Do colleges have mean girls?

[MissRoberta]

Hey, everyone! I'm a fairly new author on Literotica. I don't even feel like I should be calling myself an author yet since I'm still so new at all this, but I have now encountered the first pinch in my writing process.

I want to write a story with mean girls, you know? They're kind of like my guilty pleasure, and I watched Heathers for the first time the other day so I'm feeling super inspired. But I don't feel comfortable writing an erotic story that takes place in a high school, even if I make all the characters over 18, I just don't want to do that. So I decided to make the story take place in a college instead!

The thing is, I wasn't born and raised in the US. When I got here, I had already fully graduated from college. So, I have no idea if colleges in the US have mean girls because where I come from, colleges don't really have bullying problems; only high schools have these. I watched Legally Blonde, but I don't think that's the best reference. So, I would like to ask you guys for help.

Do colleges have mean girls? And if they do, are they usually part of one of those sororities or something?

I appreciate all the help I can get!

 

[Conner_A]

Welcome to Literotica!
I don't think the mean girl pack mentality is limited to high school. They certainly exist in college sororities or any large group of peers. I've recently noticed a pack of "mean girls" amongst parents of children who play sports.

 

[StillStunned]

Hey, everyone! I'm a fairly new author on Literotica. I don't even feel like I should be calling myself an author yet since I'm still so new at all this, but I have now encountered the first pinch in my writing process.

Welcome! If you feel uncomfortable calling yourself an author, try "writer". It's the same, but it sounds less lofty.

About your question: I'm unfamiliar with US college life myself, but I'm pretty sure any place where people gather on a regular basis has the potential for groups of mean girls. I've encountered them at work, for instance, and in tour groups.

 

[Bamagan]

Do colleges have mean girls? And if they do, are they usually part of one of those sororities or something?

I appreciate all the help I can get!

Yes. Being mean is something some people never age out of.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

If by a mean girl you mean someone who is widely acknowledged as socially dominant and who enforces that dominance via relational violence (humiliation, ostracization, etc.), then no, the colleges I know in the US are too big for that. There are many overlapping social circles and the queen bee of one may be entirely unknown in another.

The two ways I can think to tell a mean girl story in an American college are

1. make it a very small, isolated college where everyone knows everyone
2. limit the scope of the mean girl's power, e.g., make her the mean girl of a sorority or a club

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Oh, interesting, I see I have misused the term relational violence. I mean more the sort of emotional and social abuse that mean girls inflict on people.

 

[Euphony]

Welcome! If you feel uncomfortable calling yourself an author, try "writer". It's the same, but it sounds less lofty.

This is excellent framing. I also like "storyteller." We (humans) have been innate storytellers since before their was written language so it's a natural state of being (so you can give yourself all of the passes you need)

About your question: I'm unfamiliar with US college life myself, but I'm pretty sure any place where people gather on a regular basis has the potential for groups of mean girls. I've encountered them at work, for instance, and in tour groups.

I'd argue it's concentration. "Mean Girl" packs have a smaller prey base to hunt which gives them outsized power/control they don't have elsewhere.

Clusterfucks of evil people exist everywhere but the in-built HS trope spares you a lot of background and possible reader questioning.

*If* college were my setting, I'm using a small, tucked away private school, possibly all girl but at least major gender imbalance skew (if relationships are going to be story beats)

A lot of HS girls I knew went to 80:20 ratio schools and the amount of shit the guys could get away with (and the girls would do to each other) was shocking.

 

[madelinemasoch]

The answer is yes. In my experience they exist more in college than in high school, actually. The most important thing is that they "fight like girls do", meaning their meanness is social rather than physical. This manipulation will be difficult to portray unless you know how to use subtlety and when to hide/reveal what during the pacing.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Not just small colleges either. There were a couple of sororities at Texas when I went there that were famous for be cruel.

 

[MillieDynamite]

In fiction, mean girls are wherever you want them to be.

 

[AchtungNight]

I encountered a very mean girl in college who insisted I accept her forcing sex on me and pleasuring myself for her amusement.

She later inspired my Erotic Horror story on Lit.

 

[MissRoberta]

Thank you all for the replies! They were really helpful. I think I already know what I'm going to do. The story will take place mainly inside a sorority, so the mean girls' clique can have a more concentrated influence. I don't think the story will have the girls blatantly bullying the main character; I'm more inclined to create a manipulation/domination vibe. I hope people don't think I condone bullying because I absolutely don't. Still, as I lean a bit on the masochist side, I can't help fantasizing about it. I wish you all a very happy new year!

 

[AchtungNight]

I'd be interested in a link to the story. Good luck.

