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
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Kanye West is Gay?! 
Comments 56
What the eff?? Wow! They push boys and girls together to go to a dance, but heaven forbid a girl get pregnant.. She would be kicked out of school.
I have attended prom as a couple and with my girlfriends and I had way more fun and a more relaxed time with my friends. I didn't have all the pressure of what my date expected after the prom and I never felt the need to be part of a couple in order for me to feel like I was someone.
This rule the school has is putting girls at risk of being pressured into things they may not be ready for and seems like it discriminates against girls that are single and don't want to be with a guy.
I could not go alone to prom (way back HAHA) in 1994. I offered to pay for a full price for two people ticket and my school just did not allow it. I am glad that my old high school now does allow you to go stag. When I ask for the ticket to go alone they said who will you dance with? I said I will dance in a group of friends which is what everyone does anyway they just did not care.
Too bad for rules like these. I went stag my junior year. Didn't go my senior year though but that's the night I met my future husband online.
That is the stupidest thing I ever heard. Why would a religious school be encouraging, no FORCING, a teenage girl to spend more time with boys? Aren't they supposed to be teaching celibacy??