Saturday, January 06, 2007

seeing red.

flipping through a special prom issue of Seventeen magazine with a straight male friend of mine the other day at work. we were both disturbed by the hoochie-ness of most of the dresses ("not my daughter!") as well as the rail-thin arms of many of these girls ("she needs a sandwich!"), but our differing reactions to the color of one dress was interesting to me:

"red. i don't like it. it screams, i need attention."

"or...it says, i'm not afraid to be seen."

3 comments:

PTC said...

I wore a short red prom dress when everyone else was wearing long dresses. What does that say? :)

Beth said...

The dresses may be more revealing now, but it's one night a year, not nearly as open as swimsuits. Not to mention with overly strict dress codes to follow all school year, this should be one night to rebel as long as they dont ACT trampy.

Perhaps wearing a red prom dress says, "My coloring looks good with red and I liked the style of this dress." Now that is something a girl should always consider!

margaux said...

thx so much for your thoughtful comment, beth.

i see your point, but i think there's wiggle room here (have you actually SEEN the dresses in this mag?) b/c i'm not suggesting girls should be in high-necked victorian blouses and full-length tulle skirts. there are plenty of grown-up dresses that don't look like they came from the closet of a 30-year old vegas show girl. in my mind, it's about protecting their right to have a complete childhood, not about censorship. besides, we all know their going to making out in the backseat regardless of what they wear. ( :

i wore red too, palmtreechick.