This chapter focuses on how the Mean Girl today and her dress differ from her predecessors.
It explores a new characteristic of mean fashion, which has evolved in recent years.
Employing Mittell’s concept of narrative complexity in contemporary television series and Wolthuis’ theory of how costuming can be complex on television, this chapter explores the increased complexity and depth of both the contemporary Mean Girl and her dress. To be precise, it analyses how mean fashion today serves to articulate something more personal than articulating superiority, glamour, and hyperfemininity. Beyond securing status and hiding meanness, an individual Mean Girl’s dress today reflects her elaborate backstory and hides weakness. This chapter looks at how this figure today also has real connections to her peers, including women, and can be kind. This intensified complexity crucially influences power dynamics, which is mirrored in the sartorial. To expand on the political implications of the figure of the Mean Girl and her dress, the following also examines how they reflect changing societal ideas about femininity.
The Mean Girl Then and Now
While many aspects of this figure have withstood the test of time, the Mean Girl today also differs from her predecessors – and the sartorial is crucial in this difference. Studying examples from the ‘90s and 2000s, Oppliger writes ten years ago, “In films targeted to tween and teen girls, mean girls are almost exclusively stereotypical, one-dimensional characters”
and “nearly indistinguishable from one another” (27). In other words, they usually just serve the plot and as a foil of bad femininity to the female protagonist’s good femininity. However, the Mean Girls on television that Oppliger examines “appear to have more dimensions,”
according to her (28). Although other 2000s teen series, like Dawson’s Creek (1998-2003), feature a Mean Girl as a one-dimensional recurring side character,16 One Tree Hill (2003-12) and 90210 (2008-13) indeed illustrate how the Mean Girl trope has developed since her emergence in ‘90s films. Both Brooke Davis and Naomi Clark are wealthy, attractive, fashionable, and popular students, but they are only initially mean and quickly reformed. In One Tree Hill, Brooke is depicted as having multiple sexual relationships and a promiscuous reputation, and after initially bullying nerdy Hayley and Mouth, she already befriends them and generally starts acting “nice” in the first season. 90210’s Naomi only displays reactive
16 Abby Morgan is also killed off quickly.
rather than proactive aggression, treats her clique as equals who can freely criticise her, and soon, “Naomi has shed her mean girl image” (Oppliger 22). In short, while they are not even standard Mean Girls to begin with, they quickly become Nice Girls altogether. The shows thus do not portray hyperfemininity as inherently evil since they show the Mean Girl can change. However, they still uphold binaries: Naomi and Brooke need to change so that they again fit into one of the boxes available for women.
By contrast, many contemporary shows – and a few films – portray a female character that corresponds to the standard trope and does not change completely but remains the typical Mean Girl regarding appearance and meanness while also having depth.17 For example, Sex Education tries “taking those very tried and tested character tropes and finding a new way of looking at them and flipping them on their head,” according to its creator (Nunn). The Mean Girl today becomes one of the protagonists with whom the viewers – and other characters – sympathise. This is also a question of medium: In contrast to films, the numerous episodes of a series allow for more screen time and a different kind of character development. Mittell mentions “the broader challenges and possibilities for creativity in long-form series,” such as
“extended character depth,” in his study of contemporary television drama shows (“Narrative Complexity” 31). In other words, series provide more time to develop characters, and in contemporary shows, the Mean Girl receives that screen time: Both Cheryl and Ruby have central storylines.
However, rather than a question of feature-length film versus television series more generally, specifically complex television shows necessitate multifaceted, morally ambiguous characters. Older shows of an “episodic” nature, where characters and their issues mostly return to the starting point at the end of each episode (29), briefly feature one-dimensional Mean Girls. Examples of this are the sitcoms Wizards of Waverly Place (2007-12) and Lizzie McGuire (2001-4). By contrast, Mittell argues that since the ‘90s, storytelling in television dramas has increasingly used narrative complexity “as an alternative to conventional television narrative” (29). Narratively complex shows focus on the plot and extend “story arcs across episodes and seasons” (32f.). The medium therefore also influences how Mean Girls today are more complex than their predecessors because flat characters do not serve to keep viewers watching for multiple seasons. More aspects of their backstories are revealed in the course of the series to keep it interesting. For example, Cheryl is revealed to be homosexual in
17 The more recent Scream Queens, made for linear television, is an exception to the trend. Being a satirical horror-comedy show, it features superficial, one-dimensional Chanel Oberlin as a caricatured version of the Mean Girl trope.
the second season. Nevertheless, changing societal ideas about the role of women are also influential: That there is enough time and the plot’s demand for complex characters does not explain the presence of complex female characters and specifically complex Mean Girl characters.
