Date of Award
4-6-2025
Document Type
Thesis
First Advisor
Victoria Wiet, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Jonathan Nichols-Pethick, Ph.D.
Abstract
Ultimately this thesis will examine how Mean Girls melodramas moralize gender and sexuality. The Mean Girl is not an embodiment of moral hegemony. She may look like the perfect subject, but she is imperfect, because she tries to be perfect. She is a failure of femininity, because her attempts to be feminine reveal the masquerade. Womaniliness is not inherent; it is not real. The Mean Girl is attractive to the sapphic spectator because she exposes the alienation and artifice of gender and heterosexuality. The stereotypical image of the Mean Girl is plastic perfection, but she is not.
Recommended Citation
Gregg, Anne '25, "Queering the Mean Girl: Spectating The Post-Feminist Melodrama" (2025). Honor Scholar Theses. 311, Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University.
https://scholarship.depauw.edu/studentresearch/311