(host) Great hair, great dresses, and great expectations. The prom has long functioned as a rite of passage for American teenagers as they act out fantasies of a generally unattainable adult ideal. But outside of being the center of a ton of teenage dreams, prom is also big business. "Money" magazine cites a 2015 Visa survey as reporting that the American family spends an average of $919 per student attending prom. Why might American families fork over so much for just one night? Well, today we'll discuss where we got this funny little word from, how a high school party evolved into a teenage gateway to adult life, and why filmmakers love to make prom movies that critique American culture.

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(Describer) Title: Origin of Everything.

So first, a little background on the word. The word "prom" is short for promenade, a French word used to describe a leisurely walk or the spaces in which this walk might take place. The word "promenade" also describes various dance positions. For example, promenade partner is a staple of American square dancing. But by the late 19th century, prom started to be used to describe a formal dance at a school. A 2014 article in "Slate" charts the frequency of prom-related words in English texts. In the first half of the 20th century, prom was most used to designate a cotillion-style ball. During the 1960s and 1970s, prom related terminology appeared less frequently, which the article postulates was because more pressing issues, including the Vietnam War and the counterculture movement, were on teenagers minds. In the 1980s, usage increased, but shifted from designating a simple school dance to describing a big school blowout. Blowouts, not just for hair. But how did prom become such a critical rite of passage into American adulthood? Let's start by clarifying the phrase, "rites of passage." The ethnographer Arnold Van Gennep coined this in 1909 to describe a ceremony marking an individual's transition from one social or religious status to another. Van Gennep maintained that a rite of passage has three stages. The first involves preliminal events, separation from family, breaking with routine, leaving behind something. The second involves liminal activities, a choreographed transition during which an element of one's identity is destroyed to make room for something new. The third involves postliminal proceedings. The changed individual is reincorporated into society. In pre-industrial societies, religious coming-of-age rites often coincided with the onset of puberty. During the Jewish bar or bat mitzvah, a 12-to-13-year-old transitions to adulthood. And at around 14 years old, Roman Catholic children are considered old enough to understand the challenges of living a Christian life and are confirmed. Today these ceremonies, along with others from diverse religious and cultural traditions, remain important to many Americans. However, they occur long before a child obtains legal adult status in America. Being allowed to drive, marry, own property, buy alcohol and tobacco, enter military, and vote. And if you want more on 18-year-old as an adult, then check out our video. But given that proms occur closer to this legal coming of age, for some, this party functions as a secular rite of passage. A key element of the American prom fantasy is that the individual can transcend class boundaries for one magical night. Sociologist Amy Best explains that the expansion of American public schools during the late 19th and early 20th centuries gave more working class children access to formal education. They also had the chance to attend the kind of formal dances that were once only the providence of the wealthy. She writes that prom became a popularized debutante ball that allowed anyone attending high school the opportunity to feel as though they too were coming out. And American filmmakers have long been drawn to this fantasy of social mobility. Cinematic representations of prom can provide great insight into broader social attitudes within American culture. And many filmmakers reproduce Van Gennep's three rites of passage stages in a film formula that I'm sure you'll recognize. Stage one, a teenager enacts the death of their childhood self. They distance themselves emotionally from their family. They engage in a performance of adult roles, makeup, hair, prom king, queen, or tricked-out outfits. They give and wear flowers. They leave their childhood home in a fantasy vehicle, which maybe has a hot tub on the back. Stage two, in the liminal space of prom, the teenager is tested. They may get involved in a fight or, better yet, a dance off. They navigate peer pressure. They decide whether to try various mind- or mood-altering substances. They deflect or initiate sexual advances. In short, they scrutinize adult culture, and determine who they hope to be within it. And stage three, the new adult is incorporated into society. If prom takes place in the film's penultimate scene, this might involve busting out some adult dance moves, or engaging in a very adult kiss. What makes these formulaic prom scenes interesting is the degree to which filmmakers use them to foreground what is wrong with the adult society into which the teenager hopes to emerge. Take one of the earliest prom scenes in American film, Frank Capra's 1946 classic, "It's A Wonderful Life." George Bailey has been working for his father for four years, saving money for college. He reconnects with 18-year-old Mary at the 1928 Bedford Falls High School graduation dance, AKA, his younger brother's prom. George and Mary expertly dance the Charleston on a stage built above a pool, fall in the water, and continue dancing. George, in oversized pants, walks home Mary in a