Despite Carlmont’s pride as a school that is socially accepting to all, there are still enormous amounts of cliques on campus that resemble those in movies.
Over the past two decades, cliques have become commonly studied and commercialized through movies, especially teen movies.
In social sciences, a clique is a word used to describe a group of people who interact more with each other than with others in the same setting. The interaction of cliques is part of normal societal development that come about through common relations of gender, ethnicity, interests, or most stereotyped, popularity.
As Janis Ian states in the movie Mean Girls, “You got your freshmen, ROTC guys, preps, JV jocks, Asian nerds, Cool Asians, Varsity jocks…, Girls who eat their feelings, girls who don’t eat anything, desperate wannabes, burnouts, sexually active band geeks, and the [popular kids],” in essence, cliques are very diverse, but at times not tolerant of others.
Carlmont, like the schools in movies, has become organized by cliques. These cliques tend to group within specific areas on campus and many groups have different connotations that come with those within the group.
“There are definitely cliques at Carlmont that form based on classes, electives, and close bonds between friends,” stated Junior Kiana Ghazouli, “but they don’t resemble those in movies, they just naturally form from common interests or hobbies.”
Popular clique movies, however, do have some reality. No matter how accepting a student body is there will always be those who feel like they are blocked out and can only wish to be part of a certain group.
“Cliques can have a scarring effect on people,” stated Ghazouli, “especially if [a person] is excluded from a group.”
At times, these desires can have beneficial effects on people, letting them grow as person and reach a new level of self-confidence. But at other times cliques can have caustic effects on people, such as changing their image to fit in more or being friends with someone they do not necessarily like, which causes them to be more and more distant from those who truly care.
Many students have found this to be apparent in their own lives; but nothing describes this way of living better than Mean Girls:
Mr. Heron: Hey, how was school?
Cady: Fine.
Mrs. Heron: Were people nice?
Cady: No.
Mr. Heron: Did you make any friends?
Cady: Yes.
The insecurities that cliques may cause for students stem not only from how they are treated at their respective schools, but also how popular movies and television portray others in their position.
The most popular way of representing cliques is by showing the social ladder of high schools, which has become especially evident in the widely viewed show, Glee:
Sue: These students are like a caste system. All the popular kids are in the penthouse. All the nerds playing wizards and trolls in the forest, bottom floor.
This predetermined social system emerges in elementary school through toys and movies and begins to effects student mentality at an early age.
While some choose to be themselves, others just strive to fit in.
No matter how accepting Carlmont becomes there will always be cliques on this campus.
