The movie Mean Girls is centered around a power struggle between a small band of resistance and the empire of “the Plastics,” specifically Regina George. The film was created by screenwriter Tina Few, producer Lorne Michaels, and director Mark Waters, all of whom incorporated classic high school drama with governmental and leadership traits, using sarcastic humor and relatable scenes to captivate the audience. Regina George rules the high school in an autocratic manner and is able to maintain control over her peers for a significant portion of the movie. Why does Regina George’s fear-mongering rule incite devotion and admiration despite her atrocities?  

     A tactic used by many autocratic rulers, Regina George incites fear among her peers to reassure her superiority and their inferiority. “Fear: The Foundation of Every Government’s Power,” states that, “The people who have the effrontery to rule us, who call themselves our government, understand this basic fact of human nature. They exploit it, and they cultivate it” (Higgs 447). Higgs deliberates on how most governments exploit public fear in order to reassure that people succumb to their “trusted” leaders and submit to the governing body, especially during times of social, economic, political, and military distress. This abuse of public anxiety is illustrated in Mean Girls as Regina George uses the fear of her peers in the form of mass compliancy to maintain control. Regina George is aware that students are either afraid of her or afraid of not fitting in, submitting to her out of fear of “social suicide” and to conform to the social norm. Regina George’s influence as a leader and students’ willingness to imitate her was illustrated when her shirt was cut as a sabotage by Cady, Janis, and Damian, and the next day many girls wore their shirts cut with holes in order to comply with the assumed fashion sense of Regina George. Students conformed to that of Regina George in order to avoid being criticized or mocked.

     Furthermore, Regina George’s rule is bolstered by support from her peers who appear to be ill-advised regarding Regina George’s intentions and motives. The “Narrative Techniques of Fear Mongering” discusses how the media uses fear-mongering techniques to abuse public fear and cause misdirection and misguidance (Glassner 822). In Mean Girls, the media outlets can be replaced with the students of North Shore High School. The students who start rumors are manipulated by the governing force (Regina George) so that those who are on the receiving end of the gossip believe Regina George is caring and has pure intentions. For instance, at the beginning of Mean Girls, students described Regina George as “teen royalty,” “flawless,” and is “fierce.” These false impressions can cause misguidance as people neglect to acknowledge her trend of corrupt actions. However, not everyone falls vulnerable to Regina George’s manipulative spirit. For instance, Janis states that “evil takes a human form in Regina George,” she is “a life-ruiner,” and she is an “evil dictator” (Mean Girls). Nonetheless, Regina George’s sociability and radiating confidence diverts most others from acknowledging her as an untrustworthy leader and the students praise Regina George with compliments.

     Regina George is able to draw and maintain a respectful following from her classmates because she exploits their insecurities, ruling as an autocratic leader. Specifically, Regina George criticizes Janis for being lesbian and calls her “pathetic” and “obsessed with her” (Mean Girls). Regina George calls Jason a “skeeze” and tells him to go “shave his back,” calls Karen “stupid,” ridicules Gretchen for using the term “fetch,” and tells Cady that people call her a “home-schooled jungle freak who is a less hot version” of herself (Mean Girls). These apprehensive and awkward teenagers make up the bulk of Regina George’s following as they are the ones who are looking for and are willing to obey an authoritative leader. The study, “Self-Uncertainty and Support for Autocratic Leadership,” determined that a person’s self-uncertainty is consistent with their backing of an autocratic leader. In other words, those who lack confidence are increasingly more probable to support leaders who possess the characteristics they lack (Rast III). People who have low self-esteem are more inclined to support autocratic leaders who are strong and direct. In Mean Girls, Gretchen is very self-uncertain and requires a leader to guide her. This is exemplified by Gretchen being led by Regina George for most of the movie, and after “the Plastics” dismember, she subsequently joins a Vietnamese clique, following the leader of that group at the end of the film. By preying on self-conscious and self-uncertain teenagers, Regina George is able to gain and maintain a following.

