and she won’t be the last.

Outside of the story’s world, Regina actually fits nicely into a long line of mean girl archetypes, which all share very intentional markers that make us subconsciously despise them before they even show their fangs. In countless other teen movies, the head mean girl is an uber-glamorous beacon of femininity, symbolizing pink, glittery girlhood to the Nth degree. She has it all, from the nicest clothes to the hottest boyfriend to a posse of followers. Her lifestyle feels out of reach, and her hyper-feminine traits feed into a historical disdain of over-the-top girlishness. She’s almost always pitted against a bumbling black sheep that threatens her legacy, someone who’s “not like other girls” because she’s awkward and nice, which makes her rootable. Meanwhile, the mean girl is so polarizing because she’s neither.

Despite her vicious attitude, there’s something infectious about the Queen B as we see with Cady and countless others in the school attempting to emulate her in their bid for social status. As a dictator, Regina commands a combination of fear and adoration from her classmates who gush over every detail of her life. So if Regina is that mean, why does almost everyone want to be her? Janis actually lays it out perfectly in her plot to take Regina down. Each part of her mission means compromising one of the superficial traits Regina is revered for: her jock boyfriend, a physique widely regarded as attractive, and her army of followers who, really, are only yearning for proximity to power. Beyond this list, there’s the wealth she was born into and all the beauty she can afford to upkeep. It’s clear she was primed to be the alpha girl from the start, and by perfecting the art of knocking others down, her rise to the top seems inevitable.

While the movie begins with the school already under the rule of the leading Plastic, we do see how Cady’s social ascension could reflect Regina’s original climb—from regular girl to mean girl. By the same token, a lot of the subtle clues about Regina’s backstory actually paint a far more complex picture of her personality, one that sheds light on her tough exterior.

THE MEAN GIRL MOLD
Even though Regina plays the part of the mean girl oh-so well, it’s pretty obvious this temperament is just a facade. Even if she initially appears perfectly composed, she’s actually dealing with a lot of turmoil in her home life. Beyond alluded-to marital issues between her parents, it’s clear no boundaries were ever set in the George household – never mind discipline. We even get a glimpse of what young Regina’s life might have looked like through her little sister. A lack of structure at home can do a lot of harm to a still-developing mind, and we see it all play out right in front of us.

While it’s not fruitful to demonize wealth, Regina was obviously never told “no” a day in her life. Instead of showing up for her in ways that count, her parents bought her love or otherwise strived for it by pushing leniency to the max. Knowing this, Regina’s bratty behavior starts to look like a cry for help. She has no healthy emotional outlets, evident by the way she sobs to her friends and later snaps in a rage-fueled meltdown. It’s also difficult to have a true sense of self when you’ve entirely built your confidence upon incredibly fragile traits that require tireless maintenance. The odds are stacked against her as she tries to manage the unfair cult of personality her peers have constructed for her. And she knows that her position at the top is shaky, which is why she immediately takes her biggest threat, Cady, under her wing—though, as we know, this eventually backfires.

Cady arrives as a total outcast, then molts into Regina 2.0 by stealing her personality, friends, boyfriend, and wardrobe—at first in a plot to foil her, but then because she finds the power intoxicating. The way in which all of these “mean girl” traits are so easily transferable to Cady proves that this alpha persona is just a placeholder—a mere template that can be copy-pasted to another within a single school year. Like all the film and TV mean girls who came before, adopting this facade is really a matter of climbing to the top of the social pyramid, and really, who doesn’t want to sit at the top?

It’s important to consider that “Mean Girls” focuses on a group of high-schoolers. At this point in their lives, being well-liked by peers is one major way they measure their self-worth, and you have to play to win. The writers make it a point to show how the title of “mean girl” can be applied to most of the characters at some point, even the “lovable losers” we initially root for. Janis and Damian behave like mean girls when they enact a plot to sabotage Regina. Cady later perpetuates the same cycle of mistreatment on her own friends during her rise. Ultimately, it’s hard to really place the title of “villain” on Regina, or any of these characters, when they’re all just adolescents with a lot of growing to do.

Fortunately, Regina does grow a lot by the end of the film. Once Cady kicks her out of the Plastics and her social stock plummets, she becomes a victim herself. By seeing this plastic clone of herself reflect back all the toxic traits that come with popularity, Regina gets to see herself in a brand new light. She receives some much needed therapy, and takes the advice to channel her anger into sports. As it turns out, Regina actually makes a stellar athlete and, in the process, she finds a new set of friends who celebrate her for the right reasons. As Cady comes to the realization that conquering the girl world means hurting everyone around her, she breaks the Spring Fling tiara into pieces, along with what is hopefully a symbolic representation of the oppressive system they’ve all been embroiled in.

It took things reaching a terrible peak for the students at North Shore High to find peace and for us, the viewers, to understand Regina is ultimately just as much a victim as she is a perpetrator. Just before the credits roll, we’re introduced to a new group of underclassman Plastics, showing that, despite all this work, the cycle continues. We all learn the lesson at some point, right? As for Regina, she’s still figuring herself out by the end, and when we look past the hard, perfectly sculpted exterior, we find a teenager who lacks support and who has been taught she will only ever be valued for trivial things. Luckily, she emerges as someone new who still has a lot to learn but who’s definitely on a better path than she once was. You go, Regina George!

So do you agree with our defense of Regina? Even if you didn’t like her, you can’t deny that she’s so effortlessly quotable. Let us know your favorite Regina quips in the comments below.