Rebroadcast: Mean Girls | 24

Show Notes:

We are revisiting our chat with Christina Kay about Mean Girls!


Transcript:

Julia: Christina. What's the date today? It's October 3rd, quit trying make fetch happen. 

Christina: You're like really 

Julia: pretty. Thank you. So you agree, 

Christina: you think you're really pretty? Are 

Julia: you ready? Hey friends, this is pop culture makes me jealous. And I'm your host, Julia. And on today's show, Christina K is here and we are talking about the cultural phenomenon.

Julia: That is mean girls.

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Julia: Mean girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fay. The film stars, Lindsay Lowen, Rachel McAdams, Tim Mead. On a gas tire, Amy bowler and Faye, it has been said, the movie is based on a book by Rosalind Wiseman, titled queen bees and wannabees, which was published in 2002, which was the year I graduated high school.

Julia: Ouch, which focuses on the ways in which girls from high schools form clicks and on patterns of aggressive tingle behavior and how to deal with them before we dive in. Let me reintroduce you to my guest. Christina Kay has been on the show many times in season one and graciously agreed to pop in for season two.

Julia: She is a California based hair, stylist and photographer, specializing in BWA photos. Her philosophy look good, feel good, can apply to every day. Christina, welcome back to the show. Julia, 

Christina: I'm pumped to be back and you know why I'm pumped to be 

Julia: back because. You love me because, 

Christina: well, obviously, but also because do you know what day 

Julia: it is?

Julia: It's October 3rd. It's October 3rd. He did so fetch. 

Christina: And this is, this is what I've been waiting for. You said we're gonna be reviewing movies and TV and pop cultures things. And I said, mean, girls, we're gonna do mean girls one day. I 

Julia: just know it. You've been asking for a while. And then, and then you're like, but it should probably happen on October 3rd.

Julia: And I was like, that's a fan right there. She knows what. Look, 

Christina: it's all about marketing. Okay. If we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it. Right. 

Julia: Let's kick off with a summary that I found on the internet. I literally can't remember. So I can't give credit to where I found the summary and I apologize to whoever may have written it.

Julia: I'm not fully plagiarizing. I will totally 100% look into my search history to find where this came from. Katie har is a hit with the plastics, the A-list girl, click at her new school until she makes the mistake of falling for Erin Samuels. The ex-boyfriend of alpha plastic Regina, George. On April 30th, TW 2004, Roger abert.com reviewed mean girls and had this to say mean girls dissects high school society with a lot of observant detail, which seems surprisingly well informed the screenplay by Saturday night live.

Julia: Tina Fay is both a comic and a achievement. Tina Faye was the first female head writer in SNL history and went on to create and star in 30 rock, which is a personal favorite of. On the same day, the New York times ran a review, which observed. Though narrative cohesion. Isn't the strength of mean girls which works better from scene to scene than as a whole.

Julia: The intelligence shines in its understanding of contradictions, keeping a comic distance from the emotional investment of teenagers that defined. Mont high and later the adolescent angst movies of John Hughes, like Mr. Hughes's, writing Ms. Phase combines, comedic practicality, and a fascination with the cruelty born of suburban privilege.

Julia: Christina, I know this movie means a lot to you, so let's just start with, why do we love mean girls?

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Christina: I think I love mean girls mainly for the time that it came out was like, It's gonna sound silly, but it was like the perfect time for me because I was, I just finished sounds so dumb.

Christina: I just, so I finished elementary school and was going into middle school, which felt like a big deal mm-hmm but what was even worse was so like the first week of summer break, my friends called me on a group call and they were at a sleepover I wasn't invited to. And they told me they didn't wanna be my friend anymore.

Christina: So I spent my very first real summer because in elementary school we didn't have summer break. We went year round. Gotcha. And in middle school is when I got my first like summer break. My first summer break. I spent alone with my mom because I didn't have friends. So I was really so. Scared going into middle school eventually, like we made up whatever happened, happened, but then like mean girls came out and it was like, I had gone through my own like really traumatic, like mingle experience and then to see like a movie where it was like all high school based.

Christina: And I just was like, felt validated like, 

Julia: oh, it's 

Christina: okay. Like. Everyone goes through crap, and then you can still come out and be okay at the end. And it was just like, I liked that. I really liked Janice Ian ironically the most, because she was just kind of like a fuck all attitude. And she was just, she wanted to do her own thing always, and she didn't care what people thought.

Christina: And I just thought that was cool. Like I wasn't that way, but I really looked up to her in that way. And then of course, I just thought it was a funny movie 

Julia: I completely identified with the Janus Ian character in the sense of like, nobody understood. And then having like the one friend, I had a couple friends though, so I can't say it was one, I was fortunate to have a couple who were like, uh, girl, we get you.

Julia: We'll be friends with you. 

Christina: those are good friends. 

Julia: Those, and they're still my friends to this day. I was just talking to them 

Christina: yesterday. Actually. That's the best. I was lucky enough to have those ones too. Yeah. I think 

Julia: it's amazing. I was literally like weeks after I found out I was pregnant. This movie released, I was 20 listeners.

Julia: give you some context, Christina and I are not the same age. please don't think that 

Christina: I was 11 and 20. We were very different, very different. 

Julia: And so coming into it as a 20 year old, so like my friend group wasn't like that, the hierarchy. High school society existed in the way that it did. And can't hardly wait.

Julia: You had the jocks, you had the preppies, you had the sports people or jocks are sports people. You had the nerds, you had the kids who were into anime, which apparently is cool now. And then like that flipped the switch real quick. Didn't it? Mm mm-hmm . And so, so to watch this movie, it was kind of. Is this everybody, but then at the same time, you know, we did have like those preppy girls, those a, the, a crowd girls that everybody knew about.

Julia: And like, I don't know if anybody was scared of 'em the way that they were of Regina, George, like ju Regina, George is a terrible human. 

