Junior year was a year of loss, of growth, of reflection, of change. It was a roller coaster in the truest sense, full of failure and achievement and more failure. I learned about myself in the classroom and out. It’s time move forward with my fourth, final, and senior year at Agnes Scott College. But first– a look back.

I entered the 2017-2018 academic apprehensive yet hopeful. I completed the Women’s Bridge to Business program at Georgia Tech, I was an intern at Green Worldwide Shipping, and I was eager to get started with my double major in History and Business Management. However, there was a horrible, looming shadow casting doubts over my abilities; BUS-211, Financial Accounting.

A mandatory class for the Business Management major, I tried my best to face my fears head-on and enter the lecture with a positive attitude. As someone with Dyscalculia, a math-based learning disability, I have never had an experience with math that wasn’t inherently traumatic. Still, my father is an accountant by trade, so I knew that if I put in the work, I could manage.

I could not manage.

Financial Accounting drove me to the brink of mental breakdown, and during the midterm exam, I turned in a half-blank test, left the class in tears, walked to my advisor’s office, and dropped the class, thereby withdrawing from the Business Management major. While I instantly felt better, I had to grapple with the fact that I was now a History major– just a history major. Only a history major.

At Agnes Scott, that is rare. Most students double major, major and minor, or double minor. Here I was, with just one major. I felt like a failure. I felt like a slacker.

However, I couldn’t dwell on these thoughts for long; my grandfather passed away in October.

The rest of the semester seems like a blur; I struggled to attend class, I struggled with finals, I struggled, I struggled, I struggled. I pass/failed two classes, allowing me to save my GPA. On a whim, I quit my internship of 18 months, hoping to find an internship in the spring– I did not. I entered winter break feeling like a failure, full of regret and anxiety.

Then, I went abroad to Israel. I wanted to come back excited and refreshed for the semester; instead, I came back, and I immediately felt like I was drowning.

I missed the first week of class due to being in Israel, and I came back without books, unprepared, without reading, and not ready to be thrown into the most challenging semester of my academic career.

I tried to keep up, but the longer the semester went, the more I felt like I was drowning– like I couldn’t manage the work. Still, I worked hard. I threw myself into research for my research project on the Enlightened Pirate, I excelled in my nonfiction writing class, and I had my play, Pathways, published. 

I started to thrive as a tutor at the Center for Digital and Visual Literacy. I was selected as a lead for marketing and development for the center, as well as to join a visiting professor from CNN to be a teaching assistant for SUM-400, and helped develop curriculum.

Still, I struggled in classes. I was told by a teacher I was in danger of failing (I was not), and a week before finals, I left campus, went home, and spent a week recouperating from a mental breakdown. My mental health is incredibly important to me, and without this week away from class, I knew I would have become dangerously close to harming myself.

I finished the semester maintaining my 3.5 GPA, with a research plan in place for my senior thesis, and with an internship for the summer at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.

While this may seem like a story of triumph, it is not. I may have ended the year academically unscathed, but I lost friends. I lost family. I lost hope.

I enter this next school year with my two closest friends graduated. I enter after a long summer internship. I enter with no idea how to approach the subject of grad school or the GRE.

Still,  I am cautiously optimistic. After this year, how bad can it be?

Senior year, here I come.

Realizing the Future: Bridge to Business Analysis and Reflection

When I first arrived at Agnes Scott College in August 2015, I knew what my future held. I was going to study International Relations, with a double minor in History and French. I was going to get a 170 on the LSAT and receive my dual J.D./M.A. in International Affairs from my dream school– Georgetown.

That dream abruptly ended when I realized how much I hated the methodology of International Relations, how little I wanted to be a lawyer, and maybe most importantly, how much I despised the thought of spending four years in grad school. But I had this dream ever since my ninth grade Honors Government class– what was I supposed to do now?

My advisor gently reminded me that I was working in a social media job, I was the social media or marketing chair for several organizations on campus, and my mother had her MBA in Marketing, my father, the same advanced degree in International Business. Maybe, she suggested, it was time to stop avoiding the obvious, and enroll in a couple business courses.

I immediately knew I made the right decision, even if I did feel like I was selling out. But how could I know for sure a career in business was right for me?

