SLUT: A PLAY | NYC Teens (Re)Claim Slut Title

Playwright Katie Cappiello and Meg McInerney wrote in Slut: A Play and Guidebook for Combating Sexism and Sexual Violence, which was published by the Feminist Press at The City College of New York, that during the sessions to develop the play at The Arts Effect All-Girl Theater Company in New York City, the word slut kept coming out of the mouths of the twenty East Coast high school students. For example:

“I feel like a slut.”

“I was dressed all slutty.”

“Haha. Oh my [G]od, you’re a dirty little slut!”

Consequently, Cappiello and McInerney came to the conclusion that teens across the United States were reclaiming the title of slut, because being a slut meant that a girl is “fuckable”. Cappiello and McInerney wrote:

“There’s an attempt being made by girls and young women across the country to reclaim the word. Being a “slut” means you’re sexy, fun, experimental, willing, popular, wanted, “fuckable” [...]”

SLUT: A PLAY | PREGAMING

However, the play isn’t only about slut praising, it’s about slut shaming as well. As for slut praising, Jennifer Baumgardner described the PROLOGUE: PREGAMING of the play well:

The play opens with five girls [in spandex shorts and sports bras] dancing around in a locker room—teasing, frank, sweet, hilarious—and having fun as well as playing with their burgeoning sexuality.

Dancing is an understatement, because, in addition to twerking on stage, the teen girls were playing with their burgeoning sexuality by simulating girl-on-girl oral sex and all-girl threesome sex.

After Christina asked, “Okay, what’s everyone wearing to Connor’s?” Grace asked if she should wear tights. “The ones with the seam up the back so they still look really cute.” Natalie replied by sharing that Grace performed a teen “drunken striptease last weekend”; therefore, Natalie predicted that Grace would strip out of her tights at Connor’s party.

In a bit of “routine banter for these girls”, Grace went on to call Natalie the “biggest … dirtiest … sluttiest slut of, like, all time.”

JOEY (Winnifred Bonjean Alpart ). Okay, no way is she the biggest slut of the Slut Squad! I can slut it up with the sluttiest of y’all, thank you very much! Including Natalie.

CHRISTINA. Hey!

NATALIE. Ohhhh Chrissy! You know we respect your sexy slutness. (NATALIE digs though [sic] her makeup bag.)

CHRISTINA. You better. And don’t make me challenge you to a slut-off.

NATALIE. Yep. And you don’t mess with Slut Squad girls. Because we will take you down, motherfucker.

CHRISTINA. Awww, Slut Squad love!

GRACE. Slut Squad crazy love!

The Slut Squad of the Elliot Dance Team even had a chant slash team anthem.

S-L-U-T S-Q-U-A-D!

[...]

YES, THAT’S WHO WE BE.

AND, BITCHES, WE GO DOWN LIKE NO OTHER

GIRLS IN TOWN. AND WHEN WE STRUT

THROUGH THE SCHOOL

YOU KNOW WE MAKE THEM BOYS DROOL.

BECAUSE THEY ALL WANNA PIECE OF THIS.

AND YOU KNOW YOU CAN’T SLUT LIKE THIS.

[...]

In reference to the chant/anthem, the parenthetical states: ([...] It’s goofy and fun, but they kind of mean it …) Kind of?

Joey elaborated by relating that slut is a positive attribute, because, like boys, it should be “totally cool” for girls to be able to “hook up with whoever they want”. Joey said that the Slut Squad isn’t “afraid to be sexual”, and proclaimed that the Slut Squad members are confident and sexy.

JOEY. When I think of what our idea of “slut” [...] and I know it sounds stupid now but... it’s positive. We think it’s wrong that guys can hook up with whoever they want and that’s totally cool, but girls can’t. It’s an unfair double standard. So we're like, “Hey, if we act confident about sex and...”

NATALIE. (To DANIELLE.) We own our shit.

JOEY. And we aren’t afraid to be sexual. If all that makes us sluts, then I guess we’re sluts. So, Slut Squad just means we’re confident and, you know, sexy.

In addition to slut praising, there was slut shaming in the play as well. For example, after Anna was grounded for smashing her 11-year-old sister in the face, Anna referred to her sister as a “stupid little whore” whom was “becoming a real bitch, too.” However, Anna didn’t share what her little sister did to be referred to as a little whore.

Since Anna couldn’t attend the party with Joey at Connor’s, Anna decided to binge-watch Friday Night Lights starring Tim Riggins. Tim Riggins was played by Taylor Kitsch, who played Tim Riggins from the age of 25 to 30, which is why Anna referred to him as her “dream man” whom she, consequently, wanted to “do”.