Christina: Oh, for sure. Like watching this movie now, like with the lens, a different lens, it's like, I don't, it's hard. It's hard to like, re-watch one of your absolute favorite movies in a different, like lens grown up lens.

Christina: Cause you, you don't watch it all the time. I figured you just watched it all the time. I mean, for the most part I do. Okay. I didn't, I had it on this morning and I was like, But it's different. Like when I get ready for the podcast, you're asking me questions, I'm reading articles. Like, you know, like we're straight up comparing things.

Christina: I'm forcing 

Julia: you to look at it in a different 

Christina: way. You're making me, you're making me analyze the things I watch and it's not always about it. I gotta be honest. Yeah. I, I mean kind of ruins some of the art and joy in it, but, oh, sorry. Sorry, Fred. But that's a no, because it's also, it was a different time. So at that time, and for.

Christina: CAPA mental capacity. Yeah. As an 11 year old, trying to understand things, it was perfect for me. The comedy. Yeah. I mean, it was probably a little advanced, but it was, I was a nineties kid. So like, we were allowed to watch race things like where we weren't supposed to, 

Julia: you know, like, I love that. You just said Reese things.

Julia: I dunno, you were supposed 

Christina: that's what my mom would say. that's the best. I don't even know what that means. Risque. That's probably what she meant. maybe who knows, who 

Julia: knows? I, this time around, I kind of had some issues cuz so it's one of the ones that I never turn off. Like if, if, if I'm flipping through the channels, cuz I'm a Relic can still have cable.

Julia: I will probably never cut the cord. They will have to. Rip it out of my cold, dead hands. I don't, I like, oh, mean girls is on. Okay. I put it on. Yeah. It's, it's one of those ones that I'm always, if it's on, I'm gonna watch it. If people haven't seen it and I'm like, okay, we're gonna have a movie night. You, you know what I mean?

Julia: Like it's not one that I'm never gonna watch again. And so watching it in preparation for this one, and we'll get into this in a little bit later too, because there's some statements made in another article that we're gonna reference. So I was just like, Hmm, I don't know if I agree with that, with that said.

Julia: There are some things where I'm just like, Ooh, that's not gonna age. Well, that did not age. Well, Ooh, Gina Faye. That didn't age. Well, yeah. And one of them is the use of the R 

Christina: word. I caught that one today. Yep. 

Julia: Clocked it three times. And I was like, Ooh, I thought in 2004, we were already not using that word, but maybe I'm wrong.

Julia: Maybe I was just progressive in 2004 and dropped it outta my vocabulary to this day. I cannot stand it when people use that. It like, it's not okay. 

Christina: It was, it was one of those things where I, I guess probably because I was actively watching it instead of just having it on, like, I always do mm-hmm because like, when you have it on, like, you always do, you just recite it.

Christina: You're not actually, you're not absorbing it because you've seen it so many times you don't need to pay attention. Correct. But when you're sitting it and. Actually actively watching it now with a, you know, where we are in today's society lens. I was like, oh, there are some things that we can't say no more like, yeah, good at an age.

Christina: Well, or like things that like, I once probably laughed at that. I'm like, 

Julia: okay, that's not as funny. That's. Right. 

Christina: Tina's like an uncomfortable thing, cuz it's, it's like one of those things where it shows that you've grown as a person, if it, you know, but it also is one of those things where if we go back and watch literally anything from before 20, 20 mm-hmm no offense, but it's true.

Christina: Like, yeah, there's a lot of stuff, a lot of problems. And so it's like, you almost have to take it with a grain of salt, like in a way, like, okay, we're gonna find problems. All of these or are we gonna sit here and pick out everything that's bad? Or can we focus on some of the like, okay, this is what they were trying to do.

Julia: Yeah. Type of thing. Yes. And I think when you've become can in the way that mean girls has become, can. It is still a problem. Yes. Cause like in two, like I said, in 2004, I had removed it from my vocabulary. So I assumed in my tiny ass town of Modesto, that that was normal. But apparently it's not because you have a New York based writer checking in in there three 

Christina: times.

Christina: I think two, there was a, I mean, a couple of different stuff that came. You know, like when, what is it when Janice is Janice Ian's line about, um, Damien being too gay to function. Oh, Uhhuh. And then later on when she goes, it's only okay. When I say that. Yeah, that, that line specifically, it's only okay. When I say that.

Christina: Yeah. I feel like sums up the like yeah. Early two thousands to mid two thousands. When I guess everyone was starting to realize like, Hey, maybe we shouldn't make these jokes, but we still try to pass Moffitt's jokes. So what we did was go only, I'm allowed to say that because I'm their friend and I've heard all the, you know, the hurt first to be, to earn that in a way.

Christina: Yeah. 

Julia: So it's, you can't talk shit about my mom, but I can talk shit about my mom. 

Christina: I feel like that's right before we're getting to the now times, like where everyone's really aware of what they're saying. Mm-hmm, , that's kind of what we would do like that. I would say what the progressive, slowly jump was right there is turning those.

Christina: Like, that's how you called it out was a joke. Like you call out people in a joke because that's how it was okay to be progressive 

Julia: because it's not intense. It's not uncomfortable. You're laughing about it. I get you. I 

Christina: understand where you're going. So I think like I'm not trying to say like, it's, it's okay to just appease whatever happened.

Christina: Then what I'm saying is like, You have to realize that at that time that was being progressive was calling it out and someone else calling it out in a joke going like not okay. And that's, I feel like a lot of the movies cuz I've been watching, like, I don't know, Amazon primes had a lot of like 2000 early, 2000 hit movies on there watching '

Julia: em the.

Christina: Cringe city. Why did I like, how did we real, like the female male dynamic in movies? I'm like, I can't handle this. Listen like this man's 

Julia: irritating. So, so many things are just not okay. And no, there's so many reasons why us older millennials are a HAA fucked up pop cultures. One of those 

Christina: reasons for sure.

