Last week's assignment was to post about a couple movie/video recommendations for counselors. After thinking about this I'm going to go with some slightly "different" choices. My recommendations are Mean Girls and Thirteen. Both of these movies deal with some of the issues that teenage girls face daily and I think counselors, especially male counselors, would benefit from this insight. Even thought I am obviously female, I know that the school atmosphere has changed somewhat since I was there and movies like these remind us of exactly what girls are going through now.
Mean Girls is a somewhat lighthearted look at bullying among girls in a high school setting. The plot is rather simple - a new student comes into a high school that is ruled by a group of popular girls called "The Plastics". The new student, Cady, is befriended by a couple of social outcasts and they come up with a plan to "destroy" the Plastics by having her pretend to be one of them and sabotaging them in various ways. Of course, through her pretending Cady starts to act like one of the "Plastics" and eventually becomes the leader of the group, turning her back on her true friends. Lessons are learned and they all live happily ever after once the clique is disbanded. When we think of bullying, usually we think of the biggest guy in the class picking on the smallest, weakest, most nerdy one, stuffing him into lockers and trashcans - all of the stereotypes. We don't often think about how painful it can be to be targeted by girls who focus on your appearance, socioeconomic status, and other superficial aspects. This movie reminds us of these things. Even though the movie was exaggerated in a lot of instances, it gave a pretty accurate portrayal of what it is like to be a teenage girl (if my memories of middle school serve me right, that is).
Thirteen is an anything-but-lighthearted look at some other issues teenage girls, especially middle school aged girls, face. The plot is not that of a typical teen movie. It surrounds Tracy, a thirteen year old girl who is entering seventh grade. She is a straight-A student looking forward to the new school year. On the first day she realizes that many of the popular students she attends school with have matured over the summer. What follows is her quest to fit in with this popular group and its leader, Nikki, through partaking in underage drinking and drug use, stealing, body-piercing and sex. Her recovering alcoholic mother turns a blind eye for a period of time as she deals with her own problems, her father doesn't want any part of taking care of her, and her brother is too young to do anything about his little sister's escalating problems, which lead to her cutting herself. Thirteen doesn't have a neat and tidy happy ending like a lot of movies, but does offer some hope for the lead character at the end. I think this movie is eye-opening to a lot of the issues that our youth are facing at earlier ages today than ever before.
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