I’m talking about the table divisions through groups and those who aren’t part of the groups not being allowed by others to sit with them and ending up having to eat elsewhere (in none of the tables). Also about how the groups devide themselves and things like that.
I’ve seen various depictions of lunch scenes in American High School movies and they’re all pretty similar, so I’m curious to how much of reality they contain
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There’s a little bit of reality there, often exaggerated for comedic effect.
They’re so exaggerated as to be divorced from reality. These scenes are intended to entertain, not inform.
Exaggerations. Instead of ‘cliques’ its mostly friend groups. Which, I suppose a clique is just a friend group with a common focus.
Nowhere near as much well defined clique based hatred and bullying.
There’s a grain of truth in that kids often self-segregate based on their style and the things they’re into, like the goth kids and the skaters and the hicks, whatever. But movies really amp these divisions up for dramatic effect.
an accurate movie about regular American high school kids would be pretty boring.
The “everyone’s in rigid cliques and unspoken hierarchies” trope is…the impressionistic invention of adults in the 70’s-00’s reflecting on their own experience years after the fact and embellishing for dramatic effect. People (who I suspect were not overly popular) developed a taxonomy of cliques that did/does exist to an extent, but is far more flexible and fluid than most movies allow.
Are there “jocks?” Sure. But they do other things and hang out with other people. There’s no set of rules or restrictions that keeps you hemmed into your own group; insofar as groups were insular when I was in HS, they were friend groups composed of people who never really fit a trope.
And honestly…I don’t think I ate at a table at any point in high school.
Went to highschool in the late 90s. Cliques existed. They weren’t as rigid as in the movies, there was some intermingling. But yes typically jocks hung out with jocks and cheerleaders, and tended to be the most popular.
Band geeks hung out with band geeks, theater kids with other theater kids.
It wasn’t a free-for-all on bullying. But bullying happened.
Mainly you wouldn’t sit at another table because you didn’t know anyone, not because the kids wouldn’t “let” you sit with them.
It is commonly known that on Wednesdays we do in fact wear pink
I remember the cheerleaders used to eat together
It’s drastically overstated in many of them but…. yeah, people tend to sit with their friends and their friends tend to be the people they’re around a lot in whatever classes they take or extracurricular stuff they do.
It’s not clique warfare like the movies, just folks sitting with those they know and like.
One of the biggest things I have noticed is that typically the “popular kids” are popular for a reason. They are attractive, often athletes, but also… they are charismatic and generally popular because they ARE NICE to be around.
The kind of blowhard jock stereotype is… pretty fictionalized. In reality they’d be ostracized pretty quickly especially by their own teammates.
As someone who went to high school in America, I can confirm it’s inaccurate. My high school was cool and let us eat lunch in the parking lot and tailgate. People were generally civil to each other
Movies, television, and the internet are not a good representation of real life in any country.
Mostly over exaggerated. Kids are generally more multifaceted than just being a stereotype of a group. Like you can be a jock and have good grades.
It’s pretty accurate, in my experience. But I don’t think forming cliques around shared interests or personalities is a uniquely American thing.
Compared to the movies, there are a lot of so-called “normies” who don’t fit into any of the clique groups (e.g., jocks, goths, nerds, etc.). They’re not usually depicted.
Like if you watch *Mean Girls*. Most people are like Lindsay Lohan’s character. There are still the cliques, but there are far more people who don’t fit into any of them — people who are just more or less ordinary and normal.
Not
I barely had time to get from my class, through the lunch line, shoved the food down my throat, so I could run to my next class. Sitting for endless time chatting with people? Never.
We had table divisions but were divided by friend groups instead. Also most people ate outside the cafeteria because it was too small so it would be common to eat in classrooms or in the hallway.
That was pretty accurate when it came to my school
Sort of. You sat with your friends. You generally didn’t sit with random other groups because they weren’t your friends so why would you bother them?
It’s not especially accurate based on my experience in school and my observations as a teacher:
-this probably depends on climate and school policies, but not that many students in my experience actually eat in the cafeteria. Students go off campus, eat at club meetings in classrooms, or eat outside. The actual cafeteria is a bit of a last resort already: you probably won’t find the class president/ homecoming queen/ quarterback types there because they’ll be busy elsewhere.
-cliques aren’t really like they’re depicted. Friend groups are usually pretty mixed. There are some groups that form based on common interest or similarity, but they aren’t really hierarchically ranked. If you’re a stereotypical nerd who hangs out with other stereotypical nerds, it’s likely because that’s who you enjoy being with, not because you’re somehow not allowed to hang out with the jocks. And in reality there’s usually quite a bit of overlap: homecoming queen/ chess club president and things like that.