JOEY. OOOOoooo. Tim Riggins!

ANNA. My dream man. I wanna do him.

(Note: The actresses who played Joey and Anna were teens. For example, Alpart was 16 when she played 16-year-old Joey. )

On the way to Connor’s party in a cab, after dancing in the back seat and making out with George, Joey was forcibly “fingered” by George and Luke, two schoolboys, as the cab sped from Columbus Circle to 78th and Lex .

JOEY. I just sort of slung my leg over George’s.

JOEY. We were kind of dancing in the back [of the cab], and George was sort of keeping the beat on my leg, you know [...] playing drums on my leg.

JOEY. And then George and I started to, like...make out [...] then he started to put his hand up my leg.

JOEY. [...] his hand actually went up my dress and sort of grazed my crotch. [...] So I said, “George, come on, stop. Just wait until we get to Connor’s.”

JOEY. So then, next thing I know, Luke is grabbing my other leg ... [...] so my, um, legs would be more open and George—[...] was on top of my leg, sort of pinning me down.

JOEY. Then George all of a sudden really aggressively pulls my underwear to the side and jammed two of his fingers inside me. (Beat.)

JOEY. I was crying at this point, but I didn’t scream.

JOEY. My vagina was pretty exposed, and I kept thinking if this guy [i.e., the cab driver] turns around [...] we’re going to get in an accident.

JOEY. George had his fingers in me... Two…[...] moving them in and out as hard as he could and as fast as he could. [...] And I’m crying. And the whole time Luke is making fun of George [...] because I’m not coming. Because I’m not having an orgasm. [...] he finally pulled his fingers out. Luke was laughing and he was bragging how he was going to show George how it was done. Then he put two of his fingers in his mouth.

JOEY. [...] then Luke laughs—and then he stuck his wet fingers in my vagina. [...] Then he did the same thing as George except he was trying to show off. I was hysterically crying, and he kept saying things like, “Come on JoJo—you know you wanna come—you know you’re wet now.” [...] And he and George laughed. Luke pulled his fingers out of me and wiped them on George’s shirt. And then they let go of me. (Beat.)

Almost everyone slut shamed Joey for being forcibly “fingered” by George and Luke whom convincingly told everyone that Joey “hooked up with all of them in the back of that cab.” Even Joey’s mother called her a “little slut”. Christina said that Joey “loses control sometimes” and that Joey had “done weird shit before”. Natalie said that Joey was “slutting herself out”. It didn’t help that there were pictures posted online of Joey tasting fruit-flavored condoms, which implied to some that Joey had planned to give George and Luke “blow jobs”. And Leila related that there were pictures from the cab that looked like Joey was giving George a lap dance.

In addition, Leila felt bad for George, because Joey’s accusations could have prevented him from getting into Harvard. Consequently, Leila referred to Joey as a slut and a liar.

LEILA. Because I feel bad for him. Are you kidding me? This whole thing is a real shit show. This type of shit can ruin someone’s whole life, and I feel bad for him. Because, you know, it’s been his dream to go to Harvard like his dad.

LEILA. Because I really like him and I know he didn’t mean anything by it. They were wasted. Whatever—it happened. She’s a slut, and she was all over his shit. Did you see those pictures? She was basically giving him a lap dance. What was he supposed to do?

LEILA. “She obviously regrets what she did Friday night, so she feels like she’s gotta make shit up.”

Interestingly, George was Joey’s first boyfriend, which was in the fourth-grade. Prior to the incident in the cab, after Leila shared with Joey that she and George had “hooked up a little bit”, Joey said, “I mean we all, like, whatever, with each other. It’s nothing. It’s just what you do.”

However, Joey wasn’t the first schoolgirl to accuse George of untoward behavior. For instance, Grace shared that, before she and George started dating, George forced her to give him a hand job in the bathroom.

GRACE. You know, George once followed me into the bathroom and locked the door and wouldn’t let me out until I gave him a hand job. True story. I didn’t tell anyone. We ended up going out for, like, five months...

In terms of the salacious behavior of (some) Manhattan’s privileged teens, the text of the guidebook is just as revealing as the text of the play. For example, Jennifer Baumgardner shared in “Why StopSlut?” that when she was in gym class, another 7th grader said, “Jenny, your sister’s a slut. She had sex at Bob’s party over the weekend.” The middle school slut shaming was in reference to Andrea, Jenny’s 14-year-old sister, because while Andrea was trying to “sober up” at Bob’s party, Andrea’s boyfriend’s best friend “decided to have sex with her.” Subsequently, schoolboys shockingly ran “their hands up her skirt as she passed by” and pulled “her into rooms at parties.” Baumgardner wrote that “literally dozens” of her friends had similar stories. (Interestingly, Jennifer wrote that it took her and Andrea “many years” to come to the conclusion that Andrea had been forced to have sex.)

