Finding Solace in the Prom Scene

Pull out your iridescent taffeta and matching dyed pumps from Payless. Prom season is in full effect!

In conjunction with the release of Disney’s Prom this past weekend, Entertainment Weekly writer Owen Gleiberman penned an essay on how Hollywood brings to the big screen the annual corsage-laden rite of passage, giving adults a little cinematic therapy when they think back to their own high school days.

I’ll admit it – when Valley Girl or Just One of the Guys comes on TV, my friends and I will watch the entire movie. But why do we like these films so much? Maybe it’s for the 80’s dresses and killer soundtracks. But really, I think it gives the awkward, geeky teen still hiding inside of us the chance to live vicariously through characters who put on pretty dresses and show the world they no longer care what people think of them anymore.

No one exemplifies the prom kiss-off like Molly Ringwald’s character in Pretty in Pink. Who didn’t cheer when after being ceremoniously dumped just days before prom, Andie walked into the dance with her head high, her body swathed in a Pepto-Bismol sack, and her arm hand in that of her closeted best friend to the awe and admiration of those who betrayed her?

(Fun fact from EW – By the time John Hughes decided to reshoot the original ending, which had Andie finding romance with Duckie, Andrew McCarthy had shaved his head. That’s a wig he’s wearing in the prom scenes).

I can one-up Andie’s geekiness any day. My date to my senior prom – get ready for it – was a video camera. My human date bailed on me four days before prom for someone cuter so I spent the majority of the event videotaping others’ romantic evenings (soooo Ronald Miller of me).

But unlike Andie, I didn’t have a swooning, passionate reconciliation with my original date as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark played in the background, which was perfectly fine with me since he looked nothing like Andrew McCarthy and he had women’s hands (oh that’s right, Justin, I’m telling the world you had daintiest little hands ever!)

No matter how successful or sophisticated we become as grown women, there are still many of us who love to crank up the DVR and applaud our girlfriends in geekdom, like Josie Grossie in Never Been Kissed or Romy and Michelle – characters who found the strength to let their inner beauty shine on the biggest night of the year.

So, spill the beans – what movie prom scene do you love? Or better yet – share your prom horror stories!

By Nicole Plegge, Lifestyle Blogger for SmartParenting