“I Have Feelings, Bitch”
The Mean Girl today is more complex, firstly, because of her elaborate backstory. Older Mean Girls have no or only a few “redeeming qualities,” such as Sharpay’s rare “affection for her brother” in High School Musical (Oppliger 162, 23). The contemporary Mean Girl, by contrast, has many personal issues and feelings – in short, depth. Mittell claims that despite the common assumption that complex characters develop throughout a series, “most television characters are more stable and consistent rather than changeable entities,” “even in the face of … life-changing events” (“Characters” 133). Rather, viewers’ “understanding” of characters changes, which Mittell calls character elaboration: “This model of change exploits the serial form to gradually reveal aspects of a character over time so that these facets of the character feel new to the audience, even if they are consistent and unchanging character attributes,” so unfolding “a character’s backstory” (136). He argues that this “perspectival illusion of change” is even more evident in “the relationships between characters themselves”
(136). To put it differently, other characters learn something about the Mean Girl that changes their opinion of them. That she has had these issues and kind sides throughout demonstrates that a female character can look and behave like a typical Mean Girl while having these features that make her human.
However, “there are instances when we do see characters change,” Mittell adds and refers to it as “‘development,’ ‘growth,’ and ‘transformation’” (137). Overall, the old Mean Girl had to transform to show her other sides, whereas today she is elaborated, with only few instances of change. For example, Cheryl grieves for her beloved dead brother Jason and suffers under her cold parents, particularly her abusive mother, who disapproves of her homosexuality and even sends her to so-called conversion therapy. In sum, she has many issues that make her life hard: “I never cry at movies. Real life’s tragic enough,” as she puts it in “The Hills Have Eyes.” Ruby is from a working-class background and worries about and cares for her father who suffers from multiple sclerosis and has lost his job. She consequently needs comfort and distraction: “When I’m sad I make out with nerdy boys. … Because they think they’re in love with me, which feels amazing…” (“Episode 2.7”). Similarly, Stella in Fate and Veronica in Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (2018) suffer from the high expectations and
pressure of their strict mothers. Lucrecia concludes a monologue about friendship by saying,
“I have feelings, bitch” (“Polo”), which sums up the contemporary Mean Girl.
These personal issues also serve to explain where her aggression is coming from. Her behaviour is motivated by reasons beyond an obsession with social status and straight-forward power hunger: Meanness is often a defence mechanism or a way of coping with personal issues. For example, Ruby takes out her frustration over her troubles at home on her peers because it gives her a sense of control, and she desires a high position in the school’s social hierarchy due to her working-class background. “Because her life at home is quite tough and challenging, she tries to pretend she’s someone else,” Dias asserts (“Eclectic Clothes”).
Additionally, Ruby only tells everyone that the leaked nude picture is Maeve’s because she worries that people find out it is hers (“Episode 1.5”). Cheryl’s “anger comes from a place of hurt,” Petsch explains her aggression towards others (“Petsch Rages”). For example, in “The Hills Have Eyes,” her mother says in the morning, “You’ve never known love, Cheryl … Because you are a jealous, spite-filled, starving, emotional anorexic,” visibly upsetting Cheryl. When Toni afterwards approaches her at school and touches her shoulder, Cheryl lashes out: “Get your sapphic Serpent hands off my body!”. She later explains to Toni, tearing up, “Everyone thinks I’m this loveless monster. But it isn’t true. I loved someone who loved me” and recalls how her mother has “destroyed” her romance with another female student in junior high and called her “deviant.” This exemplifies how today’s Mean Girls are more individualised: Instead of being inherently mean, their aggression comes from personal reasons.
Depicting the Mean Girl’s backstory and justifying her behaviour means that she is less villainised so that other characters and viewers sympathise with her. Consequently, these series portray a female character who is ambitious and uses her hyperfemininity to be successful within patriarchy not as purely negative, inherently evil but as more complex, human. Importantly, despite her redeeming qualities, the contemporary Mean Girl’s dress is still spectacular and hyperfeminine, and she is generally mean, exhibiting “masculine”
characteristics like aggression.
This depth of the Mean Girl is reflected in her dress, which illustrates how costume on television can be “complex,” as Wolthuis suggests (“Simplicity” 105). Indeed, costuming can already be considered complex in the case of the Mean Girl in the sense that her feminine appearance, traditionally associated with weakness, hides her “masculinity” and power. Her costume therefore is not “an unambiguous reflection of her character” and “needs unpacking”
(113, 110). However, additional layers increase the complexity today.