In the chapter “Reality Check From Young Voices”, Sonia, a 15-year-old sophomore from a small town in Pennsylvania, shared that after she asked her boyfriend what he wanted for his 16th birthday, he replied that he wanted a “blow job”. Sonia:

We had been dating for a little over a month, when I asked him what he wanted for this sixteenth birthday. All he wanted from me was a blow job.

I’d say, “Hey, what do you want for your birthday?” and he’d say, “Head.”

Sonia typically preferred having teen sex; therefore, she reluctantly came to the conclusion: “Fine! I’ll give my boyfriend head because I’d rather that than him yell at me again [for not giving him a head].” To Sonia’s dismay, she performed oral sex for over a year, and when she was on her menses, her boyfriend dubbed it “blow job week”.

13-year-old Fred wrote that when he and Lenny were in the 6th grade, Lenny asked Fred, “You watch porn?” Lenny was on to something, because Fred started watching porn “halfway through fifth grade” (i.e., at 10 or 11-years-old). Fred wrote:

I started watching porn halfway through fifth grade. I had just begun middle school, and befriended a lot of kids in the seventh and eighth grade. Sometimes when I hung out with them they would make jokes about the porn they watched, referencing certain sites.

As for Lenny, an apparent middle-school cad, while visiting Lola, he: “took his penis and slapped it on her leg because he felt like it”.

(“In Porn Before Puberty?”, an ABC News feature, Winnifred Bonjean Alpart shared with a reporter that when she was in eighth grade: "[..] boys mostly, were watching porn during school [...] during independent reading, they would do that.")

And in “I’ve Slutted. Have You?”, 17-year-old Danielle related that she went to a Jewish summer camp in Pennsylvania where promiscuous teen behavior was encouraged and cultivated by campers and camp counselors. Consequently, during summer camp, there were “sexual firsts for everyone”. (Everyone?) Danielle wrote:

I go to this typical Jewish summer camp, where promiscuous behavior is practically encouraged and cultivated. Let’s be real, it’s literally eight weeks of teenagers breaking the counselors’ rules (who in turn egg us on!) in an isolated campsite in the middle of Milford, Pennsylvania—the middle of nowhere. In those two months, with no parental supervision, there are lots of sexual firsts for everyone.

The promiscuous behavior didn’t only happen at camp, it happened during the annual camp reunion night-before-reunion sleepover as well. For example, take Georgia, who Danielle described as “really petite and very pretty”, “the dream girl”, and who was “always hooking up with someone”. Unsurprisingly, Georgia was not a virgin. Danielle wrote:

The group of girls that I'm friendly with define themselves by their flirtatiousness and sexual interests. There is one girl in particular, Georgia, who is really petite and very pretty, and she doesn’t speak that much. She’s always hooking up with someone and she lost her virginity before many of the rest of us. She’s the dream girl for all the guys at my camp.

During the night-before-reunion sleepover, after “[e]very-one got very drunk” and while being filmed and encouraged by her best friends and fellow campers, Georgia performed oral sex on two boys in the back-yard. Danielle wrote:

[...] Every-one got very drunk. Josh and another boy coerced—basically forced—Georgia to give them blow jobs, while others filmed it on their phones. Watching the videos disgusted me. They were pressuring her to take off her clothes and give other guys in the crowd blow jobs—and all of this was going on in the back-yard of someone’s home! Initially Georgia resisted, very drunkenly, and repeatedly declined these boys’ demands. Then she ended up giving in. The scari-est part is that her best friends were doing nothing to stop it, but were laughing and encouraging the whole display.

Slut: A Play, which praised and shamed teen sluts, premiered at the Lynn Redgrave Theater in Manhattan (August 19, 2013). Cappiello and McInerney related that the play was: “[...] authentic, nuanced, and hard-hitting.” And that everything in this play was “inspired by real events,” which is revealing, because it appears that it’s not Dirty Old Men whom schoolgirls need to worry about, it's Dirty Young Boys.

Lastly, take Hunter Gaynes, who hooked up with 13-year-old Nadia “so cute” Boyd while she was on her menses. Consequently, Hunter “got everyone” to call Nadia “Bloody Beaver”, and Hunter, being “a little freshman douche”, even “put that shit all over Facebook.”

