The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [27]
What does it mean to be popular? Sociologists report the common finding that students’ involvement in extracurricular activities can affect their popularity. For boys, participation on certain sports teams—basketball at some schools, football at others, etc.—automatically can make them popular. While this link also can be true for girls, there is an even more direct and exclusive route to popularity at many schools: cheerleading. Why? Although cheerleaders’ focus on appearance and membership in an elite group surely could contribute to their social status, the single most important factor that brings cheerleaders prestige is the same factor that lends some athletes popularity: They perform in front of large student audiences. Whether they are cheering at a game, bookending a pep rally, or wearing their uniforms in the halls, cheerleaders are easily identifiable. You can’t miss them. This feature forms a key part of popularity. Studies have shown that, at least among students, popularity equates with visibility.
If to be popular means to be seen, it follows that the students who happen to be labeled nerds or geeks might not be popular because they spend so much time studying or engaging in other solitary pursuits. They don’t have the time, or perhaps the interest, to make themselves visible. The same could be said for students who are passionate about writing poetry or stories, creating artwork, staying abreast of the music scene, working on cars, or reading. Their talents might not thrust them in front of the student body.
Another major criterion for popularity is being recognizable. (This is one reason that dating someone popular can enhance popularity.) Many studies have found that the students whom classmates deem popular tend to be the ones with whom they try to have the most frequent interaction. As Sacred Heart University psychology chair Kathryn LaFontana observed, “It is interesting that children focus on the quantity rather than the quality of interaction to determine popularity. From a social networks perspective, it seems that children see those peers who have a large number of peer contacts and are more central to the social network as popular.”
Other research reveals that to be popular means to be influential. People usually prefer the things they see most often, which could partly explain why many students often mimic the populars. Popularity means having an impact on others, and not necessarily a positive one. Bianca, for example, was popular not because she was sweet as pie to her classmates, but because she had power. She gained that power through manipulation. Studies show that the students classified as popular are often able to actively maneuver their position in the social hierarchy. They are savvy about the Machiavellian methods useful to climb into and then cling to the popular label—and they don’t hesitate to use them. These same studies find that the students who are unpopular are also viewed as lacking the skills to vault to the top of the hierarchy. I would submit, however, that in some cases these “unpopular” individuals know the manipulative behavior necessary to be popular; they simply choose not to use it.
While scientific studies have reported that girls are more likely to associate popularity with social domination, many boys described similar situations. A popular coed clique in Arkansas called itself The Exclusives and wore T-shirts that said, “We are what you wish you could be.” Members adhered to a list of rules they called The Code, which one boy listed for me:
“No more than one ponytail a week for girls.
No hair below the collar for boys.
Jeans have to be designer.
No dating ‘normals’ but one can have sex with them.
All sex is to be admitted to the group and scored 1–5.
All shirts are collared except for Friday for boys.
Girls can wear dresses but only collared shirts.
Girls wear heels every day and guys wear either dress shoes or cool flip-flops.
All weight gain is reported to the group.
Boyfriends/girlfriends