What if she was real?

Hi my name is Miles, I've been a big fan of Daria ever since they started showing it over here in the u.k. It isn't very big in this country, as its being shown on channel 5, which is still regarded as a bit of a joke. So most people have never even heard of it. Needless to say I was very suprised to find that she has such a large following on the inter-net.

I get the impression that most Daria fans feel like they can relate to her or Jane in sum way. If this is true it really shouldn't have much mainstream appeal, which in this country it doesn't.

Like Daria I was never very popular at school. At first I was a bit shy, but as time went on and people treated me like dirt, well, lets just say I've become very antisocial.

What would happen to Daria at a real school? One of the few things that makes Daria slightly unrealistic ( other than it being a cartoon ), is the fact that although no one really likes her, no one really hates her either. As a loner she really would need to watch her back. But that would be too much like real life for my liking.

I would like to hear from a few people to find out why they like it so much. + I want to know just how big it really is in America.

_ _ of GXSN writes:

Not as much of a joke as ITV though, at least amongst the cogniscenti. C5 manages to produce better output than ITV on about a hundredth of the budget. Sadly ITV is very popular though as it's what the lower half of the IQ bell curve like.

This is something we've discussed here on a couple of occasions, and it's one of the main realism weaknesses of the series, that Daria isn't bullied, which she would be in real life. OTOH she provides a positive vision of how misanthropes can have a good time pissing on everyone else from a great height.

-Shez.

On Fri, 24 Dec 1999 00:39:37 +0000, Shez wrote:

Not at every school. Lawndale is a nice upper class neighbourhood like where I live. No one was bullied at my school, popular or not. No drugs, no fights, no weapons, no gangs. And unlike Lawndale High my school was _not_ run like a prison. I think it's perfectly realistic that no one annoys her in the environment she lives in. MSB

yeah... in a typical suburbanish school like Lawndale or Grandville (my school) which is pretty well in control, by the time you get to High School: if you're not popular, you're generally just ignored. They've given up most of the teasing, although that's really bad in elementary school/Jr. High.... you don't get beat up or mocked constantly or anything in HS.

Dagny

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/

"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot

Daria code: Ap D+ T5 W1 Q+ Fn^Fr O+ OH m c MV- C5X F:113,201,305 BB+ FCJ -DT+ q+ fT^fD

On 24 Dec 1999 13:25:17 GMT, [email] (Dagny Scott) wrote:

Just like here. We had a lot of fights in elementary school, too. MSB

What it boils down to is that little kids can fight without much in the way of consequences; their culture is simpler too so the obvious way to humiliate someone is to beat them up or do something else really direct (like snatch books, etc). By the time they are of high school age, they are big enough that the consequences of a real fight are likely to be severe (broken bones, hospitalization, etc), while at the same time the culture is more complex so that the victor of a fight is not automatically the SOCIAL winner as well (he may wind up being hated by all the friends of the victim, for example). Increasingly, social maneuvering becomes more important than direct physical confrontation.

(In slum schools, of course, the kids escalate to the use of weapons, and they DO get seriously hurt or even killed in fighting. But this would not normally happen in a school like Lawndale).

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)

Not for the first two years, but junior and senior in high school, I was in that situation. No one really liked me, no one really hated me. I was still treated as a subspecies of human because I was a non- black minority in a very high contrast white/black school, but I wasn't bullied or highly screwed with at those two years. Lots of people actually liked me, but like in Daria, wouldn't think twice of inviting me to really hang out with them, in or out of school. Most others had preconcieved notions, and just avoided me and thought of me in distaste. Never said anything to me directly in hate, but I overhead lots of things or they unknowingly said something directly offensive (like Kevin usually does in Daria). So I had a couple friends... that male version of Jane that I talked about earlier, and one of the only other asians in the school, who was a big jerk, actually.

Daria is becoming more fallible recently, as far as I can see, which makes it a bit more realistic and a bit more interesting.

Miles said:

Jane loves her. Quinn pretends not to be her sister, but would side with her if someone was really planning on hurting her. Brittany and Jodie definitely like her.

Some people may hate Daria, for all we know, but someone who is sarcastic, intelligent, perceptive, and (seemingly) rather scary is not a safe person to actively pick on, in the minds of would-be antagonists. Those who understand her well enough to realize that she is non-violent also understand her well enough to like her.

Because Daria (both the show and the character) is stubbornly opposed to the phony "youth culture". Because the whole show is a tribute to intelligence and moral integrity, as opposed to the shallow values of popularity and fashion.

It's one of the few shows on TV today whose characters I can take seriously, or would respect if they were real people.

Sincerely Yours, Jordan

"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)