Christina: Cause we literally like witnessed the switch to on the screens. It's like all the stuff that we en used to enjoy. We're no longer enjoying and you. Now my nostalgia is not fun. right. How dare you. Maybe my nostalgia, 

Julia: right? Maybe Regina George was saying that was the, maybe that was Tina Fay's commentary on the statement.

Julia: Cuz Regina, George is an awful person and she's literally the only character who's using it. So maybe that was part maybe that was her having, that was her commentary. Like this is a terrible person using this term. But no one else in the movie's using it. Yeah. I don't know. Tina Fay's done stuff. That's really funny.

Julia: And then like, it doesn't always land well, so it's just kind of one of those things where just 

Christina: like, I think comedians in general or comedy writers, they do that where like they really push the envelope and it might be coming from a good place in their heart, but it doesn't come across for the audience as that.

Christina: Whatever they were going for. And it's 

Julia: unfortunate, or it's only for a very specific audience and it leaves out a population of people cuz her whole cake yeah message on SNL. She came back and like was eating a cake and had this whole monologue. It was funny. But then when you kind of get more into it, the black community had a hard time.

Julia: Black women had a hard time with that speech. And they're, I think that they're completely justified in that, but that is a digression. And for those of you listening, if you wanna learn more go and Google. I don't know what say, I don't know what, 

Christina: that, 

Julia: I don't know what that is, but I'll go SNL. I don't know if that's what you should Google, but that's what I would Google.

Julia: Like a lot of things might pop up. I know, right? Shit. Be careful. Be careful. Be careful where you Google that, where you Googled that. Damn the guardian ran an article in 2018 with the headline. Fetch happens. Why mean girls is the perfect teen movie and they had this to say at the beginning of the film, Katie who was previously homeschooled in Africa is presented with the cafeteria strict social hierarchy.

Julia: Varsity. Think 

Christina: you mean caddy? I'm sorry. 

Julia: That's okay. Cause it's the beginning of the movie. So she is catty. She's not Katie yet. Yeah. I'm gonna continue. I'm sorry. I had to make the joke. I think I'm here for it. Varsity chalk. Unfriendly black hotties girls who eat their feelings, girls who don't eat anything.

Julia: And the plastics, the coolest girls in school, it plays into that feeling. Everyone has at school that they're either that they either are cool or that they wish they could be. But soon after you leave school, you realize. Everyone sucked their clothes, their affections they're terrible tasted music. The belief that you and your friends are the first people to do anything you're doing it doesn't make any difference.

Julia: Whether you are popular or not. School kids are probably the lamest demographic ever. The guardian hypothesis of this movie being the perfect team movie is supported by this statement. The journey, Katie, cuz now she's Katie cuz she's been on her journey goes on, is not transforming. She doesn't end up cooler than she was rather.

Julia: It's a realization that everyone sucks. The same. The writer goes on to say that this movie has the perfect ending with Regina, George becoming a lacrosse player. Janice, Ian coupling up with Kevin G and Katie Heron. Didn't just find her place. She's realized the entire regimented structure of high school doesn't matter.

Julia: And what is coming of age, if not the realization that everything you thought mattered six months ago is actually nonsense. So do we agree? Is this the perfect teen movie? I already know my answer. Tell me yours first. No, it's not. I don't think it 

Christina: is. I don't think it is either, but I'm still like 

Julia: proceed.

Julia: Why to tell you why? I guess that makes sense. Yeah. I find that when you have a film that centers around this concept, that there is, um, high school hierarchy. And while I do appreciate the way that Tina Fey highlights the hierarchy and calls it out and sort of mocks it, that wasn't my high school experience.

Julia: So I think a perfect teen movie represents. Majority of high school experience. And I don't know if this is, is this majority high school experience. I know you shared that story earlier too. I think a perfect teen movie is gonna age well, like we just watched, and this is my bias, because again, I was 14 in 19 99, 

Christina: 10 things I hate 

Julia: about you that that holds.

Julia: Yeah, can't hardly wait. I was a little worried, showed it to my team was a little worried, actually kind of holds up a little bit. There's some, there's some like gross stuff, but for the most part, we didn't have a it kind of maybe. And now I'm MIS maybe I'm MIS remembering. And now I'm panicking a little bit about saying it holds up.

Christina: you're fine. The 100% and 10 

Julia: things I hate about you holds. To this day, 22 years later, it's also based on a Shakespeare play. So maybe that's why, but don't get me started on Shakespeare. Your turn. Go ahead. 

Christina: I, I would agree that it's not the perfect teen movie because it is not at all. Like. I don't think most high schools are like that.

Christina: I don't think Mo I mean, our high school definitely had cliques. I'm not gonna say that it didn't, but I would say a lot of our like, quote cliques, inter mingled within other like, clicks, same with 

Julia: our, like, we got invited to jog parties all the time. Yeah. Until, well, actually I can't tell you why until 

Christina: I don't.

Christina: Yeah. I don't think, like, I think it was a little bit too intense on the click part, but I don't know if that was just part of like. The dramatics of a, like a movies, you know, mm-hmm, like movies in general tend to heighten things. So it's like, yeah, in general you can go to a high school and see clicks, but they're not that 

Julia: like intense, intense.

Christina: Yeah. It was. So at the same time, like I did appreciate how, when they, at the end of the movie and they show like everyone in their next year, it shows them all, basically. Changed mm-hmm but not different people. If that makes any sense, they were able to 

Julia: find their avenue that worked better 

Christina: for them.

Christina: Definitely. But I also think that that's just like a really good that right there showed more about high school than anything was the fact that you can have one hole insane year and the next year you'll come back and it can be a very different experience. Totally. Cause I think all four years of high school, you are changing.

Christina: You're changing a ton and not 

Julia: much at 

Christina: all. You, you find new things constantly that you wanna get interested in or 

Julia: new people, or you tap into shit that you don't really know if you're into, but you just tried it 

Christina: on for size to see if it fits. You're just given. 

Julia: Yeah. You're like, well, those people are doing it and that looks fun.