     Regina George is also a selfish ruler, putting her desires before the needs of others and taking the actions necessary to maintain her social standing. The correlation between the pursuit of power and making utilitarian and selfish decisions is the basis of Suessenbach’s study “Individual Differences in the Explicit Power Motive Predict ‘Utilitarian’ Choices in Moral Dilemmas, Especially When This Choice Is Self- Beneficial.” The results of this study concluded that the hope to gain power is associated with self-centered decision making (Suessenbach). In relation to Mean Girls, Regina George’s power motive leads to her publishing pages of the Burn Book for the entire school to see, negatively affecting hundreds of the females in the junior class as well as Ms. Norbury, Cady Heron’s mathematics teacher. Thus, Regina George is able to maintain power by assuring that no other group or individual is able to obtain power, mistreating anyone who gets in her way of upholding control.

     Moreover, because Regina George is successful at being a fear-mongering ruler, an effective opposing force or group is absent for most of the movie. The “Dictator’s Shadow” states that a lack of opposition leads to an abuse of power (Gueorguiev). Because there is nobody to control Regina George, she can rule with almost complete authority over both her inner circle, “the Plastics,” and the rest of the school. Gueorguiev also discusses how leaders who preserve their power can expand their influence by obtaining additional leadership positions, as Regina George does. Regina George is the head of the student activities committee due to the fact that she was previously elected a spring fling queen. It is apparent that due to a lack of an opposing force, Regina George was able to rule North Shore High School effortlessly for her past three years. 

     Although Regina George rules autocratically, she is able to be perceived as a monarch maintaining sovereignty. “Property Rights in Dictatorships: Kings Protect Property Better than Generals or Party Bosses” deliberates similarities and differences between dictatorships and monarchies concerning property and economic policies (Knutsen). Mean Girls's dominant female group, “The Plastics,” referred to as “teen royalty,” can relate to a Western monarchy as Regina George, the “queen bee” permits Gretchen and Karen to act as princesses, allowing them to associate themselves with herself and have access to the perks of popularity. Further supporting the notion that “the Plastics” are part of an imperial power, royal families are usually of wealth, and Gretchen’s father invented Toaster Strudel while Regina George lives in a mansion, possesses luxury handbags, and drives a shiny Lexus. In addition, the reign of Regina George is bolstered by the students of North Shore High School and they themselves raised Regina George to a position of power by loyally following her, similar to that of a kingdom ruled by a monarchy. Nonetheless, Regina George has absolute power and is an autocratic ruler over “the Plastics” as well. To summarize, Regina George is a decisive autocratic ruler who uses her supremacy over her classmates to misguide them to believe that she is a capable leader.

     More importantly, Regina George is able to pair her fear-mongering autocratic rule with positive leadership attributes, such as confidence and effective communication skills to stimulate devotion and admiration. Charisma, inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration are attributes associated with transformational leadership qualities (Deluga). Ronald Deluga writes that “Charisma is the leader's perceived God-like qualities that generates great referent power and influence. Subordinates idealize the leader, develop a strong need for leader approval, and suppress criticism.” Regina George possesses and exemplifies all the transformational leadership qualities above. Regina George is physically beautiful and uses her physical appearance to her advantage by easily getting the attention of others. Males and females fall victim to Regina George’s charisma; for instance, Cady Heron states that Regina is glamorous and is “like the Barbie doll I’ve never had.” Furthermore, Regina George displays consideration towards others and is inspiring, as exemplified by her mass following. Regina George is intellectual, though manipulative, as exhibited in the scene where she did not want Jason to go out with the blonde girl in the mall, so she called the girl’s mother pretending to be Planned Parenthood. Regina George is a very capable manipulator and is able to make Cady Heron feel important while also feeling subordinate to her. Cady Heron states that even though she hates Regina George, she still wants her to like her. This seeking of approval is due to Regina providing Cady individual consideration. Moreover, Regina George has transactional leadership qualities, such as participating in mutually beneficial relationships with her “subordinates,” such as Karen, Gretchen, and Cady. Cady Heron even admits that it was better to be in “the Plastics” and hate it than not be in it at all.

