Girls Gone Wild

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 2, 2006 — -- The tone for reality show "Laguna Beach" was set when the very first episode premiered on MTV two years ago.

Teenage social queens Kristin and LC battled over the baby-faced Adonis, Stephen, and producers decided it made good television to base the entire season around this messy love triangle.

Their instincts proved right. Despite accusations from critics that character interactions seemed scripted, the show was a breakout hit and quickly became the network's second most popular show behind "The Real World."

It came as little surprise that the formula was barely changed for the second season, except for the fact that an even closer microscope was trained on the relationships -- or lack of them -- between the girls in the show.

Kristin was back, this time with her small clique of girlfriends, and it was clear they had no desire to exchange niceties with anything else in a skirt.

And another love triangle ensued, with Alex M and Jessica dueling for the affections of cocksure surfer-boy Jason.

The show's portrayal of young women as ditzy little things interested in boys, boys and only boys divides opinion.

"It's incredibly stereotypical and doesn't sound like the kind of lives of the young people I know," said Boston-based psychologist Kathleen Malley-Morrison. "When men get sexually involved with a girl they like, then they get possessive, too."

"One can go back 20 years ago and find a study, centered on young adults and their relationships, that showed college-aged women are independent," she said. "Men actually wanted marriage more than the women, and I find it hard to believe that things have receded and become as one-sided as [shows like 'Laguna Beach'] portray."

As one of the "Laguna Beach" girls might say, whatever.

The fact is that we love to watch catfights, albeit from a distance.

The 1995 movie "Clueless" spoofed such society girls, while more recently, 2004's "Mean Girls" starred Lindsay Lohan acting exactly as the title suggests as she joins The Plastics, the A-list clique at her school.