Notes for The Breakfast Club Saturday March 24, 1984
Types
- Princess
- Jock
- Nerd
- Outcast
- Rebel
Descriptions
- Princess
- Has struggle between admitting her virginity, and lying about it which would produce a negative result as well causing her to seem promiscuous. Strongly attached to the tribe for her self-esteem. Tells the nerd that the only reason he would hang out with her and her friends is because the nerd and his friends look up to them. He tells her that she thinks too highly of herself. She claims that she follows the tribalism because of the pressure of her friends.
- Jock
- Tough guy. Prefered by teachers and staff of school. Living his life based on his father’s expectations, similar to Peter Keating. Picked on some skinny nerd type because his father wants him to be a wild stupid jock, as does the rest of the jock tribe. At first thinks the rebel just makes his problem up as part of his image within the tribe, when really the rebel does have a white trash abusive father.
- Nerd
- In Academic Math and Physics club. Doesn’t like himself. Good with math and not mechanics. Feels like he fails to meet parents expectations of grades. Individual, doesn’t like the tribalism. Nerd had flare gun in his locker because we was going to try to kill himself for making an F in some class.
- Outcast
- Sits in the back of class. Bites her nails. Claims her parents ignore her. Compulsive liar, wants attention. Came to the detention because she had nothing better to do, not because she had to be there.
- Rebel
- Willing to take risks. Anti-education/intellectual. Violent and destructive at times. Hints of nihilism. Envies the “princess” girl since she was given everything she has in life, and he was dealt with nothing but pain. He claims that all she knows is “shopping, nail polish, and BMW’s”. Communicates that he thinks the nerd lives a “Leave It to Beaver” life, while his family is white trash with an verbally and physically abusive father. In a way still conforms to the tribe, but in a form of anti-tribalism. He wouldn’t be caught hanging out with someone that is labelled as a nerd, jock, or perfect princess type girl. He makes fun of the nerds clothing, which seems to indicate that his own clothing is representative of non-conformity. He is mistaken, as clothing is not always chosen by a person to give them better visibility within the tribal setting.
Stereotypes vs Individuals
In this situation we had people that seemed to be of various stereotypes, however we know that having one or more characteristics of a certain stereotype doesn’t mean that you have all the characteristics of that stereotype. Just because rednecks listen to country music doesn’t mean that all people who listen to country music are rednecks. Stereotypes exist because people that have similar characteristics hang out together. Why would people spend time together if they didn’t have something in common.
All people are individuals, and not identical. There are people which seem to belong to a certain stereotype, however they may have a mix of various interests and characteristics. A person could dress like a nerd, but play football on the weekends. A person could play football on the football team but hang out with .
One of the main causes of social issues during high school is collectivism in the form of tribalism. There are people who think that other people are tribalists, when they themselves are still supporting the tribalism. They think that everyone else other than their friends are conformists, when really everyone is an individual. Individuals take actions which are a mix of conformity and individual choice. There are people who will make fun of others to boost their self-esteem through tribal presence, and there are those which make fun of others just as serious criticism or as wisecracks amongst friends.
In the movie notes listed above, the nerd character isn’t a tribalist, but his self-worth is extremely dependent on his meeting the expectations of his parents.
Other issues… Parents sheltering their children. Religion. High school caste system…the untouchables, which leads to view of society as a major class struggle. A view of an American ideal of Capitalism, where the poor man can rise to the top by his own efforts, however this is just a pipedream. In reality everyone holds everyone below him down. This is how they view it, because of all the tribalism. Paul Graham - Nerds
“While the nerds were being trained to get the right answers, the popular kids were being trained to please.”
“Nerds would find their unpopularity more bearable if it merely caused them to be ignored. Unfortunately, to be unpopular in school is to be actively persecuted…..When you tread water, you lift yourself up by pushing water down. Likewise, in any social hierarchy, people unsure of their own position will try to emphasize it by maltreating those they think rank below. I’ve read that this is why poor whites in the United States are the group most hostile to blacks.”
“But I think the main reason other kids persecute nerds is that it’s part of the mechanism of popularity. Popularity is only partially about individual attractiveness. It’s much more about alliances. To become more popular, you need to be constantly doing things that bring you close to other popular people, and nothing brings people closer than a common enemy.”
“If I remember correctly, the most popular kids don’t persecute nerds; they don’t need to stoop to such things. Most of the persecution comes from kids lower down, the nervous middle classes….”
“Unpopularity is a communicable disease; kids too nice to pick on nerds will still ostracize them in self-defense. “
“Adults in prison certainly pick on one another. And so, apparently, do society wives; in some parts of Manhattan, life for women sounds like a continuation of high school, with all the same petty intrigues.”
“But in at least some cases the reason the nerds don’t fit in actually is that everyone else is crazy. I remember sitting in the audience at a “pep rally” at my high school, watching as the cheerleaders threw an effigy of an opposing player into the audience to be torn to pieces. I felt like an explorer witnessing some bizarre tribal ritual.”
Trench Coat Mafia
I used to think that I related with the Trench Coat Mafia members which terrorized the school at Columbine. I knew how much I hate the conformist Christians, and the conformist cliques of high school. However, I think that their type is much worse than the anti-conformist type. I hated the collectivism, as it affected my self-esteem. I didn’t know what the rules were to be popular. I didn’t think that I could do what it takes to be popular. If you weren’t rich, you are scum. If you don’t play sports, you aren’t cool. You are of a different class, and thats just how it is. A grave injustice I knew it was to be of a lower caste even though I excelled in what really is important in life. I would have never taken my hatred as far as the Trench Coat Mafia did. I related to the fashionable non-conformists as their anti-Christian gothic style seemed to represent a lashing out against this stupid game of the norm. I failed to realize that such groups also contained people who were there just to fit in, and not based on some principle. Some people became non-conformists because they wanted to conform, I think…?!?