Julia: So like, I I'll try it out. Like it's a 

Christina: lot of trial and error in high school. Yeah. So I think it did show that a lot. Mm-hmm um, 

Julia: But, yeah, I don't think it's, it's just so clickish it's so we're arguing. 

Christina: I don't think it'd be the perfect teen movie. I would say it's like, if you wanna put it in a, like a perfect category, like it's just like a perfect, like catchall movie for, I would say specifically girls, like, okay.

Christina: It more showcases, like. The range of different girls, you're gonna come across in your life 

Julia: than in like that scene where she first meets Katie, Katie first meets the plastics and Regina's like, oh, I love your bracelet. And she's like, oh, thank you. It's whatever. And then fast forward 45 minutes. And Regina's like, oh, I love your scar to that girl.

Julia: She's like, it's my mom. And was like, Ooh, vintage. And then she's like, that's the ugliest effing screw I've ever seen. 

Christina: yep. That's like, And you see Katie, we've all been in that situation. My God. Yeah. And you learned like that's how you learn in high school, about people and that's how you learn about like social cues.

Christina: Like I'm convinced that teenagers are just like second phase toddlers. , they're learning by modeling all of the things adults do, but they still need a bunch of guidance and help, which is basically 

Julia: what toddlers they're developed yet. 

Christina: That's what toddlers do out of babyhood before they're like, . Yeah, that's what I think 

Julia: teens are.

Julia: I agree to an extent. I have met some children in, in, in my child's career school career where I'm like, that's a sociopath. And my, my mother who's a therapist will say, they're, they're not, no, because they're still only 10. We can't call them that. And I'm like, you know, give it time. mm-hmm but for the most part, I do think that we're, you know, as teenagers, we're all still trying to figure out who we are and where we fall and where we fit.

Julia: And then when we don't have the freedom to do that, then we kind of can get potentially boxed into shit that doesn't fit for us. And then we're just miserable. The rest of our lives. 

Christina: It happens, uh, very often. Yeah. But that's enough tropes in movies. How many times have you heard? I wanna live my life. Dad, not yours, right?

Christina: My baby. Right. We're always just teaching the same lessons. Stop trying to control your 

Julia: kids. Listen, being obsessed with movies and television forever. And now I'm in the phase of life from the parent and this whole parents just don't understand shit. I'm just like, haven't we evolved past that. I'm pretty sure millennials kind of.

Julia: Moved a little bit forward in this sense. My son is shaking my head now as he's like walking by, but I, I, you know, like some of this stuff that comes out, I, I don't know. I okay. You're she's 

Christina: cannot not think you're cool, but I will 

Julia: say like, not to sound like Amy Boer right now, but I have the actual cool mom in that group.

Julia: I believe you. I believe. For sure. I'm just saying like, like, like 

Christina: he's gonna, it might take him 10 years, but he's gonna go back and go. Yeah. My mom was coolest at this 

Julia: time. He can't admit it. He does. He, no, he does. Sometimes he wants not on 

Christina: camera right now. Okay. Well, no, cause he don't don't force him to do that.

Julia: I'm not going to, but he has told me he's like, especially when he got into high school, he's like, mom, you know what I realized? It's like, what? And he's like, you're actually kind of cool. He's like, yeah. Cuz you made friends with people whose parents thought and saw. Oh, that doesn't help. And then, and then he'll tell me stuff about his friends and I'm just like, uh, well, if you guys ever wanna hang out at the house, just let me know.

Julia: And now it's like only people who are vaccinated are allowed to 

Christina: boundaries are good, as long as you doing what you need. 

Julia: I mean, you know, I'm very paranoid about communicable diseases in general. So. I feel like whenever people give me shit, I'm just like, remember what I do for a hobby. And they're like, have you told, yeah, I follow STD statistics.

Julia: So why wouldn't you think I'm panicking about something that you could breathe on me to give me the other way you have to something in me to give it to me. 

Christina: How many people are you letting breathe on you? More? My none. None. None. Never. None. Somebody coughed. I'm just saying I'm not, I'm not quite on your end of the spectrum, but no, one's getting near me 

Julia: enough to do any of those.

Julia: I'm over. I admit I'm overwhelmingly paranoid about proximity to people prior to the pandemic. Like that's always been true. My that's the true thing. That's friend Sarah. Yeah. So it's like, you've known me long enough. Like my dear friend, Sarah can corroborate as well. If we need references, if you need more references than Christina.

Julia: Live your paranoid life. I do. I, you know, I, I actually do live a pretty decent life for being as fucking paranoid as I am about shit. I mean also, cuz Yolo. I know nobody says that. I know that's not cool to say it like how you just got 

Christina: done on a ramp being a cool mom. And then you went straight into into how paranoid you are and then saying Yolo, tell me again 

Julia: how cool you are.

Julia: Yeah, I mean there's a reason why we need therapy in this house for Santa I'm actually chalking it up now because to the fact that I Haven. Had the opportunity to learn who I am, not in the community that I lived, if that makes sense. Like, you know, when you like Mo when people move away, they like are in a different environment.

Julia: So they get to learn more about themselves that they maybe didn't get to learn here, cuz here in your hometown, you have people telling you who you are and what you should be when you move away. That doesn't happen right away necessarily. And like in the instance with Katie Herron, she's. Her world in Africa was so different.

Julia: The ti like this culture of high school, she didn't even have primary school to prepare her. Right. And so in the very beginning of the movie, she's very sweet and innocent and 100% gun home about the athletes, you know, and then every, and then everybody in everybody don't join the same in every country.

Julia: Julia. But then everyone's like, don't join the athletes like Janice it's social, suicide, it's social. They all say the same thing. Don't join the athletes, the social 

Christina: suicide. Janice. Didn't say anything. She didn't care. It was dam. It 

Julia: was Damien. Oh, it was a Damian. Okay. Yeah. And Janice, but when is that girl?

Julia: Janice to give two shit, as long as she was there at her art show and she couldn't do that. She couldn't even do that. Cuz she went rogue. That's what happened to create a 

Christina: bad friend Katie hair. You're a mean girl. 