I had been interested in the Women’s Bridge to Business since before my first year at Agnes Scott– I received a pamphlet shortly after a visit to the campus in my junior year of high school. But as a Sophomore at Agnes Scott, I decided that it would be the final test– a confirmation of whether or not I was sure I would study business.

The good news is, I am now positive that I want an MBA. The even better news is that I want to receive that MBA at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business (or Chicago’s Booth School of Business, like my dad). Opportunity is in Atlanta, and that is abundantly apparent after my three weeks in the Bridge to Business program.

It was hard to choose which functional areas I was most attracted to over the course of the program. I think my favorite was Marketing because I feel as if I have a natural affinity for it, but I was also fascinated by Project Management and International Business. I think this may lead to a future in Brand Management, something I have always found interesting and a natural progression within my future career.

Within these modules, I was able to relate to the content and the skills being offered by professors with a wealth of knowledge. I could imagine myself, in their shoes, after years of experience working and learning, teaching to another young Scottie. I believe I enjoyed these areas because they required creative, critical thinking, and I aspire to have a career where I am creatively challenged and learning every day.

However, even though I enjoyed these areas of the program, it was the modules more tailored to our careers and futures that I found most rewarding. The modules spent with Catherine Neiner provoked me to ask questions about my future that I hadn’t considered. She was frank and honest about the future of working as women, and I appreciated that– often times at Agnes Scott, we live in a bubble where we think the future will tailor itself to us, and that is simply not the case, especially in the business world. It was incredibly refreshing to hear a powerful woman say, “you may be called brazen, bossy, or bitchy. Here’s why you should be proud of that.”

Similarly, I found our session with Gail Evans to be, quite frankly, the most rewarding three hours of my academic career. She encouraged me to think of myself, my personal brand, and my future in ways that I had never before. I was taught why ‘hardworking’ is a bad word, and that if I want to promote myself, I need to tailor my language to my own success. Instead of referring to myself as hardworking, driven, and creative, I will now refer to myself as productive, promising, and passionate. Because, as Ms. Evans said, that is how a CEO refers to herself. I have already engrossed myself in the book she gave to me, and I plan to make my mother read it as well.

While I immensely enjoyed my three weeks in the Bridge to Business program, there were some things that I definitely knew weren’t for me. My father is an accountant, but staring at financial statements, fiddling with Excel, and pulling my hair out over ratios and vertical analyses just wasn’t for me. Still, I gave it my best effort, and I was pleasantly surprised at the rewarding feeling I felt when all the numbers equaled 100.

I also was very frustrated with the Strategic Management Simulation, Minnesota Micromotors, which was disappointing, as I found the Strategic Management module fascinating. I always love to focus on the big picture, and I felt I did well in the ‘strategic plan for Agnes Scott’ activity. However, after I got fired three times, I figured that I can still think big picture and focus on the future of an organization– I’ll just leave the customer service, price management, and research & development to the experts.

I think I was fascinated by Strategic Management because it closely relates to Marketing and Brand Management, two things I see in my future. In marketing and brand management, you must think creatively and anticipate what the customer wants to see, and needs to see, in the future. I think Strategic Management combines all those things, and maybe, is the culmination of many different aspects of a business.

Another module I struggled with was negotiating– kind of. It wasn’t as if I didn’t do well in the activities– I did extremely well. I just felt so unconfident– which is very unlike me. I love to speak publicly, argue, and get my way– negotiating comes naturally to me. However, afterward, when thinking about the future and negotiating my future salary– a topic discussed with Dawn Killenberg– I felt worried.  What if I’m not worth the price I ask for? What if I’m laughed at? What if my job is taken away from me?

All these questions may seem silly, but I called my mother, and she confessed that she has the same fears. She has negotiated dozens of salaries and raises from dozens of employers over her incredibly long and successful career. And yet, she fears what I fear. Is she worth the money? Is she asking for too much? Too little? What will they think of her?

I wonder if men experience these fears as women do. I wonder if, by-product of more and more women entering the workforce and negotiating for themselves, these fears will slowly become less ingrained in our minds. I hope so because I never want to make any less than a man, especially if he is equally or less qualified than me. But before these past few weeks, I hadn’t even considered, nor confronted, these fears that now seem ever present in my mind.

