Like the Heathers, but less clever.
May 6, 2011 9:42 AM
Bops and Plastics: When you were a teenager, was there a name for the group of girls who were perceived to fit the stereotype of shallow, airheaded, and image-obsessed?
If so, I'd love to know the term, roughly when it was in use, and where you were living at the time - and any other qualities that were perceived to be associated with this group.
If so, I'd love to know the term, roughly when it was in use, and where you were living at the time - and any other qualities that were perceived to be associated with this group.
preps. preppies.
they lived in the nice part of town, they got their school clothes on a trip to dallas or new york or little rock. they would make a huge deal about handing out party invites privately (which is bullshit because of the big show they made out of it). they would shove you on the stairs if you talked to the boys in school they deemed theirs. they thought their daddy's money made them cool. they were in honors classes even though all their projects looked like an adult did them.
nw arkansas - 90s.
posted by nadawi at 9:48 AM on May 6, 2011
they lived in the nice part of town, they got their school clothes on a trip to dallas or new york or little rock. they would make a huge deal about handing out party invites privately (which is bullshit because of the big show they made out of it). they would shove you on the stairs if you talked to the boys in school they deemed theirs. they thought their daddy's money made them cool. they were in honors classes even though all their projects looked like an adult did them.
nw arkansas - 90s.
posted by nadawi at 9:48 AM on May 6, 2011
We called them preps. Midwest, late '90s.
posted by runningwithscissors at 9:48 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by runningwithscissors at 9:48 AM on May 6, 2011
I think we might have called them cheerleaders, even if they weren't actual cheerleaders. I can't remember because, fortunately, we didn't have too many of them.
posted by small_ruminant at 9:50 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by small_ruminant at 9:50 AM on May 6, 2011
The Popular People. (Though that might have just been what my friends and I called them.)
Southwest CT, early to mid 90s.
posted by DestinationUnknown at 9:50 AM on May 6, 2011
Southwest CT, early to mid 90s.
posted by DestinationUnknown at 9:50 AM on May 6, 2011
Bitches --kidding.
Preppies.
Pom-Poms
Rahs
Chicago, mid 1980's
posted by marimeko at 9:51 AM on May 6, 2011
Preppies.
Pom-Poms
Rahs
Chicago, mid 1980's
posted by marimeko at 9:51 AM on May 6, 2011
Singularly, "ditzes". En masse, "preps". Late 90s Southeast.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 9:51 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by TheNewWazoo at 9:51 AM on May 6, 2011
"Populars" "popular kids" "preps" Maryland, early 2000's.
posted by lettuchi at 9:53 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by lettuchi at 9:53 AM on May 6, 2011
Oh, I should have read more carefully. They weren't airheaded. Airheaded wasn't really allowed where I grew up, girls like that would have just been called stupid. The Popular People were the prett,y thin ones with the right clothes, but they were also expected to get into to really good schools.
posted by DestinationUnknown at 9:53 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by DestinationUnknown at 9:53 AM on May 6, 2011
Preps or Preppies.
Populars.
Suburban NY early-mid 90's.
posted by Bango Skank at 9:54 AM on May 6, 2011
Populars.
Suburban NY early-mid 90's.
posted by Bango Skank at 9:54 AM on May 6, 2011
In NYC in the '90s my friends and I mostly used the term "JAP" (short for "Jewish-American Princess" -- someone could be a "JAP" or "JAPpy"), but I think that's specific to Long Island culture and the term only applied to a certain subculture of popular girls. I probably wouldn't have referred to a group of popular girls in, say, Nebraska as JAPs.
posted by enlarged to show texture at 9:54 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by enlarged to show texture at 9:54 AM on May 6, 2011
We called them preppies. They were often cheerleaders and meaner than cats with tin cans on their tails. This was 1987-1988 in Northern California. In 88-89 I went to school on the central coast and my high school peers there all fancied themselves new age, hippies, punks, and goths. The prep/cheerleader label didn't get used much there, and the lines between the groups were almost non existent. Often people I would have avoided like the plague in northern cali were out smoking with the hippies and punks in the central coast beach town where we lived then. Totally blew my mind to go from a school with very severe lines between the groups to a school where no one cared.
posted by routergirl at 9:54 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by routergirl at 9:54 AM on May 6, 2011
I have heard them called Barbie dolls, but don't think I used that expression myself.
posted by zadcat at 9:54 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by zadcat at 9:54 AM on May 6, 2011
"The Popular People/Kids"/ "The 'Cool' Kids" - Michigan, early '90s, was not one
posted by k8t at 9:54 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by k8t at 9:54 AM on May 6, 2011
The funny thing about the "preps" usage, at least for us, is that it existed entirely outside of the '80s association of rich kids with a "prep school" subculture--the kids we called "preps" would never wear boat shoes or navy blazers and wealth wasn't really a factor in determining whether you were one of them.