Julia: Well, so, oh it's it's Katie. Yeah. I'm 

Christina: gonna call you caddy. Yeah. 

Julia: you know, that actress went on and was on a couple episodes of the new.

Julia: Yeah. Yeah. She was the attorney that dated, um, Nick, why was that 

Christina: so hard to remember? You scared me, you looked over like you were looking at your son and then you looked at me panic and I'm like, what's wrong? 

Julia: No, he's taking a bath. He's soaking his body. He recently discovered the gym. So, you know, now I'm up.

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Julia: The cost is only $15 a month. When you join, we'll even give you a shout out in one of our episodes. When we hit 100 members, there may even be a book club involved too, for us book nerds. Don't wait, join us. Become a pop culture club member. Today, as I mentioned earlier, mean, girls is a cultural phenomenon with the people with people quoting.

Julia: Stop trying to make fetch happen or celebrating October 3rd or my personal favorite on Wednesdays, we wear pink resulting in people, literally everywhere. Wearing pink on Wednesdays. The hashtag on Instagram alone has hundreds of thousands of posts attached 15 years after mean girls hit the big screen.

Julia: Hello, giggles contributor, Janelle Lev. Gave us this reflection, but prior to mean girls, a lot of teen movies relied on the idea that teen girl villains and teen girl characters in general are VA and solely concerned with superficial things. The genius of mean girls lies not only in how it addresses larger social issues.

Julia: But for its unwavering stance that teen girls are hyper aware of the gender norms and cultural pressures forming their worlds is the social hierarchy of high school hierarchy. Just practice for the real world and is mean girls giving us the tools we need to break this structure. 

Christina: Sometimes you ask me such fancy questions.

Christina: It takes me a minute to process 

Julia: it. I'm sorry. Don't apologize. Because I love what she had to say. The genius of mean girls lies not only in how it addresses larger social issues, but for its unwavering stance that teen girls are hyper aware of the gender norms and cultural pressures and forming the world's.

Julia: Holy shit. Nailed it. Yeah. Like, yeah, we knew, I feel, I don't know any woman who didn't know. Where they fit and how they were supposed to make the smells themselves, either small or invisible, or my personal favorite, which I fucking hate policing us for what we wear, because apparently men can't control themselves.

Julia: If I wear a tank 

Christina: top. Shoulders are dangerous shoulder 

Julia: Tru. Yeah. So dangerous. Like how have 

Christina: you seen it? A collarbone lately? Collarbones don't even get me started on the sexual appeal of a collarbone. 

Julia: So I actually once was commented on how beautiful my collarbones were. This was also like 20 years ago.

Christina: So it was, was this when we complimented women based on how thin they were 

Julia: yeah. Yeah. Cause Uhhuh, cause we're talking 2002 and we're, you know, that was. Low rise jeans were it. And you could only wear low rise jeans if you didn't have hips in an ass. And I had both. So that was a really hard phase of life.

Christina: I, yeah, same didn't work out for me. Well, anyone that tries to bring back low rise, jeans can walk right back out my door. They're not invited here. 

Julia: Yeah. It's just cruel. Excuse me. Excuse me. Ma'am excuse me, sir. Have you seen the size of my. That's not gonna, that's 

Christina: not gonna work. Cause I so low rice jeans weren't even cute on people like that.

Christina: They were made for like the there's no time where you wanna borderline see someone's crotch. Like, are we gonna see it? If they bend over or the stretch up or 

Julia: something? The top of my booty is not for you to see, or 

Christina: my thought you don't need to see my underwear. Exactly. Mm-hmm remember the whale strap that 

Julia: used to be popping.

Julia: Yeah. That was so popular. And I fucking hated. I'm I've said this before, and I'm gonna say it again, and I'm gonna die on this hill. The early odds were a terrible time for fashion. I want a fucking redo. If 

Christina: you just can go back and look at the people on the red carpet, even they look like they were not having a good time.

Christina: Like we got, we got, um, Canadian tuxedos up the ying yang. Oh my God, God, you just so many layers. Yeah. So many layers. Like why did we need four tank tops? And they got progressively 

Julia: longer. Yeah. 

Christina: All of the, everything was long. Yeah. Like long jewelry. 

Julia: Yeah. Long, like goodness gracious at the Lacey bottom of the tank top for its little flare.

Christina: Yes. So that flare every, and then you'd wash it and dry it once and it'd get roomed on something or shrink mm-hmm oh God. Or I remember distinctly once wearing a black t-shirt and then having a silver Lacey glitter tank top over. And then my long necklaces, because that at one point wearing a tank top over a t-shirt was a look.

Christina: Yes. Yes, it was. And the random ties, why did we wear ties? 

Julia: I don't know. Again, skinny ties. I'm telling you it was a cruel, cruel time for fashion. And now I need you to answer my question. I think it did. I think it does. 

Christina: Cause I think, yes. Sorry. I thought we answered that. I do think that 

Julia: I just let us down a rant of fashion, poor Christina.

Julia: Like why do I keep agreeing to come on this show? Really? It just gets distracted. 

Christina: It's fun for my ADHD, cuz um, I go with it and then I'm like, wait, where did, oh, hold on. We had a process. We gotta get it back. We gotta get it back. 

Julia: Reel it in. Just doesn't help that I'm having a vodka spritzer. Well, I'll 

Christina: cheers to that with my water.

Christina: Yeah, I think it's true. I think in high school or high school age girls, that's when you get the bulk of your. I'm gonna call it unsolicited programming. 

Julia: Yeah. I like that. And not that I support it, but I like the way you don't support it. I like the way you phrased it because there's a lot of stuff that I cut 

Christina: you off.

Christina: I'm sorry. No, I it's just a lot of stuff, either like movies or pop culture or what you see on the TV of like just the women that you're gonna be turning into right after high school do, like, you're getting a lot of false, like energy thinking that you need to be this way or look this way 

Julia: or act this way, or 

Christina: you need to fit into this bubble or this bubble, or you're not allowed to expand your horizons from this group or this group.