Maybe that is the real reward of the Bridge to Business program– learning valuable life skills that will help me in my future profession, like being able to confront my fears over negotiation, or balance a budget even though the black and white numbers make my vision swim and my brain hurt. I know I will be successful in marketing, or brand management, or social media, or whatever my specialty may be. But I know I will have to confront what I am less excellent at– that’s life, and that’s business.

The Bridge to Business program taught me that, and those lessons are valuable– more valuable than being assured that yes, I’m good at marketing and more valuable than reassuring me that I want an MBA. I knew those things before I enrolled in this program. But to learn to face your fears and try something new, and at the end of the day, still want to dress in a suit and go to work in an organization, trying to change the world or the marketplace, is something unique. And it is definitely unique to the Bridge to Business program.

Love and Marriage in the Italian Renaissance: An Analysis

In the Italian Renaissance, there was a gendered view of love within marriage not explored before. Previously, in the middle ages, notions of love were thought of as ridiculous: marriage was a survival tactic, a means of reproduction and producing stability in unstable times. However, there is a change in that thinking, as evident in primary sources written by both men and women. Within the context of marriage, women saw love as a mutual agreement of passion and equity as evidenced in Laura Cereta’s letters to her husband in The Collected Letters of a Renaissance Feminist while men viewed love within marriage as a familial, educational, honor-bound duty, void of romantic love, as evidenced in Alberti’s The Family in Renaissance Florence: Book III.

In the Italian Renaissance, women viewed love within the context of marriage as an agreement of romance and equity, as evidenced by Laura Cereta’s letters to her husband. Cereta saw marriage as an equal partnership. She loved her husband, Pietro Serina, and expected Serina to love her back. This romance is exemplified in letter 21, as Cereta’s language is flirtatious, encouraging her husband to return from his business. In the letter, Cereta playfully apologizes for neglecting to write Serina, but states that “[her] innocence alone will be the tinder for your forgiveness of me.” By referencing her innocence in such a flirtatious manner, it is clear that to Cereta, their sexual relationship is one of pleasure, to both herself and Serina. In this period, the concept of women’s sexuality was sinful and immoral, forbidden outside of consummated marriages. For women, sex was for reproduction. By flirting with her husband, and requesting that he come home, insinuating sex for her pleasure as well as his, Cereta demonstrates a love for her husband, one of passion and romance.

In letter 25, Cereta addresses Pietro Stella, a nickname for her husband, in dreamlike prose. While the second paragraph of the letter attests to Serina’s violent nature towards Cereta’s letters and writing, the first paragraph is intimate and romantic. Cereta’s nickname for her husband indicates that she views him as the center of her universe or her stars. By writing in the middle of the night, Cereta allows herself to be vulnerable and tender. While it seems that Cereta and Serina wrote letters to each other constantly, with Serina even berating Cereta for not responding to him fast enough, no other letters we see are written in the middle of the night, and certainly not in the middle of a dream. Cereta clearly loved her husband and loved him so much that she would sacrifice her intelligent, braggadocious vocabulary as seen in letter 21, to write to Serina with “blemishes” in her writing. Even in later letters, such as letter 31, when Cereta apologizes for her unimpressive writing, the letters were long, well thought-out, and full of beautiful, intelligent prose. They were not short, sweet letters written to a husband far away. That is romance.

In addition to Cereta’s romantic view of love, she also believed that her love should create equity within her marriage. This is evident in two letters to Serina, letters 23 and 24. In letter 23 Cereta offers to finance the rebuilding of Serina’s business after fire destroys it. As the translator states, “[Cereta] sees her role as both her husband’s financial and moral supporter.” In response to accusations from Serina that she does not love him, Cereta effusively states her loyalty to him, using her confidence and virtue as evidence to the fact. Furthermore, she states that she “[doesn’t want to] buy [Serina] at any price,” and that “[Cereta] is not a person who lays more stock in words than duty.” Cereta demands equity in return for her unrelenting love for her husband. In other marriages, women may express a lesser type of love, one of inequity, because they have no confidence in themselves, their love, or their virtue. On the contrary, Cereta loves her husband because of her confidence and virtue, and this allows her to support him morally, and eventually, financially, as she presumingly pays for repairs to his business.