posted by nasreddin at 9:57 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by nasreddin at 9:57 AM on May 6, 2011
For the record, I went to high school in Northern California in the late nineties, and we had no such term. I suppose we sometimes said "you know, the obnoxious image-obsessed mean girls", or something like that, but there was no term for them.
posted by brainmouse at 9:57 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by brainmouse at 9:57 AM on May 6, 2011
JAP isn't particular to Long Island, though it is popularly associated with that area.
posted by dfriedman at 9:57 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by dfriedman at 9:57 AM on May 6, 2011
"Social bop," sometimes shortened to "sosh." Often accompanied by a side-to-side head move, as if you were making your brainspout (ponytail gathered at the top of the head) dance. SoCal, early-mid 80s. No one assumed that social bops were airheaded, just rich, popular, and shallow.
posted by expialidocious at 9:59 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by expialidocious at 9:59 AM on May 6, 2011
My friends called them variously: Barbies, Hairspray ponies, "them" (hissed), and cheerleaders. Twin Cities, 1986-1990
posted by wenestvedt at 10:00 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by wenestvedt at 10:00 AM on May 6, 2011
In the early eighties, we just called them cheerleaders. Because they inevitably were. Or Jock-bait, because they were that too.
posted by elendil71 at 10:01 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by elendil71 at 10:01 AM on May 6, 2011
Random data point--at our school, we called the popular girls (say the 5 or 6 alpha girls) the "Barbaras" because 2 (I think) of the 6 were named Barbara. This was in NY in the 90s. Obviously, this is just to show that there were some really locally idiomatic terms in use, too.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 10:01 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by Admiral Haddock at 10:01 AM on May 6, 2011
Nthing Popular Kids, Popular People, Popular Girls. Not necessarily airheads though.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:02 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by bluedaisy at 10:02 AM on May 6, 2011
Teenyboppers. All though mostly we just called them "the popular girls." Mid 80s.
posted by Ys at 10:02 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by Ys at 10:02 AM on May 6, 2011
Oh, sorry, mine was upstate NY, late 80s and early 90s. But, yeah, popular kids were sometimes smart. I don't think we had a word that distinguished stupid popular people from smart popular people.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:05 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by bluedaisy at 10:05 AM on May 6, 2011
preps and preppies here, too. We also just called them "the popular girls."
They usually played some kind of approved sport: volleyball, dance team, gymnastics, cheerleading (if you were on the "A" squad). They often had decent grades but didn't go out of their way to be super smart. Preferred brands of clothing were American Eagle or Abercrombie & Fitch. They put on a nice front for teachers and parents but also got shitfaced with the boys from the football or hockey teams. They tanned a lot.
Then they all went to college, immediately friended their entire high school class on Facebook, and posted 10000 photos of themselves playing beer pong or making duck faces.
Suburban Minnesota, '00s.
posted by castlebravo at 10:06 AM on May 6, 2011
They usually played some kind of approved sport: volleyball, dance team, gymnastics, cheerleading (if you were on the "A" squad). They often had decent grades but didn't go out of their way to be super smart. Preferred brands of clothing were American Eagle or Abercrombie & Fitch. They put on a nice front for teachers and parents but also got shitfaced with the boys from the football or hockey teams. They tanned a lot.
Then they all went to college, immediately friended their entire high school class on Facebook, and posted 10000 photos of themselves playing beer pong or making duck faces.
Suburban Minnesota, '00s.
posted by castlebravo at 10:06 AM on May 6, 2011
At my school that crew was called "The Blondes". Creative of us since they were all, uh, blonde. 86-90, So CA.
posted by cecic at 10:07 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by cecic at 10:07 AM on May 6, 2011
Bowheads - mid-1980s, central Texas. It was faddish at the time to wear enormous bows in your hair, on clips or barrettes, and all the popular girls wore them at the time. (Friends I met in college, who lived in North Texas at the time, called them that also, and they had a male equivalent - the bowbeaux.)
posted by telophase at 10:07 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by telophase at 10:07 AM on May 6, 2011
Such people were called fake-and-bakes at my (all girls) high school in Baltimore city in the late 90s.
posted by joan_holloway at 10:07 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by joan_holloway at 10:07 AM on May 6, 2011
These are all great! I should clarify that by "airheaded," I mean more its sense of "lacking seriousness" and "given to frivolity" than necessarily stupid.
posted by jocelmeow at 10:12 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by jocelmeow at 10:12 AM on May 6, 2011
When I was a sophomore, that year's senior popular girls called themselves the "Bitch Clique" and added the notation *BC to their senior quotes. Other than that, they were just the popular kids. Western New York, late 90s/early 00s.
posted by troika at 10:13 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by troika at 10:13 AM on May 6, 2011
Rah-rahs, airheads, BPs (beautiful people). California, early 80s.
posted by zanni at 10:14 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by zanni at 10:14 AM on May 6, 2011
We just called them "the popular kids." Occasionally "preppies." Or "one of those girls" or "the [rich kid neighborhood] kids" or "that Melissa Hartwell/Catherine Blair/Emily Andrew group of people." (Names are made up but representative of the popular girls in our school.) Southeast, 90s.
