Pop quiz time! Amanda Dougherty is 17 years old, and she just got dumped by her prom date. But her school has told her she can't go stag, because young ladies need a male escort in order to go to prom.
Now for the quiz part. Is Amanda Dougherty a 17-year-old in 1950? Or 2012? What? You said 2012? Let me tell you what you've won!
Your prize is to live in a world where the "war on women" that Fox is busy pretending doesn't exist is being waged against teenage girls, and their parents' attempts to teach them that there are more important things in this world than teenage boys!
Dougherty is a junior at the Archbishop John Carroll High School in the Philadelphia area, and the school is holding firm on its rules that girls need a male (come on, it's a religious school, that kind of goes without saying) date to prom. Fortunately for her, this 17-year-old girl has what every teenage girl needs: a father who understands that this type of patriarchal thinking puts girls back six decades. Jack Dougherty is fighting tooth and nail to get his little girl access to prom with the rest of her friends and without a guy on her arm. Yay Dad!
But I'm still floored that he has to fight this battle with any school, much less a religious one. And the way the school has referred to the prom as a "special social event" with this type of rules makes it clear that the school defines a students' worth based on their ability to couple up rather than something useful like, oh, I don't know ... their educational prowess, their behavior, their humanity?
Essentially, what a rule like this one does is undo all the work parents put into teaching their kids that there is much more to life than the approval of the opposite sex. Dating is fine in the teen years; I did it. I see nothing wrong with it. But we want to teach our kids -- both girls and boys -- that there is nothing wrong with being unattached, that their worth is in no way tied to whether or not they are home on Friday night or out parking.
I'd rather my daughter never have a boyfriend than date a guy because that's what society -- or backward school administrators -- are telling her she "has" to do. She's a person; her worth should be based on her, not who she dates (or doesn't). And the same goes for Amanda Dougherty.
What does this rule say to you? What would you tell your daughter if her school had this attitude?
Image via siRRonWong/Flickr
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Comments 56
complete bullshit.
The school didnt say it had to be a date her age...have Dad escort her to her Prom!!! I think it would be awesome to be at my prom with my dad in this case....it would show my dad's love for me and wanting to see me happy...and it would create a special memory for me and my dad!!!
I would be fighting for my daughter too! Why doesn't the dad escort her to the dance, so she has a male escort and she can have fun with her friends.
The question here is does the rule also apply to males who want to go to prom who don't have a date? It's amazing the school is also probably teaching abstinence as well because imagine that they have values that correspond with the religion the school practices. Just because you go with a date doesn't mean you have to stay with that person the entire time. It's a social event. Did it ever occur to people that the reason they require couples is to teach etiquette and proper interaction between males and females. Personally I'd rather be famanine then a famanazi, I'd rather have a guy have manners and hold a door open for me and allow me to walk in to an establishment before him then to have a guy treat me like a butch, just another one of the guys. You can't have the world both ways and expect to get some kind of respect. You either need it one way or the other.
So stupid, if my school had had that rule when I was in school, I never would have gotten to go to prom for I wasn't allowed to date in high school. I went with friends and had a great time.
We didn't have that rule at my school. My husband took me to both my junior and senior proms, while my sister went with a group of her friends her junior year, and didn't bother to go her senior year. I see no reason for this girl to be banned from prom just because she doesn't have a male date. we are not defined by the male species!
basically if you are a girl that is looked at as the "outsider loser" then she would not be allowed to go to prom either. What about all the girls that have never dated much less talk to a boy. You know what I am picturing in my head right now----CARRIE----pretty much sums it up
@ Love2BaMom77 ---I say you can have it both ways. My husand opens doors for me, I walk in first, he has manners. But I also can play football with my husband and our friends, I wrestle around with him all the time. My husband respects me. My husband knows that if something ever happened to him I can take care of myself and my 3 children. I saw what it did to my mom when my dad died---she had been a housewife for 20 yrs and when he died she had a home and children to care for on her own. No work experience at all, juat because she was taught that women needed a man. To this day she feels she can not live without a man, and my dad has been dead for 14 yrs almost. I am sorry there is a happy balance between the two.