I first heard the word clique in high school. I found the word strange and disagreeable to my ear perhaps because I could only imagine its homophone click. I'd heard phrases like social circle or peer group, but the word clique was new to me. I think a fellow class member was going to write a paper or give a speech discussing these so-called cliques or exclusive circles of persons.
I think it's fitting that I first encountered the word in high school where cliques seem to abound. Elementary school had a different vibe. The complexities of peer groups seemed a bit simpler. A lot of us had best friends in elementary. We slept overnight at friends' houses. Perhaps we had a group we played with during recess. We identified with our class and our teacher. Life seemed fairly egalitarian. A lot of birthday parties seemed rather inclusive, for instance.
High school was different. We sometimes drifted away from old friends. We participated in different sports and other extracurricular activities. Some of us were acquainted with upper classman who had cars. Soon we were driving cars ourselves. And dating members of the opposite sex changed the structure of teen life.
* * *
When we were still youngsters, I can recall my older sister asking, "Would you rather be the most popular student in your class or the best athlete?" Perhaps she mentioned physical appearance as well. I think she speculated that an individual being the best athlete may also be the most popular simply as a matter of course. I wasn't so sure about that.
* * *
My younger sister and I used to play games some of which involved role playing. One of us would wrap ourselves in an afghan or knitted throw blanket of some sort and pretend it was a fur coat. The other person would then start mocking them. "Hey, richie! Nice fur coat, richie! You think your hot stuff, huh?" I guess we'd already decided that rich, snobby people deserved ridicule.
* * *
My buddy Chris came to school one day in fourth or fifth grade talking about the rival gangs portrayed in the film West Side Story. He seemed quite excited about the Jets and the Sharks. I think he had a much older brother who was a schoolteacher and had access to such films. I doubt Chris thought much about the rival gangs' ethnic backgrounds The Sharks being recent migrants from Puerto Rico perhaps found life to be a bit tougher than their rivals the Jets.
My buddy and I also saw the film Grease together. This film also featured two rival gangs, the T-Birds greaser gang and the Scorpions. But we're also introduced to a so-called jock named Tom and greaser girl clique the Pink Ladies consisting of Frenchy, Marty, Jan and leader Rizzo. The new student, Australian Sandy Olsson, is a bit too wholesome and chaste in the eyes the Pink Ladies. Will our greaser hero Danny Zuko end up with Sandy? Of course! The film's finale brings love and surprises. At a carnival, Danny and Sandy each find they have changed for each other: Danny has become a letterman, and Sandy a greaser girl.
I think my buddy's mom bought him a black t-shirt so he could dress like a T-Bird.
"From the start of the film, the dashing protagonists Danny Zuko and Kenicke Murdoch spend most of the film clad in black or white t-shirts, blue jeans or black cigarette pants, and, of course, their leather jackets emblazoned with the T-Bird insignia. This simple combination of timeless pieces is foolproof. The look, which served the traditional purpose of a uniform—to signify the group's place in society—has evolved to serve its other purpose, a reliable outfit pairing to always fall back on."
* * *
Many of us individuals in the Generation X demographic cohort read S.E. Hinton's coming-of-age novel The Outsiders while in grade school. The book details the conflict between two rival gangs divided by their socioeconomic status: the working-class Greasers and the upper-middle-class Socs (Socials).
"It’s okay. We aren’t in the same class. Just don’t forget that some of us watch the sunset too."
Ponyboy speaks these words to Cherry Valance in Chapter 3 after he, Two-Bit, and Johnny spend time with Cherry and Marcia at the drive-in. Ponyboy points out that the sunset closes the gap between the greasers and Socs. He realizes that, even though the two groups have unequal lifestyles, attitudes, and financial situations, they nevertheless live in the same world, beneath the same sun.
"It seemed funny to me that the sunset she saw from her patio and, the one I saw from the back steps was the same one. Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset."
* * *
I started dating a beautiful redhead during my sophomore year of high school. She mentioned a group she referred to as the "super popular" kids at her school. I liked that. I thought I knew what she meant. I never felt like I was part of the popular group at school, but I never felt unpopular or excluded by my peers either. I think perhaps she felt the same. I like how she invented a term of her own for the upper echelon of the teen hierarchy.
She had been overweight in her younger days. She had lost weight and become slim just before beginning her freshman year. She enjoyed having the other girls suddenly concerned about their boyfriends' level of attentiveness when she was around.
She found she was able to climb the social ladder while in high school while some of her longstanding friends could not. I think some feelings got hurt along the way. She admitted she liked the attention of the cool set and being noticed. I imagine it was an exciting but strange time for her. After all, she was still the same person, right?
