h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i appreciate the point of this article, that it attempts to make some bloody sense of the ludicrosity of american teenage social groupings.
nonetheless, however, i am compelled to protest the inaccurracy of the groupings, or at least their lack of utility when applied to more than one particular area.
having been through the highschool thing and the college thing, i have talked to many many folks about what the social groupings/cliques were like in their schools. america is a big goddamned place, and these descriptions may apply to a few highschools out there, but how many, really?

as with so many highschool sitcoms, these generalizations, if they work at all, seem to work only for suburban schools, not urban or rural ones.

what about the hippies? and the thespians? and the greasers?

more importantly, none of the details listed here will apply in five years, when the goth and skater categories will disappear.

A note before I begin: I am not a skater.

That said, I strongly doubt that the skating group will diminish at all. Skating has already been around for some 20 to 30 years or so, and shows no signs of dying. This is simply because skating isn't just some fashionable manner of dress, but rather a sport which has managed to achieve mainstream recognition.

Granted, skating may disappear from the mainstream definition of "cool", but I'm fairly certain that there will always be groups of skaters who like to hang out and discuss their pastime.

So this is the first message that I have seen relating to thespians. When I first looked at this list I was quite impressed at how well the author managed to get so many of the groups put together. At my high school, the preps are, believe it or not, mostly pot heads. The people that most people assume do serious drugs, happen to be the 'freaks' the 'thespians' and the 'skaters'. Irony? Maybe?

At the moment I'm watching Loser. Its not a great movie but its got a lot of 'american student sterotypes'. The Loser, the Punk Princess, The Druggies, The Cool Kids. What does it say to our society when the people who work so hard to get what they want get called the 'freaks' and 'geeks'. Come on thats injustice right there.

watch disturbing behavior, it has simmilar generalizations.

Really, being european, I have no idea what sort of teenage 'subgroups' there are, other that the somewhat coloured depictions in the movies. But I know how it is out here.
And being bluntly honest, these groups are defined by the less intelligent portion of the public. Inable to see beyond appearence they judge on:
-clothes
-music choice
-choice of friends
and aptionally, ideals and opinions, although massively poluted by public opinion.

Judging these atributes, I would be defined as a skater, though I have no desire to be put in a box (it's an expression). I wear what pleases listen to what makes me happy or inspires me, choose friends truely well (though intelligence is required)
Subsequently, I propable have the opinions (I don't care much for ideals) of some other prejudiced group.

My point here is that these boxes are only in your head put there by obviously dumb people trying to make sense of a world in which the things they see with their naked eye are even too much for their limited braincapacity.