The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth

Danielle, “The Loner,” struggles to fit in at school, especially when it comes to finding a place to sit in the cafeteria. In gym class her peers persuade her into joining the “I Hate Danielle Club.” The “Cafeteria Fringe” are the people who are excluded from the school’s “in” crowd.

Conformity has become intrinsic to American high school culture due to the No Child Left Behind law and an excess of standardized tests. Leaders like author JK Rowling, musician Bruce Springsteen, and television host Tim Gunn were all ostracized at school. They exemplify Quirk Theory, which is the idea that the traits that earned them ridicule at school are what make these individuals stand out successes later.

To investigate this issue, Robbins followed a few students for a year, issuing each a unique challenge, and conducted hundreds of interviews with students, teachers, and counselors. “Blue” from Hawaii founded his high school’s first gaming club, but his classmates ignore and exclude him. In eighth grade, Flickr employed him to take photographs, but his peers still considered him a “geek.” For months, he worked at hosting a Local Area Network Party, but in Blue’s junior year, a staff member took issue with it and had Blue’s responsibilities revoked. The event flopped, and he shouldered the blamed. After, his former friends bullied him.

Whitney from New York is among the popular crowd at school. She and her popular friends adhere to strict social rules, using their leverage to gain special treatment, even from school staff. Meanwhile, Regan, labeled “weird” at school, must hide her relationship with her girlfriend Crystal from her peers. Mandy, the new partner of Regan’s former boyfriend Wyatt, spreads lies about Regan. Regan’s peers divide into named cliques, often based on race, and even wear matching T-shirts for one year. They ridicule Regan for not being a drinker and for being different, but she doesn’t care.

In Pennsylvania, Noah the “band geek” is stereotyped as “Asian” by his classmates, who tease him about his hair. When his grandmother becomes ill, he leans on his girlfriend Leigh for support. Eli is a “nerd” from Virginia who feels like an outsider at school and dreams that his academic ability will one day take him far away to a university in the Pacific northwest and secure him a good job. Joy is the “new girl” at a school in California, where things are so different from her former home in Jamaica that she feels disoriented. Other girls are inexplicably unkind to her.

There are lots of labels within high school culture, such as “emos,” “indies,” “scenes” and “bros.” Even hobby and religious groups subdivide. Within these segregated groups, members routinely criticize those who do not comply with the group’s rules. This complicates the natural human need to belong. Marginalization and bullying are on the rise.

Research indicates that visibility is an important component of popularity. “Popular” individuals are more likely to use manipulation to attain social status, and popularity is separate from personal opinion. Robbins provides background on her “characters”—the high schoolers she shadows for the year—and sets the framework for the challenges she will issue them:

Blue’s grades have been deteriorating along with his relationship with his mother, who refuses to pay his college fees.

Whitney from New York uses her “popular girl” status to her advantage. She meets and becomes close to Luke, a punk whom her clique disapproves of. She secures the role of Treasurer for the Student Council for the sixth consecutive year.

Lee breaks up with Noah, and he is devastated. He throws himself into band management, and his anxiety attacks return. He decides to run for student government.

Regan introduces Crystal to her community theatre colleagues. Wyatt tells Regan that he and Mandy broke up.

Danielle goes to homecoming but regrets it. She loves to read.

Joy feels ostracized when Nathalie, a new friend, stops eating lunch with her. Black students shun her here for different reasons than they did in Jamaica, where her lighter skin gave them the (false) impression that she was rich. Joy befriends Anisha.

Researchers have found a strong link between aggression and perceived popularity. Precisely when a girl is perceived as popular, she is most vulnerable to being labeled “stuck up” and loosing popularity. Meanness is a way of expressing dominance, according to Ball State University professor Don Merton (80). It became trendy to be a “bitch” due to popular TV shows like Gossip Girl and The Real Housewives, as well as teen movies like Mean Girls and celebrities like Paris Hilton.

Whitney starts to become conscious of how unkind her clique is, but she is terrified of being left out. Whitney can’t go to a party because she is sick, and the other girls use this to exclude her. Yet she joins in when her clique cruelly jokes about the weight of a girl outside the group.

Blue feels lonely, even among his friends, who target him not because he is gay but because he is different. He has a crush on Nate.

Eli is ostracized even by his Spanish camp friends. His mother pressures him to be “normal.” He excels in a Chinese exam and dreams of leaving Virginia.

A colleague calls Regan a “faggot,” so she explains the word originated with witch burning. Regan learns that Mandy fumed at a mutual friend Theodore when he mistook her for Regan. Regan and the rest of the characters in her story, including Wyatt and Mandy, are teachers. Some of the teacher cliques even have names, and the faculty lounge is as threatening as the student cafeteria.