Conflict Perspective In 'Freaks And Geeks'

Freaks and Geeks is a show about several teenagers trying to make their way through high school. As they were there way through classes and other social events they begin to be labeled as a “freak” or a “geek” by fellow peers. Each teen struggles with an individual social problem that they must figure out for themselves. In this episode of Freaks and Geeks, there character of Lindsay provides a study of socialization and social structure from the conflict sociological perspective.
Socialization is a process that sociologist use and is defined as the way in which people learn the ways of the society in which they live. People can be socialized by many different things including peers, family and media. In Lindsay's case she is socialized heavily

One of those perspectives is entitled the conflict perspective. The conflict perspective is focused primarily on conflict as an inevitable fact of social life and as the most important agent of social change. Conflict perspective can be looked at in many different forms including physical confrontations, exploitation, disagreements and direct competitions. Conflict theorists often ask questions like: who benefits from a particular social arrangement and at whose expense? These theorists also work to expose the facade of legitimacy which is an explanation that explains the existing social arrangement and downplays or dismisses that this particular arrangement advantages some and disadvantages others. In the show Freaks and Geeks one character named Lindsay faces many conflicts throughout the show. Sociologist theorists may say that Lindsay thinking that making this new group of people may make new friends as her facade. They may say that the real reasons behind her getting a new group of friends would be to maybe get more people to notice her and that show that is she is struggling in some way and needs help. They may also look at her quitting the Mathletes and her teachers forcing her back in as a way for the school to make more money. Basically, the idea of the teachers wanting her to be on this team because she is good at it and she could excel at math is the facade. A theorist would say that the real reason her teachers may want her on the team is because if they win the competition the school may receiving publicity or money of some sort. When Lindsay skips school and gets sanctioned by her father the theorists would say that his reasoning that “she could die for skipping school” is the facade and his real reasoning behind it is that if someone were to see his daughter skipping would make him look