Popularity vs Intelligence

Well, I am probably not wrong. I could be. But. You cannot use the "I" in this comparison. To look at this as an overview, you must consider the entire student body. And the top three|bottom three people involved.

Personally, I do not want to use examples of people who got beat to crud. I do have personal experience, however, not getting beat, seeing who got beat. And when I had had enough, stopping it.

From kindergaten through highschool, I attended 9 schools. If you want to get to know up close and personal how to stay afloat in a fluctuating social environment, hit 9 schools in 12 years -- in as many environments. You will pay attention. You have to. If you do not, you will sink. And you might even, um, learn something.

I've also read a good deal about it. There was an amazing manuscript going out back around '97. I do not remember who the publisher was. The manuscript's title was "Slut" and I do not know if they kept that title when they went to publication. But it was a brilliant manuscript documenting studies on school dynamics and popularity with an emphasis on highschool based on notes from people who looked young enough to fake being students and went in under cover to research the subject.

Everything came down to, first and foremost, economics.

Who wears the right clothes? Who drives the right car? Who can actually afford to participate in extracurricular activities? And the big phrases of the day if none of that applied were "slut" and "fag." Neither of which had anything to do with promiscuity or sexual orientation. Both of which were labels to tag an individual as undesirable.

Secondary to economics is physical beauty and/or prowess.

Physical beauty will take you into circles you would not be a member of without it. People like to be around beautiful people.

Likewise, physical prowess counts.

But --

The majority of popular people in highschool are not all that good looking. And not all that prowessey either. [If they were, wouldn't the football team be winning every game?]

Pull out a yearbook. Pull out Vogue and G.Q. Do the popular people fit? No.

Look over the people you have been ignoring because you had some bizarre fixation on being popular. Do they fit?

Well, probably not. People who take school photos are not generally amazing photographers. However, shouldn't there be a difference? There will not be because, hello, what you perceived as beaty was not beauty.

Go rent "Monster." That is Charlize Theron. How does she look? Put together, she looks damn good. That takes cash. Overweight in a bad scenario with bad skin? Not so great. But that is the same person. I stress person. Not "character."

Beauty is knowing how to present beautiful. The rest of beauty is illusion, What do we find attractive?

In highschool, stature boils down to, on most fronts, money.

If you think you step outside this scale? Do the three top|three bottom equation, taking yourself out of it. And then go rent Monster.

Bottom line? I am going to repeat myself once here:

If you went to a school where everyone had a similar [high] income, the money scale does not apply to you and you cannot really appreciate or comprehend this subject. Any school where everyone has the same monetary value will automatically fall back on a secondary prestige scale. Odds are the secondary scale will be based on name, power, or political clout. Name is fading because so much of the old name money has died off in the U.S., the nouveau riche are starting to pretend they are important. Lucky for the nouveau riche some old families are really broke and will invite them to parties.

If you went to a school where everyone had money but you and you broke the mold and became class president? You broke the mold because you were holding a secondary playing card. Beauty or prowess or some form of prestige. Prestige usually means stardom and --

In the case of the kid who grew up in a poor town, getting beat up daily, who left town to work on music videos?

That is prestige. Stardom. [Associated with money] Everything changed when that kid became a "star" -- and I bet people who beat him up were suddenly his best friends.

Stupid people are not by virtue ugly people. Dumb people are not by virtue ugly people. It is moronic to imply either. Hello. And, in every story, there will be someone who excelled because, okay, he was not rich, he was not the president's son, and he could not deliver Cuba but, hello?

He was freaking good looking, charming, and could win the championship.

I have one last thing to say. Smiles? Dumb?

Baby Cakes. Are you insane?

Who's babycakes? Also DE, I do own my own company, SGQ INC, whenever I make money I make for my compnay. Right now though the company car is a bike..... but can carry my findings. Can't wait to get a real job, make real money, sure going through dumpsters of computer stores and video stores is easy, and hell, you get new DvDs like AVP free, sometimes several copies, which can be sold. Or a computer store, they throw out computer parts, like moniters, mice, keyboards, HDs, power supplies, ram, cd-roms, DvD-roms, all kinds of goodies either I use or sell.

But anyways, you hs sounds like a hell hole to me, even mine wasn't that bad. Well, it was, except for the uniforms and coke, everything else, dead on. It is sad, had some freinds who stopped being freids when they realized they were popular and I wasn't. Although one still is freind even though he was extremely popular jock/druggy. He true freind, he didn't care about popularity, only if you were a good person or had money to buy off him. And now that he out of rehab he like how he use to be, before hs, before drugs, so even better.

