Top 5 High School Stereotypes

High school is a time when most young people use labels and have stereotypes towards certain groups of students. Specific labels and stereotypes can be regarding as discriminating factors against certain students who do not follow the requirements imposed on them by the rest of the classroom. In later years, students stop using these labels, but such stereotyping still affects the future perception of most young people. Stereotypes are used to reflect certain features of a specific group of students that are different from the ones that are considered acceptable. The following essay will discuss a few high school stereotypes that are most commonly used in the school environment. Most of these stereotypes are rather unfair and judgmental. And it is hard to give a well-grounded definition to each of them. The current paper avoids giving superficial definitions to the existing stereotypes among high school students. It will rather make an attempt to discuss the stereotypes imposed on students in detail.

1. Nerd

This category of students is characterized by a strange sense of humor that is often misinterpreted by other students. They have a quiet character and are obsessed with some kind of entertaining activities including reading comic books, surfing through the internet and using computer a lot, watching animation movies or drama and being obsessed with music bands. Nerds tend to study well at school, and they sometimes have problems with controlling their emotions if they are pressured, which is known as “nerd rage”. Besides, these students are not very popular with the opposite sex, which however does not make them feel bad. They do not have a need to get involved in love affairs as they are quite satisfied on their own. Besides, nerds do not care much about fashion. They do not care what they wear to school and outside school. They are rather obsessed with their own circle of interests and sometimes behave in an awkward way. Besides, nerds tend to dislike any kind of sports activities.

2. Emo

This group of students thinks that the entire world has a hostile attitude towards them. They tend to be depressed most of the time and see no point in human existence. This might cause various problems with socialization, because these groups of students tend to undervalue the importance of being optimistic and looking at the bright side of every event in their lives. Emo tend to use extreme and high unusual ways of self-expression. This includes special hair styles, extrinsic accessories and other aspects. They tend to listen to depressing music and fail to understand that such music bands are oriented exactly on such depressed poor children. Emo purchase extrinsic clothes that reflect some specific topic. They tend to dress in unusual clothes that help them to express their personality. Emo also dislike the authorities, although they usually have quite normal relations with their parents. There can be traced many parallels between emo and nerds, although the differences are quite obvious.

3. Punk

This stereotype mostly reflects the music preferences of students. This category of students tends to listen to rock and underground punk music. They are addicted to such music styles and are often interested in various political symbols like a black flag, tiger army and others. Therefore, it can be assumed that they have a specific political position although they generally cannot defend it and fail to argue in favor of their point of view. They greatly dislike pop-punk music bands and often call others “posers”. Punks also take interest in at least one or multiple aspects that are against commonly accepted cultural beliefs. These include tattoos, piercings, extrinsic hairstyles and many more. Such students are rebellious and often tend to wear clothes bought from concerts or in online stores. At some point in their lives, such students can try abusing hard drugs or start their own music band.

4. Goth

Such students tend to be angry and awkward. They are obsessed with everything that reflects the dark aesthetics and generally enjoy wearing black-colored clothes. They listen to a mixture of synth-heavy music, which reflects their ideas about the world around. Most of Goths tend to be smokers and express their personality through clothing and art. They have a dark outlook, which is nevertheless much less dark than in case of emo style. They might have an awkward obsession with various macabre movies and books like the Twilight or something related to vampires as well as the creative works of Tim Burton. Goths tend to buy clothes through the internet and dress more like emo students but at the same time have a little more elaborated looks.

5. Indie kid

Such students enjoy listening to absolutely any music styles. They enjoy a whole variety of movies and are interested in fashion. This is an independent stereotype that reflects freedom of students in choosing what they like. Such students do not like anything that could be viewed as mainstream. They generally take interest in books, art and music. They also do not like students that are popular with their peers. Indie kids do not like stereotyping and hate being labeled. If a student is an Indie kid, he/she will most likely turn into hipster, which is another stereotype of young people. It is quite hard to describe the clothes preferred by Indie kids. They tend to be open-minded so their style of dressing often reflects their views about the world. Indie kids prefer dressing moderately and often have quite a good sense of humor although a little conservative. Besides, Indie kids tend to be against smoking and drinking.

The above list of stereotypes is obviously incomplete, because there are a lot of other labels imposed on high school students by their peers. As a rule, stereotypes originate from the style of clothes preferred by students and the music bands they enjoy listening to. Stereotypes have been part of the school environment since time immemorial, and this tendency is likely to continue with new labels emerging based on one’s preferences and tastes.

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