So there are zillions of pop-culture representations of high school, and in a large percentage of them, there is a quite clearly defined group of “popular kids”, who are some combination of:
-kinda dumb
-into sports/cheerleading
-unbelievably cruel
but who somehow have some amount of power…
My question is: is this stereotype at all accurate?
My experience (graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, CA, in 1991) was that while there was a group of popular kids, the ones that I did know were actually extremely nice people, and at least a few of them were quite bright. And there were others that I didn’t know at all, which certainly doesn’t fit into the stereotype of “oooh, see that person over there, that’s X who everyone wants to be like”… (not to mention the stereotype that the popular kids are always making life unpleasant for the unpopular nerds (me)).
So, none of them were actively cruel, they seemed to be in general of above average intelligence, they were (it’s true) often into sports/cheerleading/dance team, and they were often involved in student government, none of them seemed to actually have large amounts of power, and quite a few of them seemed to be perfectly happy being friendly with someone as unpopular as me…
others?
While I spent most of my high school years at an alternative school, I was at a mainstream school for most of my freshman year and for half-days my junior year (the alternative school didn’t offer all the science and foreign language courses I wanted). I could spend a lot of time describing this school, but I think you can gather all you need to know from the fact that it was used for a “Seventeen” fashion shoot the year before I started there.
In any event, as best as I could tell the most popular kids at this school were white, upper middle class to wealthy, into sports and cheerleading, and unbelievably cruel. Most seemed pretty dim as well, although I’m not sure how much of this was for real. One girl in my grade who was rich, popular, and stunningly stupid somehow managed to be one of the top five students in her graduating class. I’m still not sure if she was just acting dumb all those years or if mummy and daddy’s money had anything to do with it.
I think just about everyone’s known at least one dumb/cruel/socially powerful/sporto over the years, so the stereotype–however narrow it might be–persists.
I’ve also known socially powerful sportos who were nice kids and mentally sharp as tacks. And even bright jocks who didn’t give a rat’s ass about the social hierarchy. We’ve all probably known enough exceptions to the stereotype that we wouldn’t miss it if it went away.
I spent the last three of my four h.s. years in a small town in northern CA back in the early 70’s. The first thing I noticed there was that the bigwigs in town (certain business owners) tended to have the kids who got elected to student council, captained in sports, and led certain cliques. Being that it was a small town, these kids also got away with more crap, especially with the cops. Some of the kids were openly cruel; others were genuinely nice; most just did what was needed to maintain their standing.
The stereotype isn’t totally inaccurate but it’s lazy in its scope and, as such, uninteresting. IMO.
The popular people at my school were usually somewhat better off than the rest of us, but not RICH. They were all attractive people, very sociable, and nice. The actively cruel people were the ones who were trying to impress the popular people.
I don’t know about large schools (mine was only 35 in the graduating class) but in my school, it is a rather inaccurate stereotype. Most of the parts fit, but not all of them, and not always.
Frankly, it was the nerds at my school who actually wielded a measure of real power (guided, of course, by their humble advisor Balance). When the alpha nerd can hold his own in a fight with the linemen, controls the school computer system, knows the staff’s dirty little secrets, and is basically a nice guy if left alone, even the dimmest jocks and “popular kids” quickly learn not to be cruel to nerds.
There were a few kids who fit the stereotype even in my tiny little high school, but they had no influence beyond their little cliques (2-3 people). They could sneer and snipe all they wanted–no one paid much attention. Of course, there were also perfectly decent “popular kids”, some of whom were friends of mine. Of course, none of us were really rich or had families with lots of influence, either. It was a small pond, and the size variation of the fish was negligible. Those factors could skew the results.
I went to a fairly large high school in the San Fernando Valley. (Which, I might add, is proud to have one of the cops who beat up Rodney King as a former student.)
There were several “categories” of popular kids - the truly nice and decent and smart ones, that everyone liked. And then the rather vapid and “privileged” (but oblivious) kids that got all sorts of attention and advantages. But, at least they did not usually go out of their way to be cruel. And then there were the popular and cruel ones - and for some reason the teachers never saw what assholes they were. So they had some “power”, by being the “darlings” of the teachers.
My own high school experiences have pretty much faded from memory, and I definitely was NOT a “popular” person. My daughter just started high school and she’s shared a few observations with me.
Chief among them is that the “popular” kids tend to be full of themselves. Her other observation is that they are pretty vicious behind each other’s back.
It thrills me to no end that she’s not obsessed with fitting into such a crowd. She picks her friends according to mutual interests and attitudes, and I’ve never heard her say anything hateful about a person’s physical attributes. Can my 15 y/o be THAT mature? I’m so proud of her…
This is it. During middle school, the popular kids could be really cruel and mean to the unpopular kids, but in high school, they sorta ignored all the dorks and art-geeks, and turned on each other.
Not dumb as much as shallow. Many of our most popular group happened to be in the National Honor Society – which didn’t admit anyone on the basis of their social standing.
I didn’t have that many rich kids in my school, so I can’t say how money plays into the equation. I think the big dividing line was that the more popular kids tened to be more social (well DUH!) in both the good and bad sense. They threw the parties, they hung out (now days, we call it networking) with other kids. Some of them fit the Eddie Haskell stereotype, others just liked people.