Christina: Like, I. Teen girls notice that in high school and they start adapting. And like you said, either shrinking or molding themselves to fit where they think that they will do the best or what's even more sad where they think they're going to outshine everyone else the best. And I hope that like with gen Z, like times are changing.

Christina: Like now we're showcasing how everyone's differences make them better versus mm-hmm how like one person can be. We kind of had like a total, like a totalitarian, like vibe going on with like high school movies where it's like, one person was the end, all be all of like popularity. And it's like, mm-hmm, , I've never exp I've never experienced that in school.

Christina: Like, I guess there every once in a while you would think somebody was super popular in class, but then you can ask someone else and they would think somebody else was the popular one. When I went 

Julia: to my tenure high school reunion. I honestly, like I had a very. Strong friend group in high school. And some of like the guys still all hang out.

Julia: Well, I don't know if they still all hang out, but I know that we're all connected. Like everyone's still kind of connected in a similar way and because I never left Modesto, there are people I went to high school with who literally have no idea who the other person I still talk to from high school is because they've done so much in their life that they're like, oh, that was 20 years ago.

Julia: I don't remember that person, but they're still very important. Like both of these people are still very important to me, but neither. One of them remembers who the other is because of that. When I went to my, and I just, you know, I thought, oh, I hung out with like a normal group. Like we hung out in the D wing and we were just, you know, different people.

Julia: We listened to punk, rock music, whatever, go to my high school reunion. And this girl comes up to me. She married somebody, we went to high school with she also, we all went to high school together. Her husband's a great ahead of us, which I always think is really funny. Cause I don't think they dated in high school.

Julia: Doesn't matter. I'm standing awkwardly in the bar with my drink. Cause I just finished talking to somebody and she walks up to me and she's like, I just have to tell you, you were so beautiful in high school girl. I wore men's Dickies. We called them wife beaters at the time. Don't call 'em that. Now they're a shirts from Hayne.

Julia: You know, we had, we got, we did crazy ass shit to our hair. junior years when I tweezed my eyebrows. So skinny that they're still recovering. Like there's parts of them that still won't fill in even no matter how long I don't TWE or groom. And she just was gushing and I'm over here. Like how could you even tell, like, remember when my hair, remember when I shaved my head, remember when I bleached my hair.

Julia: So blonde, it was like rubber bands on my head. Like how, what, oh my God. And just like the style wasn't like of the era, like we went through a punk phase and then, um, Stacy and I went through like this rockabilly phase. She was just gushing and I'm try, I'm sitting there. I'm like, I remember her, but I have to work really hard to remember her cuz we weren't in the same group.

Julia: And then, and I had worn this beautiful green dress. It was like a Kelly Green and it, and I was very tan cuz I was swimming a lot that summer cuz swimming keeps my mental health going and that's probably where I'm where I'm at in life right now. Um, cuz I haven't done something and I mean I looked good.

Julia: I was fit. I was. I looked hot, like, oh my God, the Julian high school would not have recognized this woman that I should walked in being and sh and you're so beautiful now. And I just thought you were so cool and just GU GU and I'm like, What is happening? 

Christina: Isn't it so weird when like nothing weirds me out more than when people remember me and I don't know who they are.

Julia: So 90% of the high school I went like, and people like 90% of my high school. I, but then 

Christina: I also remember people that don't know me. Like there's people. I definitely remember like very distinctly, but they could. I bet if I saw them on the street, they would not. Two birds to the wind who I was like, just look at me and see nothing.

Christina: But then at the same time, like one of the girls, I just 

Julia: did like, wouldn't see nothing. They'd look at you and be like, who's that beautiful woman. But I'm 

Christina: saying like, they wouldn't recognize me from high school. Like, oh, that's, you know, like they wouldn't know me, but there's one of the girls. I just did pictures for, she came over and she's like, yeah, I remember you in high school, you had like the prettiest, like curls all the time.

Christina: And I was. You went to my high school.

Christina: what, and she's like, yeah, it was a great under you. I always hung out with like this person, this person she's like, I always saw you. And I thought you were so pretty. And I'm like, thank you. But like, I didn't 

Julia: know. People know like, and I didn't notice, you know, that's like, so 

Christina: that's why it's like funny, like.

Christina: Taylor. And I, we went to high school together. Did we date in high school? No, but all the time, we'll be like, you remember this person, he'll be like, no, we'll like what? We went to high school with them and then he'll do the same thing to me. He'll be like, Hey, you know that person? And I'll be like, oh, he's like, they was in our grade.

Christina: No, nothing. 

Julia: Have you had a high school reunion 

Christina: yet? No, it should have been this year, but I didn't hear anything about it. 

Julia: You know what I would love to see mean girls high school reunion. 

Christina: Oh, my God. Didn't I wanna say like a couple months ago, Rachel McAdams and like Tina Faye and like one other cast member had agreed.

Christina: Like they would, there was an article where they had asked, like, if there was gonna be another one, like, would they want the same cast in Rachel McAdams said she would love to reprise her like role as Rachel, as Virginia George and I. Because that I can get some 

Julia: suburban moms in this. Yes. Because think about it in 2024, it'll be 20 years since mean girls released so high mean girls 20 year high school reunion, like who wouldn't wanna know what happened to Regina George 20 years lady later, or Katie Harron is Janice.

Julia: Anna. A famous artist now is 

Christina: happened where Samuel's gay now. I mean, he is 

Julia: in real life. So he is in real life and I fucking love him. Do you follow him on Instagram? He's the best, 

Christina: Jonathan? I don't know his last name, Jonathan something. He's Jonathan something 

Julia: there. The B I think Bennett might be it. 

Christina: No, that's the Lisa Bennet.

Christina: We'll Google. 

Julia: Well, we'll ask the IMD, Aaron Samuels, Aaron. He was so dreamy and my pregnant ass had a fucking crush on him. 

