Comparing Regina in Mean Girls to Torrance in Bring It On



Regina

As we see in the picture to the right, Regina is a blonde and looks confident and secure. In this shot, she is smiling, but she looks like she's up to something. She also has short, revealing outfits and a diamond studded necklace with the first initial of her name, which shows that she is rich. The diamond studded necklace and Regina's clothing gives teenaged girls the message that to be popular, you need to have money. In fact, I can't think of any teen movies where the popular character was from a background with not a lot of money.

In this picture, Regina also wears a lot of makeup and pink and white clothing. Pink and white are seen as very girly colours. A possible message both the makeup and Regina's pink and white clothing have is that to be popular, girls have to be girly and not very sporty.

As well as being blonde and pretty, Regina is also thin. When teenaged girls see this movie, afterwards they would think that their body is probably not what they want it be. While they may not be aware of it, teenaged girls may be processing these images and gradually developing a negative body image for not looking like Regina. Similar movies might make girls feel bad about themselves and develop eating disorders like anorexia. So it's not just that these movies make girls feel bad, they can be potentially bad for their health as well. Teenaged girls are not only seeing these images in movies, but in magazines and television  shows.



This image represents an unrealistic view of teenaged girls because what we see in the media is not your average teenaged girl. In fact, most people would not have a body type like Regina's. There is a gap between the main body type in movies (thin) and the average body type in the real world. When I watched Mean Girls, I was aware that the actress who played Regina probably had a personal trainer and people on the set to do her hair and make up, so I didn't take her image that seriously. But if I wasn't aware of those things, I might go away and feel that I should look more like Regina myself.



Torrance

This image is of Torrance, the protagonist from the movie Bring It On (2000). In this image of Torrance we see her in a school represented cheerleading uniform which makes her seem to be one of the popular people. If I was in the audience and saw this image, I would automatically think that as a cheerleader, she is popular, and could be one of the mean people. Also she is blonde, very pretty and skinny. This a similarity to Regina in the movie Mean Girls.

Even though she is blonde and pretty, like Regina, Torrance is still an athlete and her hair and make up in this image are more practical because of that. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail, and she isn't wearing dangly earrings and long necklaces. Torrance is still dressing in a way that an actual cheerleader would dress and be able to perform complicated routines and practices safely.

As for Torrance, she may be blonde but she has a kind nature towards people and lets them have a say in what they do. Even though she is the head cheerleader, she would not be so demanding at the trainings that her squad would be too tired at the end of it, but she still makes them work until they get the routine right.  She would also include everyone on the squad and not just have particular people do the main stunts.  Also unlike Regina, Torrance studies hard because she is in an AP class (Advanced Placement) which shows that she was doing really well in her class work as well as being head cheerleader. She is also genuine, nice and gets along with most people. Torrance is not just popular; she is well-liked. 

The differences between the two characters is that Torrance is more of a practical person because she is into school sports. We could tell this by the school cheerleading uniform she is wearing in the image above. This shows us that she likes to be an athletic type. Regina is more of a contolling person, as she is the type of person who gets what she wants when she wants it, and always needs to be the centre of attention. I like the contrast between these two girls because they may look the same but have different characters and lifestyles. We can easily tell by how each character acts which is sporty, nice, out-going ( Torrance), or is simply rude, mean, ungrateful (Regina) by their clothing and makeup.

As we see in most movies the expectation would always be the head cheerleader dating the captain of the football team. This happens at the start of the movie but then it always seems that they end up with a different person that doesn't care about the reputation as a cheerleader. This male character eventually sees the real person the cheerleader/popular girl is from the inside and as long as they be themselves, they should be alright.
 

Every girl in these types of of movies has to like a guy that is sort of unique in their own way. In Bring It On, this guy was Cliff, who happened to be the brother of Torrance's close friend Missy. To Torrance, he was different because he didn't take peoples opinions towards him personally. Cliff wears t-shirts of the bands that he likes, plays and writes his own music, and doesn't really care about what the "cool" bands are that everyone else listens to. Torrance admires Cliff's individuality, that he is basically in his own little world and only listening to what he really wanted to hear, and just was himself. 

All images from Google.