The Exclusion and Othering of Riverdale

There are many shows that I could and should watch sense they each tell their own story. Admittedly, I watch more movies than I do shows. I don't like to binge-watch a show, nor do I want to heavily commit to multiple shows at once. Though one of the shows that I'm currently watching is Riverdale, the show where High School students face a unique challenge in each season of the series. The show has reached its prime time in its first season while getting wilder and stranger as the show goes on. With episodes spanning around 40 minutes and 6 seasons of content, it's a bit of a challenge to catch up to its most current season. Regardless, there are diverse characters and plot lines in the show. I'll be showing how you can spot Exclusion and Othering in Riverdale.

    Doxa is a strong or common belief in something, while Othering is the topic of believing that one group is different from the other. Thus, in Riverdale, doxa is seen when the Bulldogs are dominant over the Southside. This hegemonic system stems from a belief that Southsiders are trouble makers while the Bulldogs (likely on the Northern side) are in a better position. As you might have guessed, the Southsiders are located in the Southern part of Riverdale. Several gangs can be found on the Southside, though two of the prominent gangs are the Serpents and the Ghoulies. We'll take a look at the Serpents since (ironically) we root and follow their story much more than the Ghoulies. The stakes are high between the Bulldogs and the Serpents since they are a mirror opposite of each other's personalities. In Season 2, Episode 4 of the series, a conflict between the two stir up. It gets to the point where each side agrees to meet up at night, agreeing to have a "no weapons" fight. Students from both sides are getting beat up, yet the Bulldogs manage to get the upper hand towards the Serpents. That is until one of the Serpents takes out a shiv and stabs a member of the Bulldogs. It's a bit of a personal preference on who you root for since Archie (the main character) is the face of the Bulldogs while Jughead (another main character) represents the Serpents. Although the two groups live in the same town, they have such high conflicts with each other.  

     It might be a surprise that the South Side High School closes down later in the season. Once that happens, students of the Southside are forced to move to other schools, one of those schools being Riverdale High (aka. where the Bulldogs are at). Upon arrival, Riverdale High's principle uses his hegemonic power to exclude the serpents, more specifically their jackets. Members of the serpents wear a jacket with the image of a Green Serpent. Although the principle justifies that those jackets split the community of Riverdale High, Jughead is annoyed since the principle is silencing and underrepresenting the members of the Southside Serpents. Eventually, the two groups collaborate and students of Riverdale High support the Serpents and they each wear Southside Serpent Shirts. The principal threatens to expel students who wear Serpent clothing, but seeing how Serpent and non-Serpent students would get expelled, the principal decides to lift the ban on Serpent clothing. 

Riverdale used othering to separate two groups that live in separate regions of Riverdale, but overall live in the same town regardless. Whereas exclusion removes representation of one group in support of the other. There might have been good intentions to exclude the Serpents, but in doing so is to say that one group is more dominating than the other. Although I've talked extensively about the Bulldogs and the Serpents, the two groups are a good representation between dominance and outsiders.

 

 Image Credit:   

Serpents vs Bulldogs

Archie and Jughead Staring into the Distance 

Toni with Serpent Jacket 

Southside Map

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