Unbreakable MEAN GIRLS: A Study of Tina Fey’s Portrayal of (Self) Sexualized Teens (Part 3)

 Regina

In the Broadway musical, during “Meet the Plastics”, Regina sang in the cafeteria that she did not have any (teen) breast implants, “AND THESE? THESE ARE REAL.” To confirm Regina’s assertion, Damian squeezed her left breast. 

Mean Girls: The Musical | Regina's Humped

And when Regina sang, “THIS WHOLE SCHOOL HUMPS MY LEG LIKE A CHIHUAHUA”, three boys surrounded Regina and simulated sex (i.e., dry humped) the stage floor and Regina’s legs. 

As it relates to Regina’s breasts, in the libretto, the ensemble merely asked about Regina’s eating habits, her fashion sense, and her dating life. 

ENSEMBLE

WHAT’S REGINA EATING? WHAT’S REGINA WEARIN’? 

IS SHE DATING AARON? 

REGINA! REGINA! 

SHE HAS EV’RYTHING”

REGINA! REGINA! REGINA! 

But during the Broadway musical, the ensemble asked about Regina’s breast size.

ENSEMBLE

WHAT’S REGINA EATING? [...] 

DID HER BOOBS GET BIGGER? 

REGINA! REGINA! SHE HAS EV’RYTHING

Subsequently, Broadway theatergoers learned from Rachel H. that Regina was, “[...] considered the prettiest girl in school.” And that Regina could be nice to her friends too. For instance, in the libretto, Regina informed Cady, “I’m gonna buy you those suede heels ‘cause you need more.” More what, you may ask? Regina opined that Cady needed more: height, style, and butt lift. 

CADY

(re: shoes in window) Cady, come here. I’m gonna buy you those suede heels ‘cause you need more.

CADY

More what?

REGINA

More shoes, more height, more style, more butt lift - trust me, more is better.

But during the Broadway musical Regina said, “Cady, look at the shoes. I’m gonna buy you those suede hills to lift your butt.” (Interestingly, the shoes were from Shameless Footwear.)

Mean Girls: The Musical | Regina's Cheeky

Due to a prank, Regina gained weight from eating Kälteen bars, which prevented her from fitting into her skirt. Consequently, she stomped around the Broadway stage in a pair of cheeky black panties before she, like Karen in the 2024 film, turned around, fully bent over, and displayed her teen fanny to the audience. (Interestingly, Regina’s panties were over a pair of nude tights that were given a “lift” with implants.)

REGINA 

This skirt won't close. Cady, these Kälteen bars suck.

CADY

No, you have to make sure you eat enough carbs to...activate them.

REGINA

(at Gretchen) Stop playing with that stupid babyish book and help me find a safety pin!

REGINA holds the skirt and stomps around in her underwear. GRETCHEN flits around looking for a pin.

Eventually, Regina stopped stomping, turned around, bent over and exposed her cheeky panties, that barely covered her vagina, to the audience. 

Mean Girls (2024) | Talent Show

In all three versions of Mean Girls, the Plastics (i.e., Cady, Gretchen, Karen, and Regina) danced seductively during the Winter Talent Show. The 2004 performance was named Jingle Bell Rock, but the Plastics in the Broadway musical and in the 2024 film performed "Rockin' Around the Pole". In all three performances, which were staged every school year, the Plastics were dressed as sexy teen Santa's Helpers, which included Santa's hats and red mini skirts. While all three performances were salacious, the Broadway performance was the most salacious, because when the “Hot Elves” sang “WE’LL ROCK THAT POLE ALL NIGHT!”, for the sixth year in a row, Regina's skirt fell off. 

Mean Girls: The Musical | Talent Show

To clarify, Regina's mini skirt fell to the Broadway stage to, once again, reveal her teen cheeky black panties. And once again, she turned around, bent over, and displayed herself to the audience. Consequently, there were "posts and memes of REGINA'S exposed butt" on social media, which were displayed on the stage's LED screens (e.g., OMG! OH…MY…, I’M feeling hungry!, and trishjshaw posted: Was that Regina’s talent? #Glutes). Consequently, Damian asked, "Was it funny when Regina bent over and it looked like her butt ate her underwear? Yes. One million percent." But to be fair, the skirts of the “Hot [teen] Elves” were so short that all of their underwear could be briefly yet clearly seen on Broadway. 

LIL BIPPY LEE (V.O.)

WE’LL ROCK THAT POLE ALL NIGHT!

Regina’s skirt falls off. 

REGINA

Aagh!