* * *
Our school didn't seem to have a lot of distinct groups. We all lived in the same rural community. Whether one lived on a farm or in a small town didn't make too much difference.
High school has some natural divisions by its very nature because of the various clubs, organizations, and extracurricular activities available. I felt a comradery with other wrestling team members, for instance.
My peers might have been involved in any number of activities and groups:
Athletes
Cheerleaders
FHA (Future Homemakers of America)
FFA (Future Farmers of America)
SES (Students for Educational Service)
Peer Helpers
Student Council
School marching, concert, and jazz band
Chorus
Speech groups
Annual Staff
4-H
Church youth groups
* * *
The film Revenge of the Nerds came out in 1984. Was that word already in our vocabulary before that? I don't know. A film called Preppies was also released in 1984.
Preppy fashion went mainstream and became quite common during my high school years perhaps due in part to the publication of The Official Preppy Handbook in 1980. A lot of us were wearing so-called boat shoes even though we'd never set foot on a sailboat. We liked our polo shirts and our oxford cloth button-down shirts.
We had no punks or goths that I can recall. We had no greasers although a few individuals wore leather jackets. We did have some cowboys with their woven nylon belts fitted with giant belt buckles perhaps adorned with a stallion or a piece of stunning turquoise. Yes, I had a pair of turquoise-colored cowboy boots. But I wore boat shoes and polo shirts much more often.
I wore an argyle sweater vest one day and someone told me I looked like Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties. I took it as a compliment.
I had a Members Only jacket. That's not entirely true. Like many other teenage boys, I had a knockoff that looked like a Members Only jacket. My girlfriend liked it, so I guess its counterfeit status didn't matter. I liked my Tropix t-shirt with wind surfers on the front even though I lived in the Midwest. My mother sewed an off-white blazer for me. I wore it with the sleeves rolled or pushed up because I wanted to look cool.
Maybe some of my classmates had a "uniform" and an identity to which they were committed. Good for them. I always seemed to be trying to find my look.
A couple of hair stylists visited a Home Economics class I was taking as a junior. The female asked us what we thought was in fashion right then. Answers included polo and oxford shirts, high-top basketball shoes worn with the laces untied, Army fatigue pants, and bi-level haircuts. Yes, I had a pair of Army green pants as a freshman. Mom to the rescue again. She found them in a local menswear shop. They looked nice paired with a blue polo shirt. If I could have found a camouflage pair, I suppose I would have worn them too.
What about the influence of music and pop culture? What about Madonna?
"She continues to reign as an icon of pop culture, constantly adapting her style to the ever-changing Zeitgeist. By the end of the decade, teenagehood continued to fragment, as hard rockers, mods, preps, and other teen cliques emerged with their own fashion, music, and lifestyles. This fragmentation became the defining feature of pop culture generally, spreading teen lifestyles to the culture at large. It is no exaggeration to claim that the foundation of our current economy is largely implanted in the terrain of teenagehood. Pop culture and teen culture have become virtual synonyms."
"The Punk category of the 1980s in Belten began as a group, and rose to cultural prominence as other groups and individuals adopted its style. In contrast, a small group of low visibility in Belten, who referred to themselves as "Cowboys" because of their involvement with horses, came and went in the school unnoticed by the school society. A small group of girls in a California high school, referring to themselves as "Duranies," remain a clique united by their devotion to the rock group Duran-Duran. The Cowboys and the Duranies failed to become categories by virtue of their specificity. The very localized and limited interests that set these groups apart did not represent important cultural issues that could be generalized to the rest of their age group."
* * *
I suppose I was a bit of a letter jacket snob. I believed these jackets were meant for those who lettered in sports. I didn't care if someone lettered in band. Why do band members get pigeonholed as being nerds? Actually, the Student Body President during my freshman year was a senior boy who was fashionable and handsome, excelled in sports, and happened to play the tuba. No, you can't have a letter jacket for getting good grades! We already have the Honor Role.
To my dismay, I've come to believe that letter jackets were never much of a status symbol. No one really cared.
The National Honor Society (NHS) held an annual banquet during which it inducted new members. This really infuriated some students so much so that they had a F*ck NHS Party on the same evening. Actually, the official name of the party was even more vile, so I won't repeat it here. How dare the academically gifted have a private banquet! Revenge of the nerds?
