Prom Queen

This article from the New York Times talks about the saga that is the American prom ritual.
Apparently girls are spending up to a thousand bucks on the dress, the hair, the makeup, the beauty treatments, the massage, the jewellery, etc.

I don't think that this is an exclusively US phenomenon though. Yes, Aussie girls spend up big for the formal as well, but I think what we are talking about here is the TYPE of girl- whether US, Australian or anything else.

It's only the diva-types, the types who actually have "wardrobes" and personal hairdressers at 17, the types who are in the well-off popular group and who don't have any personal, financial or moral qualms about dropping $400 on a dress that you'll only wear once.

Call me jealous, go ahead. I just think that we are all getting so materialistic, so attached to "things" and physical objects that can be obtained through money alone, that we forget what's real: love, happiness, engaging with the world and making others happy.

But then again, is it madness to expect a 17-year-old NOT to be materialistic? Perhaps it's all a rich tapestry.