Jocks, Cheerleaders, Geeks, and the Rest (WAS Jocks really exist?! )

[pippin_999]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "cindysphynx" <cindysphynx at h...> 
wrote:
> Naama wrote:
> 
> > I have to say, as a non American who sees a LOT of 
American TV 
> shows, that this whole 
> > ontological division of school/college society into jocks-
> cheerleaders-geeks-.. (what other 
> > sections are there?) is beyond weird. Maybe because I've 
only seen 
> it on TV (Beverly Hills 
> > and such like) it never seemed to me that it could be real. It 
has 
> an almost mythical tang 
> > to it. Which is why I'm fascinated now, when real people refer 
to 
> it as part of their real 
> > life. 
> > 
> 
> Is it real? Absolutely!
> 
> In high school, there were the jocks, the cheerleaders, the 
geeks  and . . . the potheads who wore black (black leather if they 
could afford it), who sat outside on the curb when classes were 
in session  smoking this or that substance accusing the geeks 
of being "narcs"  and being generally disgruntled about life.  

And the gangsters, who looked sullen, went armed and supplied 
various smokeable substances to the potheads...

  These divisions run along  economic divides, which Hollywood 
plays up, and ethnic divides, which it plays down. To be an 
athlete in training means no after school job, so you'd have to be 
either rich or get a scholarship. This is why, in the movies, the 
jocks  have their party at the country club and the jock guy has a 
big house and spiffy clothes.  The geeky stereotype of a person 
with no social graces stems from the experience of real life 
ethnic groups who found  academic skills were easier to master 
than the unwritten laws of white middle class behavior.

Pippin