Girl Posse - Television Tropes & Idioms

"We're popular- you're not."

"They ruled the high school. Decided what was in, who was popular... it was kind of like the Soviet Secret Police if they cared a lot about shoes."

—Angel, Angel, "Room with a View"

In a High School series, there is always an evil popular girl. We'll call her The Libby and give her an entry of her own, otherwise she might flush our nerdy heads down the lavatory pan.

She always has a posse of well-dressed, mean girls with her, who don't really say anything except to parrot her opinions and attitudes - sort of the high school version of Evil Minions meets Satellite Character. If the posse members are slightly more developed, expect at least a devoted second-in-command (who may or may not be an insecure mess), a pretty but dimwitted follower, and possibly also a new girl who will be briefly suckered in by The Libby.

They may or may not be Gossipy Hens as well. They are very unlikely to be A Friend In Need, even to each other.

Examples:

Anime and Manga

In the beginning of the series, Sae from Peach Girl basically had the whole school under her finger, most of the guys were head over heels for her, and some of the girls would frequently complement her and follow her around.
Nanami's trio of flunkies in Revolutionary Girl Utena, although they are more independent than usual (specially Keiko).
- That's for the anime only. Nanami doesn't appear in the manga in person (Only in a photo.), and the role of the posse is taken over by some real bitches.
The Gambee pilots of Soukou No Strain.
Chieko has a pair of them in All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku TV. Except for one Lower Deck Episode, all they did was pop up behind her saying, "Yes, what Chieko said is right." They had names, but it only highlighted how unimportant they were; "Hidariko" and "Migiko" translate to just "left-girl" and "right-girl".
Natsumi, Minami and Kumi, the "partners-in-crime" of the Unlucky Childhood Friend Otome Katou in School Days. Otome herself is a slight subversion (she's popular at school, but is more of a sportswoman than a cheerleader or Rich Bitch), but boy do these four act like school bullies when they're together and poor Kotonoha is near...
Subversion: Julie and Charlotte attempt to become Layla's Girl Posse in Kaleido Star to get back at Sora for being The Fool, but thanks to some bits of Character Development midway through the first season, not only they start being nicer to Sora, but they start helping Layla for selfless reasons and not to suck up to her.
Yuki's fanclub in Fruits Basket. The president of the club is Motoko, The Libby.
Asai Yuriko, Yamano Minako, and Ayuhara Erika from Hana Yori Dango, though they don't have nearly the popularity or influence that the F4 does.
Mihaya, Miyoko and Hiroka from Naru Taru are under the "orders" of one really nasty Libby named Aki Honda. When one of their victims, Hiroko, gets sick of it and acquires a "mon" named Oni... Aki, Mihaya and Hiroka die in very gruesome manners. Miyoko survives, but loses a leg.
Subverted in Parallel Trouble Adventure Dual, where Mitsuki Rara's posse are nice girls, they even perform a Heel Face Turn later in the series.
Kafuko from Space Pirate Mito has a two-girl posse, who not only carry out her orders, but occasionally carry her and/or props for dramatic effect, and in one instance even gave a Noblewomans Laugh for her.
In Demashita Powerpuff Girls Z, the Princess' only friends are these, and once she ditched them over a fight. They then received powers from the dark Z rays, which made them posse anyone they wanted, inflating their ego and making them selfish, and when using their powers in conjunction with Princess' they actually made her stronger.
Miyabi's teacher-hating schoolgirl gang in Great Teacher Onizuka.

Film

The movie Heathers played around with this trope, with a Girl Posse made up entirely of Libbies.
A majority of the plot of Mean Girls deeply delved into the phenomenon.
Jawbreaker.
The Pink Ladies in Grease, to a degree.
- This movie actually had TWO sets of such posses (actually four, if you count both male and female). On the one side for each sex was the contingent of more prototypically 1950s kids who dress like model students, act (superficially) polite, and suck up to all the authority figures they can. Then there are the Pink Ladies and their male counterparts the T-Birds, who wear tight pants and jackets, smoke, swear, play mean-spirited pranks, and generally act rude. Both cliques are shown to be flawed, but it's implied that the Pink Ladies are somewhat LESS flawed because they at least are honest about their shortcomings. The lesson, I guess, is that it's not really fashion or attitude that makes you cool, but a lack of hypocrisy. This dynamic also turned up in another 1950s period comedy: John Waters's Cry Baby.

Literature

Jessica Wakefield and her pals in the Sweet Valley High books and TV series, and more specifically The Unicorn Club in the Sweet Valley Twins book series.
Subverted in Harry Potter, though maybe not consciously - anyone who is ever mean to Harry (aside from the obligatory "shun him" routine every book) is a Slytherin male, basically just Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle.
- It's played pretty straight with Pansy Parkinson and Cho Chang, both of whom are described as being surrounded by their friends. Cho isn't really a Libby though, Pansy on the other hand...
Sherrie Adams in Circle Of Three is the alpha girl of "The Graces," though the group slowly breaks apart throughout the series.

