Undercover High

[zekko]

I watched an episode of this show called Undercover High on A&E last week. The premise is they take some youthful looking adults and put them in high school to see what teens are up to these days, and what issues they are facing. Fairly boring stuff really, but a couple of things struck me as interesting, including some gender dynamics.

First off, they show how kids are addicted to their phones and social media. Half the kids are playing with their phones in class. As one girl says "They're not allowed, but we don't care".

Then there is this girl named Lina. She's decent looking, kind of average attractive I would say. She and her brother were new in the school. She made friends more quickly than her brother, and she was quickly being friended on social media. A lot of boys started messaging her the first night, and you can see how girls are bombarded with guys trying to get into their pants. I mean tons of guys were trying to pick her up. Even a statement as seemingly innocuous as "you're pretty" takes on a creepy vibe in this context.

The boys started to talk about who was going to be able to "hit that" first, they talked about taking bets on it, and the show made a big deal about someone saying he was going to rape her. It didn't appear that he was serious, but with all the sexual assault accusations in the news these days, that was a big moment for them.

They showed a quick scene where one guy said "I have three girlfriends" and the guy next to him said "I have four girlfriends". This kind of sickened me, not because they were spinning plates, but because they were using the number of girls they had as something to brag about and give themselves status. Like their self worth was tied to how they did with females.

 

[user43770]

I watched an episode of this show called Undercover High on A&E last week. The premise is they take some youthful looking adults and put them in high school to see what teens are up to these days, and what issues they are facing. Fairly boring stuff really, but a couple of things struck me as interesting, including some gender dynamics.

First off, they show how kids are addicted to their phones and social media. Half the kids are playing with their phones in class. As one girl says "They're not allowed, but we don't care".

Then there is this girl named Lina. She's decent looking, kind of average attractive I would say. She and her brother were new in the school. She made friends more quickly than her brother, and she was quickly being friended on social media. A lot of boys started messaging her the first night, and you can see how girls are bombarded with guys trying to get into their pants. I mean tons of guys were trying to pick her up. Even a statement as seemingly innocuous as "you're pretty" takes on a creepy vibe in this context.

The boys started to talk about who was going to be able to "hit that" first, they talked about taking bets on it, and the show made a big deal about someone saying he was going to rape her. It didn't appear that he was serious, but with all the sexual assault accusations in the news these days, that was a big moment for them.

They showed a quick scene where one guy said "I have three girlfriends" and the guy next to him said "I have four girlfriends". This kind of sickened me, not because they were spinning plates, but because they were using the number of girls they had as something to brag about and give themselves status. Like their self worth was tied to how they did with females.

Sounds like highschool hasn't changed much since my days, other than the technology.

A bunch of kids worried about what everyone else thinks.

 

[zekko]

Sounds like highschool hasn't changed much since my days, other than the technology.

There seemed to be a lot of thug swagger talk from the guys.
Back when I was in high school, it was more about smoking cigarettes, rock and roll, getting alcohol, and stoners.

But it was interesting to see how a fairly harmless come on from a guy could be seen as creepy or threatening from the perspective of an average girl.