In letter 24, Cereta claims that her husband has spent too much time mourning his brother, and he has not spent enough time or energy on their relationship and, in turn, their love. This letter proves Cereta’s expectation of equity in her marriage. As she states, “[Serina] has a greater duty towards [Cereta] than you do towards the dead.” She expects Serina to perform his duty to her even in the aftermath of his brother’s death, as she is alive and not dead. To Cereta, their marriage and their love is more important than any familial relationship. As she further states, “[…] a man and his wife must so mutually love one another that they will not turn aside from that love at any time.” Cereta’s emphasis on mutual love further evidences her demand for equity within her marriage. Finally, and perhaps most evidently, Cereta summarizes her entire view of love within her marriage within one final sentence to her husband. Cereta writes, two weeks before Serina’s death, “[…] we are now, and we always will be, two souls belonging to a single being.” There is nothing more romantic, more passionate, or more equal, than two souls merging as one. Not in the Catholic faith, where traditional marriage vows still place ownership over wife by man. Not in conventional marriages during the Renaissance. Cereta’s view of love is a unique perspective on the way women view their husbands, their lives, and their marriages.

However, according to Alberti’s The Family in Renaissance Florence, love within marriage was a familial, educational, honor-bound duty, devoid of the romantic love seen in Cereta’s letters to Pietro Serina. This is evident in Book III, as Giannozzo and Lionardo converse about Giannozzo’s family and, within that family, his wife. Within Giannozzo’s marriage, he assumes the role of patriarch and teacher to his wife. He must teach her how to manage a household, how to raise a family, and, in essence, how to be a wife. It is unlikely that Giannozzo’s marriage was devoid of romantic love. However, Giannozzo’s love for his wife was less sexy and more fatherly. Not only did Giannozzo have full authority over his wife’s education of the management of the household, where records, books, and valuables were kept, but also full authority over their relationship as husband and wife. As Giannozzo states, “I made it a rule never to speak with her of anything but household matters or questions of conduct, or of the children.” He further states that he did this as to “make it impossible for her to enter into discussions with me concerning my more important and private affairs.” This view of Giannozzo’s wife was didactic and pedantic, and certainly not the sweet, passionate writing of Cereta.

Furthermore, it seems as if Giannozzo actively objects to the romantic and passionate love of Cereta’s marriage. Giannozzo states that he would prefer modesty, chastity, and discipline from his wife. It seems as though Giannozzo does not care if his wife loves him, but only that she respects him, and does not bring embarrassment to the family and the family’s affairs. It is hard to find specific evidence to prove Giannozzo’s feelings of honor, duty, and patriarchal love towards his wife, not for lack of resource, but for the sheer amount of it. From pages 80-99 of  The Family in Renaissance Florence, Giannozzo goes on and on about his duty to educate his wife on how to be a proper woman, a proper mother, and proper head of the household. At many points, he embarrasses his wife and treats her like a father scolding a daughter. He compares the education he has given her to the education in obedience she received from her parents in adolescence. Additionally, it is clear that this idea of love within marriage is the status quo during the Renaissance, as Lionardo continuously agrees with Giannozzo and compliments his achievements on educating his wife. Alberti’s writing couldn’t be further from the intimacy of Cereta’s letters, proving just how different a man’s view of love was from a woman.

However, the question must be asked: which view of love existed within marriage? It is hard to stipulate fact from the two texts examined. Both are innately personal stories, and both are biased by the writer’s point of view. Was Cereta’s view of love and marriage clouded by the fact that she was young and infatuated with her husband? Or was Alberti’s view of love in marriage conflated with children and status as head of the household?

By looking at two of Lorenzo Lotto’s paintings, Portrait of a Married Couple and Marsilio Cassotti and His Bride, Faustina. there is evidence of both the man’s view of love within marriage: the familial, educational, honor-bound duty; and the woman’s view of love within marriage: the passionate equity. The familial, educational, honor-bound duty can be seen in Portrait of a Married Couple. The man holds his marriage certificate in front of his wife, as evidence of his duty towards her. Additionally, there is a squirrel on the table, which represents the man’s duty to provide for his wife. Furthermore, the wife’s hand rests on the husband’s arm, perhaps showing her reliance on him.