Live Action TV

Cordelia in early episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer had a group of yes-girls, the Cordettes, which included future vampire Harmony.
Libby and her one-dimensional interchangeable goon squad from Sabrina The Teenage Witch.
Kate and her one-dimensional interchangeable cheerleading squad from Lizzie Mc Guire.
Gigi's friends in Wizards Of Waverly Place.
Gossip Girl both plays this one straight (Kati, Isabel, Hazel, Penelope) and subverts it (The bespectacled Asian nerd who routinely receives the highest test scores of anyone in the school eventually becomes one of Blair's henchmen).
Paris in Gilmore Girls had her two sidekicks, Madeline and Louise, whilst she and Rory were at Chilton High.
Santana and Brittany on Glee, whose main purpose is to fufill the glee club's needed quota of 12 students and stand behind Quinn in almost all of her scenes.

Newspaper Comics

The aptly named 'Posse' (Zuma, Redondo, and LaJolla) in Zits, although they tend to be gossips more than bullies.

Professional Wrestling

In a rare example of a gimmick that TNA has done to perfection, The Beautiful People are a perfect example of the trope in wrestling. At this point, Angelina Love as The Libby with Velvet Sky serving as her (slightly) dumber foil and loyal second-in-command, and Madison Rayne initially having Naive Newcomer leanings after her Face Heel Turn but that's mostly over with now.
Vince's Devils, Torrie Wilson and Candice were already hanging out like best friends and teamed up with Victoria for the sole purpose of tormenting the new girl from the diva search, Ashley. There was some Ho Yay between Victoria and Candice and Torrie bought a dust mop dog, so she could rub its ass in the faces of their opponents.
The Minnesota/International Home Wrecking Crew in SHIMMER.

Video Games

Raspberyll has one of these in the form of Asuka and Kyoko in Disgaea 3 - Of course, since the Netherworld generally counts being an asshole as a good thing, the posse's decided that they'll earn their delinquency points by being the biggest goody-two-shoes they can hope to be.

Webcomics

Lucy and Rhoda, flunkies to queen bee Diane at Moperville South HS in El Goonish Shive. This seems to be a setup for a subversion, but it's too early to tell.
- Mildly subverted by Lucy's downright flippant and sarcastic manner towards Diane.
- And subverted again when Diane actually seems to care about Rhoda.
Subverted in Cheer! twice: The Ekaltsew Cheer team, who are shown as buffoonish and stupid would-be enemies of the Tandy Cheer team, and with Sarah and Karen, who eventually abandon their leader, Tamara, after one hare-brained revenge scheme too many.
Penny's Sara, Michelle, ~~Katy-Ann~~ Cyndi, and Brandi from Penny and Aggie. Also Karen's Meg, Samantha, Charlotte, and Cyndi.
Felicia Laine, with her unnamed cat and squirrel, in Ozy And Millie.
The high school of Loserz also has them. See this strip.
In Everyday Heroes, Goldie was the queen of Jane's high school. The trope is somewhat subverted in that Goldie seemed to be a benevolent despot. Jane was set to inherit the title during her senior year until she dropped out of school.

Western Animation

Mandy and her one-dimensional interchangeable goon squad from Totally Spies.
The Ashleys in Recess, with Ashley A. (usually) as The Libby.
Lilo And Stitch: Myrtle has possibly the youngest posse, who take the "parrot her opinions" duty to the extreme- Myrtle insults Lilo, they say in unison, "Ye-e-e-ah."
In As Told By Ginger things are turned on their heads a little, while Courtney Gripling is the leader of the Lucky Junior High girl posse it is her second-in-command, Miranda Killgallen, who is The Libby. Courtney herself being The Brainless Beauty who has several satellites following her around.
The show Angela Anaconda had Nanette Manoire and the Copy-Cat Clone Club, who, whenever Nanette came up with a plan, the first would typically say, "That's a great idea!" And the second would parrot, "Well, I think that's a great idea EVEN MORE".
Sierra leads one of these in The Replacements.
Heather's Alliance qualifies as one in Total Drama Island.
Averted in Kim Possible, there neither The Libby Bonnie or the chearleader leader Kim has any kind of girl posse.
Avatar The Last Airbender both uses this and subverts it; Azula's posse are fully realized characters in their own right, and Mai and Ty Lee are not exactly enthusiastic supporters. In fact, they have largely been told by the would-be-future ruler of the world that they have no choice, Mai's boredom with life aside. Despite this, and their eventual, perhaps inevitable break with her, they are a terrifically efficient fighting force, and are wise enough to keep their ruthless leader happy, as far as she can be. To their opponents, their front must seem incredibly unified and as intimidating as any group of mindless minions, even when the target is not cornered by a locker or such.
The Fashion Club from Daria.
Paige Logan from Grossology is usually accompanied by a pair of sidegirls. In one episode, she orders them to floss her teeth (to their credit, they refuse).

Web Original

Sooni of Tales Of MU got her Cat Girl Girl Posse the old fashioned way: daddy bought them for her.
Ami, Emi, Umi, and, at least in the beginning, Aki in Sailor Nothing.
There's more than one at the Super Hero School Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe. The Yellow Queen and her Whateley Academy Martial Arts Cheerleaders (yes, they are really called that even though there's no sports teams). Solange and her equally-vapid blonde followers Flicker and Fade. The supervillainess Hekate and her sidekick witches Conjure and Spellbinder.
The Sisterhood of Survival Of The Fittest's Bathurst High, most of them probably having about the same Libby levels.
Cho is almost constantly surrounded by Lavendar and Pansy in A Very Potter Musical, similar to what she was portrayed as having in Harry Potter.