Was this what the social structure was like at your high school?

I went to school in South Bend, IN in the 80s and it was a lot like this. The rich kids who didn't go to the private Catholic schools (mostly kids of the Notre Dame instructors, along with the doctor/lawyer kids) were mostly snobs. The usual cliques were the Preppies, (i.e. rich kids and yes Izod was king), poor kids, jocks, freaks (i.e. the druggies though of course drugs also crossed all clique boundaries), etc.

I don't know if it's a Midwest thing, (all Hughes' films were based in Chicago), but it definitely existed.

I went to public schools in suburban Dallas (graduated in 1985) and family income wasn’t a major factor into who you hanged around. It was more a case of the extra-circular activities such as sports, drama, academic clubs you participated in…One thing from SKOW that reminded me of HS was whoever threw the most home parties had instant popularity and it didn’t matter if the beer bash was held at a mansion or mobile home. Unfortunately for me, my parents rarely left town.

I guess it depends on what area you grew up in. I certainly did not see any cliques divided by financial class. Since we all went to the same high school, we all lived in basically the same neighborhood which meant we were all basically in the same financial class. THe more upperclass neighborhood was a mile or so away which had another high school which kids from that neighborhood went to. I guess in other areas there's less schools so it's kids from more different neighborhoods? That's the only sense I can make of it since it's seems strange that kids from poor neighborhoods would be at the same school as kids from rich neighborhoods.

Great point to bring up about John Hughes movies.

I think that these were more or less a plot device for dramatical affect. Almost, in a way, he made them up that way because any other way would be less dramatical.

I think that in subtle ways economics influences who people hang with, but its much deeper. In these movies it seems a bit superficial.

I realized what you are talking about in watching this series of movies, but thought it was a Cali thing.

Notice that in 16 Candles and Ferris Bueller, those 2 movies are centered around upper class spoiled brats (especially Jake and Ferris) but there are no "poor kids" in those movies to root for. I kinda think it was better that way, though. But all his movies are American classics.

Is it solely an American thing? It's quite a poignant theme in some dramas in Asia. Most notably perhaps in Filipino teen movies.

As for my own high school(s) - we moved from one place to another because of my parent's jobs. Hmm.... no such thing in the UK. It was different.

Coppola did that even worse than Hughes in "The Outsiders." Still the brat pack though.

At my high school (South Gate HS 1967-70)we had:

The "Cool" Kids (They were concieted ***holes)

The Soshes (Nerds, overly scholastic types. School Band)

The Beaners pre gang bangers (Self explanitory)

The Surfers (Pre FTaRH. NOBODY said "dude" Real surfers still don't)

The Stoners/Hippies

The Musicians (Mostly garage bands/Rockers) The band I roadied for cut an album. One of their songs was used in the movie Lost in Translation.)

The Non Categorized (Complete misfits/outcasts)

There was crossover sometimes. I ran with the Surfers Stoners Musicians.

"They sucked his brains out!"

I think it was just an 80s thing. It was the material age. All my years in school and it never really mattered how much money your parents made, nor if you played sports or not. In fact, most of the football players at my school were cool guys and liked a lot of geeky *beep* The elitists at my high school were actually the smart geeky kids. Bunch of a-holes. If they didn't think you were smart enough, or if you simply weren't into the same anime they were into, they ditched you. I felt like I had to buy a Magic the Gathering deck for them to speak to me.

But one constant has always remained....being good looking matters. Good looking guys and girls could get anything they wanted. They were always popular, and most of them were nice people. If you weren't that great looking you were at a severe disadvantage. They got all the parts in plays, teachers took it easy on them, no one really picked on them, they were given more opportunities, they were all over the yearbook, and they weren't even part of a club. They just looked good so they got more pages. Since most of them were nice people who didn't have an elitist attitude because everyone liked them, it was hard to even hate them at all.