Mean Girl/The Queen Bee: Comparing Regina George and Ruth

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She goes by many names but serves one function: The presence of a queen bee–the domineering, self-serving, and manipulative female character who, cunning as she is beautiful, uses her elevated social status to rule over and maltreat her peers with little consequence–is a defining characteristic of many novels and films detailing the lives and times of teens. She’s rich and attractive and therefore popular, or popular by way of attractiveness, which makes others assume she is rich. This larger-than-life presence is usually supported by a loyal group of lackeys who stick behind the Queen not because of kinship, but for protection from her vitriol and safety from her warpath. Such is the nature of the friendship between Regina George, Gretchen Weiners, Karen Smith, the Plastics, and their newest initiate, Cady Heron in the cult classic 2000s film Mean Girls–a dynamic that is closely mirrored by the friendship between Ruth, Tommy D. and Kathy H.

According to the Mean Girls wiki page, Regina’s domination is made possible to one trait: her keen ability to prey of the insecurities of others, a tactic which Ruth frequently employs on her subjects at Hailsham. As children, the students operate as a hive-mind; even the most trivial decisions and judgements on people were made as a collective. Ruth utilizes this, and leads her peers by cruel example. While Tommy is being publicly humiliated by other boys on the soccer field, Kathy (and effectively, the rest of the group) looks to Ruth for “signs of disapproval”, a cue on how to act. Instead, Ruth seizes the opportunity to vilify Tommy, known for his obliviousness on social niceties. “He doesn’t suspect a thing. Look at him. He really doesn’t suspect a thing,” Ruth comments (7). It’s not as if she’s free from conscience–“I suppose it’s a bit cruel, the way they always work him up like that. But it’s his own fault. If he learned to keep his cool, they’d leave him alone,” Ruth continues (10). But Ruth chooses to normalize the cruelty, and her friends follow suit. “...Although we hadn't had any part in the latest plan to rile up Tommy, we had taken our ringside seats…” Kathy explains. She succinctly sums up Ruth’s unspoken power, especially in the face of conflict: “...When Ruth looked at her watch and said even though we still had time we should go back to the main house, nobody argued.” (10).

Regina, too, chooses the path with the most painful outcome when dealing with her friends. When newest “Plastics” initiate Cady develops feelings for her ex-boyfriend, Regina immediately blacklists her, and militarizes the rest of her friend group against her, sabotaging their potential relationship. Regina’s actions directly parallel with Ruth’s “he-doesn’t-see-you-that-way” speech to Cady and her entire relationship with Tommy, ruining the potential for a relationship between Tommy and Kathy.

Regina and Ruth also bank on exclusivity to stabilize their reign. The Plastics could be compared to Ruth’s secret guard for Miss Geraldine–a small group of people unified less by a mutual goal but by a mutual person, the head honcho, a Regina or a Ruth. There's power in numbers, but even more when the numbers are selected, specialized, and Regina and Ruth both know it.

The existence of villains like Ruth and Regina serves a couple general purposes for the plot of a story. The enemy of my enemy is my friend–the presence of villains is usually used to created a sympathetic character, or to represent a character flaw central to the story’s theme. Their vilification garners supports for any character they antagonize, like Kathy and Tommy, ot Gretchen, who is often on the receiving end of Regina’s rudeness when she doesn’t comply with her mandates. In Never Let Me Go, Ruth’s willingness to throw Kathy and Tommy under the bus to maintain her fantasies mimics Regina’s strategy of using her friends like pawns when seeking out boys or social status. They’re petty and malicious–Ruth and Regina are both mean girls who protect their dominion using the sword of the tongue.