Contrastingly, Marsilio Cassotti and His Bride, Faustina, demonstrates the passion and equity that permeated the woman’s view of love within marriage. The couple are seated evenly, bound by a yoke by Cupid. As Cereta wrote in her letters to her husband, “[…] we are now, and we always will be, two souls belonging to a single being.” This idea of love is also evidenced by the ring being placed on the left ring finger, a tradition that started in the Italian Renaissance. This tradition states that the left ring finger connects directly to the heart by an artery– a romantic notion perhaps shared by Ceretea.

While it is important to explore the understandings of love in the context of marriage in relation to gender within the Italian Renaissance, the question posed in this essay will never be truly answered, simply due to the masculine culture that permeated the time period, and the lack of primary sources written by women. It is entirely possible that Cereta’s writings are an outlier, and women thought of love and marriage in a similar way to men. It is also possible that some men, maybe even Cereta’s husband, Pietro Serina, saw their wives as equals, and loved them passionately and immensely. However, due to the lack of letters from Serina, and due to the toxic masculinity of the time period, the question will never be answered. That is why it is important to look at paintings, like the two Lotto paintings referenced in this essay. They provide a non-biased glimpse into the complex world of love and marriage in the Italian Renaissance, one that is not always easily derived by reading and questioning texts.

Bibliography

Alberti, Leon Battista, and Renée Neu Watkins. 1994. The Family in Renaissance Florence. Prospect Heights, Ill: Waveland Press.

Cereta, Laura, and Diana Maury Robin. 1997. Collected Letters of a Renaissance feminist. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.

Lotto, Lorenzo. Portrait of a Married Couple. 1523-1524

Lotto, Lorenzo. Marsilio Cassotti and His Bride, Faustina. 1523.

Lilacs adorned the backyard of my home in New York. Every year, when they would blossom, my father would cut off the branches, and place them in our rooms. They said, “Spring is here! Passover, Easter, they’re here!”

This past May, I went on a life-changing trip to Poland with the Agnes Scott History department and the Center for Global Learning. The third day there, as we were walking around Warsaw, I began to feel homesick. I missed my family and being fourth-generation Polish, I was at once homesick and home. It reminded me of my great-grandmother, it reminded me of my home in New York, it reminded me of everything and nothing all at once.

Then, I saw Lilacs.

For the rest of the trip, I saw Lilacs everywhere. It was like a sign, saying, “You are home.” And I knew that flower would always be special for me.

Zoe Katz is a Junior at Agnes Scott College, majoring in History and Business Management. Originally from Binghamton, New York, Zoe moved to Athens, Georgia, when she was 11 years old.  Her academic interests include Marketing, New Media Studies, and Religious Renaissance movements. Her personal interests include hockey, where she roots for the Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL) and the New York Riveters (NWHL), Barberitos burritos, Jittery Joe’s coffee, and Harry Potter. She is a proud Hufflepuff. When she grows up, she wants to be the Director of Marketing for the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

On Mother’s Day, I boarded a Delta Airbus at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and flew across the Atlantic for the very first time.

It was around 4 in the afternoon when I left, and 8 am when I arrived the next morning in Charles de Gaulle. It was my first time entering a time zone more than one hour ahead or behind Eastern Standard Time, and I was disoriented and exhausted, even though I slept fairly well on the plane.

Still, it was my first time in Europe, and even though I was only in France for a two-hour layover, I was eager to spend my time wisely. I practiced my French, ordered a massive cafe latte and a pain au chocolat.  Then, our group, about 20 in total, boarded an AirFrance flight to Warsaw. I spent the flight looking out over the countryside of Europe, staring at the beautiful, rolling fields. I was surprised by how much Europe looked like a flight over North Carolina or Georgia. 

Then, I fell asleep.

When I arrived, I was in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. The first thought I had was: wow, Polish makes no sense phonetically or grammatically. Then, I thought– holy cow, I’m in Poland. I had this thought frequently throughout the trip.

