Freaks and Geeks Sociological Theories

Functionalism

What are the groups and what functions do they serve?

In the episode that we watched in class, there seemed to be five primary groups: freaks, geeks, athletes, adults, and undetermined middlemen/women. The freaks are the rule-breakers. They make their own rules and determine their own schedules, interests, and groups. I like to think they could be compared to the school’s “no collar” group. In this episode, the freaks are the bullies, but also the cool kids. They like to stir the pot in the other groups. The geeks, on the other hand, are the brains of the operation. They are the “mathletes”, the “white collar” group, and also seen as the pushovers and/or dweebs. They try to follow all rules and accomplish as much as they can. The athletes are all brawns, athleticism, and popularity. They are super cool, good looking, and confident. These people, due to more physical roles in the school, could be considered the “blue collars”. They cause internal conflicts within the other groups that deal with self-esteem and confidence issues. As for the adults, they are supposed to be the voices of guidance and reason. In this case, the parents of Lindsey were controversial and controlling while the counselor was the sane voice willing to reason with her. They are also in control. Adults have universal power over the children they lead, guide, raise, watch, or often times, just kids they are around. There is an inconsistency in the equality between ages here, but it has to exist until our youth matures. As for the undecided “middlemen/women”, this group would consist of people who don’t feel they belong in any of the groups. This includes Lindsey. Lindsey wants to be cool but not out of control, smart but not a mathlete, obedient but not controlled by her parents, and it all piles up on her in this episode. Outside of movie/TV stereotypes, I think most people fit in this category, which could also be described as the multi-group category.

Are there negative influences from any of the groups (dysfunctions)?

When there’s people within one environment who think, act, or behave differently from the other people around them, there’s bound to be dysfunctions and disagreements. For example, Lindsey would never before have skipped class to look at a drum set until she started hanging out with the “freaks” (as the show describes them). Therefore, the “freaks” messed up her normal routine, school reputation, and trust between her and her parents. This also negatively influenced her focus on school and ambitions for academics. At the same time, “negative” is a fairly relative word: what’s negative to me may not be negative to you. In my perspective, the kids who skip class and get bad grades are negative influences, but that may not be the case for the kids who skip school. They could see a rule follower as a negative and boring person. Another example of a negative influence in the episode was when the bully was provoking the “geeks”, and the situation eventually evolved into a physical fight. Those “geeks” were not the fighting type before. In general, people who change your virtues and values for something less sociologically efficient are probably bad influences.

Conflict Theory

Who has power in the episode?

The adults are always the obvious people in charge when it comes to teenage shows and movies. This episode was no different. When Lindsey’s parents told her to do something, she had little to no choice in the matter. When the counselor wanted to punish Lindsey, he could sentence her to her punishment, and she had to oblige. Age limitations between youth and adults are very unfair, but also necessary. Another example would be the bullies. They are not granted power by age, maturity, or parental/career status, but appoint it to themselves. The young geeks’ bully scared the young lads so much, they could barely do anything about it.

How or why do they have power?

The adults, parents, and teacher have power because that’s just how our society runs. Maturity levels indicate control over other maturity levels. Not all adults have a say in the lives and choices of random kids around them, but usually if an adult talks to a child, they are meant to obey (social codes). This especially applies to parents and people who deal with kids for a living. Parents create children and therefore have a say in their control and development, while teachers or other authority figures are getting paid to keep youth in check. This is because when you are not legally an adult, you are not viewed by society as legally mature or old enough to think for yourself yet. That’s the obvious way that adults get their power. Now, for the bullies, they self-appoint power to themselves based on their own insecurities and use the power as a force that is meant to provoke fear in people weaker than themselves. Fear plays a big role in who we let have power over us. If I wasn’t scared to get detention or get a failing grade on a daily assignment, I wouldn’t show up to class or complete my work. If the geeks in the show weren’t afraid of getting beat up, they wouldn’t let their bully taunt them anymore (resulting in the fight towards the end of the episode). Power differences, though not necessarily needed among youth in high schools as much (teachers needed, but not bullies), is necessary for the function of a society. We need people in charge. It’s human nature to want to be on top and work for that position, so if no one was the leader, this world would be in chaos.

How do they use it?