SHE bends over to pick it up. Everything freezes. JANIS and DAMIAN address the audience. 

LED screens fill with posts and memes of REGINA’S exposed butt.

DAMIAN

Was it funny when Regina bent over and it looked like her butt ate her underwear? Yes. One million percent.

We learned throughout Fey’s Mean Girls oeuvre, that Regina cheated on Aaron with Shane Oman. In the 2004 film, instead of doing SAT prep, Regina cheated on Aaron with Shane in the, “[...] projection room above the auditorium.” In the 2024 film, Regina cheated on Aaron with Shane, “[...]  in the third floor janitorial closet on the bags of sawdust that they use for barf!” However, the Broadway musical provided some detail on exactly how Regina and Shane were hooking up. On Broadway, Gretchen informed Cady that Regina was, “[...] hooking up with Shane Oman in the North Shore Lions costume!”

GRETCHEN

Also she totally cheats on Aaron. Every Thursday she says she has SAT Prep, but really she's hooking up with Shane Oman in the North Shore Lions costume!

CADY

She makes him wear the costume?

GRETCHEN

No, they’re both in the costume. And I never told anyone because I’m such a good friend.”

Apparently, in this context, “hooking up” meant teen sex, because an actor in a lion costume aggressively simulated having sex. And he was not alone in the custome. 

In addition, Damian divulged while singing “Where Do You Belong”, that the high school’s band members were particularly sexually active (e.g., teen oral sex and “fingering”)

DAMIAN

HERE’S THE SEX’LLY ACTIVE BAND GEEKS, 

I GOT TWO WORDS FOR YOU:

"EMBOUCHURE" AND "EW."

AND IF YOU LIKE BLOWING... AND FINGERING,

BAND GEEKS

THIS IS THE GROUP FOR YOU!

Mean Girls (2024) | Regina's Are Real

Just like in the Broadway musical, in the 2024 film, Regina sang, “And these are real.” Thereby, reassuring filmgoers and streamers that her teen breasts did not have any implants. However, unlike in the musical, Regina’s breast was not fondled, but after Regina opened her jacket in the high school’s cafeteria to reveal her cleavage, like Price Is Right models, Karen and Gretchen placed their hands below Regina’s breasts. Thereby, leaving no doubt about what Regina was referencing. 

Logically, the setting of the Broadway musical’s overture was in North Shore High School's auditorium where shortly after Damian welcomed the freshmen to high school, Janis directed the theatergoers to her painting of a vagina that she said represented female teenage power.

DAMIAN

Good morning! Welcome to high school.

Mean Girls: The Musical | Janis' Art

JANIS

“This painting I made will represent female teenage power.”

Thus, Janis asserted that “female teenage power” comes from the teen vagina. And in terms of Janis, we learned from the Broadway musical that Regina didn’t invite Janis to her pool party, because Regina suspected that Janis was a (teen) lesbian.

REGINA 

Janis, I can’t invite you to my pool party, ‘cause I think you’re a lesbian.

But in the 2024 film, Damian shared that Regina was the (lipstick) lesbian. Damian related that while middle schoolers, “[...] Regina was worried that Kyle liked Karen more.” Thus, during an after (middle) school game of spin the bottle, Regina decided to seduce Kyle by putting on a “little [girl-on-girl kissing] show” by kissing Janis. Consequently, Kyle got an erection. Damian said, “[...] Kyle was like ‘boing’!”

Mean Girls (2024) | Lipstick Lesbians

Speaking of girl-on-girl kissing, in the 2004 film, at an after-school Halloween house party, two scantily clad school girls kissed sensuously while a male student exclaimed, "Yes! Yes!" And after it was revealed that all the school girls had been backbiting each other, Ms. Norbury (Fey), a math teacher, said, "There's been some girl-on-girl crime here."

Mean Girls (2004) | Sexy Costumes

Speaking of Halloween and scantily clad school girls, in the 2004 film, Cady narrated, “In the regular world, Halloween is when children dress up in customs and beg for candy. In Girl World, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” In addition, in the 2024 film and during the Broadway musical, Gretchen went even further by stating that not dressing like a slut (on Halloween) was, in fact, slut shaming.  Gretchen opined, "Cady, if you don't dress slutty, that is slut-shamming us." Thus, it should come as no surprise that during the Broadway musical, Regina dressed as a (teen) Playboy Bunny - complete with a cheeky bottom. And during “Someone Gets Hurt”, while still dressed as a Playboy Bunny, Regina placed Aaron hand on her left breast. 

