Who is popular today?

Young women deserve better than to be classed in an outdated, demeaning category
Fifteen years after the release of Tina Fey’s cult film Mean Girls, where Lindsay Lohan’s central character battled her peers, the all-powerful Plastics, is it time to move on from the Mean Girls caricature?
Researchers at Florida Atlantic University found that, far from being ostracised, Mean Girl types are the most popular social group. FAU followed more than 560 pupils aged around 13 for two years, placing popular adolescents into three categories: “prosocial (outgoing) popular”, “aggressive popular” and the “bistrategic popular”, or “Machiavellian”, with this latter group noted for being feared and loved. All very intriguing and it’s good to see the Machiavellian label covering both sexes, perhaps finally putting the Mean Girl where she belongs – on a dusty shelf with other oversold pop-culture relics. Continue reading...