When I lived in Chicago in my twenties (00s), we called the grown-up equivalent Trixies.
posted by Metroid Baby at 10:15 AM on May 6, 2011
When I lived in Chicago in my twenties (00s), we called the grown-up equivalent Trixies.
posted by Metroid Baby at 10:15 AM on May 6, 2011
Oh! Metroid Baby reminded me! There were two subdivisions in which most of those people lived, so us others would often refer to them by the places where they lived.
posted by troika at 10:18 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by troika at 10:18 AM on May 6, 2011
Preppies or Buffies (midwest, early-mid 1980s).
posted by SomeTrickPony at 10:19 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by SomeTrickPony at 10:19 AM on May 6, 2011
At my school they were known as the Mafia. I have no idea why.
South-west UK, late '90s/early '00s.
posted by badmoonrising at 10:19 AM on May 6, 2011
South-west UK, late '90s/early '00s.
posted by badmoonrising at 10:19 AM on May 6, 2011
Oh yeah, now that I see it, we called them the "popular" people, too. Cheerleader was for the girls, but "popular" could be either boys or girls.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:19 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by small_ruminant at 10:19 AM on May 6, 2011
betties
posted by vespabelle at 10:20 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by vespabelle at 10:20 AM on May 6, 2011
When I was in college, a group of girls that fit this stereotypes started calling themselves "the elites". It was obnoxious, but it stuck.
posted by elvissa at 10:27 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by elvissa at 10:27 AM on May 6, 2011
Like brainmouse, Northern California, early 90s, they had no such name.
posted by elsietheeel at 10:27 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by elsietheeel at 10:27 AM on May 6, 2011
brainmouse: "For the record, I went to high school in Northern California in the late nineties, and we had no such term. I suppose we sometimes said "you know, the obnoxious image-obsessed mean girls", or something like that, but there was no term for them"
Ditto here, same time and location.
posted by radioamy at 10:35 AM on May 6, 2011
Ditto here, same time and location.
posted by radioamy at 10:35 AM on May 6, 2011
tree people. because they hung out by the tree
posted by changeling at 10:36 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by changeling at 10:36 AM on May 6, 2011
"The Fun Bunch" - the 80s
posted by lakersfan1222 at 10:40 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by lakersfan1222 at 10:40 AM on May 6, 2011
Nerd high school, NoVA, late 90s: Rich assholes. "Really cool," in a withering tone. Vapid. Band clique (yes the band's all nerds, but ours had a relatively wealthy good-looking subset which often ran things). I don't remember a catchall noun, I think "vapid" was the descriptor I used most. But as a preteen in the late 80s/early 90s, the word was definitely "bop".
posted by clavicle at 10:42 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by clavicle at 10:42 AM on May 6, 2011
TJHSST, clavicle? I graduated from Lake Braddock in 1993.
posted by jocelmeow at 10:54 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by jocelmeow at 10:54 AM on May 6, 2011
I've recently heard "oompa loompas" being used in this context.
posted by monkeys with typewriters at 11:21 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by monkeys with typewriters at 11:21 AM on May 6, 2011
Yay! Someone else used "bowheads" also. East Texas, 84-88ish.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:37 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by Lyn Never at 11:37 AM on May 6, 2011
Sorry to admit this, but in my high school (suburban DC, late '80s) it was "JAPs." Our school was 20 to 25% Jewish, but the term was applied to Jewish and non-Jewish girls alike, so long as their hair was appropriatly teased and frosted. They were thought of as being rich and privileged, but I'm sure many were not. When we weren't calling girls we didn't like "JAPs" we called boys (and teachers, bands, TV shows) we didn't like "gay." Charming times.
posted by escabeche at 11:40 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by escabeche at 11:40 AM on May 6, 2011
I will third "bowhead." South Texas, '89-'95 or so. Maybe bowhead was a particularly Texan phenomenon?
posted by devinemissk at 11:45 AM on May 6, 2011
posted by devinemissk at 11:45 AM on May 6, 2011
Cods. I think it had something to do with an abbreviation of "country club" or "country club drive." Applied to both boys and girls. (Small Southern town, late 70s/early 80s.)