Just like in the Broadway musical, in the 2024 film, Regina informed “Karen, I can see your bra.” Karen replied, “It’s on purpose. I’m going for a look.” Consequently, Regina asked, “Is it ‘girl who slept with eleven people’?” Thereby, once again, informing streamers that Karen had sex with eleven people - presumably, all before the age of 16! 

Interestingly, in the 2004 film, the teens weren’t the only characters who self-sexualized. For example, Mrs. George (Amy Poehler), opened Regina's bedroom door and discovered her daughter passionately kissing Shane Oman on the bed. Shockingly yet graciously, Mrs. George offered her teen daughter and Shane snacks and a condom. Mrs. George, "You guys need anything? Some snacks? A condom? Let me know. Oh, God love you." And in the 2004 film and during the Broadway musical, upon meeting Cady for the first time, Mrs. George inexplicably shared, "We haven't had any new meat in our little lady taco in so long." However, Mrs. George didn't clarify if the "we" included her teen daughter. 

Mean Girls (2004) | (Little) Girls Gone Wild

As for motifs related to self-sexualized teens, there were inferences in the 2004 film to the Girls Gone Wild franchise. For instance, while Regina was on the phone with Cady, Regina’s preteen sister was watching a Spring Beach Party advertisement on television. During the advertisement a brunette and blond spring breaker raised their cropped tops to reveal their bare breasts above their bikini bottoms. Consequently, Regina’s preteen sister raised her top too! During an all-girl high school brawl, where a schoolboy encouraged, "Yeah! Take your top off!", the secretary informed the principal, "They've gone wild. The girls have gone wild." And in terms of schoolboys requesting the schoolgirls take their tops off, in the libretto, after Cady introduced herself to the class, Cady’s classmates demanded that she go topless. 

CADY

Hello, my name if Cady Heron

STUDENTS

No one cares!/Take your top off! 

However, Fey gave high school actors the: “Option not to say that line.” And those lines had been removed from the Broadway performance that I saw. 

Recall that Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Simone had an age-gap affair with Dr. Jerry, a married ophthalmologist, whom, while showering [post sex], confessed to 15-year-old Simone that he hated his wife. And that Xanthippe received jewelry from her dad’s friend in exchange for her retainers. In addition, in the libretto, Cady revealed via "Stupid With Love" that when she was a whopping 5-years-old, she, "[...] fell in love, [with] this Peace Corps guy." That's correct - not "peace corps boy" but "guy". Cady's love was unrequited, but it took eight years before she "gave up trying"!

CADY

WHEN I WAS FIVE, I FELL IN LOVE, THIS PEACE CORPS GUY 

I BARED MY SOUL BESIDE THE WATER HOLE,

WHICH MADE HIM LAUGH.

CADY 

BY THIRTEEN I GAVE UP TRYING

But during the Broadway musical, she sang, “WHEN I WAS FIVE, I FELL IN LOVE. IT DIDN’T LAST.” Cady didn’t mention her love interest’s age; however, she did share that her love interest was Kenyan. “HE RAN FROM ME. LITERALLY RAN FROM ME. AND BEING KENYAN, HE RAN FAST.” Then Cady clarified that she was actually 10-years-old when she fell in love with a Peace Corps guy. “WHEN I WAS TEN - IN LOVE AGAIN. THIS PEACE CORP GUY. I WAITED FOR HOURS - INSIDE HIS TEN WITH FLOWERS. WHICH MADE HIM LAUGH. WHICH MADE ME CRY. BY THIRTEEN, I GAVE UP TRYING.”

Yet, in the 2024 film, Cady (Angourie Rice) sang that she was 9-years-old when she fell in love with "This Peace Corps guy" and that she waited inside his tent with flowers.

“When I was nine\I fell I love\This Peace Corps guy\I waited hours inside his tent with flowers\Which made him laugh\Which made me cry\By 13 I gave up trying”

Blame It On Rio (1984)

Cady reminded me of the film Blame It On Rio (1984) where 17-year-old Jennifer (Michelle Johnson) used her youthful beauty and insatiable libido to seduce Matthew (Michael Caine) - her father's 49-year-old best friend. After sex, but still in bed, Jennifer shared with Matthew that her (puppy) love for him began when she was 10-years-old. Jenner to Matthew, "I love you [...] I used to pretend [...] that we were married [...] when I was ten."

Lastly, as it relates to Cady, due to her attraction to her classmate Aaron, Cady shared that she was filled with “CALCULUST.”