bathrobe. Later that night, George's father has a stroke. George will manage his father's business through the Great Depression and his own, and give his tuition money to his brother and marry Mary. The prom marks George's transition from youthful idealism into a nuanced and complex adulthood. Another film that uses a scene about prom to comment on American society is "Grease," the 1978 film based on the musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. "Grease" portrays a romanticized fantasy version of 1950s America in which class and gender roles seem clear. But the film is shot through the lens of the more chaotic 1970s, when these class and gender roles were as hectic as a hand jive. Film scholar Barbara Jane Brickman argues that the 1960s and '70s were marked by a series of, quote, "cultural earthquakes." "The pill had become widely available "and contributed to a sexual revolution. "The youth revolts, counter-cultural movements, "political upheaval, and Vietnam nightmare of the 1960s "had changed the country forever. "The civil rights, women's rights, and gay rights movements "had worked to redefine identity and equality under the law. "And the political and economic crises of the early 1970s "decimated trust in traditional authorities and national mythologies." For this reason, there was a surge in nostalgia for an imagined version of the 1950s. "Grease" aestheticizes those standard prom cliches, the outfits, the rides, the decorated gym. But it also represents a buttoned-up 1950 style prom on the brink of implosion. Our secondary hero, Kenickie, is on the verge of fisticuffs with Craterface Balmudo over Rizzo. Dance battles threatened to end in violence and teen promiscuity. So, it's less corsages and punch, and more condoms and punches. But ultimately, the masculine violence on screen is more about fixing the curl in the front of your pompadour and dance-off than it is about any real physical threat. Brickman explains that in her view, "Grease" portrays the male idol with so much irony that it actually undermines its force. "Grease" presents the 1950s prom as a campy nostalgic performance. It openly mocks the idea that prom is a legitimate rite of passage, and it draws attention to the toxicity of the vision of masculinity that the rituals associated with prom seem to promote. Much as the term "prom" had a resurgence in text during the 1980s, prom scenes appeared quite frequently in major films during this decade. However, prom scenes in some of the major films of this era did less to provide cultural criticism than to reinforce some of the more material values of capitalist America at that era. Consider this 1980s prom epic by teen movie machine, John Hughes-- "Pretty in Pink," starring '80s idol, Molly Ringwald. After Andie transitions to adulthood at her prom, the film closes as Andie and her rich crush, Blane, make out in the parking lot to OMD's, "If You Leave." In this scene, Hughes suggests that Andie achieves adult status by retaining the option to ride home in Blane's BMW. Rather than critique a classist and materialist subset of American culture, this film actually endorses its values. So, if previous prom movies were about growing up, finding love, and moving on, then the 1980's spin on these movies was growing up, finding love, and moving on in a better car than the one you showed up in. Bye-bye, Duckie. Hello, Blane. "Get out of her dreams and into his car." Of course, even these more precarious prom fantasies are not accessible all American teens. In Georgia, some towns still debate whether to desegregate graduation parties. And the town of Charleston, Mississippi, waited until 2008 to accept the actor Morgan Freeman's 1997 offer to finance an integrated prom. Proms also can alienate those who do not conform to the heteronormative paradigm. Some schools still cite policies banning same-sex couples, despite the 1980 ruling by the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, the case of Fricke v. Lynch, which upheld a gay student's right to have a same-sex date at a school dance. And media representations of prom are also evolving. Take, for example, a recent indie film, "Death to Prom," that reimagined some classic prom films with gay characters. So, the images and representations we see of proms in popular culture often reflect the social upheavals present in teen culture in any given decade. And it's all set to music. Today, it's arguable about whether prom continues to play an active role in helping teenagers explore what it means to be an adult in American society. And that's mainly because we've stopped looking at it exclusively as a rite of passage, and started talking about it as a night of escapism from the pressures of the real adult world. In modern prom-night movies, you're more likely to see your classmates dancing wildly and taking selfies than challenging someone from the nearest school over who gets to date the prettiest girl in town. But as we've shed some of the more outdated and antiquated ideologies that have come along with prom, it still maintains its mythical allure as a celebration of the end of high school and the first timid steps into the adult world of being 18 plus. So whether you're dropping that estimated $919 on prom swag, over a third of which is actually spent on "promposals," if you can believe it, or going a more frugal DIY route by making a dress that goes viral, prom is still a huge part of American high-school experience. And in some ways, it gets to be the final bookend of your years of teen angst, and the beginning of the endless years of your adult angst that await you. Prom: usually kind of disappointing, but still better than aging without music.

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