Suck it, cods.
posted by cyndigo at 11:51 AM on May 6, 2011
Suck it, cods.
posted by cyndigo at 11:51 AM on May 6, 2011
I heard "bowhead" when I moved to the DFW area in the early '90s.
I am intrigued by the lack of people using "bop" despite it being in the post.
posted by Seamus at 11:53 AM on May 6, 2011
I am intrigued by the lack of people using "bop" despite it being in the post.
posted by Seamus at 11:53 AM on May 6, 2011
another "bowhead", same early to mid 80s, but in oklahoma.
in college they became "insert sorority name bowhead" for example, Pi Phi Bowhead.
in addition to giant bow, they tended to wear identifying greek letters on their asses.
posted by domino at 11:58 AM on May 6, 2011
in college they became "insert sorority name bowhead" for example, Pi Phi Bowhead.
in addition to giant bow, they tended to wear identifying greek letters on their asses.
posted by domino at 11:58 AM on May 6, 2011
mid-20-naughts (yes, I'm a baby), northern NJ: "the Popular girls," "JAPs"
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 12:02 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by i_am_a_fiesta at 12:02 PM on May 6, 2011
Biblets, interior BC mid/late 90s. I have no idea why.
Incidentally, Preppies or Preps was something entirely different. These terms were for people who were smart and wore turtlenecks or polo shirts. Usually unpopular.
posted by arcticwoman at 12:21 PM on May 6, 2011
Incidentally, Preppies or Preps was something entirely different. These terms were for people who were smart and wore turtlenecks or polo shirts. Usually unpopular.
posted by arcticwoman at 12:21 PM on May 6, 2011
I used bop in the post because it was the argot of my adolescence in Northern Virginia in the late 80s-early 90s. I sort of think its origin had something to do with the rhythmic shoulder-to-shoulder head movement while uttering a vacuous "Like, I dunno!" I knew it wasn't universal, but I didn't even have a guess as to how widespread it might have been. Looks like not very.
I love "bowhead." So perfectly descriptive of the style of the time. I also know I encountered JAP, but I knew the connotations of it were not positive. It sounds like that may have gotten divorced from its original meaning in some places.
We had preps, but they were people who actually wore preppy styles - they shopped at Britches Great Outdoors and Banana Republic, mostly (this would have been when BR was still pushing safari styles). Preps did tend to be popular, but my secondary school was so huge (3,800 kids, grades 7-12) that there was no one popular crowd.
posted by jocelmeow at 12:25 PM on May 6, 2011
I love "bowhead." So perfectly descriptive of the style of the time. I also know I encountered JAP, but I knew the connotations of it were not positive. It sounds like that may have gotten divorced from its original meaning in some places.
We had preps, but they were people who actually wore preppy styles - they shopped at Britches Great Outdoors and Banana Republic, mostly (this would have been when BR was still pushing safari styles). Preps did tend to be popular, but my secondary school was so huge (3,800 kids, grades 7-12) that there was no one popular crowd.
posted by jocelmeow at 12:25 PM on May 6, 2011
Rounding out the Texas data points: in the Houston area in the late 80's, this type was called "bowheads" or "BH". Only girls though.
Sometimes the extremely image/popularity-obsessed ones would be derogatorily called "Buffy & Muffy" but said with a tone that mocked the "Valley Girl meets sorority girl" affectations of their speech—so it might come out, "like ohmygaw? did you just see Buffehhh? [head tilt] and Muffeehhhh? [head tilt] zoom by in Daddy's Mercedes, like give me a break."
The private school kids were called "preps" by the public school kids—although the private school kids didn't refer to themselves as such.
In Houston at least, "prep" or "preppy" was mostly about your clothes, car and social activities... far less about what actual school you attended.
posted by pineapple at 12:26 PM on May 6, 2011
Sometimes the extremely image/popularity-obsessed ones would be derogatorily called "Buffy & Muffy" but said with a tone that mocked the "Valley Girl meets sorority girl" affectations of their speech—so it might come out, "like ohmygaw? did you just see Buffehhh? [head tilt] and Muffeehhhh? [head tilt] zoom by in Daddy's Mercedes, like give me a break."
The private school kids were called "preps" by the public school kids—although the private school kids didn't refer to themselves as such.