     Additionally, Regina George demonstrates effective communicative skills and is able to use this sociable trait to persuade others to continue supporting her. The ability to communicate well with others is a vital leadership trait that is associated with strong and capable leaders. The study “The Role of Social and Emotional Communication Skills in Leader Emergence and Effectiveness” determined that effectual communication skills are associated with being a strong leader; accordingly, poor communication skills are related to weak leadership (Riggio). Being a good communicator is also linked to being an assertive and persuasive leader. As previously referenced, according to Cady Heron, Regina George is able to cause people to hate her while simultaneously desiring her approval and friendship (Mean Girls). Regina George’s social nature causes others to feel affection for and compliance to her. Not only is Regina George able accomplish this feat, but she is able to do so using brief, meaningless conversations as opposed to quality, meaningful discussions. Overall, by portraying herself as self-assured and collaborating with others, Regina George builds relationship and is able to depict herself as an effective leader who can be trusted, using charisma, confident body language, and sociability to incite devotion from her peers.

     Although Regina George possesses positive leadership skills such as confidence, intellect, charisma, and sociability, she lacks basic leadership traits that are known to be associated with effective leaders. Regina George appears to be a good leader, but her portrayal is founded on a selfish basis. The “Facets of Leadership” states, “Leadership, leader are words that are often used to describe an individual who possesses exceptional values, communication skills, confidence, respect, and effectively uses their trust and influence to promote harmony and teamwork. These individuals are visionaries, excellent communicators, trustworthy with integrity, and have character that others want to emulate” (Gaiter 323). Regina George lacks trustworthiness, integrity, and character as exemplified by her poor decisions such as repeatedly cheating on Aaron Samuels and purposely instigating drama via a three-way call. Unknowingly to most, Regina George’s leadership persona and personal character are tarnished.

     Even though Regina George is untrustworthy, the fact that she displays herself as trustworthy allows her to build a following amongst her peers. According to “Aspirational Characteristics for Effective Leadership of Improvement Teams,” in addition to being an excellent communicator and exhibiting optimism, an effective leader is a good listener who invests time in others, attributes which are is linked to appearing empathetic (Donnelly). This can be associated with Regina George giving people individual consideration, allowing her to be perceived as empathetic. An example of Regina George demonstrating investment in others is when she told the girl in a vintage plaid skirt from the ‘80s that she liked her skirt, even though it was a lie. This remark allowed for Regina George to appear caring and considerate when she was talking bad about the skirt a few seconds later. In addition to investing time in others, Regina George effectively communicates and sets clear expectations, such as having the group of “Plastics” wear pink on Wednesdays, wear ponytails once a week, and no sweatpants. Additionally, Regina George portrays a positive manner and leads with optimism, demonstrated by constantly smiling in public and depicting openness, which is associated with friendliness. Although Regina George lacks honor, she is still considered an effective leader as she is able to retain a following and inspire others by pretending to be actively concerned with their lives.

     Corrupt leaders are capable of climbing to power and maintaining their positions as leaders by using charisma, confidence, communicative skills, and an authoritative leadership style as opposed to leadership built on compassion and integrity. To a more extreme extent, Regina George can be related to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin as all three ruled using terror, manipulation, and persuasiveness. Overall, the movie Mean Girls and the rule of Regina George relates to how a dictatorship functions and the fall of a dictator due to destabilization by an opposing power force. Nevertheless, before her downfall, Regina George was able to incite admiration and devotion from her followers by combining an autocratic leadership with transformational leadership attributes, allowing for her to be recognized as the “queen bee” of North Shore High School. However, all empires turn to ruins at some point in history, and Regina George’s lack of positive leadership attributes, such as patience, understanding, and self-control, led to her downfall. Nonetheless, for a significant portion of the movie, Regina George proved to be a successful leader. (Word Count: 2307)