How A Viral ‘Subtle Private School Traits’ Facebook Page Became A “Cesspool Of Privilege”

It began just over three weeks ago. On 31 August, a 25-year-old management consultant was drunk, bored and feeling a little cheeky, so he set up a Facebook group called ‘subtle private school traits’.

The idea was this: individuals would post funny one-liners that poked fun at the lifestyles of a typical Aussie private schooler. The management consultant invited “20 or 30” friends to join the group on that Friday night. A week later around 700 people, mostly from Melbourne, had joined the group.

And in those early days the group pretty much fulfilled its original purpose.

“It was actually pretty funny,” the group’s sole admin, who wished to be referred to by his Facebook name, Cheeky Separatist Movement, told Junkee. “There were clusters of really good jokes. One good post I remember word-for-word was ‘Getting gaffed every weekend for two years after school finishes and then getting depressed'”.

this ‘subtle private school traits’ facebook page is such an attack that i almost feel guilty attending two grammar schools

— chloe (@chloe__mclennan) September 11, 2018

Ex-students from the Melbourne private school circuit were making fun of their privilege. Jokes were made about private schoolers wearing RM Williams boots, learning to drive in Volkswagen Golfs, having their parents’ credit card linked to their Uber accounts, caring about LinkedIn, owning holiday houses, growing mullets, and having right-wing political views.

Cheeky Separatist Movement sent Junkee screenshots of some of the earlier posts.

“Getting caught breaking the law but not getting charged,” read one. “I’m socially left wing but economically right wing,” read another.

But then the group grew. Rapidly. It went from having around 700 members after that first week, to having over 60,000 just three weeks later.

Facebook analytics show that the group’s demographics also changed: it was no longer a nostalgic trip for ex-students, but a plaything for younger, current private school students wanting to take the piss out of their friends. And it became national. Forty thousand group members are from Melbourne, more than 5,000 are from Sydney, and thousands more live in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

There have been over one million posts, comments and reactions in the group over the past 28 days.

The group has even started to become recognised by other Aussie Facebook meme pages.

Some of the more popular posts have over 4,000 reactions, like the post that reads “If you come to the canteen with me I’ll buy you something”.

That’s the second most reacted-to post in the group’s short history. The most reacted-to post reveals a side of the group that many, including Cheeky Separatist Movement, take issue with.

“Oi nah we’ll be right for the exam the rest of the state’s retarded,” the post, reacted to by over 4,900 group members, reads.

More recent popular posts follow this trend.

“Telling your parents you want to go on the pill for ‘medical reasons’ but you’re really just the town bike,” reads a post from Tuesday with almost 2,000 reactions.

“Pressing the lock button when driving through a shit suburb,” reads another with over 1,000 reactions.

For Cheeky Separatist Movement, who created the group for a quick laugh, the change is unwelcome. He said he’s become so “uncomfortable with being associated with the group now” that he didn’t want Junkee to publish his real name.

Hopefully subtle private school traits is short lived pic.twitter.com/nXUzbhbBwM

— Rosalie Colantuono (@roscolantuono) September 11, 2018

“It’s become a cesspool of unadulterated and extremely unironic privilege that doesn’t at all speak to the subtlety that’s called for in the name,” the founder, who went to a small Melbourne private school himself, said. “I regret what it has become.”

It became bad enough that Cheeky Separatist Movement thought about abandoning it.

“I was thinking about changing the name of the group to ‘insufferable snobs’ and leaving it,” he said.

Cheeky Separatist Movement started to overhear schoolkids talking about his group on the tram to work, and remained shocked as the group clocked 40,000 additional members in under two weeks. He explained to Junkee why he thinks the group took off in the way that it did, and why the culture quickly started to turn toxic.

“There’s a bit of nostalgia there. In the same way those fucking Buzzfeed listicles like ’23 Reasons You Were Born In 1993′ appeals to people, it’s something you can kinda identify with. You can reflect back in a comical way through little one liners.”

And by posting in the group users are trying to “demonstrate their cultural awareness relative to other people,” he continued. “Some of those posts have over 4,000 likes and the ability to get heaps of likes really quickly, people are attracted to that.”

theres this fb group called subtle private school traits and its just private school kids calling out things we do and honestly ive never felt so attacked in my entire life jdnfjhngjds

— its been tea long (@tvheit) September 16, 2018

“And I think finally the basic primal thing is just ruthless, naked gossip. People love talking about people. I feel like a joke group like this is amenable to a gossip culture. I think thats why it has grown.”

Cheeky Separatist Movement worries that the group has become a tool for bullying and harassment, and that fake accounts are being used to troll the group, but he doesn’t know for sure. (“All my friends and I are 25 — we don’t know how serious it is.”)

Group members Junkee spoke to were divided over whether ‘subtle private school traits’ was just a laugh for current and ex-students, or whether it celebrated some of the more sinister attitudes wealthy young Australians have.

Whatever the answer, in the space of three weeks, it’s grown from a group where friends shared a nostalgic laugh, to a viral Australian phenomenon described by its very own founder as “cringeworthy”.