The document compares and contrasts rules for feminine behavior presented in Jamaica Kincaid's story "Girl" and the movie Mean Girls. In "Girl", a mother teaches her daughter rules based on their culture and tradition to avoid being seen as a "slut". In Mean Girls, a clique of popular girls at an American high school dictate rules of behavior and social norms that new students must follow to avoid rejection. Though set in different times and cultures, both works illustrate how societies establish expectations for women's conduct and the social consequences of not conforming to such expectations.

1. Girl vs Mean Girls
Modern day rules dictated by society based on the
movie Mean Girls

2. Girl by Jamaica
Kincaid
A mother is telling her daughter how to
behave in front of society so that she
becomes a real woman and not a slut.
These rules are based on tradition and
culture, such as her references to Sunday
church, the types of plants she should be
growing, the activities such as playing
marbles, throwing stones at blackbirds,
spitting, etc. Also, the references made of
food: salt fish, pumpkin fritters, tea.
These rules come with consequences if
they aren’t followed: her becoming a slut,
which is something a woman shouldn’t be
in that society.

3. Mean Girls
A group of girls in an American
High School are seen as the queens
of that society because they make
and follow their rules about how to
behave. When a new innocent girl
arrives from Africa they teach her
to live by their rules and turn her
into a “mean girl”, because being a
mean girl means having power
over everyone else at school;
dictating new trends and being
respected. The consequences of
not following those rules are
becoming a loser and being
rejected by society.

4. Although the movie exagerates a lot, that is the way girls act in school,
following some rules dictated by their own friends, not only their family. And
if you don’t follow them it could lead to social rejection. In Mean Girls a
relationship with Girl can be seen, even though the cultures and periods of
time are different, the concept is the same.

5. • “On Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are
so bent on becoming”
• “You musn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give
directions”
• “this is how you smile to someone you dont like too much; this
is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all”
• “this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you”
• “this is how you set a table for lunch;this is how you set a table
for breakfast”
• “be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit”
• “this is how to behave in front of men who don’t know you very
well, and this way they won’t recognize immediatly the slut I
have warned you against becoming”c