* * *
As a junior, I dated a preacher's daughter for a while. She was intelligent and excelled in speech and drama. I was a wrestler with a 2.5 GPA. I was quiet and hopeless when it came to conversation. I always wondered why she was attracted to me. Oh, wait! I guess it was my striking good looks and my stunning, muscular body. Ha! Oh, calm down. I'm just joking. God!
She wasn't a killjoy or a prude. She wasn't particularly pious and certainly not sanctimonious. She was simply a kind, ethical person. She wasn't a rebel trying to dismiss the virtuous stereotype people might have of a preacher's kid. She was just your basic teenager.
She hadn't always attended our school. She had moved around a bit before her father took a position at the church I attended. I asked her about making friends at a new school and fitting in. She said she was happy with her friends and her school activities. She wasn't striving to be accepted by the popular kids. I'm not sure she even viewed the world through that sort of lens. She had friends she enjoyed spending time with and who she held dear to her heart. What else was there to be concerned about?
I suppose I thought about image and popularity a lot more than she did. I actually did date some attractive, popular girls at our school and other schools. How did I pull that off? I don't know.
Occasionally, I would find myself hanging out with some popular guys. I can recall being in a car with some of the most popular guys in my class and probably finding it a bit surreal, wondering how this came to be.
I have to admit I was a fanboy of some guys at our school. If they talked to me or gave me a ride in their car it felt good. I saw others experience the same thing at times. They thought they had reached the top. But an outsider could tell they still didn't really fit in and their situation hadn't really changed. Some people had some definite ideas about their status. One of my classmates was stunned and disappointed when she wasn't chosen as a Homecoming Queen candidate. I think her reaction went beyond dismay. I think she was truly baffled.
I was chosen to be a Homecoming escort during my senior year. At the time, I thought this was remarkable. Cleary, I was popular to receive such an honor. On the other hand, perhaps it was deemed more practical to have me and a couple of other boys be escorts because some of the more popular boys were football players and couldn't be inconvenienced with the duties of being an escort. I know. I sound like sour grapes. I did enjoy being an escort and the girl I escorted became Queen! And during my four years of high school, I was never once chosen to be a Sweetheart candidate. Striving to be popular leads to disappointment.
* * *
When I was dating the preacher's daughter, we saw the film The Breakfast Club. Five teenagers spend a Saturday in the school library for detention.
"The film tells the story of five teenagers from different high school cliques who serve a Saturday detention overseen by their authoritarian vice principal. On Saturday, March 24, 1984, five students at Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois, report for an all-day detention: socially awkward Brian Johnson, jock Andrew Clark, shy loner Allison Reynolds, popular girl Claire Standish, and rebellious delinquent John Bender."
My date liked this movie. She enjoyed hearing each character's story and how each came to be in detention that day.
Dear Mr. Vernon,
We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong, but we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us — in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.
Does that answer your question?
Sincerely yours,
The Breakfast Club
Well, we couldn't all be as popular as Ferris Bueller.
"Oh, well he's very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude."
Another film I saw was High School USA.
Set in a Midwestern high school, the film follows J.J. Manners, a spirited student who competes with the affluent and popular Beau Middleton for the affection of Beth Franklin. Amidst typical teenage antics, the rivalry culminates in a climactic race. In the film we see several clearly delineated cliques - the preps, the nerds, greasers, and intellectuals.
I recently watched The Night Before from 1988.
"She's not a hooker in the first place!"
"She's not?"
"No! She's a cheerleader. And the junior class treasurer. And a member of the Young Republicans."
* * *
College wasn't much different. I suppose if was different in the sense that we were all striving to get a degree and most of us lived in the dorms. Students were more concerned with careers and even marriage than petty concerns about cliques or popularity. But I did go out with a rich girl for a while who was forced to dump me because I was a farm boy. Farm boy? Egad!
The real world is different to some extent although I'm sure some people strive to belong to particular country clubs or Mommy groups or what have you.
"The ones who were fresh from work were wearing these very boxy Brooks Brothers suits and red ties. That just kills me, the phony goddamn Red Tie of Wall Street. The women wore these long, shapeless dresses, or else they wore jeans and shirts that were fun. Everything was fun. “Isn’t this a fun place, Charles?” “Yes, it’s good, optimum, marvelous fun.” It was cliquey as hell, too. The arty types hung around in a corner and smoked Shermans; the athletic, health minded bastards stayed near the bar, talking about their injuries. There were even college cliques: the Yalies were all prim and proper, standing at attention in a horseshoe around the piano, belting out these very corny Cole Porter tunes, while the Dartmouth girls hung out at the bar, arm wrestling for beers. The whole lousy Yuppie world is like one giant prep school, I swear. Know why? Because they want it that way."
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