From the start I knew there was something about nightmarish about prom or at least the fact that prom shows the nightmarish qualities of the dominant culture. I mean we live amongst a group of people who approve of this unnecessary forced spending of money, or maybe our dreams of a carefree adulthood just make us morally blind. Where does the line of “it’s just a party” get drawn? How can thousands of teenagers be enabled to spend loads of money when there are people so less fortunate. Even if the argument that there are people without homes, food, shoes, and medical care is disregarded what does this facilitation teach our future adults about materializing, womanizing and the qualities of altruism?
It seems more reasonable that back when proms first became popular the celebration was truly the threshold to adulthood. By the age of 18 or 19 most people were moving out of their parents houses, were maintaining steady jobs, and marriage and children were soon to come. On the other hand I don’t think that prom is a symbol of that any longer, with the college education on the rise high school students are just extending their childhood. The well known symbols of the transformation to adulthood that were visible by the age of early twenties are now not distinguishable until the late twenties.
Although I believe all these statements to be true, I plan on going to my proms, the one at my boyfriend’s school and the one at my school. I will probably spend a lot of my parent’s money preparing for these nights, and I doubt that I will contribute equally to those who are less fortunate to compensate for my selfish actions. I don’t yet know if I believe that there is anything truly wrong with attending prom, other than ignorance of the experience.
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