Firstly, her outfits tell her personal story, including through meaningful details. This illustrates Wolthuis’ claim, which challenges the persistent assumption that television does
“not allow for much attention to detail” and is generally made of “fleeting, insignificant images” (“New Uniforms” 48). Mean fashion today is therefore less universal for all Mean Girls but more personalised. In line with the central characteristic of fashion, mean fashion is a changing system. It today allows for greater personalisation and complexity, and these new rules are materialised in an individual Mean Girl’s dress. This is apparent in “Heart of Darkness,” when Cheryl wears her all-white outfit from the day of her brother’s disappearance with a white fascinator to his funeral. Although she stands out from the other guests dressed in black, her conspicuous dress does not serve to differentiate herself or attract attention but to express her grief, as her emotional tribute speech confirms: “The last time I saw Jason, I was wearing this dress. … [W]hen I put it on, it feels like he’s in the room with me.” Moreover, when Cheryl’s father is revealed as her brother’s murderer and commits suicide, she wears only black and grey clothes and nude lipstick instead of her signature red, reflecting her emotional distress and foreshadowing her suicide attempt (“The Sweet Hereafter”). Similarly, in “Episode 3.3,” Ruby does not wear any visible makeup or accessories and only a basic white and pink top when she tells Otis that she loves him – which is the first time she ever says it to anyone – and when her friends come to her house to comfort her after the breakup in the following episode. The sartorial therefore expresses how exposed she is in these moments as she temporarily disregards her mean fashion.
There is another layer of sartorial complexity: The Mean Girl today uses dress and the mask of femininity to hide not only her “masculinity” but also her issues and feelings, which her predecessors do not have. This serves to secure her image as an undisputed, intimidating leader. For instance, a resting Bitch face, smile, or makeup also hides sadness, and extravagant fashion distracts and covers the truth about her private life. For instance, on the day of her brother’s autopsy, Cheryl unhesitatingly dissects a frog in biology class while looking at her whispering classmates and says lightly, “Don’t worry, I’m fine. In fact, I’m amazing” to demonstrate that she is not weak (“A Touch of Evil”). She often hides her emotions behind a smiling mask, for example when she and Veronica overhear Cheryl’s mother’s scornful remarks about her, she says with a bright smile, “I’m fine. Veronica, everything’s fine” to conceal that she is hurt (“Death Proof”). Ruby also hides her issues
“behind the bravado of ‘I'm perfect. Everything in my life is brilliant. I'm better than you’”
(Keene). For example, she keeps her working-class background a secret: “People assume I live in a big, fancy house, but I don’t, okay? So I don’t invite people over,” she admits in
“Episode 3.3.” She conceals this with her extravagant and (alleged) designer clothes.
Complex costumes can thus “capitalise on the discrepancy between who the character wants to be and who they actually are. The costumes are then not only a lie – they are lying,” as Wolthuis puts it (“Simplicity” 105). Moreover, when Ruby tells Otis about her father, she immediately downplays her worries when she notices that Otis is pitying her: “But mainly I was upset because I over-plucked my left eyebrow …,” using her hyperfeminine masquerade as protection (“Episode 2.7”). In other words, mean fashion today also serves the function of articulating that the Mean Girl is not vulnerable.
How she attempts to hide her issues and feelings already indicates that they disempower her. Her predecessors’ few redeeming qualities also means they have few weaknesses. They are indeed stopped – a powerful woman cannot be depicted succeeding – but they either entirely become a Nice Girl or are stopped with radical measures. For example, they are dethroned by the protagonist, run over by a bus like Regina, sent to prison like Jawbreaker’s Courtney, or even killed like Abby in Dawson’s Creek and Heather Chandler.
As Oppliger puts it, “In most films and television shows, the mean girl gets her comeuppance in the end” (21). By contrast, the contemporary Mean Girl faces a few minor setbacks from the outside, but they never completely strip her of her power.
