In Waretown High, symbolic boundaries are most obviously drawn between the preps and the las chicas. Preps refer to white, middle-class girls, characterized by good academic performance and enrollment in the college-prep curriculum. They usually plan to attend four-year college after graduation. Las chicas, on the other hand, are Mexican-American settled-living working-class girls who are usually tracked into vocational courses. Teen pregnancy is more common among and more often associated with las chicas. Symbolic boundaries between the preps and the las chicas are manifested in the different styles of dress and makeup. Unlike the preps who dress relatively nonsexual and wear light-colored or no makeup, las chicas wear more sexualized apparel …show more content…
In a word, las chicas perform a more sexualized form of femininity, in opposition to the school-sanctioned femininity performed by the preps. Both preps and the school personnel reject the style of las chicas, as it is associated with low sexual morality, although in fact the preps are no less sexually active. More educated in and economically capable of using birth control, the preps will not allow their college prospect interfered by pregnancy, therefore rendering their sexual activities invisible. In contrary, las chicas embrace pregnancy as their symbols of adult status and dignity, which they otherwise cannot gain by means of college. However, such symbolic distinctions have negative implications on how the school personnel view and treat las chicas. While the preps often gain favor and respect from teachers for their image of being studious and sexually decent, las chicas are believed to be more “educated in romance”, and are naturally tracked into vocational courses. The exclusion from the knowledge of the requirements and procedures for college application contributes to their working-class …show more content…
White working-class girls first notice class differences and gain access to middle-class cultivation by virtue of attending schools dominated by middle-class students. For both white and Mexican-American girls, athletic involvement gives them a peek into middle-class knowledge. In addition, family factors also play an important role in motivating upward mobility: while the failure of older male siblings cautions white middle-class girls to work harder and not to disappoint their parents, Mexican-American girls usually acquire insider formation and support from older siblings or cousins who succeeded in going to four-year college. Family backgrounds prior to immigration may account for the upward mobility of immigrant working-class girls. Though upward mobility requires hard work for both white and Mexican-American students, Mexican-American girls undergo more obstacles because of their race. Specifically, They are more likely than their white counterpart to be stereotyped and tracked into vocational classes. Moreover, since middle-class performance is commonly linked with whiteness, Mexican-American girls are more vulnerable to accusations of “acting white”,