It never fails. You can set your Swatch by it. At least twice every week my mad-stylish LA-based BFFL Nikki will IM me and ask, completely out of the blue, what I have come to recognize as one of the most important questions of our moderns times. Why is “Mean Girls” the Best Movie Ever Made? Of course Miss Nik is actually stating that the MG is rocking her world, but using the question form underlines the point and garners her much deserved Conversational Style Points. Conversational Style Points, or CSPs, are of great importance to me and are not doled out lightly, so, much like six-pack abs and common sense, many want them and few have them.

CSPs firmly grasped in her tragically hip little palm, La Femme Nikkita shines a light on a signpost of our times. “Mean Girls” is awesome. It really is. I used to be a “Mean Girls” objector, certain that any film with a pink cover sporting tweens dressed like MILFs was waste of Tina Fey’s precious comic genius. Then I watched it for the first time (of what has since become at least 197 times) and was struck by how much heart and truth it contains. I never thought I’d say it, but one of the most poignant commentaries on human politics and behavior was crafted by a former Saturday Night Live writer/cast member and a pRe-hab Blohan. And the amazing Rachel McAdams, who was about 117 years old while shooting her turn as teen queen bitch Regina George. And Amanda Seyfried. And Lacy Chabert. And too many others to name, who are all enshrined in the Mean Girls Meditation Chamber at the back of my house.

There are reasons beyond my sexuality, my penchant for smarty-sharp writing, and my enduring love for Ana Gasteyer that I connect so strongly with “Mean Girls.” You see, Ms. Fey tapped into a theme that has come to mean a lot to me over the past year as I’ve been reconciling some pieces of my past with the carnival that is my present, and I think it means something to a lot of you too. Dignity for the misfit. Dignity for the misfit, baby. Every character in the film feels out of place in some way, regardless of their rank in the popularity scale. Everyone’s got issues, everyone needs to belong, everyone is fighting to feel like they fit. Sound familiar? I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t feel at least a little out of place, which makes it all the more befuddling that we still seem to think that those who look more “cool” or act more “mean” are better adjusted, and therefore better. “Mean Girls” shoves a perfectly manicured thumb into this collective wound of ours and pops out the truth that we’re all misfits in someway. What better setting than High School to make this point, too? Teen social strictures are the closest thing we have to the Caste System in the U.S., and Jr. High and High Schools are the viper pits where we make up the rules and enforce them on each other without the smallest detectable scrap of grace.

We’re all misfits, one collective square peg, and “Mean Girls” takes the muzzle off the facts. Everyone’s out of place, at least a little, everyone is on the same level, and everyone has the same amount of dignity. The only difference is the packaging. The value is constant. As I’m always drawn to the common portions of the human experience, I find a real inspiration in how we’re all out of place, and therefore all fit perfectly together.

Next time you watch “Mean Girls,” look at it through a different lens. Get deep and really stew on these significant emotional realities. If you’d rather not, at least notice how healthy and not coked-out the Blohan looks, and cherish it, because those days are OVER and they ain’t coming back.

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