-the food at high school cafeterias is bad in a different way than usually depicted. It’s not usually overwhelmingly disgusting; it’s more likely to be just very bland, packaged, and boring.
People did clap if you dropped your tray.
My opinion: The people that write these scenes were basically theater kids in high school. Their perspectives in high school probably were highly influenced by fitting in with likely only one group. As outsiders they were probably more likely to see school through a lens of hierarchy and tribes, and movie tropes reflect that.
It’s just friend groups sitting together
The films are somewhat accurate except they exaggerate it by saying “this is the cool table! Go away nerd!”
I don’t remember there being an actual cool table that others knew to avoid or aspire to getting a seat at
——
Something also not really shown in films properly is that some groups view the “cool people” as the dorks.. I grew up skateboarding and the jocks were freaking idiots to us.. definitely not cool
But the movies always make it out like the jocks run the show
People group up with people they normally hang with. I’ve never heard of someone enforcing a group and kicking someone out
When it comes to high school lunch or prison lunch, about the same. Here is your food and like it.
There are definitely cliques, but movies *really* exaggerate and stereotype groups of kids. Geeks/nerds/dorks don’t necessarily wear thick glasses or have out of control acne or wear pocket protectors. Goths/Emos dont strictly hang out with *just* goths/emos- most groups kind of disperse and spread out and intermingle with each other.
One thing I will say is fake (at least in my experience) are kids eating in the bathrooms because they’re social outcasts or whatever.. 1) thats gross and 2) a lot of cafeterias don’t allow food trays to leave the cafeteria and/or 3) some schools allow for off campus lunches (mine did not, but there’s a tragic reason as to why).
My high school enrolls about 3,500 students and most of the time people eat outside (Southern California, so temperate weather).
When I graduated in the early 2000s it was very much self segregation than “this is the so and so table.” Heck, I couldn’t point out who the cheer leaders or jocks were, because no one cared.
Every region is going to be different. I went to high school in Southern California where during lunch the students would spread out to a 4 acre area outside, and while everyone definitely had their group of people it wasn’t particularly hostile or anything. If you didn’t know a group of people you wouldn’t join them but usually people had a place to go and would find spots where anywhere from 2-3 to several dozen kids would congregate. A few kids would eat alone somewhere, some might go to the library.
Divisions were generally among friend groups but there would be a lot of overlap. Grade divisions I remember being the biggest one though.
There was a cafeteria but I never went inside.
My school had a cafeteria but it also little carts out in a quad open area that sold pizza and stuff. I always did those.
If you’re in California then high school looks like a 3rd world country and not from the movies. All the classes outside, gum everywhere, hardly anywhere to sit, food is alright.
I mean. Can you be friends with everyone? It’s impossible to be. No table can handle everyone, too. I guess that’s a given. There are always the loners. Any grade and any gender. Same grades/class age…They may not be close friends but they are comfortable being around each other. Different sports and activities. Usually older kids but they will usually lump together. Boyfriends and girlfriends together or a couples table. Maybe special ed kids or teachers if they don’t have their own room or are required to be in the lunchroom.
Every movie will have it’s dramatic effect but I would say they are right on….for the most part.
I immigrated to the U.S from Latin America when I was 14 (late 90’s) and I’ve written about my experience on this sub a few times.
In my opinion it’s directionally accurate but obviously embellished.
What they get right: Cliques did exist but they weren’t so pronounced and there was a lot of overlap between the people in them.
What they get wrong: At least in my experience cliques based on race were very prevalent but I guess Hollywood doesn’t want to portray that.
I believe the type of people who become writers feel that they’re completely accurate and the people who weren’t bullied in high school think they’re exaggerations.
They’re more or less accurate.
It’s often exaggerated a bit for drama, but the basics have some truth to them. High schools do frequently have their little cliques, some of whom might be more exclusionary than others.
In my personal experience that kind of thing petered out after Middle School. But every school is a little different
In my high school (1980-1984) people sat with whoever they wanted. I guess it could be seen as “clique-ish” but there were never any “rules” to it. The football team was tight and always sat together. But a lot of other kids sat with them too. They just sat together, that’s all.
people just eat lunch with their friends
If I was going to choose a media depiction of my school experience (an affluent Chicago suburb) it would be Gilmore Girls. A few tables of popular kids and the rest are normal kids who sit with their friends. Definitely more civilized than what’s depicted in Mean Girls, for instance.