Jeffrey, Nancy, “Proms Gone Wild! Spas, limo, a “Desperate Housewives dress: Across the country, plenty of kids—or their parents—ante up to be ready for their red-carpet close-ups at the high school prom,” People, 30 May 2005, pp. 58-62.
OVERVIEW
Over the years senior proms have spawned headlines about current trends: too much alcohol, luxury limos, rented motel rooms and sex. More recently dirty dancing extremes and extravagant spending have caught our attention. This article discusses the cost.
American youth are growing up in a consumer age; many are becoming devotees of Consumerism. To understand them and the bigger picture, we need to study and images and messages of pop culture, not statistics, and, of course, listen to them.
It’s our own mini-Oscars,” says Becca Durr, 17, senior class president of McCallum High School in Austin, Texas, who shelled out $3,000 for her dance, including $500 for Dolce & Gabana shoes.
THE HIGH PRICE TO PARTY
Total amount spent on proms in the U.S. in 2005… $4 billion
Average dress price ………………………………...$200.
Tuxedo rental……………………………………….$150.
Stretch SUV (six-hour rental)……………………...$840.
Flowers……………………………………………...$ 50.
The average cost (of attending a prom) has jumped to $800 per couple vs. $300 just five years ago, according Prom Guide magazine.
The senior class of one high school in Houston raised $100,000 for a theme park afterparty, and a Hartsdale, N.Y. spa reports 24 takers for its $1,300 Prom Special six-week course treatments. Amid all the conspicuous consumption, making a mark is getting harder than ever. In Vermillion, Ohio, Kristen Phillip’s older brother arrived at his prom three years ago by helicopter. Not to be outdone, she booked a hot-air balloon—until bad weather grounded her plans… Not to worry: An uncle lent her his Jaguar. “It was a blast; I had so much fun.”
USA TODAY (31May05) reports a Seventeen Magazine Poll of 1,382 respondents, “Getting All Dolled Up for the Prom. Nearly all girls who responded to a prom survey… purchased a new dress for the prom. Average spending amounts: Prom dress, $223; Makeup, hair, nails, etc. $115; Total, $338.
Ellison High School chose “Whispers of the Orient” for its prom theme this year. Ivy Howard found a Chinese-style dress she loved. But she was carrying just a little too much around her hip and thighs to fit into it. The idea of liposuction had already been in her mind. Once her mother was convinced, she paid the $5000 for the surgery. “Everybody goes all out for the prom,” says 18-year-old Ivy.
Ivy’s date for the prom was 16-year-old Monty Burton, a varsity basketball player who says:
My jaw dropped when I first heard of the plan. I told her she didn’t need liposuction, that she was fine the way she was. (But when the big night came, with Ivy still suffering some postoperative swelling) Ivy was looking really, really nice.
Pictures of this African-American couple are impressive. Ivy is stunning in her red Chinese dress and Monty wore red shoes, red shirt and red hat to go with his yellow suit over his tall, athletic frame. “We wanted to go out with as much glamour as we can,” Ivy explained.
Aaron Ryckman (17) of Scottsdale, Arizona got his father to shell out $6000 for treatments at the Cal-a-Vie Spa in Vista, California. He described the hot-stone facial as “awesome,” a massage as “heaven,” a pedicure as “too girly,” and the seaweed wrap as “gross.” But, he says, “I couldn’t believe how much it revitalized me.” And a friend at the prom commented on his facial glow. “He noticed that my skin looked better.”
Jocelyn Bower (17) a junior at Buchanan High School of Clovis California (a suburb outside Fresno) raised the stakes even a bit higher. She had worn a stunning $5000 gown to her winter formal and felt she needed to do better. While vacationing in Las Vegas she saw an $8,275 dress in a Versace boutique. A wealthy uncle who thinks, “She’s a very good girl, and she should have it,” paid the bill. Her mother, a hospital chemist thinks her daughter with her 4.0 grade average deserves the best. “I say, ‘You go, girl. You do what you want.” Father, an elementary school principle was not as approving. A friend of the family and jeweler loaned Jocelyn a matching diamond and pink sapphire necklace and bracelet worth $86,000. What is Jocelyn thinking about her senior prom? “We’ll go back to Versace and get an even more expensive dress!”
Sometimes creative initiative can get something we might not be able to buy. Melissa Saunders (18) of Philadelphia was one of many high school students watching “Desperate Housewives” when it debuted in the fall of 2004 and was amused watching Eva Longoria mowing her Wisteria Lane lawn “dressed in a beaded salmon-colored evening gown by designer Eduardo Lucero. “I saw that dress and I fell in love with it; it was positively gorgeous.”
Melissa wanted something similar for her April prom and immediately wrote a letter to the show’s producers. “I told them how much I love the show, and I asked for pictures of the dress so I could buy something like it,” she says. Touched by their first piece of fan mail, the show’s costumers decided “maybe we can do something special for her.” Two weeks before prom day, they sent the actual dress by FedEx. Saunders wears the same size as Longoria, so the fit was near-perfect (although she did add a liner to make the dress less revealing).
The opening sentences of this article makes also for a conclusion:
Designer gowns, borrowed gems, stretch Hummers and surgically altered curves. Academy Awards night? Actually, it just might be your local prom.
(People article by Nancy Jeffrey, Shermakaye Bass in Austin, Darla Atlas in Fort Worth, Howard Breuer in Los Angeles, Carolyn Campbell in Salt Lake City, Sean Scully in Philadelphia, Amy Green in Nashville and Caroline Howard, Susanna Schrobsdorff and Michelle Tan in New York.)
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION
1. What were your impressions of this article? In your opinion, is it at all important and worthy of discussion?
2. How much is too much? And who decides? Is anything O.K. just because it is somehow possible? How are we to judge and who sets the standard?
3. Do you see in this extravagance a sign of a consumerist culture and media that promote celebrity glamour and extremes?
4. From where do we want children and youth to get their values and how can they learn how to celebrate?
IMPLICATIONS
1. Studies have shown how youth are being targeted to obtain credit cards but children and adolescents get very little financial instruction in our society.
2. Issues of globalization and class, wealth and poverty, frugality and conspicuous consumption need discussion in families, youth groups, in media and other appropriate settings.
Dean Borgman c. CYS
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