Can I make a character popular in school without having them be superjocks?

I know, half a month late, but I dug up Nice Guys and Gals Finish Last? Not in Early Adolescence When Empathic, Accepted, and Popular Peers are Desirable at least in 6th grade (~12 years old?)

So it's plausible, thank you.

I think so. There's a lengthy piece here that addresses some of these issues based on the author's high school experience, which concludes that in his experience:

Which honestly makes sense? To be popular is basically to be liked by a lot of people and there's lots of ways to do that, but the easiest is just to be likeable and friendly.

Okay, but what I haven't revealed about this character, that he has male model level good looks, which contribute a lot to his popularity, but sometimes feels like that's all most people care about. He's not shallow at all. He's kinda the school heartthrob, but thinks nothing of it. He has detractors, obviously, which other people accept. He has a busy social life, but still at least gets Bs, sometimes As. He is pretty much the Beauty Equals Goodness trope, but isn't an extreme doormat, and somewhat a bully hunter. He's mature, but still can have fun. Plus, while a bit of a player at first, he's a Chivalrous Pervert, and not obsessed with girls. He's not a simp either. A bit Gary Stuish sometimes, but to be honest that's kind of the point. He's not good at literally everything and has areas where other characters might beat him, but what he's good at, he's really good at them.

Edited by leaczinkota2003purple on Aug 6th 2022 at 10:06:27 AM

If you have examples from western media where the popular kid isn't a superjock or due to charisma. I'd like to hear. If they are shown to have other interests.

I mean... The Plastics from Mean Girls. Of course the reason they're liked is out of fear and jealousy.

I suspect that many popular shows have a different idea of how "popularity" arises in a school environment than how it actually works in Real Life. Now of course The Coconut Effect and Reality Is Unrealistic are a thing, but I think you could solve that issue by discussing at some point the distinction between "how it works in films vs how it actually works" in-story.

Are they showb to like music, movies? And tell me a few where the popular kid is also a performer, musician, theater kid. Or where they are charismatic or very intelligent. Or even the ace. And if you knew a real life popular kid who fit all of the above.

Edited by leaczinkota2003purple on Aug 16th 2022 at 7:19:44 AM

Plus I've been thinking that mu character is on several sports teams, baseball, lacrosse, swim, track and field and he's the star player of these sports. He also gets the lead in every school play, is musically gifted. He's pretty much the most popular kid in school.

What I think happened in American media: in the 70s and 80s in rural areas where movie writers grew up, professional sports and professional cheerleading were prestigious for adults. I imagine this created a social stratification in young people going to school in some parts of America during that time. Some of those young people grew up to be screenwriters, and portrayed how their friendship dynamics were like in high school. This did not take into account what young people's school life was like in other places or how it changed since then.

I cannot cite any sources for my theory, not interviews with famous writers of teen movies or statistical studies, but this is my guess.

I think you're on the right track having somebody with multiple interests, so that all different people will remember that, "I met him a few times, he joined my club and didn't make me feel awful about myself. So I think he's cool."

But I think it's impossible for any sizable student body to have the same reaction, unanimously, to one person.

When one of Mister Popular's classmates thinks he's cool for being smart and so nice for offering to teach what he knows...somebody else is going to think he's arrogant and condescending solely because he doesn't have difficulty with any academic subjects. Whenever there is a clear abuse of power or toxic manipulation between peers, if he keeps silent or tries to mediate then he'll be considered unreliable or coddling an abusive person, whereas if he speaks up he'll be seen to take sides or meddle and then he's earned an underhanded rival. He'll either be naive for it never occurring to him that others can be underhanded, manipulative, and abusive...or he'll be hypocritical for knowing that people can be so but living as though everybody deserves a chance. Somebody can generally only be that reliable, secure, and generous if they have means...which often also puts them in a bubble of privilege, like, if they know their classmate has to take care of all their younger siblings and do all the chores because their parents are abusive and can't keep down a job, then will they honor that poor classmate's desire for privacy about their bad situation—or will they ride in on shining armor and charity? There is no right thing to do.