In Houston at least, "prep" or "preppy" was mostly about your clothes, car and social activities... far less about what actual school you attended.
posted by pineapple at 12:26 PM on May 6, 2011
Mildly OT, but:
"Banana Republic, mostly (this would have been when BR was still pushing safari styles)"
This is so excellent. I like to blow the mind of my resident teenager in the mall when I tell her that, long before BR became a classier hybrid of Gap + Talbot's, they used to sell pith helmets and camp shirts and khaki wrap dresses. Lots of epaulets. Lots of olive-drab.
posted by pineapple at 12:28 PM on May 6, 2011
"Banana Republic, mostly (this would have been when BR was still pushing safari styles)"
This is so excellent. I like to blow the mind of my resident teenager in the mall when I tell her that, long before BR became a classier hybrid of Gap + Talbot's, they used to sell pith helmets and camp shirts and khaki wrap dresses. Lots of epaulets. Lots of olive-drab.
posted by pineapple at 12:28 PM on May 6, 2011
Preps and popular girls was what we called them in Ohio in the early 80's. We also called the popular kids jocks, even if they weren't athletic... preps and jocks were people who were popular, had nice clothes, didn't get in trouble much (mostly because they didn't get caught doing stuff) and were Too Good to Hang Out with the Likes of You. "You" being the "hoods", the bad kids who smoked and skipped school and got sent to the office a lot.
I've heard my husband and his brother refer to the sorority girls at their school as Bowheads. They went to college in Missouri in the late 80's-early 90's.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 12:44 PM on May 6, 2011
I've heard my husband and his brother refer to the sorority girls at their school as Bowheads. They went to college in Missouri in the late 80's-early 90's.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 12:44 PM on May 6, 2011
Early 90's, Los Angeles County/Orange County border
Popular kids, rah-rahs (usually reserved for anyone in the pep squad), conformists, trendy people.
posted by luckynerd at 12:48 PM on May 6, 2011
Popular kids, rah-rahs (usually reserved for anyone in the pep squad), conformists, trendy people.
posted by luckynerd at 12:48 PM on May 6, 2011
Mid-eighties, Northern California (SF Bay Area) — we called them "sprees" in reference to the Esprit clothing they tended to be in head-to-toe.
posted by Lexica at 12:54 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by Lexica at 12:54 PM on May 6, 2011
Large Bowhead population in central North Carolina, mid-80s.
posted by apparently at 12:59 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by apparently at 12:59 PM on May 6, 2011
NH in the early aughts - the popular kids and preps. Definite association with Abercrombie & Fitch. My friends who went to college at UNH referred to the ugg/legging/white v-neck crowd as biddies (counterparts to the bros).
posted by ChuraChura at 1:09 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by ChuraChura at 1:09 PM on May 6, 2011
Bowheads, central KY, late 80s to very early 90s.
posted by dilettante at 1:18 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by dilettante at 1:18 PM on May 6, 2011
Early eighties - West Texas, they were called Soches as in the first syllable of Social or Detinus from this 'service club' most of them & the jocks belonged to. It was united spelled backwards.
I went to 4 different schools from 9-12th grade, three of those schools in West Texas and the fluffy girls were soches at all three schools.
posted by jaimystery at 1:25 PM on May 6, 2011
I went to 4 different schools from 9-12th grade, three of those schools in West Texas and the fluffy girls were soches at all three schools.
posted by jaimystery at 1:25 PM on May 6, 2011
Late nineties So Cal, popular kids.
posted by thankyouforyourconsideration at 1:35 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by thankyouforyourconsideration at 1:35 PM on May 6, 2011
A Mississippi (coastal area) vote for "bowhead."
posted by thebrokedown at 1:36 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by thebrokedown at 1:36 PM on May 6, 2011
I think "bowhead" must have been a mid-80s Southern US thing, then - I spent a semester of college in the UK in 1991, and as my South Carolina roommate clipped her large collection of bow barrettes on a ribbon nailed to the wall, she commented "People sometimes call me a bowhead, but I don't know why."
posted by telophase at 1:49 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by telophase at 1:49 PM on May 6, 2011
I graduated 2002, and we just referred to them as "the clique." Northern WV
posted by shortyJBot at 2:04 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by shortyJBot at 2:04 PM on May 6, 2011
Late 1960's/early 1970's - Spokane, Washington. We caled girls like that "soshes"
(social as opposed to intellectual). It was not a term of endearment.
posted by Lynsey at 2:32 PM on May 6, 2011
(social as opposed to intellectual). It was not a term of endearment.
posted by Lynsey at 2:32 PM on May 6, 2011
early-mid 80s, rural South Western Ontario.
