A plethora of confusion has surrounded the change of title of this year’s springtime ladies’ choice dance, which ended up being canceled earlier this week. From Sadie Hawkins to MORP to TOLO, the spring dance has always centered around cutesy, couple-y themes that excluded non-duos. The new Spring Fling dance still encourages ladies to ask their baes, but the new vibe of the dance accommodates squads, cliques, and fams galore.
With new themes encouraging groups of friends and dates jumbled all together in a party bus of adolescent fun, Key Club hoped to increase dance attendance by taking the pressure off of Liberty’s ladies to ask a date.
This is a change that I fully welcome. As an underclassman, I found date-emphasizing themes such as “heroes versus supervillains” intimidating. This pressure has triggered a low attendance to the dance in the past few years. With these tweaks to the dance’s vibe, the dance is more inclusive and carefree.
Regardless, some traditional Patriots are miffed that future dances will shy away from fondly romantic themes. But this alteration truly only brings positive change. Spring Fling is still a girls’ choice dance. All of the elements of TOLO are still present, but now you can go to the dance with your friends-who-don’t-want-to-ask-people in tow.
On a more complex level, Liberty’s straying away specifically girls’ choice dances is a step forward for creating a more equality-based social culture. Sadie Hawkins dances create this notion that girls need to have a specific event in order to justify taking charge of their relationships. The concept that a woman asking out someone is atypical is absurd in our modern culture. Liberty’s ladies’ choice dances contribute to the cultural idea that males have the dominant role in relationships and that a female taking charge is uncharacteristic. By removing emphasis on a girls’ choice theme, future dances will normalize the idea that females can make bold choices without needing a special occasion to justify it.
Despite the fact that this year’s Spring Fling was canceled due to low ticket sales, I’d encourage you to show your support for these changes by attending the dance next year.