100 Kick-Ass Female Characters: #78
78. Regina George, as seen in the film Mean Girls, portrayed by Rachel McAdams
Anyone who has ever had even the shortest conversation with me knows I quote Mean Girls the way other people quote The Bible. There is literally no situation I cannot find an applicable Mean Girls quote for, and I have a tag in my tumblr which is actually "and none for Gretchen Weiners." Absent its intense quotability, Mean Girls is one of the few movies that gets it right about female relationships. There is a thin line between friend and enemy when you're a teenage girl, and they're not always mutually exclusive; Tina Fey's script did a great job of emphasizing that. And while evil takes a human form in Regina George, I also think she's the best character in the movie.
For anyone who hasn't seen the greatest movie ever made (and that is so not fetch), Regina George is the leader of the Plastics, the infamous popular girl clique at East Shore High School. She is beautiful, stylish, drives a silver Lexus, sets the tone for what's in and what's out at school, and has her own little minions in Karen Smith and Gretchen Weiners. When Cady enters high school after a lifetime of homeschooling, she is equal parts fascinated by Regina and confused by the worship of her. Her friends Janis and Damien encourage her infiltration of the Plastics, and we see Regina's actions up close. She is controlling, manipulative, image obsessed, and spiteful; she does not really want Aaron Samuels but she does not want Cady to have him either. When we glimpse Regina's parents, we see her mother is one of those embarrassing "cool moms" which lets her daughter get away with murder while her father stands silently by. Regina expects everyone to do as she says, and, for the most part, they do. When Cady upends the social order, it is then we see Regina really lose her composure. By the end of the film, the Plastics have disbanded and Regina has gone from shiny Plastic to lacrosse playing jock.
What I love about Regina is her very action turns the bullying trope on its head. Every time someone is bullied or targeted in high school, the adults always say, "Well, the bully has low self-esteem and feels bad about themselves, so they pick on you." The hitch is, Regina doesn't have low self-esteem; Regina has ridiculously high self-esteem. Sure, she's insecure about her weight like every other teenage girl, but Regina knows unequivocally that this is her world and everyone else just lives in it. She's certain of who she is, takes charge of her sexuality, and is equal parts there for her friends and trashes them behind their backs (which, let's be real here, is not really a behavior restricted to "bitchy" girls.) Regina's explosion after the assembly where Janis outs Cady's behavior is the only true crack in Regina's veneer, and even that doesn't show some hidden underbelly. Regina is obviously shaken that apparently the entire junior class female student body despises her and wishes for her downfall, but she's still not repentant. See, Regina understands high school and the politics of it better than anyone; people will build you up and are happy to knock you down, but Regina does not allow herself to be knocked down. Let Gretchen and Karen and Cady have the emotional crack-ups; Regina is going to stay in control. Now, by no stretch of the imagination is Regina the hero of the story, but, even as a villain, she's just a regular teenage girl. Most teenage mean girls grow out of it, which we see happen to Regina by the end of the film. Regina isn't the Antichrist or some Batman villain; she's just a teenager who says and does some shitty things. Regina isn't necessarily a character most people can relate to but she is a character who shows you can change.
And that's a pretty great kind of kick-ass.
Anyone who has ever had even the shortest conversation with me knows I quote Mean Girls the way other people quote The Bible. There is literally no situation I cannot find an applicable Mean Girls quote for, and I have a tag in my tumblr which is actually "and none for Gretchen Weiners." Absent its intense quotability, Mean Girls is one of the few movies that gets it right about female relationships. There is a thin line between friend and enemy when you're a teenage girl, and they're not always mutually exclusive; Tina Fey's script did a great job of emphasizing that. And while evil takes a human form in Regina George, I also think she's the best character in the movie.
For anyone who hasn't seen the greatest movie ever made (and that is so not fetch), Regina George is the leader of the Plastics, the infamous popular girl clique at East Shore High School. She is beautiful, stylish, drives a silver Lexus, sets the tone for what's in and what's out at school, and has her own little minions in Karen Smith and Gretchen Weiners. When Cady enters high school after a lifetime of homeschooling, she is equal parts fascinated by Regina and confused by the worship of her. Her friends Janis and Damien encourage her infiltration of the Plastics, and we see Regina's actions up close. She is controlling, manipulative, image obsessed, and spiteful; she does not really want Aaron Samuels but she does not want Cady to have him either. When we glimpse Regina's parents, we see her mother is one of those embarrassing "cool moms" which lets her daughter get away with murder while her father stands silently by. Regina expects everyone to do as she says, and, for the most part, they do. When Cady upends the social order, it is then we see Regina really lose her composure. By the end of the film, the Plastics have disbanded and Regina has gone from shiny Plastic to lacrosse playing jock.
What I love about Regina is her very action turns the bullying trope on its head. Every time someone is bullied or targeted in high school, the adults always say, "Well, the bully has low self-esteem and feels bad about themselves, so they pick on you." The hitch is, Regina doesn't have low self-esteem; Regina has ridiculously high self-esteem. Sure, she's insecure about her weight like every other teenage girl, but Regina knows unequivocally that this is her world and everyone else just lives in it. She's certain of who she is, takes charge of her sexuality, and is equal parts there for her friends and trashes them behind their backs (which, let's be real here, is not really a behavior restricted to "bitchy" girls.) Regina's explosion after the assembly where Janis outs Cady's behavior is the only true crack in Regina's veneer, and even that doesn't show some hidden underbelly. Regina is obviously shaken that apparently the entire junior class female student body despises her and wishes for her downfall, but she's still not repentant. See, Regina understands high school and the politics of it better than anyone; people will build you up and are happy to knock you down, but Regina does not allow herself to be knocked down. Let Gretchen and Karen and Cady have the emotional crack-ups; Regina is going to stay in control. Now, by no stretch of the imagination is Regina the hero of the story, but, even as a villain, she's just a regular teenage girl. Most teenage mean girls grow out of it, which we see happen to Regina by the end of the film. Regina isn't the Antichrist or some Batman villain; she's just a teenager who says and does some shitty things. Regina isn't necessarily a character most people can relate to but she is a character who shows you can change.
And that's a pretty great kind of kick-ass.