I cringed the whole way through that 30 Rock episode wherein Liz finds out that she was the one bullying the "mean girls" the whole time. TOO CLOSE, TINA.
For years, I thought I was this ostracized fat nerd who was persecuted for her brains and her ambitions; in reality, I was way more like an elitist megabitch who couldn't wait to get out of her "ugh, so pedestrian" hometown, who overreacted to some seriously weak-ass insults and exacted terrifying revenge every. Damn. Time. No wonder no one wanted to be my friend!
I was my high school's version of Rahm Emanuel. Except WAY less cool. #meangirls
I recall in the sixth form taking to task a fellow student who had been particularly mean spirited to me a few years earlier. She laughed it off claiming not to remember her acts of pure spite. Her memory lapse was either very convenient or else indicative of her total inability to have ever empathised with her erstwhile victim.
When I think of high school, I think of the quote from Daria: "Why would I want to return to a place where I was flatteringly referred to as the weird kid?"
My experience was not that mean girls terrorized me, but that I was simply not included or invited to anything. I was just not cool enough for unspecified reasons.
I was pretty much a loner in high school (and can be now), and the result is that I haven't really kept in touch with anyone from high school (I'm only 6 years out of hs, most people I know in my age range still talk with at least a couple of people from hs). #meangirls
I made my best friend in high school b/c college (I was a commuter) didn't yield the opportunity to get to know many people, no matter how nice some kids in the smaller classes weree... kinda hurts when you know the group of kids you sidelined during four years of high school doesn't really include you now that you're older. Or rather, it hurts me. #meangirls
After reading the comments here, I've realized I...don't remember the mean girls at my high school's names. This isn't too surprising, since when people friend me from high school my reaction is "who the hell is this?"
Oh, wait, now I remember one. Alexa. But the rest are lost to the sands of time. #meangirls
So, I am curious as to which women on this site were once mean girls. I find it hard to believe that no one that comments on this board was ever considered a mean girl. #meangirls
@That-Dude: Good point, and kind of curious that no one's spoken up. I think the experience of being the object of Mean Girls' scorn is pretty universal, and that that's what people tend to recall, down the line, even if they were themselves in a relative position of social power.
I remember my mother taking me aside when I was maybe in seventh grade and saying could I maybe try and be extra friendly to M? Since she'd be talking with M.'s mother and apparently M was having a real hard time of it, what with her not having any friends and anything. And I looked at her aghast because, why would I want to or need to make those kind of overtures to one of the most popular girls in school? #meangirls
My Mean Girl was a Shelley, who went on to win a Marshall scholarship, among other things. I still get queasy when I think about the shit she pulled to screw me out of a $1000 local AAUW scholarship.
I guess it's marginally better that she was so aggressively competitive academically. #meangirls
"Guys? I thought we were meetin at 9 pm @burger king on 8th? None of u r answerin ur phones. Txt me back plz"
Sent from Barack's iPhone at 9:41 pm
(Fwd msg Ashley to Courtney)
"Can u believe him! The LAST thing he needs is a burger! Come on over, mom's bf left his smirnoff ices in the fridge"
Sent from Ashley's iPhone at 9:42 pm #meangirls
I was going to make an irony joke about the girls in the stock photos looking kind of busted and methy, but decided you know what? After skimming my old yearbook, I realized that the mean girls in my old high did look busted and methy. Living on Boone's farms, malboro lights, tanning, little sleep and Taco Bell can do that to a girl. Points for accuracy Onion .
@Lymed: Same here. I graduated HS ten years ago, and I never experienced the "mean girl" phenomenon. Sure people were mean to each other, but it seemed it to be within each clique/circle.
I was never unpopular, and my school did not have football. Cheerleads != cool. Popular people were jocks and/or in honors classes. #meangirls
@Lymed: Nope. My HS had 1000+ kids and, at least within my class, there was never any outright mean girl phenomenon (can't say for sure about other classes, though I never noticed it). Even in high school I found myself wondering where these schools were that were full of bullies because I never really saw anything like that...we weren't all friends, but I don't think any of us were really enemies either. #meangirls
@Lymed: I went to an all-girls school with a population of 2000, so I think the absence of boys and the large class size kept us from having a mean girl popular clique. Lots of mean girls, but none with power.
Junior high, though, was the WORST. My class was tiny and there was a very specific social hierarchy that had existed since first grade. #meangirls
@NellMood: That probably has more to do with it being middle school than with it being all-girl. Middle schoolers are inherently evil. I went to all-girl schools and we didn't have mean girls, either. #meangirls
@fulanita: Oh, I imagine these people would have been mean no matter where they went to school. They are still deeply homophobic, deeply racist women, but are now they are adults and are doctors and lawyers. Scary! #meangirls
@GreyEminence: Careful with the accusations. I was an awkward theatre nerd.
My school had cliques, but there was no clique that ruled the school. There was a beautiful popular kid clique, but the girls were never mean. And my senior year, the lines between cliques blurred. #meangirls
@Lymed: imo, if you think your school had no mean girls it just means you were lucky enough not to be a target.
My Mean Girl got the whole class to put hate valentines in my desk envelope, then had everyone hide in the coatroom to watch me read them. I'm sure everyone else thought it was just a really funny joke.... And yes, I remember her name, and her face. She wasn't a cheerleader, or a pretty girl, but she was sure as hell a leader. #meangirls
@La muerte en bicicleta: That's a facebook gamble. She could be a total loser, she could be living the most awesome life ever. It's either smug self-satisfaction or a shame spiral for the rest of the day.
@La muerte en bicicleta: Mine was called Lorie-Jo and she had a double barrelled surname too. She was a massive bitch but only to me. We competed intellectually, I usually won, but she always did better academically. I still hate the thought of her.