People can like him for the wrong reasons: good grades, handsome, talented...People can also like him for the right reasons, like he speaks up when he sees something wrong going on even if that makes him unpopular to people that don't understand yet why it's wrong enough to speak up against...But they can also hate him for the wrong reasons, such as he was too busy one time to listen to a complaint that they made up precisely to get and keep his attention, or he has too many extracurriculars to commit to and needed to give up on one so that he can eat or sleep or rest sometimes...And they can even hate him for the right reasons, such as having multiple personas when interacting with different friend groups, which is why he might be "popular" but not genuine.

I think of Jason McConnell from Bare: A Pop Opera that because of the nature of musical theater, each actor can play that popular boy character in different ways. Compare different ensemble cast performing the song "You and I" that establishes his popularity. Jonah Platt and John Hill play this role as like Jason is snarky (stoic or permanently smirking/smug) and this is closer to my feelings about the character, that everybody likes him for the wrong reasons. But Dalles Wilie plays the same role as somebody who genuinely cares about people and loves life, and I think that's a much more realistic reason that a popular boy would be popular—even if it doesn't match my own idea of what this character is truly like in this story.

Kinda, but his parents have high expectations for the kid and he's sometimes more aware of issues than his less priviliged friends, but second hand. He actually does his chores and such, plus takes a lot of care of himself and such.

He never puts up a front though.

Plus he's mature enough to reliaze that some people don't like him. But yeah some people at school think that as nice and perfect he is, it's hard to relate to him and as much as he tries to relate, he never experienced those things that they have first hand, only second hand. He does go out his way to be openminded and the inversion of Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense trope, but he has so much privilege still. Other characters describe his life as a fairytale and some envy how easy everything is for him. Some people are obsessed with his looks too, which he knows and doesn't like how some people give him shallow attention. But his closest friends and less shallow people like him for non superficial reasons.

But generally he's adored by 80% of the student body, but it's heavily stated that his striking looks are a huge part of the equation, he'd be less popular if he was average looking, though could be popular, but wouldn't be such a hearthrob.

And it's the second the one that's super genuine, to a fault. Plus, this character's name is Jason, which also doubles as a meaningful name, it means healer and he heals other's people's issues and a do gooder from time to time.

He'a also accepting and not misogynistic at all.

And he's an extrovert and fascinated by people and loves psychology.

Excellent, so now you have a popular boy that is not a super jock.

Just asking did you know popular good looking guys that put a lot of effort into their appearance, because this character does due to the fact that he also does modeling like his father. Would a popular guy get bullied for taking care of his appearance?

Some people are naturally handsome without doing anything high-maintenance, just basic hygiene like everyone else and a haircut every other month or so—and for modeling gigs the stylist does the rest.

Winning the genetic lottery can give him...whatever you want to describe, chiseled cheekbone jawlines eyebrows and startlingly-hued eyes, broad shoulders, abs, remarkable buttocks, evenly-grown peach fuzz, whatever. For some people, those features do not need any special upkeep. Life is not fair.

Yeah, but do popular guys have good hygiene and do you think a popular guy that takes a lot of care pf it and being inti fashion a bit would get bullied, did you know some in real life.

Well, I don't think that poor hygiene would be an attractive trait, so...

Although I should probably ask if we are talking about romantic or platonic popularity. The paper linked at the top of this page is about the former. One paper about the latter suggests that cooperative rather than competitive and individualistic structures are linked to popularity. Nevermind how things might work for LGBT individuals.

General, but he's a cis het male.

hope this aint a necro but it really depends. dudebros will brag about only showering every other day (or worse) and call anyone who goes the extra mile (like a manicure, expensive cosmetics or perfume/cologne) some type of homophobic or sexist slur

but youve also got ultra-rich sorts who will consider you an unwashed ape plebian and some type of homophobic or sexist slur if you dont get manicures, expensive cosmetics or perfume/cologne

ive seen it both ways. the former are often "jocks" or sports team dudebros but you've also got NLOG sorts. on the flipside, the actual mean girls ive had the displeasure of having to share a class with were often the latter, and very often were basic as fuck about it (theyd ONLY do major fashion brands). it is a type of humblebragging too. "look at how i can afford these brands!" even if they arent expensive

with the latter it depends on what flavour you want. anyone who brags about common makeup is basically bragging about their basic bitchiness and trying to stamp out nonconforming people, anyone who namedrops expensive and/or obscure brands are just rich assholes