The less popular kids, let’s face it, generally had miserable social skills. Some of them were the geniuses who prefered studying, some of them were poor kids who had to work and never had time to party, and some of them were, let’s face it, just socially inept.
Jocks got an automatic pass into the social structure, and some jocks could be pretty cruel to the weak and helpless, but that was about the only overt hostility. The rest of it was one group of losers picking on another group of losers.
In my high school, the kids were VERY segregated…there were the…
a) Thugs-people who dress in REALLY baggy clothing, listen to hard core rap, and talk ebonics…only about 3 out of the 30% of thugs at our school were black…maybe 5 were Hispanic
b) Jocks-Extremely athletic, class clowns, not too bright…they think they’re God’s gift…they also feel like they can cut in line cause they’re too good to have to wait…they made up about 45% of our school
c) Preppies-Shop at Old Navy, good grades, rich, nice cars, you know the type…involved in EVERYTHING, especially the school newspaper and Keystone…they made up 20% of the school
d) Freaks-my group…smoked too much, did too many drugs, cut class…we scared the preppies tho…but got beat up by the jocks…we made up 5% of the school
And there we are, in a nutshell! I wish there were more freaks tho
One of the big revelations in my life was when I happened to meet up with someone I knew from junior high. She had been one of the popular kids, whereas I had been in my “intellectual snot” phase (see http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=41069).
We went to different high schools, and then ended up on a long trip to Europe together. After lights-out in a youth hostel, we were all talking, of course, and I said, “God, junior high was hell!”
She said, “Yeah, it totally was.”
I was floored. “But, you were in the ‘in’ clique!” I protested.
“Do you think that made any difference? It was still hell.”
I admitted that I had been totally obnoxious, and she confessed that she felt bad about the way the “in” kids dumped on everyone. The really sad thing was that we were all so miserable, and the only way we could think of to make ourselves feel better was to make others feel worse–me by trying to prove that I was smarter than everyone else all the time, and her by slamming me whenever I gave her the opportunity (which was pretty damn often.)
High school was a little better. A little. Not much.
My school had about 650 for grades 10-12. There were definite separate sub-cultures. Each had a label and most people would be identified with one or more; whether they were or not did not seem to matter. You were given a label (it was really disgusting). There were the Brains, the Freaks, the Jocks, “Band”, the Losers, etc… It seemed that these labels were given by the one group that did not have a name. The “popular” kids. Some of us thought of that group as the “beautiful people”, and that’s was not meant in a nice way. To this day when I see people act as if they are inherently better than others; I think of them as one of the ”beautiful people.”
I was happy to see this thread here, though I may have to go start a similar one in the pit later. I am so POed at popular people who are full of crap. Not ALL of them, mind you, just the ones who feel that they can only be friends with other popular people. This covers probably 90-95%. Being friends, in this case, includes being seen in public with, talking to, and anything and everything else.
It really ticks me off to see someone who “has it all” or at least tries to make the impression that they do completely ignore someone who isn’t good at sports or doesn’t have rich parents or doesn’t live in the right part of town. This has angered me ever since my freshman year, and will until I leave the crappy, inherantly flawed, heirarchal public school system.
I go to a school of rich snobs, and most of the quote-unquote popular kids are teenybopper-like. Many are smart, many are jockish (it’s a small private school, so there are many overlaps), but they act all full of themselves, and people still like them!! And they do get away with more stuff than adminstration would let others do.
I have my group of friends. I’m happy. We’re freakish. And my classmates seem to spazz out if I wear something black to school on the days when we don’t have to wear uniforms.
Yeah, I get teased by the above person b/c I’m a jock in addition to being smart, and I’m semi-popular. Eh, this is what I get for having multiple interests. I don’t really get teased, but then again, most people don’t know a lot about me until they get close. In short, I fit in, but I don’t at the same time.
Actually, I’m convinced half of the guys we go to school with are convinced I can beat the shit out of them. There goes my date to prom, he’s scared that if he went with me I’d beat him into sex. Or out of it, depending on how little they know about me.
A lot of the popular people in my school are rich and attractive, etc. But that is mainly because my entire school is rich, being the private snob school that it is. A lot of the popular people seem nice, but I wouldn’t bother approaching them to talk. I am happy with my odd little group of friends. I have no need to venture out of it. Our group has no real name though. Some (actually, most) of us are smart, some of us are jocks, some of us are freaks, and some of us are preppies. And some of us are a mix between a bunch of those. But at least we have fun.
-kinda dumb Well, I think I’m pretty smart. And I’d say that most of my friends were pretty smart. Well, at least some were.
-into sports/cheerleading I would say this is half true. Most of my friends were involved in sports/cheerleading, but they didn’t have to be. Was I? Ummm, no comment.
-unbelievably cruel I’ll break this down into “good days” and “bad days”. On the good days, I was really nice to just about everyone. On the bad days, I was really bitchy to just about everyone. It really depended on my mood, the position of the moon, the tide, and if I’d had breakfast or not.
but who somehow have some amount of power… Well, I don’t have super vision or the ability to fly. The only power I ever had in school was a sure number of votes for student pres., vice pres., Snow Daze Princess, whatever.