She is rather continuously disempowered by her own issues and feelings. When she fails to hide her feelings, she is less intimidating and glamorous, so becomes touchable. Her issues become weaknesses if others find out because they make it hard to keep up appearances and do not fit her image. For example, Cheryl attempts to appear unshaken after her brother’s death. However, during a cheerleading performance in “A Touch of Evil,” she has a flashback of Jason, and everyone witnesses her run off stage crying, and she even lets her rival Veronica comfort her. She loses some of her authority since her peers are less intimidated by her and indeed pity her. Similarly, Ruby’s grief over her grandmother’s death causes her to send a nude image to a male student, which is then used to blackmail her (“Episode 1.5”). When the image is leaked, her distress forces her to beg Maeve for help, thereby making herself vulnerable to her enemy. Her peers then also ridicule her in assembly by saying, “Ruby’s got big beef curtains.” This threatens her image of embodying ideal femininity as well as her authority. There is also the looming danger of other students finding out about Ruby’s social background. They would question her authority, and she could specifically not humiliate Maeve for her background anymore.
The Mean Girl’s dress reflects these instances of disempowerment. It is apparent that Cheryl is inferior to her mother when they attend another student’s baby shower in “The
Outsiders”. Figures 3 and 4 show how her mother stands out among the guests in her red dress and red lipstick. Although Cheryl’s red lipstick and voluminous skirt surpasses the other guests’ outfits, her mother outshines her less conspicuous black top and the light pink of her skirt, which blends in with the surroundings and the other guests’ pink and black clothes. This indicates to the others that her power is limited and that she must obey someone else.
Consequently, a Mean Girl with depth is a less powerful Mean Girl. Paradoxically, although she flaunts her femininity, it is her “feminine” feelings that weaken her, because her combination of hyperfeminine exterior and “masculine” interior is her narrowly defined route to power.
Figure 3: Cheryl and her mother attend another student’s baby shower (“The Outsiders”).
Figure 4: Cheryl (on the right) is sitting next to her mother at the baby shower (“The Outsiders”).
Real Connections and Their Cost
In exchange for her realisation about the systems of oppression and her power, the Mean Girl used to be isolated, without real connections. After all, she dates her popular boyfriend just for status, and the members of her clique are her underlings. The contemporary Mean Girl further differs from her predecessors in having platonic and romantic relationships that do not serve to increase her power. For example, Ruby’s feelings for nerdy “Sex Kid” Otis are so strong that she starts a relationship with him despite his questionable reputation (“Episode 3.1”). Her feelings are reflected in the sartorial as she drops her initial attempt to give Otis a makeover to make him look fashionable and instead accepts his according to her “ugly”
clothes in the following episode. This demonstrates how the Mean Girl today not always puts social status first. She is not entirely cruel and not only has real feelings but also feelings for others.
She also shows kindness to other women so that contemporary series demonstrate that it is not inherent to women to compete against each other. Rather than a friendship of convenience, Ruby is actually close with the other Untouchables Olivia and Anwar. She trusts them with her relationship problems, relies on them for emotional support, and eventually invites them to her home, which she usually hides from others (“Episode 3.4”). All the while she still gives them commands and criticises them. How Ruby physically attacks headteacher Hope, who tries to stop the student-made film, and even weaponizes her “very expensive”
perfume demonstrates that she prioritises supporting her peers over sartorial commodities and
“feminine” conduct (“Episode 3.7”). Similarly, despite Cheryl’s emphasis on her upper-class status, she falls in love with lower-class gang member Toni and officially starts dating her (“The Hills Have Eyes”). She also becomes friends with her rivals and victims Betty and Veronica, for instance caring for Betty after her boyfriend’s alleged death in “To Die For.”
However, Cheryl still competes against and harasses them. “Between scenes one and three, she can be best friends with Veronica and then be mean to Betty and Veronica,” states Petsch (“Defying”). When she witnesses Veronica’s boyfriend Archie secretly kissing Betty, she photographs it and tells Veronica because she “deserve[s] to know in person,” but not before tweeting the photo with #BarchieRising (“To Die For”). Cheryl also takes over Archie’s position as student body president against Veronica’s wishes, and when she consequently bans her from her diner, Cheryl attacks her: “You can’t discriminate against someone, just because they’re better looking than you.” However, she then inquires sympathetically what Veronica is “really mad about” and gives her advice before being mean again: “Cancel my order. I’m going to TGI Thursday’s” (“Fortune and Men’s Eyes”). This shows how the contemporary Mean Girl is more than a Bitch. She goes beyond both layers of the term: Bitch in the sense of being mean to others, since she is also kind, and Bitch in the sense of hiding
“masculinity,” since her masquerade also hides her issues and feelings.
She indeed becomes elaborated, so more details of her character are revealed, which is reflected in the sartorial, and she can be nice to others. However, her fashion is overall consistent: spectacular, luxurious, fashionable, and hyperfeminine. For example, figure 5 shows how although Ruby accepts Otis’ dress, she still dresses the same as before. This demonstrates that a female character can flaunt her femininity but nevertheless have feelings.
