Numbuh9494: I don't think Numbuh 86 really fits the part of a Libby. Everybody hates her, and she's not spoiled or rich. She's not even really a brat.
Rocket Master: Don't worry, i added another entry here, Mandy. Mandy fits The Libby trope perfectly.
Professor Raine: Since we all went or are going to High School (unless you're homeschooled), this could make for a wonderful
Troper Tales page.
fleb:The
Real Life section has exactly one real example so far, and that was only recently added and can go in
Troper Tales if it goes anywhere. The rest is all guesstimation, Internet Psychology, and "Never seen one myself. Just thought I'd mention that."
yellowallamanda: I know this is a bit out of subject, but I was wondering wheter was possible to deconstruct or invert this trope or not, and how.
Real Life
- Sadly, this is a case of Truth In Television: A lot of research has indicated that being popular is not always associated with being well-liked or particularly nice. Essentially they dominate social groups through exclusion, malicious gossiping and fear.
- Which brings us to Good Is Dumb and the Puppetmaster, as you have to be really good at manipulation to pull this off. On the other hand, though, most high schools are way too large for Libby-level centralization of power.
- Huh? You either aren't female or don't remember your high school days at all. It doesn't take much to manipulate teenagers socially. It really doesn't.
- This Troper is female, went to an all-girls school, and the ONLY Libby she came across with was... mostly in her head. The stereotypical "Libby" was actually a nice girl whom the editor rather unfairly misjudged, based only on rumors. On the other hand, the punks and the goths she's met in her life were WAY more stuck-up and bitchy than any teen movie cheerleader would ever be.
- This Troper believes that Libby's at an all-girl school would not work, the lack of a male football team really destroys the point.
- Not when your all-girls school is just a few blocks away from an all-boys one. LOL
- This Troper went to a small high school with about 400 students. There were several "Libbies" (four or five, perhaps more) that competed with each other and generally kept each other relatively weak through competition. I had always assumed that the situation was nature's way of keeping popular females from taking over school.
- This Troper is currently in high school, and does not know anyone who would qualify as The Libby. However, I tend to stay away from the "popular" groups, and considering that I go to a rather large school, its perfectly possible that I've just never been around to see The Libby.
- This female troper had to put up with a Libby throughout middle AND high school. She'd psychologically torment me just because—and I shit thee not—I mentioned that I never want to have sex. (She had lots of sex, or so she claimed.) And to add insult to injury, every time I verbally retaliated to one of her more vulgar statements about me, guess who got a stern talking-to by the nearest teacher? She's just one of the reasons why my instant, reflexive response to "High School Rocks" is "LIARS BURN IN HELL."
NAME
Okay, so I know that we have character names, but really, the Libby? I had no clue who this was, and it turns out they're a character from a
mostly forgotten 90s series? Can't this get a more descriptive name instead of a obscure reference?
- How about Alpha Bitch? I think everyone would get, right? Not to mention there's a small pun in it.
Doctor Nemesis: Have started a discussion about this on the Trope Repair Forum
here
.
Cambdoranononononono: Removed Nazz from
Ed Edd N Eddy because she doesn't seem particularly noteworthy as an aversion. The school setting only shows up late in the series, and before that she's just the girl that all the guys have a crush on, which is not in itself a setup for Libby-ness, particularly given the show's
Omega Cast. I also cut back on the
American Dad bit a lot because most of it was just gushing about the show.