We didn’t go through customs as we were leaving the airport, which annoyed me because, now, I don’t have a stamp from Poland in my Passport.

We arrived at our hotel, the Campanile Warsaw, which was only a short tram ride away from the heart of downtown Warsaw. I washed up, and then promptly fell asleep again. Apparently, I am not good with Jetlag. This would have been nice to know before I traveled to Europe. After napping, our group went to dinner at a local restaurant.

After napping, our group went to dinner at a local restaurant. I am nearly 100% Polish. I was not aware of how apparent my Polish heritage was in my life until I sat down for dinner that first evening in Warsaw. For our appetizer, we were served a simple Chicken Noodle Soup. I took one sip and was blown away by the familiar taste on my tongue. This soup was identical to the Chicken Noodle Soup my mother makes for me when I’m sick– the same spices, the same broth, the same noodles. I felt at home and homesick at the same time.

I don’t remember much about that first dinner, except for watching Polish folk dancing and listening to Polish folk music. I was overwhelmed with how much I was reminded of my family’s traditions, especially my late grandfather, who passed away this past October. He taught me how to Polka. That night, I had tears in my eyes, thinking of him. His mother immigrated from Poland, and he never had the chance to go back.

Later that evening, I set out with two other girls in my group to find Sim cards, and we ended up at the massive Galeria Mokotów. This mall is a massive four story shopping center full of luxury brands like Lacoste, United Colors of Benetton, Adidas, Chanel, and more. I was in awe, as I had never been in a mall that nice, not even the Lennox mall in Buckhead.

I was in awe of the beauty of Warsaw. It reminded me of Pittsburgh or another industrial city that’s been given new life by its passionate citizens. Warsaw has risen from the ashes, literally, but that’s a story for another day.

It’s such a unique feeling to see things I’ve designed worn or used by people at Agnes Scott.

The reason I started creating Agnes Scott themed stickers and shirts was because I noticed a lack of fun, cute, inexpensive products for Scotties to stick to laptops and water bottles, or to wear something that wasn’t sold in the bookstore.

I create what I like, but the effort seemed futile if no one else liked what I created. I tossed a half-dozen sticker designs onto Redbubble– an online marketplace for print on demand products based on user submitted artwork– and waited. Sure, I would sell a sticker here and there, making a few cents, but I never saw the fruits of my effort actualize.

Until I came back to campus for the fall semester, that is.

Now, everywhere I go, I spot my art stuck to someone’s laptop, or wearing my t-shirt in class. It’s a special feeling, and I get excited, and yell “I made that!” Usually, people are eager to ask me when I’ll be designing more. Sometimes, they look at me weird but oblige when I ask if I can take a picture.

I know artists make things because they want to, not because they want people to see them, but I’m not an artist. I’m a businesswoman. I want to make things because people want them and want to buy them.

And, I must say, it feels damn good when they do.

To visit my Redbubble store, visit https://www.redbubble.com/people/thezoekatz.

I’m a proud Center for Digital and Visual Literacy tutor!

I was hired at the end of last school year to teach my peers and professors about all things digital and visual. This includes video software, photo manipulation software, graphic design, blogging, coding, and more! I couldn’t be more thrilled for this opportunity.

My first assignment for my new tutoring job is to answer a few questions– so here we go!

What is your major/area of academic interest?
I am a Business Management/History double major. Specific academic interests of mine include Marketing, New Media studies, Creative Leadership (for business), and Renaissance and Religious studies (for history). Thanks to the Summit program, I’ll graduate with a certificate in Global Learning!

What are your post-graduate goals?
I want to be the Marketing Director of the Pittsburgh Penguins! I am fascinated by sports marketing, and I want to use my education to take sports media into the future.

I would also love to work for Women’s professional leagues, such as the National Women’s Hockey League, the National Women’s Soccer League, or Team USA! Empowering women through sports is something I’m passionate about, so that would be an amazing opportunity!