Christina: The, that place 

Julia: when he turns 

Christina: around.

Julia: And he is just such a good guy gets sucked into Jane 

Christina: Oman. I think they're heading for the projection room above the 

Julia: auditorium.

Julia: Listen, 

Christina: Taylor, Ziman two for you, Glen. Fall for you. You GOCO Glen Cocal 

Julia: and then generat readers. Do we have a Catie in here? 

Christina: It's pronounced like Katie. Oh yeah, whatever. And then for Gretchen 

Julia: Wiener's. Bye. Who is that from? 

Christina: Thanks for being such a great friend. Love Regina. Uh, and then her rant. Oh, my friend used to be able to do the whole monologue.

Christina: The Caesar, 

Julia: the Caesar rant is just smart. Caesar is totally just Caesar people. Totally love British, just as much as they love Caesar. And when did it become okay. For one person to be the boss of everybody. So that's not what Rome's about. 

Christina: You totally. Just

Christina: Which haters 

Julia: had cracked. Yeah. Hey friends, have you watched mean girls yet? Because otherwise this might not, if not, we 

Christina: free, have 

Julia: we have all the 

Christina: most important lines already said yes. Yes. We just wish we could go back to middle school. If we could bake a cake full of rainbows in butter, doesn't even go here.

Christina: Can you even go to this school? I just have a lot of feelings. That's a mood. 

Julia: me and you both girl. Same babe. Same. I am sad. Many 

Christina: quotes. Can I get out? 

Julia: I know I am sad that October 3rd is a Sunday because a couple years ago it was on a Wednesday and it was just like, oh my God, the Mecca. The coming is happening.

Julia: I have a 

Christina: story for you before we go. Okay. Tell me. So I used to have a shirt that said whatever, I'm getting cheese fries. Yes. That's such a great scene. I'm 

Julia: only trying to eat things that have 40%, whatever, whatever I'm 

Christina: getting carbs or something, I'm more carbs, 

Julia: whatever. I'm getting cheese butter at carp.

Julia: Yes. So 

Christina: I had a shirt that said whatever, I'm getting cheese fries. And I was in my like college earth science class and I was wearing it. And we had just got out of like lab for the day. And I had like a really cool teacher. He was like, he was always really interactive with his students. He would always like call us out by name.

Christina: So it wasn't weird. However, at the very end of class, he goes, Christina, and I'm all what. And he is like your shirt's awesome. Yeah. Which made 

Julia: everyone, everyone turn around 

Christina: and look at me. He's I also love cheese fries. He didn't get the reference. he just thought I was wearing a shirt that said whatever, I'm getting cheese fries.

Christina: Like, that's all I need in my life, which I would wear a shirt like that, for sure. Yeah. But everyone looked at me and the 19 year old Christina could not handle that kind of like attention. Mm-hmm . and it was the most like horrifying thing. And I was just like, 

Julia: stop looking at me. 

Christina: It was like afternoon.

Christina: Like it was hot in the class. So now I'm extra 

Julia: sweaty. Nobody wants that. 

Christina: Nobody wants that. I mean, I love him for like, Liking the shirt, but it was just the most awkward , but it 

Julia: proves though that like, there's this reach too, right? Like we've talked. I was it you that I talked about this before, you know, there's stuff that people put on t-shirts that people are like, okay.

Julia: Right. Like shopping is my cardio that. My understanding, cuz I've seen that episode a bajillion times originated on sex in the city. But like, do people know that? No, they just didn't it's funny. They just think it's funny and they post about it cuz maybe they shop a lot and it's their cardio, right? Like it's and so it's like the same thing, whatever I'm getting cheese fries, if you know, you know, but if you don't know, he pumped about those cheese fries though.

Julia: Paige, if again, for the right place, cheese 

Christina: fries are hella good dude, cheese fries sounds so good right now. 

Julia: I can't afford I to send you money to get cheese fries to no, no, I, I had in and out for dinner and like, I'm so 

Christina: jealous. We've been talking about it for, I'm not kidding you for like a month. It's been like, you wanna go to in and out.

Christina: But every time we pass 

Julia: by the line is like wicked long. It's stupid. It's 

Christina: not even like worth it. You're like we will be sitting there. No, they move pretty sick. It's heating traffic. Like the times that. Where it's out. 

Julia: They do, but I've done it. I've been in that line, but they move quick, 

Christina: but we haven't done it yet.

Christina: Thinking of 

Julia: what the in and out is apparently where it's at for high school kids in this town to hang out. 

Christina: I believe that. Did you guys hang out spot? Um, when. I remember going to in and out like three times a week in high school. Oh my God. I would eat dinner before we went home and had dinner. That was my pre-dinner 

Julia: in and out a good time.

Julia: It felt so far away when I was in high school, cuz half the shit that's developed now didn't exist. So you literally, yes. Pelandale did not go all the way through like it does now. Like it stopped at Dale. It also, that was super inconvenient. Yes Modesto. Yes. And it was super inconvenient to get to it from like buyer, because you had to go like up and around or down and around because Dale didn't go all the way through.

Julia: And so like when I dropped my child off there after something, I don't know some high school shit it's packed with high school kids. So I text my two best friends from high school and I was like, you guys in and out where all the kids hang out now. And they're like, what? And I was like, yeah, like. I mean, I felt like we didn't have a lot of shit growing up, but at least we had fucking 9 2 7, which is a whole other conversation and teasing greens, which is a whole other conversation.

Julia: But I, and like we had, like, it wasn't like a ton of kid friendly stuff. 

Christina: If our parents only knew what happened at teas and greens, it, but it 

Julia: still, like we weren't hopping in the car 

Christina: to go cruise in and out right after high school. When I was working at Hollister at the mall. Well, it's right now in and out in and out was the closer.

