Stupid With Love
Mean Girls The Musical
Finding Love Through the Lens of Mathematics
In the song "Stupid With Love" from the Broadway musical Mean Girls, Cady Heron reflects on her past romantic misadventures and her newfound hope in understanding love. The song begins with Cady recounting her early experiences with love, which were marked by humorous and poignant failures. Her first crush ran away from her, quite literally, and her second crush, a Peace Corps volunteer, laughed at her romantic gesture, leaving her heartbroken. These early disappointments led Cady to give up on love and focus on mathematics, a subject she found reliable and logical.
Cady's decision to immerse herself in math is a metaphor for seeking control and certainty in a world where emotions often feel unpredictable and confusing. She finds solace in the concrete nature of numbers and equations, which never make her feel "stupid" like love does. However, this changes when she meets Aaron, a charming and attractive boy who reignites her interest in romance. The interaction between Cady and Aaron, filled with playful banter and mutual interest, symbolizes Cady's realization that love, like math, can be learned and understood with time and effort.
The song captures the universal struggle of balancing intellect and emotion, highlighting the idea that even the most logical minds can feel bewildered by love. Cady's journey from feeling "stupid with love" to believing she can "self-educate" in matters of the heart is both relatable and inspiring. It suggests that love, much like any other subject, requires patience, practice, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. Through this lens, "Stupid With Love" becomes a charming and hopeful anthem for anyone who has ever felt out of their depth in the realm of romance.