The Student News Site of University Prep

The Puma Press

The Student News Site of University Prep

The Puma Press

The Student News Site of University Prep

The Puma Press

Prom-Mania

Prom-Mania

For teachers, prom is one semi-dreaded night. They watch us in our finery, and they prevent, we hope, many of our acts of stupidity. Prom takes longer for students. For some girls and most guys, prom takes up late March and April as they buy and rent clothes to plan their special night. For some girls, though, a month and a half is not enough. For these young ladies, prom is a new TV show premiering in September and running all the way through May.

“I made the Facebook page in September,” senior Ellie Madwed said, “I was looking for my prom dress then, so I figured other people might be. Someone thought it was a joke. It is definitely not.”

Yes…even dresses have their own page on Facebook. Senior girls post their dresses to exchange compliments and ensure that no one purchases the same dress.

“It is one of your only opportunities to wear a full-on gown, so you want to be special,” Madwed said.

The need to stand out with style pressures some more than others.

“If someone wore the same dress as someone else, they would be more upset than I would be [if someone wore the same dress as I],” senior Story Bernstein said.

Senior Stone Poletti suggested that the problem of having a twin is also not as severe for the male population of prom-goers.

“Not as many guys care about style,” Poletti said, “Last year a couple guys had the same tux, and they thought it was pretty cool.”

So why is there such expensive pressure to be unique among the women?

Madwed said, “The times I will wear a long dress are my wedding and prom. It is  a rare opportunity.”

Some may scoff at the parallel between prom and a wedding, but they do have something in common.

“People do not want to wear the same thing, because it is their night and they want it to be memorable. Having a twin negatively impacts that to some degree,” Bernstein said.

Bernstein described prom above, but she could have

described a wedding too. Only, there is less risk of dress competition at your wedding. But to some, prom is right next to a wedding on the list of huge life moments.

Prom dresses are everywhere. Their glittery, expensive cloth haunts the corner of most large clothing stores. The bright colors and sleek elegance look, perhaps, like peacock feathers? Are these dresses sirens to the potential mates in the crowd? Could

they be the human version of an avian mating call with bright

colors to attract a partner?  Humans have got it backwards though. In the bird world, the males are the glamorous ones,

for the women to pick through. Not the other way around.

By Yoela Zimberoff