Ten years ago today a little film called Mean Girls came out. You might have heard of it. It's only like, one of the most seminal moments in teen cinema ever. Produced by Saturday Night Live head honcho Lorne Michaels and written by Tina Fey, the film's gone on to become a cult classic, loved by everyone from film critics right down to new generation of teenage girls today. The script is still just as quotable today (and not in that annoying *Anchorman-*type way, no one 'loves lamp' – shut up) and it jumpstarted the careers of Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Sorry Gretchen. Guess you shouldn't have tried to make 'fetch' happen.
The reason why it did so well though? It was smart. It got the stereotypes of high school life spot on and was highlighting woman-on-woman hate *way *before the feminist Twitterati got involved. Here's some other ways it was probably the best education you ever received.
The characters’ names weren’t just stupid names
Cady? Just a stupid version of ‘Katie’ right? Nah. Lindsay Lohan’s character is actually named after Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a feminist badass who organised the first women’s rights movement in America in 1848. In other name news, Regina means ‘Queen’ in Latin. Like 'Queen Bee' obvs.
Janis Ian was the voice of a generation
No, not the Janis Ian in the film, Janis Ian the singer from the ’70s who inspired the Janis Ian from the film. Her song At Seventeen is basically an anthem for those that didn’t fit in at high school, like Janis Ian (from the film.) ‘To those of us who knew the pain, of Valentine's that never came, and those whose names were never called, when choosing sides for basketball. It was long ago and far away, the world was younger than today, when dreams were all they gave for free to ugly duckling girls like me…’ Lovely.
**Rachel McAdams looked to a play by Shoshanna from Girls’ **dad for inspiration for Regina George
Ever asked your dad for his favourite films? There’s a jolly good chance Glengarry Glen Ross, the film based on David Mamet’s classic play of the same name will make the cut. Alec Baldwin’s performance as the egomaniacal, near-sociopathic estate agent Blake is legendary. He’s essentially the Regina George of the housing industry.
The wide-set vagina line was a feminist battleground
Director Mark Waters has said that the ratings board at first refused to give the film a PG-13 rating based on the wide-set vagina/heavy flow line. 'We ended up playing the card that the ratings board was sexist, because Anchorman had just come out, and Ron Burgundy had an erection in one scene, and that was PG-13. We told them, "You’re only saying this because it’s a girl, and she’s talking about a part of her anatomy. There’s no sexual context whatsoever, and to say this is restrictive to an audience of girls is demeaning to all women.' And they eventually had to back down."' Nicely played.
Mean Girls wanted an end to Simon Cowell way before we reached Peak Cowell
Somewhere out there is a script for the alterntive ending which sees Damian expelled for taking the blame for Miss Norbury's whole drug-pushing thing. Damian then auditions for American Idol and punches Simon Cowell for calling him chubby. Excellent. Sadly this ending did not make the final cut.
It predicted the future
You know that bit where they go to prom and Damian’s all like ‘I hate this song’ and Janis is all like ‘I love this song’ and Cady’s all like 'I know this song!’ It was Built This Way by then little-known DJ Sam Ronson. Four years later, her and Lindsay were dating. Talk about foreshadowing, right guys?
Follow Jess on Twitter @jess_commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.