I'm bitter. #meangirls
This atheist has a couple choice New Testament verses for the zealots:
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. "If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
"But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men."
(Matthew 6:1-7)
@Gumbina80: I thought about that verse a lot during my junior year of college. I had a roommate who owned more Christian t-shirts than anyone I've ever known. We had a walk-in closet, and sometimes when I was getting dressed, I would take a moment and play "find the non-Christian t-shirt," just by grabbing one at random. I never did find that elusive non-Christian t-shirt.
@Dictator for Life: It's this *constant* need for validation of a group's beliefs in the public sphere that reads as a little desperate to me. Seriously, folks? You can't just enjoy a football game without a little reminder at half-time?
And also, the little cadre of cheerleaders? What are the odds that one or two of those girls didn't want to make the banner but were bullied -- er, *evangelized* into going with it by the girls in charge. The peer pressure to be pretend-Christian in that situation should make all real believers pause. Do you want everyone to *be* Christian or just *act* Christian? 'Cause one of those two states of being is a lie.
And this is going to show up on Fox News and my intelligent and wonderful yet Southern Baptist mom will inform me that people are being put in jail for praying (she thought something like that was happening in Florida, but it wasn't that simple).
If they want to have a moment of silence before the game and personally pray for the players, fine. But as someone who lives in the Bible Belt, I get rather irked when a pre-meal or pre-whatever prayer turns into a "God we realize all good things flow from you" or "God we realize without your son dying on the cross none of this would be possible." Makes me want to shout "Praise Allah!" while everyone's eyes are closed. Stop putting words in my mouth, praying people.
10/30/09
For years, I thought I was this ostracized fat nerd who was persecuted for her brains and her ambitions; in reality, I was way more like an elitist megabitch who couldn't wait to get out of her "ugh, so pedestrian" hometown, who overreacted to some seriously weak-ass insults and exacted terrifying revenge every. Damn. Time. No wonder no one wanted to be my friend!
I was my high school's version of Rahm Emanuel. Except WAY less cool. #meangirls
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
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10/30/09
My experience was not that mean girls terrorized me, but that I was simply not included or invited to anything. I was just not cool enough for unspecified reasons.
I was pretty much a loner in high school (and can be now), and the result is that I haven't really kept in touch with anyone from high school (I'm only 6 years out of hs, most people I know in my age range still talk with at least a couple of people from hs). #meangirls
10/30/09
I made my best friend in high school b/c college (I was a commuter) didn't yield the opportunity to get to know many people, no matter how nice some kids in the smaller classes weree... kinda hurts when you know the group of kids you sidelined during four years of high school doesn't really include you now that you're older. Or rather, it hurts me. #meangirls
10/30/09
Oh, wait, now I remember one. Alexa. But the rest are lost to the sands of time. #meangirls
10/30/09
10/30/09
I remember my mother taking me aside when I was maybe in seventh grade and saying could I maybe try and be extra friendly to M? Since she'd be talking with M.'s mother and apparently M was having a real hard time of it, what with her not having any friends and anything. And I looked at her aghast because, why would I want to or need to make those kind of overtures to one of the most popular girls in school? #meangirls
10/30/09
10/30/09
I guess it's marginally better that she was so aggressively competitive academically. #meangirls
10/30/09
Sent from Barack's iPhone at 9:41 pm
(Fwd msg Ashley to Courtney)
"Can u believe him! The LAST thing he needs is a burger! Come on over, mom's bf left his smirnoff ices in the fridge"
Sent from Ashley's iPhone at 9:42 pm #meangirls
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
I was never unpopular, and my school did not have football. Cheerleads != cool. Popular people were jocks and/or in honors classes. #meangirls
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
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10/30/09
Junior high, though, was the WORST. My class was tiny and there was a very specific social hierarchy that had existed since first grade. #meangirls
10/30/09
10/30/09
ostracize. #meangirls
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
My school had cliques, but there was no clique that ruled the school. There was a beautiful popular kid clique, but the girls were never mean. And my senior year, the lines between cliques blurred. #meangirls
10/30/09
My Mean Girl got the whole class to put hate valentines in my desk envelope, then had everyone hide in the coatroom to watch me read them. I'm sure everyone else thought it was just a really funny joke.... And yes, I remember her name, and her face. She wasn't a cheerleader, or a pretty girl, but she was sure as hell a leader. #meangirls
10/30/09
ostracize."
Want to bet?
Or don't you spend a lot of time on livejournal? #meangirls
10/30/09
10/30/09
It looks real innocent on the outside too. Maybe kind of like Glenn Frey's Hotel California?
(Please pardon the reference - I'm a bit of a 70s/80s/90s music junkie) #meangirls
10/30/09
10/30/09
Honestly, I think if we found a way to channel "mean girls" into such an influential role, it might work well for nuclear disarmament. #meangirls
10/30/09
But I'm not bitter. #meangirls
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
I'm bitter. #meangirls
10/12/09
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. "If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
"But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men."
(Matthew 6:1-7)
10/12/09
10/12/09
10/12/09
And also, the little cadre of cheerleaders? What are the odds that one or two of those girls didn't want to make the banner but were bullied -- er, *evangelized* into going with it by the girls in charge. The peer pressure to be pretend-Christian in that situation should make all real believers pause. Do you want everyone to *be* Christian or just *act* Christian? 'Cause one of those two states of being is a lie.
10/12/09
If they want to have a moment of silence before the game and personally pray for the players, fine. But as someone who lives in the Bible Belt, I get rather irked when a pre-meal or pre-whatever prayer turns into a "God we realize all good things flow from you" or "God we realize without your son dying on the cross none of this would be possible." Makes me want to shout "Praise Allah!" while everyone's eyes are closed. Stop putting words in my mouth, praying people.
10/12/09