We had Preppies, which applied to boys and girls - they were a 'set' and they all wore alligator shirts. Airheads were a little different. A Preppie could be an Airhead, but so could a Rocker (Rockers listened to Rush and hung out in the smoking area...our school was too unhip for Goths). There were also sluts. Sluts were usually Rockers - this had to do with the quantity of mascara more than anything. Sometimes a Preppie was deemed slut, but that would be scandalous and gossip-worthy. Then there were the Lezzies...but that was something else.
posted by aunt_winnifred at 3:09 PM on May 6, 2011
We had Preppies, which applied to boys and girls - they were a 'set' and they all wore alligator shirts. Airheads were a little different. A Preppie could be an Airhead, but so could a Rocker (Rockers listened to Rush and hung out in the smoking area...our school was too unhip for Goths). There were also sluts. Sluts were usually Rockers - this had to do with the quantity of mascara more than anything. Sometimes a Preppie was deemed slut, but that would be scandalous and gossip-worthy. Then there were the Lezzies...but that was something else.
posted by aunt_winnifred at 3:09 PM on May 6, 2011
Populars, Cheerleaders or Jennifers (because at least 3 of them were named Jennifer). Mid to late 80's, Bay Area, California.
posted by dogmom at 3:11 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by dogmom at 3:11 PM on May 6, 2011
Central NY state, mid to late 90's. We called them "preps". The term could apply to males also. If the guy played sports he was a jock. Among my particular group of smart, unconventional artsy/musician friends we referred to them sometimes as "sheep".
posted by katyggls at 4:52 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by katyggls at 4:52 PM on May 6, 2011
Preps or preppy or popular kids. DFW suburbs, mid-late '00s. I graduated in 2008, but the "prep" stuff was most intense in middle school (2002-2004 or so). I graduated in a class of 1300, so there was no one popular group although they all kind of knew each other I guess.
posted by MadamM at 5:03 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by MadamM at 5:03 PM on May 6, 2011
Hair hounds, mid-to-late-eighties, northeastern US. So called because that was the era of Aqua Netting your long bangs into a wall on top of your head, stiff enough to stop a Mongol horde.
(It's so strange to hear the word "preppy" associated with this kind of thing. Back then, in my area, preppies were the very primly-dressed young people, khakis and button-downs and cardigans with little paisley designs on them.)
posted by Gator at 5:36 PM on May 6, 2011
(It's so strange to hear the word "preppy" associated with this kind of thing. Back then, in my area, preppies were the very primly-dressed young people, khakis and button-downs and cardigans with little paisley designs on them.)
posted by Gator at 5:36 PM on May 6, 2011
Just to add an outlier and ethnic variant, I'm checking in for Honolulu, Hawaii in the mid '90s. We used to call them "Shoyu Bunnies." This would apply to an asian girl who liked to ride around in a Honda Civic/CRX with an aftermarket exhaust and Hello Kitty window stickers, giggled and spoke through her gum-smacking in an elevated pitch, and wore Bongo shorts and scrunchies, which was the style at the time.
posted by krippledkonscious at 5:41 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by krippledkonscious at 5:41 PM on May 6, 2011
College days, late 80s, Kansas/Missouri: buffy or bowhead here too. Usually said in reference to sorority girls.
posted by hapax_legomenon at 5:42 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by hapax_legomenon at 5:42 PM on May 6, 2011
Preps as well, early 2000's, Southeastern Indiana
posted by theRussian at 7:32 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by theRussian at 7:32 PM on May 6, 2011
Soces....which are also the initials of the school I attended.
My personal name for them was fluffheads.
posted by brujita at 7:36 PM on May 6, 2011
My personal name for them was fluffheads.
posted by brujita at 7:36 PM on May 6, 2011
JAPs (jewish american princesses) whether they were jewish or not.
Philadelphia, PA suburbs (there are a massive amount of private and public schools around here)
early 00's
posted by assasinatdbeauty at 7:52 PM on May 6, 2011
Philadelphia, PA suburbs (there are a massive amount of private and public schools around here)
early 00's
posted by assasinatdbeauty at 7:52 PM on May 6, 2011
JAPS for sure. And yes to someone above - frosted hair. Which also reminded me of the de riguer frosted pink lip gloss!
Long Island, North Shore. Mid 80's.
(Also, this definitely meant Jewsih, but honestly, it was cool to be Jewish. Or so it seemed to me. Eventually, you could be considered Jappy and not be Jewish.... but used that way it meant you were copying them.)
posted by jbenben at 8:43 PM on May 6, 2011
Long Island, North Shore. Mid 80's.
(Also, this definitely meant Jewsih, but honestly, it was cool to be Jewish. Or so it seemed to me. Eventually, you could be considered Jappy and not be Jewish.... but used that way it meant you were copying them.)
posted by jbenben at 8:43 PM on May 6, 2011
"Boufy (or boofie) girls" - for their bouffant-style teased-up hairdos and similarly frivolous behavior & inane chatter. Late 80's, semi-rural NH.
posted by pammeke at 9:52 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by pammeke at 9:52 PM on May 6, 2011
I used bop in the post because it was the argot of my adolescence in Northern Virginia in the late 80s-early 90s. I sort of think its origin had something to do with the rhythmic shoulder-to-shoulder head movement while uttering a vacuous "Like, I dunno!" I knew it wasn't universal, but I didn't even have a guess as to how widespread it might have been. Looks like not very.