A Study of Tina Fey’s Portrayal of (Self) Sexualized Teens (Part 1)

A Study of Tina Fey’s Portrayal of (Self) Sexualized Teens (Part 2)

Unbreakable MEAN GIRLS: A Study of Tina Fey’s Portrayal of (Self) Sexualized Teens (Part 2)

We concluded part 1 with: [I]ntrigued by Fey’s work, I decided to view the [Mean Girls] Broadway musical and read Fey's libretto, which were based on the 2004 film. I streamed Mean Girls (2004). And I watched Mean Girls (2024) - a film that was, of course, co-written by Fey and based on Fey’s Broadway musical. Below, before discussing Fey’s Mr. Mayor (2021), I profiled Karen and Regina. And I covered a number of motifs of the theme of self-sexualized teens such as teens in age-gap relationships, teen Girls Gone Wild, and what I refer to as teen lipstick lesbianism (i.e., seemingly heterosexual teens participating in girl-on-girl sexual situations).

Karen

Here’s the synopsis for Mean Girls (2004) from Rotten Tomatoes:

Teenage Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) was educated in Africa by her scientist parents. When her family moves to the suburbs of Illinois, Cady finally gets to experience public school and gets a quick primer on the cruel, tacit laws of popularity that divide her fellow students into tightly knit cliques. She unwittingly finds herself in the good graces of an elite group of cool students dubbed "the Plastics," but Cady soon realizes how her shallow group of new friends earned this nickname.

We previously related that, due to a tingle in her breasts, 16-year-old Karen (Amanda Seyfried) could forecast when it was going to rain. But before Karen shared that titillating information with Cady, Karen admitted, "I can put my whole fist in my mouth!” And she asked, “Wanna see?" 

Mean Girls (2004) | Karen

Later in the film, as a girls’ locker room prank, a student cut the parts of Karen’s top that covered Karen’s nipples. Surprisingly, Karen kept the top on, boldly bounced out of the locker room, and commenced a raunchy fashion trend at school. 

In the Libretto Vocal Book Mean Girls: High School Version (Revised July 2022) and on the Broadway stage, during the “Meet the Plastics” song, Karen sang that her tiny skirt barely covered her “perky” heinie. (In general, on Broadway, the Plastics wore really short skirts and\or very tight pants.)

KAREN

MY NAME IS KAREN. MY HAIR IS SHINY. 

MY TEETH ARE PERFECT. MY SKIRT IS TINY. 

IT BARELY COVERS MY PERKY HEINY.

During the Broadway musical, theatergoers learned why Karen drew the attention of potential theatergoers to her bouncing teen breasts in the trailer. It turned out that Karen's behavior was prompted by Jason whom said that he could "guess any girl's bra size" by having her "jump one time". Consequently, Karen exclaimed, "Do me!", she opened her jacket, and jumped more than one time. 

Mean Girls on Broadway | Karen

JASON W.

Hey, New Girl, you wanna see a trick? I can guess any girl's bra size. All you gotta do is jump one time-

GRETCHEN

Ew, Jason- 

KAREN

Do me!

As we mention in the introduction, theatergoers learned via Gretchen that Karen was very sexually active, because despite only being 16-years-old, Gretchen related to Cady that Karen “had sex with eleven people”.

GRETCHEN 

Are you a virgin?

CADY

What?

GRETCHEN

You don’t have to tell me. But just know that I’m very trustworthy. Karen’s had sex with eleven people and I’ve never told anyone.

Mean Girls on Broadway | Karen

During “Sexy”, Karen sang that being the “hot one” is a “full time gig”, because it takes a lot of time and energy to satisfy peoples’ desires; however, Karen confessed that it was her prerogative to be sexy. While performing “Sexy”, Karen danced licentiously on the Broadway stage in a pair of bra and panties with the panties barely covered by a sheer camisole. And at one point during “Sexy”, Karen turned around, lifted her camisole, and  revealed her panties to the audience. 

(KAREN)

WHEN YOU ARE THE HOT ONE,

IT'S' A FULL TIME GIG,

LOOKING LIKE WHAT PEOPLE WANNA SEE.

KAREN

I CAN BE WHO I WANNA BE, AND SEXY

KAREN

THIS IS MODERN FEMINISM TALKIN’:

I EXPECT TO RUN THE WORLD

IN SHOES I CANNOT WALK IN. 

I CAN BE WHO I WANT TO BE… 

AND SEX,

SEX, 

SEXY!

Interestingly, and in yet another display of Fey’s lack of naiveté as it relates to sexualized teens, Karen intentionally exposed her bra, because she was “going for a look”. However, Karen did not specify if the look was: "girl who’s slept with eleven people".

REGINA

Karen, I can see your bra.

