Words that should be banned from Internet and other discussions

[boot_the_grime]

Could we take the words "jock" and "nerd" and kill them with fire? Please? The relentless obsession, found all over Internet, with those incredibly narrow and over-simplified (US) highschool stereotypes and with shoving every person in the world in those boxes has gotten really, really annoying. It's almost like the old "virgin vs whore" dichotomy.

Comments

[boot_the_grime]

However, there are lots of things that do resonate a lot and make me think of my high school experience. The bullying, for starters; the way that certain students form cliques, and groups of students who bully others, like those in The Pack. Someone like Cordelia is also instantly recognizable (even though she's an exaggerated version, a lot of things she says are way OTT), the "cool" people ("popular" would be a misleading word - in fact, most people hate them, but they act like they're in charge) who are usually rich, dress up in expensive clothes and are considered sexy (partly due to looking older than their years - this is something that teenagers find appealing) and who have their cliques of friends/sycophants, and spend a lot of time mocking other people. There are also people like Willow, who could be called "nerds", though it's not the same stereotype - e.g. we don't have the cliche that liking SF or comics makes you a nerd - but people who are bookish, shy and tend to dress conservatively, like their parents are choosing their clothes (which they might be). There are also boys who cover their insecurity with jokes and try to act the role of the class clown, since they don't think they can be the hot manly men. There are also people that nobody notices (the "invisible" ones) and there are those that are considered crazy, weird or freaky due to their personality or attitude. When people assign a certain role to you, it's generally hard to get rid of it. Finally, though there aren't any official popularity contest, you always knew that there was an unofficial hierarchy, such as, who are considered the hottest girls, or hottest boys. On my first week of high school (that's when we were 15-16), the boys in my class even had a vote between themselves for the Hottest Girl in Class, and one of them (the "class clown" boy) announced the results to the class during the break. There was a lot of competitiveness and jealousy between girls - things like Cordelia being jealous of Buffy and frustrated when boys would be more into Buffy (as in Never Kill a Boy on the First Date) because a "crazy freak" isn't supposed to challenge her for hotness, is something that mirrors my "relationship" with the Cordelia of my class, though in our cases it lasted much longer and was much worse and never got better.

(Maybe I should include this in my "Season 1 revisited" post.)

[penny_lane_42]

Honestly, I always felt completely apart from any kind of social hierarchy. It never touched me. I recognize the idea of the cool people, with their money and fashionable clothes and such, but I never felt like I needed to strive to be part of them or that they were looking down on me or anything--they just had different interests, and I didn't particularly want to be friends with them. I think perhaps they were off having the kinds of parties and drama you see on TV, but I never knew anything about it. They were never mean to me, we mostly just ignored each other. My group of friends was kind of a group of girls who did well in school and never got into trouble. We were neither cool nor uncool. The only way I'd say we were "lower" on the totem pole than the coolest people is that only two of my group of friends (about 10 of us) ever dated, while nearly all the "cool" girls had boyfriends. But other than that, we kind of went about our own business.

There was a lot of competitiveness and jealousy between girls

There was none of this in my group of friends. Honestly, there's been none of this in my life. Maybe I've gotten lucky with the friendships I've had, because while my friends and I have hurt each other and argued on occasion, it was never out of any competitiveness or jealousy. I think possibly this was taking place among the aforementioned cool girls, but I've never seen it up close myself.

I never saw any bullying, either, except the very passive-aggressive kind that's subtle enough to fly under the teacher radar, though I'm certain that it did take place, just not in front of my eyes or where anyone could see. Possibly because they thought I would have told on them? I don't know. I just know I didn't really see it.

There are also boys who cover their insecurity with jokes and try to act the role of the class clown, since they don't think they can be the hot manly men. There are also people that nobody notices (the "invisible" ones) and there are those that are considered crazy, weird or freaky due to their personality or attitude.

Sure, I think those kinds of people are everywhere.