Anyways, it is still annoying, upgrading the stadium of the worse football team in the league while the best FFA program in the state and last year the 14th best in the nation gets zilch. The Marching Band I was once part of, the best in the state, wins competitions nation wide, Florida, Chicago, Washington D.C., and they get zilch. For the first 9/11 after the attacks they asked one band from every state to come for the parade deal, out of Ohio we were asked. Not Ohio State Buckeyes, not Toledo Rockets or Bowling Green Falcons, none in Cleveland or Cinncinati, no, we were asked. We didn't go cause the school board sucks, but still, we were the ones asked. But hey the people in the band they smart, and well, some were hot I have to admit, but they weren't like, you know, totally, like oh my gosh, you know? Being hot doesn't make you stupid, being hot, blonde, and cheerleader/cheerleader like does.(ok, stereotyping, but hell, we had one smart cheerleader and she was Asian, therefore canceling the blonde factor)

In my high school, I am pretty popular in my grade, and I work out a good deal and can say I have pretty good looks. But that doesn't mean I don't wholeheartedly concentrate on my studies. I am one of the smartest in my grade (at least I think so), and I get good grades in all of my advanced classes. The point is, I can stay healthy and smart without getting criticized on. What I am trying to say is that not everyone who is as built as a gorilla or is as slim as a piece of cardboard is a one-way person. "Not everyone", meaning that probably 1 in a 1,000 can be that way and actually be regarded as human beings. I just worry about myself and not very much about others. But then again, what all of you said about the jocks and bimbos are pretty much true- very rarely will you see someone playing sports also getting good grades, and vice versa. But, not everyone is like that- and I can say that I'm one of the few.

James the Lesser. FWIW, I think what is popular in hig achool and society is chosen for us. Why is Jerry Springer popular? Certainly not for the educational value? Why is Ashlee Simpson popular? Why is William Hung even making CDs?

Another thing, life ain't fair.

Well. Also. Not to be cruel....

James the Lesser, you are, um, not smart.

You cannot spell. Your grammar is an appalling try at. If you are "smart," on any level, it is for sure not a case of knowledge or ability in written form.

DE you're from Toronto right? What school was that in, kind of reminds me of my old school, Danforth Tech. Not nearly that bad though, the "nerds" just stuck to indoor activities and everyone else usually just ignored them. It was a big school mind you, 1400+ ppl.

Smiling is not "dumb" and there are many studies out there that back what I said. Smiling makes you appear more approachable and more attractive.
It does not just apply to high school, it applies to life in general. It's one of the first things covered in Psych 101.

And as far as doing a test, me smiling, you not smiling, that wouldn't be much of a test considering that when I leave my house in the morning I leave with a smile on my face. It's much easier to get through the day if you find things to be happy about rather than dwell on problems.

If you want an unofficial study, I can tell you that my two older daughters (ages 5 and 7) are like night and day. My 7 year old is beautiful. Everyone she meets says she should be a model so it's not just me being biased. My 5 year old is very pretty but not a knock-out like my 7 year old. However, get the two of them together with a group of people and within 2 minutes they all have congregated around my 5 year old. Why? Because she is always smiling, laughing and so much FUN! She's incredibly optimistic and has the most contagious smile and laugh you will ever see. And, it isn't just when you see her in person. In photographs she LOOKS as if she has been modeling her entire life. She knows how to play the camera and the beauty of her bubbliness shows up in pictures and her eyes light up in an amazing way. If you didn't see the two girls in person and only saw a picture of the two of them you would think the 5 year old was the knock-out and that the 7 year old was pretty but not spectacular. Why? It's all in the smile. Even photographers who come to the house to do our family photos generally start out trying to get shots of my 7 year old because of her beauty ... they soon learn that the 5 year old is the one that is a photographers dream and it's her pictures that they end up using in their portfolios!

If you want to believe that smiling is 'dumb' that is your choice. But I guarantee you that going through life with a smile on your face has more positive effects than going through life looking like your mad at the world. It isn't like smiling will cost you a fortune or hurt your health. You have NOTHING to lose by trying it, so what are you afraid of?

Jemison

Originally posted by sardion2000
DE you're from Toronto right? What school was that in, kind of reminds me of my old school, Danforth Tech. Not nearly that bad though, the "nerds" just stuck to indoor activities and everyone else usually just ignored them. It was a big school mind you, 1400+ ppl.

It was a Catholic school out in the burbs, in the richest set of suburbs in fact. The school itself wasn't bad, it was the spoiled, antagonistic people who went there, because they knew their parents had clout, or were lawyers, or just didn't care and got high.

DE

I know my grammer/spelling sucks, especially online, why I quit trying to write books, spent to much time with spell check. On a report for school it would be alright, but I have gotten lazy with the internet even though one shouldn't on ATS. I also sucked at math. But history, english, reading, science, computers, animals, marketing, useful skills I am great. Also, high Cognitive Ability, 138(ok, so 133-143, since all IQ/CA tests have a 5 point leeway) also known as IQ. Anyways, it takes more CA to read a Tom Clancy novel then to light a joint, something I am glad to say was never done by me.

DuesX, Lawyers in Toronto? But Canada is so peaceful, why would you ever need Lawyers?(j/k)

Also, edited part, smiling? I can't smile, hate it, my muscles twitch when I smile. Besides, I laughed all the time, had fun, only thing keeping awake during history or other class I excelled at was joking and doing funny things to keep myself entertained, like adding in the funny story of how a northern general who didn't see the greatness of accuracy was shot by a early day sniper from the confederate army shortly after saying "They couldn't hit an elephant from this distance."

[edit on 6-2-2005 by James the Lesser]