"Alabama girl opts for suspension rather than being ‘paddled’ 4 ‘racy’ prom dress

Parent Cafe
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<p>Nope I was not looking at Paris…still think the girl at the center of the story has a dress cut too low for high school. Not obscene, but definitely cut too low for that wearer. I did not make the walking felony comment. And no, I do not think high school girls are women. I don’t think high school boys are men either. Maybe young women and young men but not men and not women. Maybe that’s part of it…thinking of our teens as “all grown up.” Going to prom, going off to college etc. are all rites of passage, but they aren’t yet at the finish line.</p>

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<p>“Neighbors are quite conscience of regional differences in acceptability. The local stores buy what will sell in their area.”</p>

<p>They bought this dress off the internet, so we don’t know that their local stores would choose to carry it.</p>

<p>I was ready for the dress to show underboob, sideboob, have safety pins down the side like this: <a href=“http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLpaZ4jIOnM/SO-x6BojjwI/AAAAAAAAE6Y/H8BRgafVNlY/s400/liz-hurley-gown.jpg[/url]”>http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dLpaZ4jIOnM/SO-x6BojjwI/AAAAAAAAE6Y/H8BRgafVNlY/s400/liz-hurley-gown.jpg&lt;/a&gt; … maybe all three.</p>

<p>It’s just a chesty girl in a cocktail dress! Nothing to get so excited about.</p>

<p>I’m not even going to touch the paddling.</p>

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<p>If you put my daughters’ prom dresses on a curvy girl like that, they would have looked obscene.
On another tangent:<br>
Back in the Jurassic, when I was in high school, most mothers sewed well, and many made their daughters’ prom dresses or could pay a friend to do it. My one very busty friend wore a halter-style dress to prom (which was daring in that Gunnie-Sax, Jessica McClintock flowing era). Her mom made sure it covered well! Now very few moms could make something that could pass for a dress from the department store.
Paddling teen-aged girls? Not even going to go in to that!</p>

<p>If this is an ongoing problem for the school, they can gather up some large sized t-shirts (thrift shop?) and pass them out. Maybe some knee-length basketball shorts as well…</p>

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<p>I guess I’m in the minority but I think the dress is inappropriate for a high school prom. The length is OK but the top “V” shape is cut too low for someone who is only eighteen y/o. I’m not sure how I feel about school officials deciding what is or is not appropriate; ideally parents should make that decision. And the whole paddling business is absurd.</p>

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<p>I live in Alabama and have not even heard of this story- I don’t think the dress is appropriate- Interresting though!!</p>

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<p>I think some people must be looking at the wrong photo. The prom dress in question is green. The blond wearing (or rather busting out of…) the yellow / print dress is Paris Hilton.</p>

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<p>Well, I was one of the people who said the dress was too revealing, and I was definitely looking at the green dress. </p>

<p>I really think that it is more a matter of the dress not fitting her very well than anything else. Even though I think it is not flatteringly cut for a girl with her figure, I certainly don’t think it is obscene in any way.</p>

<p>And I continue to think that the whole paddling thing is perverted.</p>

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<p>I actually was married in a Jessica McClintock dress, in 1981. ( we paid for our wedding ourselves and I bought it off the rack.)
It certainly covered me up, but it was very pretty- not so much the flattering though.
But it fit- both the dress and the cost.</p>

<p>Ive never been good with sewing- I don’t have the patience to adjust patterns or even lay the pieces out right. My younger D is pretty good at it- she has taken classes and she and her friends would restyle used clothes, so they would fit and be a little more interesting.</p>

<p>Sewing and knitting have been pretty hip things to do for about a decade at least in the Northwest. :wink:
But it also used to be a way to save money, but yarn and fabric is expensive.</p>

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<p>“I live in Alabama and have not even heard of this story”</p>

<p>Interesting! I picked it up on fairly local news in California!</p>

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<p>emeraldkity4, I just wanted to add that you must have been–and still are, I’m sure–hot stuff! :smiley: What they used to call a “pocket Venus” 100 years ago.</p>

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<p>I suppose a stick-thin girl could wear this dress in a size 2 and get away with it, since there wouldn’t be any “cleavage” to show. It doesn’t seem fair or kind to object to this more curvy gal wearing the same dress. I think she looks lovely. The dress is very much in line with styles worn to our local prom, where deep V’s were a very common neckline.</p>

