Is the Promenade an Outdated Tradition?

The prom: a tradition celebrated in high schools across the country. Some might even call it a rite of passage. Dresses, dinner, flowers, pictures, and, at Hammonton High School, promenade.

Tickets go on sale April 22, and for any student to buy a ticket, they have to have a signed contract. A contract that states, “All Prom participants are required to attend and be announced at the Promenade.”

In other words, no promenade, no prom.

And for those who had planned on attending prom without a date, opting to avoid the traditional finding a date debacle, they are now faced with finding an escort, or walking alone/

For the sake of the students, I believe HHS needs to rethink the promenade requirement and make it optional.

Finding, or even having, a prom date is already a big stress to high school students. However, one could typically be assuaged by the fact that they could just go in a group, or just screw it all together and take themselves. At our school, attendees are expected to walk down an aisle, in front of their friends, family, and members of the community – and for what exactly? Who does the serve? Prom goers? Not necessarily. I think it makes the whole ordeal ingenuine, for people just couple up in order to save face, and not because they actually want to attend with a specific person. Basically, one would have to flaunt the fact that they don’t have a date leaving them to be embarrassed. Some even refuse attending the prom because they don’t want to promenade.

Additionally, Hammonton’s mandate disregards the self consciousness and social anxiety that many of today’s students feel. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 32% of highschoolers struggling with anxiety, the added stressor of exhibition of themselves to be unnecessary. It takes away from the careless fun that an attendee should have;  an escort should not be a priority.

Anxieties regarding who you bring and what it means, if you can even find anyone, strips the fun out of even supposedly going, possibly deterring supposed attendees due to their lack of escort, because who wants to walk alone?

Who wishes to parade their loneliness to their whole town, their “otherness.”

The promenade promotes alienation, a lack of belonging. Effectively eliminating the idea of just ‘going as a group’ in the means of just having an enjoyable time. And what about those who are shy? There are some who even refuse class presentations where they frankly just have to stand in front of a classroom of people, so imagine the anxiety of parading in front of over 10 times that amount.

Self consciousness, Heightened anxiety. Alienation. All at the cost of what?

Once again we are driven to ask: who does the promenade serve in the first place? Parents and students alike are capable of obtaining their own pictures. And even if immortalizing the event is the goal, why not just have a photographer? Who takes pictures of groups, dates, and singles alike, without the pressure of being put on display to the masses.

One consideration is the history and origin of promenades – a time to dress up and walk around to socialize and show off. These public walks also appear in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, during which Elizabeth and Darcy discuss their relationship while still under the protective eye of the public. It is also worth mentioning the way in which it perpetuates the archaic ideal of a need to ‘couple up’. That in life, it is sad to just live your own life, overall perpetuating an idea that in order to fit in, in order to be seen as complete, you require a counterpart.

The whole ordeal is completely archaic.