Moreover, the Mean Girl today continues to make use of her strategies: She stays mean and competes for social status. In other words, she has not completely “softened” but still generally exhibits “masculine” behaviour, including being aggressive towards others. After all, Ruby and Cheryl are continuously mean – they are both mean and nice at the same time.
Recent shows thus demonstrate that women can be more than either the Nice Girl or the Mean Girl, and that there are more options for women outside predefined categories.18 They break through the fashion-meanness relation by showing that these characters can be complex while dressing the same and showing “masculine” traits. This reflects societal notions that more and diverse versions of femininity are accepted today. However, this
18 Riverdale, for example, likewise shows the “dark” sides of Nice Girl Betty.
diversity is limited when it comes to appearance: Most contemporary Mean Girls are still white and fulfil the other characteristics of the afore-mentioned fashionable ideal, like thinness. While Olivia is indeed an Indian British “mean” character, she appears much nicer in comparison to Ruby and is her subordinate. In any case, the acceptability of increasingly diverse femininities does not necessarily come with more power.
Figure 5: Otis, Ruby, and Olivia are walking over the schoolyard together (“Episode 3.2”).
Indeed, the contemporary Mean Girl also loses something through gaining relationships with others that do not serve to increase her social status. Friendship, romance, and female alliance also disempower her since she inspires less fear in her peers and consequently loses control over them. Although she is still generally successful, she voluntarily sacrifices some of her power in exchange for real connections. Opening up to other people also means making herself vulnerable to them and through them as they can become a weakness. The sartorial mirrors these instances of disempowerment, as the Mean Girl violates the rules of mean fashion. For example, Cheryl gives up being the only one to wear red at school, representing her sole and unattainable leadership position, by sharing the limelight with Toni. This is evident from how she initially attacks Toni in front of their peers for wearing an all-over red outfit to school, consisting of red skinny jeans, a red crop-top, and red lipstick: “You’re wearing my signature colour!” (“Big Fun”). She then, however, approves and even shares her lipstick with Toni: “This colour was made for you. We have to get you a tube.” Similarly, due to Ruby’s feelings for Otis, she allows him to associate with
the Untouchables at school in what is considered his unfashionable clothes in “Episode 3.2.”
Figure 5 shows how although the sunglasses that Otis, Ruby, and Olivia wear establish that he belongs to the clique now, his dress, especially his signature jacket, interferes with the clique’s fashionable aesthetic. This is underlined through Ruby’s and Olivia’s purple colour scheme, which differentiates them from the other students. Ruby’s relationship thus makes the clique appear less exclusive.
Moreover, Sex Education reverses a pattern by depicting the popular female student falling for the unpopular male student. How Otis breaks Ruby’s heart by telling her he does not love her, shows how her feelings give him power over her (“Episode 3.4”). After Ruby relies on emotional support from her friends due to the breakup in the following episode, they subsequently speak for her to Otis because they consider her vulnerable and in need of protection: “Stop speaking, it’s very triggering for Ruby.” Her relationship with Otis also causes her peers to ridicule her after the breakup: “Can you imagine getting dumped by Otis Milburn?” (“Episode 3.5”). This illustrates how they consider her less intimidating. Sierra Burgess is a Loser also portrays the consequences of female alliance for the Mean Girl.
Veronica befriends unpopular Sierra and helps her in getting together with her crush but is snubbed by her popular clique due to this new friendship: “If you wanna commit social suicide, fine. … Only losers hang out with losers.” Female characters who make use of their femininity are therefore not necessarily isolated anymore, but then they are less powerful.
This is because in such instances, the Mean Girl rebels against the competition between women that the patriarchal system dictates and faces the negative consequences. The Mean Girl today – ambitious, hyperfeminine and a deep character with meaningful relationships – is thus incorporated back into the oppressive system.
In sum, this chapter has shown how mean fashion, like any fashion, is a changing system. Along with changes like increased personalisation, the message that the sartorial articulates also transforms. It becomes more personalised, communicating an individual backstory and her feelings. It also serves an additional function: hiding the Mean Girl’s new-found vulnerability. Indeed, she is depicted as more human and able to have real connections to other people instead of being isolated. However, her complexity also causes the Mean Girl today to at times violate the rules of mean fashion. With this momentary emancipation from this system of dress she, however, also relinquishes its perks: her means to being powerful within an oppressive system.