<p>The paddling sounds creepy. I’m glad this young lady had the dignity to say “No.”</p>

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<p>momofthreeboys–as I suggested they are young women, not young girls, and not full grown women. raising two boys and a girl here, letting our daughters find their way as young women is a process…</p>

<p>taking the focus off the dress, I am proud that this young woman had the intelligence and self respect to know that she was too old to be paddled. she had the assertiveness and inner fortitude to refuse to be paddled. those strengths are more important in the life of a young woman than the prom dress she orders online…</p>

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<p>Zip…I understand what you are saying and yes that dress on a rail-thin girl probably wouldn’t receive the same degree of scrutiny; but it still would be inappropriate for a HS prom. IMO, the “V” cut is just too low and the top overall looks too tight.</p>

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<p>Okay, I didn’t read the whole thread so maybe I missed something. When I watched the clip, he stated the dress code was six inches above the knee (quantifiable) and then something about no cleavage above/below the breastbone – I just didn’t understand it at all. Where exactly does the breastbone begin and end? And cleavage becomes a more difficult issue because some girls could wear something cut very low and not have any cleavage and some girls can wear something that is business casual and have cleavage because they are more endowed. I’m betting that if a different girl had worn that same dress that the length might have been an issue, but the cleavage wouldn’t have been. I don’t really have a problem with a dress code – I just think it needs to be fair and comprehensible.</p>

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<p>Momofthreeboys, most prom dresses are fairly lowcut. As the mom of a well-endowed daughter, I can tell you it would be almost impossible for some girls to not sport cleavage in a prom dress. I realize that girls who are well-endowed have challenges in shopping, but it’s a lot harder than you’d think to find a dress that is youthful and fits the image of a prom dress and that doesn’t show some cleavage.</p>

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<p>^^same here, my daughter and myself have had to deal with this. and just because you are more endowed does not mean you have to act like there is something shameful about your body, don’t mean one should not be tasteful but you don’t have to hide your body…</p>

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<p>The girl’s parent(s) saw the dress. They bought the dress. It met their standards. She is a well endowed girl who should be proud of her body, just as the lesser endowed should be proud of her body. While I had no idea that she purchased the dress online, so what? I am the mother of three, including a son. Yes, we live in a more liberal area. But, the principal is, to quote my kids, a perv. He or she brought unwarrented attention to the girl and her family. If there were such strict standards why weren’t the girls just issued a uniform prom dress? There is shame here, but not the girl’s shame. Why do I want to see a picture of the principal, school board etc. with the music dueling banjoes in the background?</p>

<p>The only place that one can uniformly find “modest” dresses would be in Utah, Orthodox Jewish communities, and perhaps, if they have proms Amish country.</p>

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<p>well stated ellebud…</p>

<p>and I go back to the idea that this young woman had the smarts to know she should not permit anyone from that school to touch her body…in the form of paddling. My 18 yr old d is becoming enlightened in her gender studies class and reminds me of my own strong values about all this…let’s all focus more on women’s inner strengths and less on our outer appearances. I say way to go to this young woman…she’ll use these strengths time and again throughout her life…prom dress, will likely never be seen again</p>

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<p>ellebud and lindz126, I agree.</p>

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<p>This is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard of. I went to prom last year, and had on a very nice, strapless dress. It didn’t show much of my chest region (I’m as flat as Kansas), but my best friend tried on the same dress and had quite a lot of cleavage showing (she says she’s a DD, but there’s no way she’s that small). Is that her fault? No. No more than her dress that falls to her knees yet looks like a miniskirt on me (8 inch height difference). We can’t choose the way the dresses are made- we just have to live with them. </p>

<p>This dress was fine. Her parents approved it and it didn’t show anything more than what teenagers typically wear. </p>

<p>And if ANYONE tried to hit me with a paddle, I’d personally kick his/her arse. Sorry, my parents taught me never to let anyone lay a hand on me (or extension of a hand) and I’m not going to bend my standards to someone who technically has power over me. Plus, I’m not going to get a suspension for 3 days because I didn’t let you beat me. Not gonna happen, buddy.</p>

<p>This is also incredibly sexist as it can really only target women. Ugh, ugh, ugh. <em>Rules Alabama off of potential places to live</em></p>