In a society that tries to promote equality of genders, what is the purpose of having a Sadie Hawkins Dance?

I talked to my mom who actually used to go to Sadie Hawkins dances in her high school years, and the purpose of them was to give girls the power to choose who they want to ask. When my mom was in high school, the girls generally said yes to any boy who asked them, and Sadie’s was the time when girls picked up the courage to ask a guy to a dance.

Now, we are encouraging girls to be their own people and to ask whoever they want, regardless of historic gender roles. The original Sadie Hawkins actually wanted to have this style of dance for that very same reason. No matter what time of year, girls are asking boys to dances and are not shamed for it, and I think Sadie would say her work is done.

In this day and age, girls should be encouraged to be individuals and not the arm candy for the boys at the dance. More and more people are going alone or with groups of friends instead of with a date, and thus, the whole idea of Sadie Hawkins is a bit outdated and unnecessary.  

Maybe the reason why no one wanted to go to Sadies was because the girls didn’t need an excuse to be empowered to ask boys to a dance. This is a great thing for our society as a whole, but a bad thing for dance ticket sales.

I understand the whole tradition aspect of the Sadie Hawkins dance, but in all of my years at RUHS, I have consistently seen that the number of people going to Sadie’s is significantly lower than that of homecoming. This was a result of a few reasons, one of which was that the students would prefer a winter formal to a Sadie Hawkins dance. Maybe it’s time for a change in the way we do things, and maybe that would up the involvement.

One school in our area does a Sadie Hawkins dance where everyone goes to the dance in the attire of the theme, not the homecoming dress style we follow here. Another option would be to switch to a winter formal, which a lot of other schools have and seem to be high in attendance. Both of these require a change in tradition, but sometimes tradition fizzles out and needs to change in response to the audience changing.

Another reason this dance wasn’t so popular was that it was not advertised. I really only started hearing about it two weeks in advance, and I don’t know if everyone is like me, but I need a little more time to get a dress. I know many people (especially new RUHS students) only heard of the dance from the few fliers that were up on campus, and to be completely honest, they weren’t very enticing. The advertisement fliers were created like the lineup fliers for the actual Coachella, which was actually pretty clever, but the first time I saw them I was very confused as to what they were advertising in the first place. If they had clearly stated that they were advertising the Sadies dance and the date and time, I believe that the dance could have been a bit more successful.

Another reason that many students didn’t want to attend was the theme. I’m with them on that, I just can’t see a coachella theme fitting with tuxes and updos. If the dance were promoted as a dress as the theme style dance, the theme may have been more fitting, but with the way we hold our Sadie Hawkins dance, it really doesn’t fit. Coachella is outside, has a dirt floor, and is super hot, all things I can’t see wanting while in heels.

I won’t be here another year to see what the Dance Guard comes up with, but heaven help us all if it’s another Sadie Hawkins dance.