KAREN 

It's on purpose. I'm going for a look.

REGINA

Is it "girl who’s slept with eleven people"? ‘Cause you're nailing it. 

Note that in the high school version of the libretto, Fey, ironically, offered an alternative “suggestion” for certain lines in the musical to the high school students playing high school students. For example, instead of Regina asking, “Is it "girl who’s slept with eleven people"? ‘Cause you're nailing it.” Fey suggested that a high school student could say, “If it’s ‘girl who hooked up with eleven people’ you’re nailing it,” thereby reminding theater kids that teen oral sex is less provocative than teen sex. 

In the song “Stop!”, Karen sang that when she was 13, she sent “nude pics” to a boy she had “a huge crush on”, but Karen forgot to crop the pics, which were posted on Amateurtweens. 

KAREN

STOP.

WHEN YOU HAVE A HUGE CRUSH ON A BOY

AND HE ASKS YOU TO "SEND NUDE PICS" 

AND YOU'RE LIKE, "WOW HE LIKES ME!"

AND SO YOU SEND THEM BUT DON'T CROP YOUR HEAD OFF 

'CAUSE YOU'RE ONLY 13 AND DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER

AND I GUESS HIS FRIENDS SHARED 'EM

‘CAUSE NOW YOU'RE ALL OVER A PORN SITE 

CALLED AMATEURTWEENS.

Consequently, Karen informed theatergoers, "Now I only get naked with people in person! Also someone should teach boys not to do that in the first place." (At the Broadway performance that I saw, a number of people in the audience started clapping and hooting after those lines.)

Rhetorical question: Did Fey base Karen on Danielle Miller and Gabrielle Bluestone’s New York magazine piece: "What Danielle Miller learned at Horace Mann and Rikers"? (FEB. 9, 2022) In the piece, Bluestone related:

In 2004, when Miller was in eighth grade, a boy she had a crush on dared her in an AIM message to prove she wasn’t a “prude.” She grabbed the new Sony VAIO laptop her father had given her for Christmas and propped it on the ledge of her shower stall. She disrobed, picked up the handle of a Swiffer mop, and pressed record. She made three sexual videos in all and emailed them to the boy.

The boy forwarded the clips to Miller’s best friend, who in turn sent them to two people, and soon it had reached everyone that they knew. It spread rapidly from there. 

The videos hadn’t circulated just among New York’s private-school students and their friends [...] The videos also ended up on the file-sharing programs LimeWire and Kazaa. 

Unfortunately, we may never know if Fey based Karen on Swiffer Girl.

Mean Girls (2024)

Here's the synopsis posted on Rotten Tomatoes for Mean Girls (2024):

From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic, MEAN GIRLS. New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called "The Plastics," ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina's ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina's crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group's apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli'i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.

Mean Girls (2024) | Karen

Recall that on Broadway, after Karen exclaimed, “Do me!”, she opened her jacket, and bounced up and down in a manner that drew attention to her bouncing breasts. In the 2024 film version of Mean Girls, Karen (Avantika) performed "Sexy" during a Halloween party where she bounced up and down in a manner that drew attention to her bouncing breasts, which were partially covered by a bra; however, unlike Broadway's Karen, who performed "Sexy" in pair of panties, Karen (Avantika) performed "Sexy" in a pair of black spandex shorts.

Mean Girls (2024) | Karen

And to give moviegoers and streamers a clear view of her shorts, Karen (Avantika) bent over and lifted her camisole to reveal a letter B, a ghost, and a pumpkin (i.e., BOO) that were displayed across her derrière. 

Just like in the musical, in the 2024 film, Regina informed “Karen, I can see your bra.” Karen replied, “It’s on purpose. I’m going for a look.” And Regina asked, “Is it ‘girl who slept with 11 people’? ‘Cause you’re nailing it.” But this raises the question: Why did Fey add this salacious motif to the musical and 2024 film, because there was no apparent indication from the 2004 film that Karen was a teen nymphomaniac. On the other hand, Karen (Amanda Seyfried) did inform Cady, "I can put my whole fist in my mouth!” 

Mean Girls (2024) | Gretchen Squats

Lastly, as it relates to Karen, in the 2024 film, while Karen filmed a social media post, Gretchen, in the background, stopped typing on her phone to analyze her derriere that was wrapped tightly in a pair of black spandex shorts. Unhappy with the extent of her buttock's bulge, Gretchen proceeded to perform squats.

Unbreakable MEAN GIRLS: A Study of Tina Fey’s Portrayal of (Self) Sexualized Teens 

(Part 1 & Part 3)