What excites you about working in the Center for Digital and Visual Literacy?
I am excited to have specific time devoted to working on creative pursuits. Photoshop, documentary making, writing– I’m an extremely creative person, but I have trouble setting aside time to relax and express my creativity, which leads me to feel tense and stressed out! I’m excited that I’ll have a job where creativity is mandatory, and I can work on my other passions that aren’t school!

What specific or unique skills do you bring to the CDVL community?
I think my creativity is unique. I think of things as if I’m directing a movie or writing a play– two things I’ve done! I’m all about the aesthetics and functionality of a project. I also have a lot of experience coming in– I work in Social Media/Marketing for my real, actual job, and that’s taught me a lot. I can’t wait to share my knowledge with others!

For extra credit in my BUS-202 class, I wrote a short paper about the communication exchange in a scene from Mean Girls. The paper is short, sweet, and well-written, as well as fun!

Mean Girls and the Breakdown of Communication: an Analysis

In the 2004 film Mean Girls, there is a famous scene in which the Plastics: Regina George, Cady Heron, Karen Smith, and Gretchen Wieners conduct a four-way phone call rife with gossip, name-calling, and faux-friendship of the most famous frenemies in cinema history. The film, written by comedy queen Tina Fey, was created to highlight the complex relationships between teenage girls in America’s school system. The film draws inspiration from the book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boys, and the New Realities of Girl World, a psychological self-help book written by Rosalind Wiseman.

The two-minute scene begins with a conversation between Regina and Cady, gossiping about their friend Gretchen. The film reveals that Gretchen has been listening to Regina gossip about her. Gretchen, leaving Cady listening on the other line, then calls Karen to expose what Regina said about Karen. However, before she can talk to Karen, Regina calls Karen to ask her to go out, even though she told Cady she was going to bed. Gretchen then reveals to Karen that Regina called her a slut, to which Cady responds to the ‘harshness’ of the revelation. Karen, offended by Regina’s comments, tells Regina that she can’t go out with her because she’s sick, leading Regina to respond with the now-famous quote, “Boo, you whore.”

This scene is an example of a dense, decentralized communication network. No single member of the foursome dominates the network, and because they can call members of the network independently of another member of the network, this scene is an example of an All-Connected Network. The density of the network supports this example: there are any number of potential connections between the four, as demonstrated in the scene when they call various members independently of a single, information-knowing member.

Additionally, this scene is an example of informal interpersonal communication through both gossip and rumors. The four girls are not communicating effectively, and there are many individual barriers to communication within this exchange. First, the girls all have differing perceptions of each other. Gretchen and Karen believe that Regina is their friend, while Regina’s actions prove otherwise. Regina also believes that Cady is ‘on her side’ so to speak, and doesn’t know that Cady is acting as a middleman to the rest of the girls. Second, there is a myriad of status differences between the girls. Regina is perceived to be the leader, thus making her word law to Gretchen. However, Cady does not see Regina as the leader and sees herself as outside of the network. This outsiderness allows her to be objective to Regina’s gossip and allows her to pass the information on to others without fear of retribution from Regina. Finally, there are different levels of self-interest within the exchange. Gretchen wants to know if Regina is mad at her, while Karen is interested in pleasing Regina until she learns Regina calls her promiscuous. Cady is attempting to sabotage the Plastics with her other friends, Janis and Damian. All these combined lead to a breakdown of communication between the group. However, no one in the group is interested in overcoming the individual barriers to effective communication.

This scene and the rest of Mean Girls is a fascinating look into the exchanges between teenage girls, and the effects they can have on the individual. While the film is a comedy, it shows the misunderstood behavior and communication of one of the most complex organizations in the world: the teenage girl’s clique. While this film may not be viewed as a ‘serious’ topic, the book it is based on certainly is serious, and I believe much can be revealed about organizational behavior and communication within larger, professional organizations if we continue to analyze the relationships and exchanges between teenage girls.

References

Hitt, M. A., Miller, C. C., & Colella, A. (2011). Organizational Behavior: a Strategic Approach
(4th ed.). Chichester: Wiley.

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For ART-296, we had the semester-long task of creating a short documentary to show our class. My documentary, entitled ZOE, looks back at my high school years and my struggles with depression and anxiety and what it means to be “High Functioning.”

I’m incredibly proud of my work. Check it out!