Christina: After spot because nothing was open at like 11 or midnight except no, they like, and none of us were, or not, everybody was old enough to go out to drink. Most of us were still 19 or 20, like or 18 even. Like, we weren't quite old enough to drink, but we were out of high school. So we're just, just in the awkward period, that weird, awkward in between, you know?

Christina: And yeah. And like, what are you gonna do at 11:00 PM on like a Thursday or Friday? It was like, You all are also on the same schedule as me of going to bed super late. So let's go to in and out. And so 

Julia: you would go to in and out and that's where like, 

Christina: yeah, that was the hangout spot. So like I get that, it kind of turned into like a high school spot, cuz definitely like in 20 years old we were doing that.

Christina: News to me, but I also, I also lived in like, I lived in SOI. So for me, the Elle in and out was that was as closest taco bell for me. I was like, yeah, this you want McDonald's heck no, we're getting to go across the way for in and out, 

Julia: like over the overpass, it was a hike. And now it's like, just pop on pill real quick and get there real fast.

Julia: yeah, the shit is that? Why do I still live here? 

Christina: how is it that I can, like I had in and out for dinner. I still am like, man, the more we talk about it, I could have another double double right now. Fuck. Yeah, because that shit's hell 

Julia: of good. I'm always like, it's like, can I get an animal style? With raw onion.

Julia: They're like, you want both onion? Yeah. Did I stutter? I did not stutter animal style with raw onion. No tomatoes. Thank you. Anyone 

Christina: who's outta state listening to this is getting so annoyed by this conversation. Shut the fuck up about in and out. They're like in and out is not that good. It's all about insert lame burger place here.

Christina: five guys. 

Julia: Hard. As in, 

Christina: as people in Texas are tele trying to get in. 

Julia: Out is people like all of the there's there's in and not in Texas. 

Christina: There is it's in Dallas. I passed 

Julia: by it. Yeah. They go as far as Texas, there's one just, just north of the Oregon border. I remember when they went up, I remember they 

Christina: went, they got one in, in Colorado.

Julia: I remember when they finally went like hell in Northern California for the first time, like ever. And like, it was a big deal. I'm not that old. Like, I really shouldn't remember this shit. Like it's. 

Christina: So long, long ago, but we just need to establish that in 

Julia: and is very 

Christina: popular. So the fact that it's, or like it's very popular for California specific.

Christina: So the fact that it's expanding out is 

Julia: a, a big deal. Cause it was a SoCal thing for the longest time. Like when we got our in and out, it was a big deal cuz, oh my God. They're finally like this far north modest was like, not that far north . Yeah. But um, when I was in Arizona for. Friend from high school.

Julia: When I was in her wedding, I got so drunk at her reception. The next day we went and got in and out and I was like, oh, I just love that you live near in, in and out. And we're in Arizona 

Christina: right now. Oh, there's every time my cousin comes in from Louisiana, the first stop we make is that in, out, in and out, it doesn't matter what time she comes in.

Christina: Most of the time she'll take the latest flight. So she's at. It's like 11 or 12 that we're driving home and it's like, it doesn't matter. I don't care if I've been awake all day. I don't care if there's a two hour time change, give me my in and out. She could be like sleeping and still like trying to eat her in and out.

Christina: Just part of the 

Julia: deal. I love that. Anyway. Well, as I said, I was 20 and pregnant when mean girls released and I spent a good portion of 2004 in the movie theater crying because one emotions and two 20 pregnant and alone, wasn't exactly ideal. Especially since all my friends had moved in life. And I was just pretty much jealous all the time.

Julia: But what mean girls did do was remind me that I was lucky to have a solid girl group of friends that I still talk to today, Christina. Do you have any final thoughts on the actual topic of mean girls now I'm just thinking about in and out.

Christina: no, I think I got all my quote out. Okay. For now. I'm sure. I'll think I'm gonna think of some Janine and oh yeah. You said that just the best. I mean, I CAD shit. You can't get mad at the 

Julia: fact that caddy her, her name's. So funny, Lindsay Lowen was the early two thousands darling. 

Christina: She was, she, uh, I mean from parent trap on, she really nailed it.

Christina: Parent 

Julia: trap 1995. That's not true. 98. I don't know why I said 95 was 1990. Say confidently though. Hmm. Say it with authority and people will 

Christina: believe you and then you turned around and 

Julia: told yourself no, you're wrong. Right. I was thinking cuz she was 11 in the film. And I remember thinking when I was 11, but it, I wasn't 11 when it came out, I do love that she's a redhead playing the twins.

Julia: Parent trap because in their original Maureen O'Hara is, plays the mom and she's a redhead. So I thought that was kind of like, I don't know if that was on purpose, but I thought it was cute. I 

Christina: didn't know that. 

Julia: All right, Christina, listen, we kind of get some stuff done and then we don't like, here's the topic.

Julia: And then we just derail. We're really good at that. Aren't we good at that? So, you know, that's okay. Because some of the other episodes this season are gonna get real intense. So enjoy this fluffing stuff. Now, listeners, 

Christina: the fluff and stuff. Enjoy the nice silly stuff for now, before 

Julia: it gets rolled. Good.

Julia: What's I just feel like it's always fun when you stop by. So Katie, it's a good time. It's a good time for a good time for a 

Christina: good. We're not gonna go there. We're 

ready 

Julia: to keep, we gotta go. We're gonna keep it's nighttime. I know. Can you remind everyone where they can find you if they wanna keep up with you online?

Christina: You can follow me at Christina underscore K underscore creations. That's like the letter it's K a Y K a 

Julia: Y. So Christina underscore K a Y under 

Christina: creations. Thank you for clarifying that. I always forget. My middle name is not just a letter, a letter. 

Julia: It's the okay. Without the O yeah, actually isn't working cuz so many, but so many people just do.

Julia: Okay. And don't do okay. A Y, which I'm just like how old are we anyway, as always you can find us in between episodes on Instagram. At pop culture makes me jealous. And while you're at it, go ahead and subscribe to the show like it and leave a review wherever you're listening to podcasts. Thanks for tuning in y'all.

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