Thursday, March 31, 2011

Rich and Beautiful

It's sort of weird to me that the writers of TV shows, movies, and all that good nonsense seem to be under the impression that popularity in school is decided entirely by how rich you are. When I was younger, back when school social structures mattered even less somehow, I assumed that this was true, since pretty much every work of fiction I had seen so far had portrayed things this way. Then I realized that I knew stupidly rich kids that everyone absolutely despised, as well as dirt-poor kids that everyone pretty much adored.

But this was before I realized that the entire concept of "popularity" in school is complete bollocks. That's not how things actually work. There are people who are universally known in a school, and may have lots of friends, but there's always someone who's going to hate them. There's really no such thing as a popular kid. There are popular kids within their own personal groups, and those groups can be quite large, but in reality, there is no elite. There is no school royalty. Just some people that a lot of people like. Not everyone.

That's another thing that gets pretty screwy actually. In these shows, they call this group of kids the "popular" kids, but the protagonist almost always hates then. And for good reason, too. These kids tend to be massive, elitist twats. Why would everyone like them? Sure, there are kids like that, and sure, they may be generally well-liked, but they're not univerally liked. Because not everyone is a brainless moron.

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