I also grew up in Northern Virginia and we called people bops, mostly in middle school (early 90s). When I went to college I couldn't BELIEVE everyone didn't know the term. It was so commonly used, and then there was that song "unskinny bop"which we thought meant everyone was caling people bops nationwide. Bop was definitely a derogatory term though in my experience. Meant airheaded, vacuous, go with the flow.
posted by sweetkid at 9:59 PM on May 6, 2011
I also grew up in Northern Virginia and we called people bops, mostly in middle school (early 90s). When I went to college I couldn't BELIEVE everyone didn't know the term. It was so commonly used, and then there was that song "unskinny bop"which we thought meant everyone was caling people bops nationwide. Bop was definitely a derogatory term though in my experience. Meant airheaded, vacuous, go with the flow.
posted by sweetkid at 9:59 PM on May 6, 2011
"Like, I dunno!"
Yes, we used to do this when describing bops, and we'd also get a high pitched voice and say, "Waite?" or "White?" instead of "what" because that's what we thought bops sounded like when they said "what". We'd be like, "Oh my god, wait, wait, Waite?" Hard to explain.
posted by sweetkid at 10:02 PM on May 6, 2011
Yes, we used to do this when describing bops, and we'd also get a high pitched voice and say, "Waite?" or "White?" instead of "what" because that's what we thought bops sounded like when they said "what". We'd be like, "Oh my god, wait, wait, Waite?" Hard to explain.
posted by sweetkid at 10:02 PM on May 6, 2011
Preps or preppies, but as mentioned above, the popular chicks were expected to get good grades. They weren't cheerleaders, either; they were the top athletes. Nebraska, 1994-1998.
posted by timoni at 10:11 PM on May 6, 2011
posted by timoni at 10:11 PM on May 6, 2011
Vancouver, BC, mid nineties.
We called them Spice girls.
posted by meringue at 10:24 PM on May 6, 2011
We called them Spice girls.
posted by meringue at 10:24 PM on May 6, 2011
Cornflakes. Mid 1990s, Melbourne, Australia, girls school. The Tori Amos song had been released around that time. The cornflakes were house sport captains or on the rowing team, regular features, not dumb but not necessarily studious, with parents who were Liberal party (conservative) voters, lived in the wealthy suburbs around the school, probably had skiing holidays, thought they were cool.
posted by AnnaRat at 3:43 AM on May 7, 2011
posted by AnnaRat at 3:43 AM on May 7, 2011
South Louisiana, 1990's - Chiming in on "preps", though we didn't call them "preppies" as a noun. Preppy was an adjective associated with the preps.
Like others have said, this term was used for the popular kids, and did not necessarily reflect the wider connotations of "preppy" as in WASPY, moneyed, etc. In fact, I'd say that growing up in Louisiana, those sorts of "preppies" didn't exist at all.
I went to a Catholic school with uniforms, so accessories were the main way of sorting out the different high school tribes.
Female preps were easily identified by the school spirit colored grosgrain ribbons they wore around their ponytails, descended from the Texan Bowhead of the eighties. Male preps were equally likely to wear white or pale-colored baseball caps, usually with a college team's logo (the South Carolina Gamecocks were popular, ell oh ell), with the brim curved according to some esoteric code.
posted by Sara C. at 8:52 AM on May 7, 2011
Like others have said, this term was used for the popular kids, and did not necessarily reflect the wider connotations of "preppy" as in WASPY, moneyed, etc. In fact, I'd say that growing up in Louisiana, those sorts of "preppies" didn't exist at all.
I went to a Catholic school with uniforms, so accessories were the main way of sorting out the different high school tribes.
Female preps were easily identified by the school spirit colored grosgrain ribbons they wore around their ponytails, descended from the Texan Bowhead of the eighties. Male preps were equally likely to wear white or pale-colored baseball caps, usually with a college team's logo (the South Carolina Gamecocks were popular, ell oh ell), with the brim curved according to some esoteric code.
posted by Sara C. at 8:52 AM on May 7, 2011
In middle school (suburban NYS, late 80s) we called them "do-boppers," which the popular girls had named themselves in 5th grade during a 50s lip-sync contest (remember when that was a thing?). It stuck. In high school we really didn't pay too much attention as my friends and I were too busy being overachievers.
posted by alicetiara at 6:44 PM on May 7, 2011
posted by alicetiara at 6:44 PM on May 7, 2011
Sara C's comment reminds me that in high school the popular boys were "white-hats" after the white baseball hats with lacrosse logos on them that were worn with a very curved brim (early 90s). A high school acquaintance informs me that they are now called "lax bros."
posted by alicetiara at 6:48 PM on May 7, 2011
posted by alicetiara at 6:48 PM on May 7, 2011
UK, mid-to-late 90s. They were tarts (the sluttier ones) or the "popular girls". Or, in my group of friends, they were just "the bitches".
posted by indienial at 12:01 AM on May 8, 2011
posted by indienial at 12:01 AM on May 8, 2011
Thanks to everyone who answered! I'm going to total up the responses as soon as I can manage to. It's clear there was wide use of prep/preppy and a southern swath of "bowhead" (which is my favorite thing I learned from this question).
