Let's be honest. It is a competition as well as a production. Everyone is looking to see who will be the Best Dressed, Most Expensively Dressed, Best Hair, Most Attractive Couple...and also Worst Dressed, Worst Hair, Most Embarrassing Prom Moment...It's sad and quite frankly awful, but it's part of the whole production.
The Prom is the time when girls can impress, shock, and startle their classmates with how beautiful they are. The amount of planning that goes into their unveiling is mind-boggling. I read another article about Prom from the New York Times, and one girl stated that she had begun planning her dress in September. "To avoid the horror of walking into the prom and seeing someone else in the same dress, Shantelle is having her dress made, something a number of her classmates are doing. Even so, she was reluctant to say too much about what the dress would look like before she appeared at the actual event" (Lombardi 1). "'You have to make a grandoise entrance'" she said (Lombardi 1).
I have to admit I am quite torn about this subject. On the one hand I think it is so fun to be able to get dolled-up and do something special with my peers in celebration, yet at the same time I think that the stress that the event puts on us to "look beautiful" is so sad and unnecessary. One lady in the article said "'''These young women wear blue jeans all the time, and it's kind of a fantasy to get in a glamorous dress,'' Ms. Iverson said. ''They watch MTV all the time and they see award shows with girls in amazing gowns. On prom night they can be like the stars they idolize. This is the age of celebrity, and they get turned on by all that. For one night they can dress the part and act the part''' (Lombardi 2). While this is true, it is also sad because it is the essence of the beauty myth. Girls are following the example of what they are told is beautiful, and they are acting.
I have to admit I am quite torn about this subject. On the one hand I think it is so fun to be able to get dolled-up and do something special with my peers in celebration, yet at the same time I think that the stress that the event puts on us to "look beautiful" is so sad and unnecessary. One lady in the article said "'''These young women wear blue jeans all the time, and it's kind of a fantasy to get in a glamorous dress,'' Ms. Iverson said. ''They watch MTV all the time and they see award shows with girls in amazing gowns. On prom night they can be like the stars they idolize. This is the age of celebrity, and they get turned on by all that. For one night they can dress the part and act the part''' (Lombardi 2). While this is true, it is also sad because it is the essence of the beauty myth. Girls are following the example of what they are told is beautiful, and they are acting.
Girls relish the compliments that they get on Prom night. 'Oh! You look stunning' 'You look so in shape, I'm jealous!' They take them to heart and try to use them to glue back together whatever self-esteem the high school experience has shattered. Why can't girls be told these things all the time? Why does it just have to be one night a year? Why is it that this is the only time that many of them will feel beautiful? It just goes to show how entrenched our culture is in the beauty myth, and how often we are unaware of it.
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