Lindsey’s parents make her either go to the school dance or help her father with work. This is conflicting to Lindsey because neither options are choices she would choose on her own, so therefore, the only reason she is stuck with only the two options is because of the unevenness of power in the situation. The parents control her and rightfully so. Sometimes, however, people use power for the wrong (corrupt) reasons. An example would be when the bullies harass the young men in dodgeball, physically injuring them, or when they corner the boys outside/in the hallway to provoke fear in them. Power is a necessary but highly dangerous and touchy thing.

 Symbolic Interactionism

What are the important symbols in the episode?

The first symbol I noticed and would like to point out is the jacket handed to the young geek by his cheerleader crush. Even though she was simply returning the jacket, the boys took this as a symbol representing that their friend had a chance with the girl. The other symbol would be Lindsey’s recent change of heart and desire to be cool, rebellious, and spontaneous. This could totally represent her feelings of oppression by her academics and parents. It is common for overly stressed and sheltered kids to lash out at their parents at some point in high school or in college. Her actions could be stimulated by a desire for control of her own life.

How do the characters act based on the symbols they find important?

The young geeky boy and his friends point out that in order for the cheerleader to return the jacket, she had to go through a series of thoughts and actions: seeing a forgotten jacket, associating it with the boy, deciding to track him down to hand deliver it to him, carrying it through the whole hallway, and finally approaching him to give it back. They saw this not as just a friendly, nonchalant action, but as a clue that she notices and thinks of him. This increases the confidence of the jacket’s owner and he decides to give that crush a shot. With the other example, Lindsey starts hanging out with less academically-focused kids, skips school, and decides not to compete for the school as a mathlete even though she’s very good and would help them significantly. She feels as if she’s been defined, so her rebellious actions symbolize the unfulfilled independence in her.

In My Own Life

Can you relate any of these theories to your own life/How can the things you do be interpreted through one of these theories?

Functionalism: When I break bones, my life is thrown off track. I become more dysfunctional while that limb is dysfunctional. For example, crutches due to a broken ankle make stairs, carrying anything, and staying active/in shape very challenging. My most recent broken bone was my finger. In my half-cast splint, I could not use my left hand to type on my computer, to shower, to wash my hands, to get dressed, or anything else. My routines were significantly thrown off for a while this fall. Another example of when things could function abnormally is when weather complications mess up plans or daily schedules. For example, when a blizzard occurs, school is cancelled and games are moved. Sometimes, those games are moved to occur on days where you have prior appointments or activities that you now have to cancel or move again. In South Dakota, this seems to happen A LOT to me.

Conflict Theory: Sometimes I know that I am in the right when having a conflicting conversation with my parents or authority figures, but due to my age, I lose the debate. This is very conflicting because in a fair and unbiased world, if I am correct, I should be able to speak my case and go about my day, but just because I am young, often times I get overruled primarily due to age. This is the most relevant and obvious issue I could think of for this. Another example of where the conflict theory comes into play in my life is economically. My family is not the richest family in the area, but we are also not the poorest, so my ability to buy things that others cannot or not buy things that some people could can be very conflicting in such a small community. People always seem to notice what brands of clothes you are wearing. This could tie into home lives as well. Compared to a lot of kids at school, I definitely had a better home life. This gave me unfair opportunities and support that has allowed me to flourish more so than some kids. All of these things also affected my desire to go to a four-year university to make something significant of myself whereas some of my classmates don’t want to go to much schooling and would rather just go to work and start a new normal right away. There are obvious differences and situations of unfairness around all of us.

Symbolic Interactionism: I just took a mental scan of my room and the best thing I came up with off the top of my head is the shelf of trophies, ribbons, plaques, and certificates that I have on my wall. I consider these to be pretty obvious symbols, so I won’t talk too much about them, but they represent my past successes, memories of fortunate times, and personal strides for accomplishment and confidence. Thinking more about symbolic interactionism and the fact that it can be more than just an object (could be a person or idea), I think I could include my current taste in music. I think about this a lot, so it’s weird that we’re actually learning about it now, but I’ve recently been into a lot of songs from the 2000’s, early 2010’s, or Disney songs that I would’ve listened to around the same time. To sum it up, I listen to nostalgia-provoking music. My music could symbolize a clinging to my childhood and the fact that I know it is soon coming to an end. I’ve been subconsciously seeking out nostalgia for around a year now, which is something I’ve observed of myself in the past few months. My observation is that I have had an underlying and subconscious need to cling to the life I’ve always known as I embrace the unfamiliarity of adulthood soon. That’s what I think the music could symbolize.