At a certain private Washington high school, every young lady who hopes to attend a dance or prom knows well in advance that if she turns up dressed like a flesh-baring Kardashian, she faces almost certain mortification. The dean of students at this particular school is adored by the pupils, but on dance nights (to the guilty, at least), she’s like a crusading Angel of Good Taste.
Her weapon of choice is an armload of school sweatshirts, and her justice is swift. Arrive too scantily clad, and you will find yourself required to cover up in the frumpiest and most unfashionable way. Threatening teenage girls with sweatshirts turns out to be a remarkably effective method of discouraging them from dressing like sexpots — at least on prom night.
Now, it seems, this expectation may be going viral: According to a piece this week in the Wall Street Journal, a growing number of high schools are daring to impose constraints on the way young people dress for their big dances. This is a wonderful thing. To move away from vulgarity toward elegance, even if by a very small distance, well, it’s cause for celebration.
At high schools such as Cedartown, in Georgia, and Crawford, in Texas, brightly colored posters have gone up to show young people exactly what is and is no longer allowed.
Apparently you can still turn up at these events looking like an escaped Vegas showgirl; you just can’t have a dramatic slit up your skin-tight skirts, erotic cut-outs around your midriff, be wearing a super-short minidress (known in our family as a “butt skimmer”), or be sporting a backless gown that starts at the lowest point of your lumbar spine.
In the high school context, some of these dresses seem frankly hilarious. One of the banned styles is composed of a cantilevered brassiere held by spangled straps to a rainbow chiffon skirt. Tasteful in teenagers — not!
Another features a great gap in the bosom (presumably to increase visibility for the girl’s date). A strapless sequined thigh-barer, also among the forbidden frocks, would be fabulous on a torch-song chanteuse in a smoky bar. On a high school girl in a decorated gym, it verges on the ridiculous.
These are matters of judgment, of course, which varies. According to the Journal article, about 35 percent of the prom dresses sold this year by the David’s Bridal retail chain fell under the category “Sexy.” Girls wouldn’t be turning up in such gear if their parents weren’t willing to swank them out like red-carpet starlets trying to draw the paparazzi.
For surely that’s where the flesh-baring Kardashian look belongs: On grown-ups who tread red carpets, not on children only a few years out of middle school.
It’s cheering to know that a new cohort of Angels of Good Taste are willing to rush in where too many parents fear to tread.
Meghan Cox Gurdon’s column appears on Sunday and Thursday. She can be contacted at [email protected].
