Flat out, no arguments, boys should be allowed to attend Gibson Southerns’ winter dance, Sweetheart, without being asked by a girl. This is a problem in our school system, and it needs to be fixed. It is simply not fair to onr.
Right now, the rule is that the only way a boy can go is if he is asked by a girl who is a member of The Sunshine Society. Girls not in the club are also not allowed to go. Girls in Sunshine who do not earn two points by bringing in canned goods or a Christmas gift cannot go either. If a girl meets those requirements, she can invite a boy from Gibson Southern or another school to be her date.
Every year, many boys do not get asked. This can make these guys feel undervalued and potentially less than the boys who do get asked. It is not uncommon to see girls asking guys to the dance in September or early October so they can get the “good boys” as dates. This is simply rude to the boys who are not being asked. It can feel like a slap in the face to be sitting at home on the night of the winter formal, knowing that the rest of the friend group is attending the school’s only semi-formal dance of the year. Without an invitation to attend Sweetheart, many boys at our school can only attend two dances in four years: Junior Prom and Senior Prom.
If a girl has a boyfriend from a different school, she can take her boyfriend to our Sweetheart Dance. That means we have random boys from different schools taking the spots and tickets of our own Titans. How is that fair? Gibson Southern is all about inclusivity and equality, but then we have a dance that could potentially exclude half the school.
Some girls do not want to take a date at all, which is understandable, but this leads to an issue: wasting a boy’s ticket. One girl who does not want to take a date is one less boy who gets to go to the dance at all.
Last year, two senior boys had girlfriends who were freshmen in college. They could not go to the senior winter dance with their girlfriends because they did not go to our school anymore. Being boys, they were unable to attend the dance with the dates of their choice solely because of their gender. The girls graduated from Gibson Southern, still knew lots of people here, and would have likely enjoyed themselves. If a senior girl were dating a freshman in college, she would have been able to take him as her date. That is not fair. There is clearly a double standard at work.
If roles were reversed and girls could not go to Prom (or any dance at the school, for that matter) unless a boy asked them, it would have lasted a year (if that), and parents and high school girls would be complaining. It would have been changed. Most boys do not want to complain about this topic because it makes them look weak. They do not want people to know they feel sad about not going to a school dance. But, personally, I know boys who are disappointed about not being able to attend the dance and would be thrilled to be invited.
A simple solution to this problem would be to separate the Sunshine Society and the Sweetheart Dance. There is no reason these two things should be together. If a girl wants to be in Sunshine, they should be in it because they want to volunteer and help the community, not because they have to earn two points for the Sweetheart Dance. The school could sell Sweetheart tickets for $20 dollars each, just like they do for Prom. Yes, there may be fewer members in Sunshine, but perhaps those members would be more dedicated to the club than a lot of the girls are right now.
If that option does not work, Sunshine Society can still be in charge of the dance. They can have all the same requirements it has now; girls earn two points, but boys can sign up to go to the dance, whether they have a date or not. The form to sign up for Sweetheart can be sent to the whole school through email instead of being posted to the Sunshine Society’s Google Classroom.
A third option would be to have both girls and boys join Sunshine. The boys would earn points just like the girls do now. With this, everyone would be invited to the dance that was in the club. Boys would be able to go without a date or with a date from a different school.
Gibson Southern is the only school that requires a person to be in a club for the winter formal, and it is the only school that does not allow boys to go on their own. Plain and simple, there is an issue, and just because this is the way it has always been does not mean that it is right. Sometimes, traditions need to be broken.
