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The esteemed Connecticut prep school Choate Rosemary Hall has been under siege for the past few weeks because of some Mean Girls. No seriously. Dean of Students John Ford officially banned Facebook through the school’s computer network for all students on October 5th, for the time being. Though school officials are being vague on the circumstances of the ban, stating only that the technology usage policy was violated, students report that a few senior girls created a “burn book” on the site that went too far.
For those who haven’t memorized the movie, Mean Girls was a 2004 film featuring Lindsay Lohan that followed the exploits surrounding high school politics. The movie’s plot culminates in a school-wide cat fight after a ‘burn book’ created by the most popular girls, the Plastics, is distributed to all students. The book featured …
… gossip and cruel statements about every girl in their class, some of which is excerpted here:
Gretchen: [reading from the Burn Book] Trang Pak is a grotsky little byotch.
Regina: Still true.
Gretchen: Dawn Schweitzer is a fat virgin.
Regina: Still half-true.
Karen: Amber D’Alessio . She made out with a hot dog.
Gretchen: Janis Ian-DYKE.
Karen: [pointing to Damien in background of picture] Hey, who is that?
Gretchen: I think it’s that kid, Damien.
Cady: Yeah, he’s almost too gay to function.
[Karen & Gretchen laugh]
Regina: That’s funny, put that in there.
Mean Girls is heavy on the ridiculous, but manages to hit a deeper level because it’s based in fact. It was written by Tina Fey, who based it off of Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence by Rosalina Wiseman, which was featured in the 2002 New York Times Magazine article, “Girls Just Want to Be Mean.” In the article, Wiseman was described as a feminist, “but not the sort likely to ascribe greater inherent compassion to women or girls as a group than to men or boys. More her style is the analysis of the feminist historian Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, who has observed that ‘those who have experienced dismissal by the junior-high-school girls’ clique could hardly, with a straight face, claim generosity and nurture as a natural attribute of women.’” She also discusses the 80s movie Heathers with Winona Ryder, which was really the kick-off of our culture’s obsession with the “mean girls” phenomenon.
Details about this particular burn book haven’t been revealed, and knowing Choate’s history of upholding an appearance of excellence, coupled with the fact that minors are involved, it’s not likely that too many will be. But the Choate world is just the latest of schools dealing with the same changes. And as much as I feel for the students featured in this book, being ignored must almost feel equally bad; in Mean Girls, being in the burn book is both a blessing and a curse. At one point, when Cady and her friend Janis, the aforementioned “dyke,” discuss it, Janis asks, “What does it say about me?” In order to not hurt her feelings, Cady lies to Janis and tells her she’s not in it. Janis responds, “Those bitches!” Despite the repeated instances of internet gossip and bullying spiraling out of control, it seems like we hardly have a better grasp on what to do than we did when Heathers was released.
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Holyyyyyyyyy crap. My best friend goes to Choate.
That’s not really surprising, though. Choate girls are really mean.
A few students at the tiny private school where I used to teach created a “burn book” on Facebook, as well. Interestingly, two of the students were guys, and the other was a girl. It was really sad because our school only had about 60 highschoolers (it was a pre-K through 12 arts school), and almost every single student (and teacher) showed up on that page. One girl ended up leaving the school because of the things that were said about her. The students who did it were suspended for a few days, and the page was – of course – taken down. This sort of thing just makes me so sad. I went to a private boarding school much like Choate, and I don’t remember anything like this happening (thank goodness!), so I’m hesitant to just blame it on highschoolers in general.
[...] Dewan Dance Off Another Patriot Player With Hair Issues The Late Barbara Billingsley Was Funny It’s a Real-Life ‘Mean Girls’ Burn Book Posted on October 18th, 2010 in links | Permalink if(top.location.href != [...]
I’m sorry that people are so jealous of me… but I can’t help it that I’m so popular.
Hi, I’m writing about this for The Daily Beast. Can you talk to me? lynnley@sbcglobal.net. Tks.
Heyah OMG I cant believe its such a big deal now, like, god, I did a burn book last year, and No one gave a shit, sure there was tears and tantrums when it got leaked but who gives a damn, I was respected, feared and best of all I had like a million followers. I mean who wouldn’t wanna stay on the right side of writer of the infamous burn book writer, right? I mean it wasnt like me only, I have like these 3 biatches for friends who wrote if with me, I was just like OMFG bitches get writing… so we did lol xx In the end I took a leaf out of Regina Georges and just flew the pages all through the school, They were officially leaked xxx It was like AWSOME!!! it was just like the movie.. Totally amazing <3
SEE YAA BITCHES XXX ;)