Representational image.

A local council in the UK has decided that proms will no longer be a thing at the end of each school year. Hang on a second, whilst I am more than happy with the council’s decision, my question is, when did this crazy thing become a school event in the first place? It certainly wasn’t anything I’d ever heard of growing up and going to school in England. In fact, I’d never heard of the word ‘prom’ until I came to the UAE and began watching American TV shows.  It is, in fact, an American import and comparatively recent (say around 20 odd years). It’s a dance where the kids find dates, get to dress up and go to a school dance.

I mean, how messed up is this when children around 16 to 18 years of age spend their entire last semester looking for expensive dresses, jewellery, expensive transport and getting competitive about who’s going to be prom king or queen. Not only that, imagine the amount of money parents have to fork out on clothes, jewellery, hair, make-up, and transport, just for one night, every year. I think it’s wrong. But I think it became even more wrong when the UK adopted the practice.

The council that discontinued it did so because of the enormous financial burden the event placed on parents who are forced to make sure their teen looked and dressed like a king or queen for the night or risk being embarrassed for the rest of the year, or their lives. But why have other councils throughout the UK not followed suit? Please don’t tell me they may upset people? Those people are only likely to be teens, and who cares about how they feel? The ones who would be relieved are the poor parents who’ve had to endure this nonsense since it was copied from the States.

To be honest, there’s one specific aspect about the American school system that always needed to be tweaked. If you watch American TV shows you’ll notice how, in general, school kids do not wear uniforms. This, in fact, is completely wrong. School uniforms should be mandatory throughout every school district in the US just as it is in many, if not all, countries. A uniform eliminates fashion wannabee mean girls who then make fun of other girls who can’t afford to wear the latest designer outfits or wear the right shade of lipstick. If everyone is wearing the same outfit, and no makeup, where is the competition? There isn’t any competition to look good. This should also apply to what they carry to school. Therefore, every child should carry a schoolbag that conforms to a school’s requirements, something else that all schools should have. It should not be fashionable or expensive looking, it should have no embellishments and only have functionality. That too would eliminate competition in the back to school buying spree which is now rampant across many countries. Have you seen the prices of these things in the shops? It could give you heartburn.

This new tradition in the UK is really quite galling. Moreover, if you ever saw the movie “Mean Girls” or “Jawbreaker” you’d be terrified about your child’s safety at school and out of school. Shockingly, the only reason these movies were able to be made in the first place is because there is fodder for a tale.

But hang on, you might say, bullying does go on in schools that do have uniforms and where there are strict controls over what is worn and what is permitted to be carried. You’re absolutely right, of course. But such bullies are naturally nasty and nothing can help them except a good comeback and no fear being shown on the part of their victim. Once the victim stands his ground, the bully backs off because bullies target weak people. But if there are fashion bullies who chide people for the way they dress, the victim can only protect herself by dressing competitively. All this is very girl orientated, isn’t it? Yes it is, because fashion is harder for females than males and schools engaging in proms only propagate this problem.