Following the sterling example of the N.F.L. draft, a group of boys at Corona de Mar High School in Newport Beach, California launched their own draft: this one involving which girls would be invited to the Prom! The idea was, each girl would be scouted and ranked by the participants, who would get to choose which girl to ask without fear of poaching by some other guy.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0509-prom-draft-20140509-story.html
According to reports, 40 boys wearing sports coats convened, obtained their position in the draft by lot, and each was given two minutes to make his choice. The criteria used by the boys in their selection was individualistic; but presumably would factor in such elements as the girl assenting to go with him to the prom, her physical attractiveness, and her likelihood of putting out(?). A sociologist, writing in Huffington_Post, viewed it as an interesting experiment. This seemed like a calm, rational reaction to me. Sometimes innovations work; and in the realm of social practices we would do well to be content with partial improvements.
It must have been a slow news day, and a lot of journalists and commentators mounted on their elevated equines about this offense to morals and mores on the part of these misguided teens. The line was, this Prom Draft objectified the girls! People, listen up! Teen boys tend to do just that anyway, if you ever bother to listen to them.
If there's anything that motivates people, it's a chance to deplore some recent trend. In fact, no girl had to accept an invitation, unlike the N.F.L. draft. Teen boys with their artlessness and their overtness make for an easy target for these would-be moralists. Kind of like hunting cows with a cannon. The fact that they lived in an affluent beach community, the Sodom of Choice for the Californian moralists, was a bonus.
Apparently, some of the girls who were included in the draft were less than annoyed by the existence of this draft; but I think that their reaction would depend on whether they were a first round pick, or one of the also-rans.
Hmm....Angel as a first round pick? I could have lived with that. When I was in high school, the Prom event was complicated by a lack of information. Because so many boys and girls attended single-sex schools this resulted in some girls who were available and who would have accepted being unknown entities. In short, for many guys, several girls were unknown entities.
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5 comments:
Proms, like other high school entities, are subject to the burden of tradition. If it was done back in 1980, then that's they way it should be.
FTR, I did not put out on prom night.
High school administrators receive a lot of pressure to keep things the way they were in 1980, or 1960. Innovation is scary for appointed officials.
It sounded pretty clever, actually.
Prom is one thing I never did in high school.
I got dates for both proms without the aid of a draft, even though I was pretty much the school geek/nerd (or whatever we called them in 1968 and 1969). Tempest in a teapot here.
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