 

[Priscilla_June]

College is far less “compacted”, meaning you arnt in a single place with everyone. So I dont know that its the same as a highschool setting. That being said there are mean people everywhere, so clubs, frats/sororities, specific organizations or majors, etc have some form of mean people.

When it comes to mean girls, I think the above others have said it, Sororities would be the closest bet if they are more on the preppy side of things. Some sororities arnt quite like that if the culture isnt built around that mentality. but i mean I’ve seen mean girls just in certain scenes, maybe sports team or just a pack of friends.

Easiest thing in college is just to avoid them. If you dont need to be in the groups the mean girls are in you can easily not deal with it.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Phew, I was a little worried for a moment there. If the consensus was that girls aged out of meanness in college my 40k word April Fools Story just losts its main characters.

But seriously...

There are mean girls in college
There are mean girls at work (invariably in the HR department)
There are mean mothers of your child's best friend.
I presume there are mean female residents in old people's homes.

 

[KeithD]

You might set it in a community college. That has a lot of the attributes that high school would have. Day students like in high school. Students living locally and thus knowing each other and established in cliques like in high school. And students who are still more attuned to high school than university.

 

[Priscilla_June]

You might set it in a community college. That has a lot of the attributes that high school would have. Day students like in high school. Students living locally and thus knowing each other and established in cliques like in high school. And students who are still more attuned to high school than university.

Ooo I almost forgot about my CC days, I agree with this. Also you sometimes even have literal high schoolers who are dual enrolled.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Welcome

My college was so big that no one clique dominated. Some of the classes had 400 people attend. Not like my Catholic high school (though where I live now - not where I grew up - has a trend for mega high schools as well).

But if all you want is a group who like making others miserable, then you can find such anywhere.

Equally, it’s erotica. Realism is nice to some degree, but not everything has to be precisely right.

Em

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Others have covered the high points.
The biggest difference in college is you have far more control over who you associate with.
One of my college friends changed her class schedule after finding out someone she couldn't stand was going to be in the class.
The issue with using a Sorority is you choose what Sorority you pledge (if that's your thing) and you can always quit.
My suggestion would be use a social group your MC CAN'T avoid.
She is committed to being a journalism major and the current editor of the paper is Head Bitch.
That makes it a lot harder for her to quit or distance herself. The mean girl is someone she has to deal with.

 

[John_Vandermeer]

I think several have answered well. But I want to emphasize this point: mean girls are everywhere. They are as much in kindergartens (something you can’t eroticise, obviously) as among the married kindergarden moms (have at it). The form of it may be more or less subtle, but it is there. You do not need HS at all, and you can have characters and plot that Tina Fey would approve of. FWIW i agree mean girls cliques with their queen bees and wannabes are a great springboard for all sorts of lezdom, femdom, and related stories. Happy writing!

 

[HordHolm]

@TheRedChamber listed some very good examples.

I'd also add, there are mean girls in hospital departments
There are mean girls in the Womens Insititute
There are mean girls in my local pub
There are absolutely mean girls in my apartment building, oh yes, and they spend their time looking down their noses at the parenting skills of every other woman in the building (never the men, no, because every man who is a genuinely engaged father is a star in their eyes - particularly if he acknowledges the social station of said mean girls - and every man who goes out for long hours every day is clearly a fantastic provider and the 'lesser' woman with him should be grateful of his manly prowess). These mean girls have even been known to criticise the way other women walk their dogs... A last point on these mean girls: none of them are under 65.

 

[RetroFan]

There's mean girls everywhere, from Lapland, Siberia and Greenland in the Arctic Circle all the way down to mean girls working in research bases in Antarctica.

 

[AchtungNight]

My personal least favorite mean girls are sisters-in-law. Bad experience with toxic expectations from them.

 

[jsmiam]

Lotta good ideas.

I don’t think anyone mentioned “townies” (people whose home town is in or nearby) vs people attending who live elsewhere, often with a wealth/prestige gap.

There was a sorority at my college that only had blonde girls. You could even make a (weak) case, other sororities that allowed non-blondes were the victims of meanness.

But yes, wealth gaps can be a universal theme.

There’s even companies that hire some grads from elite schools as well as non-elites, so the sometimes entitled ones feel and act superior.

Professors who play favorites based on appearance. (Or nerdiness.)

My college was also more commuter than many too, so there was a reverse psychology sub-plot too. The majority of students weren’t in fraternities/sororities, and had to do our own homework (heh heh), so there was a reverse effect where the frat/sorority members, when out of their element, were the outsiders.

Good luck. You’re off to a good start with a theme to work from

 

[SimonDoom]

There are mean people everywhere--people who for whatever reason think they are better than others and want to let others know it and make them feel bad. Schools, offices, churches, PTA groups, bunco clubs, you name it.