10 Reasons Why Prom is Better & Worse Than Ever Before
Why prom has gotten better since our parents’ high school days: 1. It’s okay for a girl to ask a guy. For the most part. While it is true that school environments change and some schools may be more traditional when it comes to prom dates, in my experience, it is almost as common for a girl to ask a boy to prom as for a boy to ask a girl. I’ve seen this happen a lot with older girls asking younger boys (another no no in our parents’ day)
2. It’s okay for a girl to take a girl as a friend. In our parents’ day, teenagers sometimes went with a member of the opposite sex “as friends,” but girls rarely took other girls as friends. While, I still don’t see many boys taking boys as friends, it’s become much more common for girls to take a female friend. I went to prom with a girlfriend in March! Unfortunately, in many schools it is still difficult to attend prom with a same-sex-more-than-friend. However, this too has progressed since our parents’ day.
3. There are alternative prom options…like the New York Public Library’s annual “anti-prom.” I know kids who didn’t attend prom and didn’t feel any pressure to. 4. There’s a lot more freedom about what you can and cannot wear: short dresses, long dresses, and even pants are all fair game for girls at prom. 5. There are significantly less powder blue tuxedos.Why prom has gotten worse since our parents’ high school days: 1. The cost is through the roof. I’m not completely sure when are where it happened, but somewhere between when kids were attending the “Enchantment Under the Sea Dance” in their school gym and now, it became the norm to have your prom in the most expensive venue your class could afford. This trend has led to very expensive prom tickets and made a lot more of the high school experience about prom fund bake-sales. In addition to the cost of the prom ticket, a lot of teenagers invest in limousines, party buses, or after-party venues, bringing the cost of this one night WAY up.2. The dresses are shorter. I’m all for breaking with tradition and wearing less constricting garments, but somehow I feel like the trend of shorter dresses didn’t start for those reasons.
While at some proms, girls still wear long dresses, many schools have scrapped this tradition. It seems that the pressure to look sexy at your last high school gala has caused hemlines to shrink. I, personally, would love the opportunity to wear a long, elegant dress.
3. The pressure to look like you’re ready for a photo shoot is higher. I would say this is the case in all aspects of life, but it is especially apparent at prom. Forget about throwing your hair up into a sweet little bun and trotting out to meet your date. Many girls I know get their hair and makeup done professionally, which, in addition to being expensive, seems to me to be a little bit of overkill. But, the pressure to look like you are about to appear in a Vogue photo shoot is difficult to overcome, and I have to admit that I too have paid too much and had a black-spandex-clad MAC store attendant smother me in too much foundation and eye-shadow. 4. The number of photos taken is greater. You know that one awkward prom picture of your mom or dad? The one you laugh at, but think is sweet because it’s so dorky? Thanks to Facebook, and the growing teenage obsession with documenting every moment of every day, our kids are going to have forty of those dorky prom pics to laugh at…and I guarantee it won’t feel as special. 5. It feels like there are more proms! Maybe I’m making this up, but I think it’s true. My dad can hardly remember attending his prom, and my mother didn’t even have one. Now, it’s not uncommon for teens to attend both a junior and senior prom, and sometimes go to proms at other schools as well. By my calculations, I will attend four proms before I graduate high school! And more proms means more money, more photos, and more makeup.Fiona Lowenstein is a high school junior, weekly guest blogger and Girls Leadership Institute alumna. Read more of her work here.