Newsgroups: alt.romance
Subject: Re: American High School & bits (long)
From: peregrin@husc13.harvard.edu
Date: 1 Oct 92 10:00:53 EDT
Organization: Harvard Business School

In article <BvC5v3.C69@kingston.ac.uk>, is_b420@kingston.ac.uk (Brendan Rooney) writes:
> 
> To all American readers:
> 
> 	Could someone pleeeeease explain to me about all this stuff in
> high school - y'know the school yearbook - the prom etc....  What does it all 
> mean? Does it mean anything? (No offence to anyone intended)  I see movies
> about some part of American life and it shows people looking in their yearbooks
> to see themselves in years past -- is it a requirement that everyone's face 
> appears there?   What exactly is the prom?
> 
Brendan (Ironic, eh?)

	In American high schools there are several established traditions
dating back to at least the time when parents would let hormonal teenagers 
dance together.
	These traditions have been enforced (and ingrained) in the same way
that Christmas in the US has been: by advertising and conservatism.  I
personally blame Norman Rockwell :-).
	High School is generally considered the common point of reference
among everyone here in the US.  It is generally expected that every high
school has these traditions and that every person has gone to high school.
	As you might expect, these traditions give a student a perfect
springboard to rebel against.  You already heard some of those rumblings.
	If you are Mr. or Ms. All American Generic High School Student you
have gone through these traditions below:

	1) Feeling awkward during your first few weeks of HS
	2) Getting shat upon by the upperclassmen
	3) Being very horny, but clueless
	4) Homecoming - The Fall mid-football-season parade/dance/game.
	4.1) Either you are a star football player and get/lose the
	     girl or You are the girl and do/don't go to the dance.
	4.2) You are a pimply, awkward proletariate student who never
	     gets to participate and consequently harbors resentment.
	4.3) You do/do not become the King/Queen at the dance.
	4.5) This can take place any/every year after your first year.
	5) You finally get laid/start smoking/get drunk/get stoned.
	6) Junior Prom
	7) Senior Prom
	8) Get your picture taken for the yearbook
	9) Shell out $30-$100 for a yearbook


	Proms are school-wide dances which require formal attire.  This means
the guy has to get ahold of a tuxedo (and somehow finance it) usually rented.
Commonly this tuxedo can rebelled against by wearing athletic shoes, by
wearing an ugly or florescent bow-tie or by going to an extreme of wearing
tails, top hat, and cane.  The man must also procure a corsage for the
woman to wear.  The pinning on of that corsage is a tradition too.
	The girl has to find the "perfect prom dress".  There is intense
competition among the girls about who looks better.  The goal is to look the
most beautiful but never too sexy or sleazy or you will be labled a "slut".
Guys don't have any similar tradition, probably because any guy at that age
looks good in any clean, pressed outfit of any kind.
	The guy must also procure the means of transportation.  Renting
a limosine or borrowing the parents car are usually done if you don't
have your own.
	There there is the meeting of guy and the girls parents.  The
father is supposed to be suspicious and rightly is because sex is the only
thing on the guy's mind.  Often the girl is dressed-to-kill and the guy
may have never seen the girl in a skirt with heels and makeup.  The mother
is supposed to be teary-eyed (like at a wedding) or also suspicious.
After the couple leaves, the parents reminice.  Usually the father remembers
her was just as horny, but everything turned out OK (beautiful daughter,
house in the suburbs, etc.)
	At the prom there is the principal (head master) watching over
things and maybe some teachers chaperoning.  They are on the lookout for
alchohol (and drugs :-( ) and horny teenagers copulating behind the
bandstand.
	So the prom may be your first introduction to sex, alcohol, dating,
and rebellion.

	The yearbook is supposed to be your momento of those glorious
happy high school years.  Therein will be pictures of all those happy-go-
lucky characters you used to love and hate.  Traditionaly you get the
booked signed by all your friends, who are supposed to write something in
there that you'll remember all your life.  Usually you get rambling
sleazy comments or overly dramatic monologues.
	In the yearbook you'll see how you used to dress, who used to
be your friends, the car you used to have, the teachers you used to hate,
the peers who died in war, crime, or automobile accidents.

	If you'll notice, these tradtions are very much rooted in Midwestern
US values.  Kids will procure a car to drive to the prom even though they
live in a city that is too crowed to drive in.  Kids/parents/teachers act
as if everyone is coming-of-age at a prom eventhough most kids have already
had sex and partaken of mind-alterin substances.

	These can be very stressful tradtions.  I had to ask a girl out
for the first time because of the prom.  The most stressful 24hours I have
ever lived.  More stressful than proposing marriage or fanagling my way into
getting laid.  Financing the prom is very stressful.  Because tradition
says that no matter what your economic level is, you must, as a teenager
come up with $75 for a rented tux, $20 for a corsage, at *least* $100 for
a dress, another $75 for the limo.  Another $60 for the dinner.  I've
been out of touch on these costs.  It was 10 years ago.  I had no job
and my Mom was on Food Stamps.  I did have a '62 Pickup truck with a large
hole in the front seat and in the floorboards.
	There are traditional ways of cutting the costs : sharing car/limo/taxi.
Many stores offer cut-rate prices on dresses during prom time.  As long as
dinner is served by a waiter then you are okay.

	These traditions are often the first time teenagers are forced to
conform to the demands of society.  How you react can color your outlook
of society and its norms.  If you are unable to participate in these
traditions because of economics, (parents out of work) family responsibilities,
(*you* have to support the family or perhaps you have no family) because
of race, because of religion (e.g. very conservative parents who forbid you
from participating), or because you were pregnant or ill...
	...then you often feel out of place because the media (TV especially)
shows you a world you were never a part of (all rosy like).

-James
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