Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction: A Night to Remember Chapter 2: Coming of Age at the Prom: Adolescence and Popular Culture Chapter 3: Fashioning the Feminine: Dresses, Jewelry, Hair and More Chapter 4: Romancing the Prom: Boyfriends, Girlfriends and Just Friends Chapter 5: Prom Promises: Rules and Ruling: Proms as Sites of Social Control Chapter 6: The Divided Dance Floor: Race in School Chapter 7: Breaking Rules: Contesting the Prom Chapter 8: Conclusion: Learning to Listen Appendices Notes Referencesndex
Best, Amy L.
"[A]n important contribution to our understanding of girlculture
and adolescence in 20th Century America." -- Joan Jacobs Brumberg,
author of The Body Project
"[C]harming and revealing. Best's depiction of the prom as the site
of conflict between girls--deeply invested in romance, consumerism
and the presentation of the body--and boys, for whom the prom is by
and large a nuisance, is especially compelling. Prom Night is a
good read--a bit like being at the prom with a sociologist on one
arm, and a date on the other." -- William Graebner, author of
Coming of Age in Buffalo: Youth and Authorityin the Postwar Era
"Rebels without a cause! Proms, as adolescent rites of passage and
dress rehearsals for adult life, show us the limits of American
conformity and resistance. Prom Night defrocks the high school prom
by showing it as a site for the privileging of heterosexuality,
whiteness, and class." -- Chrys Ingraham, author of White
Weddings:Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture
"A stunning example of cultural analysis that both affirms and
engages the experiences of young people in a society that rarely
allows them to speak or represent themselves. In this brilliant
work, Best reinvents how prom night is constituted as a site of
struggle, resistance, and power. This is an important book and
should be read by anyone concerned about youth and the crisis of
democracy." -- Henry Giroux, author of Impure Acts: The
PracticalPolitics of Cultural Studies
"A serious look at a topic which, although often trivialized,
continues to reverberate through our popular culture long after the
party's over...Best reveal[s] how young people use this
coming-of-age ritual to define themselves, and how they, in turn,
are defined by it." -- Debbie Stoller, Editorial Director, BUST
Magazine
"Best's study provides insight into the thoughts and dreams of
today's youth." -- Booklist
"Best provides an interesting sociological study of the prom
experience that will find a home in American studies, women's
studies, and sociology collections." -- Library of Congress
"Explores prom's cultural significance --an event both dismissed as
frivolous and heralded as an important coming-of-age rite." --
Orlando Sentinel
"Recognized by marketing experts as a bonanza long before scholars
realized its significance as a cultural indicator, the high school
prom, with its complex commercialism, consumerism, and youth
heirarchy, makes a fertile topic for Prom Night by sociology
professor Amy Best. Thorough and engaging, Best examines proms held
at four public high schools (covering the full socioeconomic
spectrum), looking particularly at how they serve as 'the starting
point for the formation of a youth politics' and what they about
the educational system today." -- Publishers Weekly, 7/10/00
"Written by a California Sociology professor, this book offers a
cultural analysis of a night that reverberates with importance for
many of today's high school students." -- Washington Times
"Best's analysis of the prom not only challenges many of popular
culture's characterizations of it, but also serves as an
exploration of how youth are affected by adult power and consumer
practices...Prom Night should be of interest, both substantively
and conceptually, to a broad audience interested in young people."
-- Contemporary Sociology
"This book represents a rich terrain to study and teach about the
ever changing gendered, commercialized, conflicted cultural
tapestry we know as America." -- NWSA Journal
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