This strikes me as something that would be interesting to plot like the Pop vs. Soda page...but I don't think I'm feeling quite that ambitious.
posted by jocelmeow at 6:09 PM on May 10, 2011
This strikes me as something that would be interesting to plot like the Pop vs. Soda page...but I don't think I'm feeling quite that ambitious.
posted by jocelmeow at 6:09 PM on May 10, 2011
Ahahahaha! Belatedly, jocelmeow: yes, TJHSST 1998, and I went to middle school at Lake Braddock.
posted by clavicle at 9:01 AM on May 11, 2011
posted by clavicle at 9:01 AM on May 11, 2011
Preppies and Bowheads are the winners. I am frankly rather surprised that there's so little uniformity in the terms, given that so many of us have a word we could remember using for that group. Here are some approximate counts:
Airheads: 2
Barbies/Barbie dolls: 2
Barbaras: 1
Beautiful People: 1
Betties: 1
Biblets: 1
Bimbos: 1
Bipsies: 1
Bitch Clique: 1 (a self-given name)
Bops: 3 (may have been a mid-Atlantic/Southeast thing)
Boufies: 1
Bowheads: 13 (definitely a Southern thing)
Buffies/Buffy/Buffy & Muffy: 3
Cheerleaders: 4
Cods: 1
Conformists: 1
Cool kids: 1
Cornflakes: 1
Detinus: 1
Ditzes: 1
Do-boppers: 1
Fake-and-bakes: 1
Fluffheads: 1
Hair hounds: 1
Hairspray ponies: 1
Heathers: 1
Mafia: 1
Muppets: 1
JAPs: 7
Jennifers: 1
Jock-bait: 1
Lisa: 1
No term for this group of people: 3
Oompa-loompas: 1
Pom-poms: 1
Popular girls/people/kids: 13
Prep/Preppy/Preppie: 25 (the most widespread name, for sure)
Rahs/Rah-rahs: 3
Sheep: 1
Shoyu Bunnies: 1
Skanks: 1
Social bop/soches/soshes: 4
Spice Girls:
Sprees: 1
Tarts: 1
Teenyboppers: 2
The Bitches: 1
The Blondes: 1
The Clique: 1
The Elites: 1
The Fun Bunch: 1
Them: 1
Trendies/Trendy people: 2
Tree people: 1
posted by jocelmeow at 2:33 PM on June 5, 2011
Airheads: 2
Barbies/Barbie dolls: 2
Barbaras: 1
Beautiful People: 1
Betties: 1
Biblets: 1
Bimbos: 1
Bipsies: 1
Bitch Clique: 1 (a self-given name)
Bops: 3 (may have been a mid-Atlantic/Southeast thing)
Boufies: 1
Bowheads: 13 (definitely a Southern thing)
Buffies/Buffy/Buffy & Muffy: 3
Cheerleaders: 4
Cods: 1
Conformists: 1
Cool kids: 1
Cornflakes: 1
Detinus: 1
Ditzes: 1
Do-boppers: 1
Fake-and-bakes: 1
Fluffheads: 1
Hair hounds: 1
Hairspray ponies: 1
Heathers: 1
Mafia: 1
Muppets: 1
JAPs: 7
Jennifers: 1
Jock-bait: 1
Lisa: 1
No term for this group of people: 3
Oompa-loompas: 1
Pom-poms: 1
Popular girls/people/kids: 13
Prep/Preppy/Preppie: 25 (the most widespread name, for sure)
Rahs/Rah-rahs: 3
Sheep: 1
Shoyu Bunnies: 1
Skanks: 1
Social bop/soches/soshes: 4
Spice Girls:
Sprees: 1
Tarts: 1
Teenyboppers: 2
The Bitches: 1
The Blondes: 1
The Clique: 1
The Elites: 1
The Fun Bunch: 1
Them: 1
Trendies/Trendy people: 2
Tree people: 1
posted by jocelmeow at 2:33 PM on June 5, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
(Midwest, late 80s, early 90s).
posted by *s at 9:47 AM on May 6, 2011