Jocks and Emos at Royal Oak High

Back in 2009, my high school (Royal Oak High) was featured on the MTV show “If You Really Knew Me,” which is a series in which this campaign called Challenge Day went into high schools and had a whole day for people from different “cliques” to break down with each other. ROHS is also in Southeast Michigan, about 15 miles east of Belten High, where Penny Eckert conducted herĀ Jocks and Burnouts ethnography, and this episode aired about 20 years later (I was a freshman).

The episode begins with a montage of introductions of different cliques across school: the Jocks, StuCo (more preppy and school-oriented), Choir, and Emo kids. All lot of parallel commentary from Eckert’s J&B: territories of the courtyard, school commitments (or lack thereof), and clothing.

Take a listen for some iconic fronted/raised /ae/ and distinct “lot”/”thought” tokens! Royal Oak High is posted at the bottom, Episode 12. I wasn’t featured, but I think I should be around walking in the halls in some of the shots. It ALMOST makes me miss high school…

https://www.challengeday.org/videos/mtv/?fbclid=IwAR10P6w_wyLNAlGqXTOfKSO5VuHIQmsu_dzlPu7QIciJD-ZC65EnWcoMRTo

Leave a Reply