Turning Around the Turnabout

      High school dances. A time to find the perfect dress, figure out what to do with your hair, and try to get that special someone to put a corsage around your wrist. Elegant pictures are taken, you drive off to the dance, and then everything becomes as far from elegant as possible. In a dark and loud gym is full of hormone ridden teenagers packed as tight as can be against the speakers, jumping up and down and screaming the lyrics to the popular song the DJ is playing to your heart's content. When you think about it, there's no reason this could be seen as a productive time to spend a Saturday night. Other than the fact that they're ridiculously fun.
      The four major dances: Homecoming (October), Turnabout (March), Disco (April), and Prom (May...I think). Homecoming is probably my favorite dance. Every year there's a theme to the dance (this year's being Harry Potter). Girls in short yet formal dresses, guys in suits of every color. Disco is what's labeled as the supremely "skanky" dance. Everyone wearing anything tight and/or shiny. As the title suggests, all of the music is Disco Era-themed. Plenty of Abba and Michael Jackson to go around. In my opinion, the second best dance. Prom is only allowed to be attended by juniors, seniors, and their dates, so I've never been to this more formal which is preceded by a dinner, and you can dance somewhere that doesn't have a scoreboard int he background. I've heard it's not as fun as the other two dances, but it's classier.
      Then there's what I really wanted to talk about: Turnabout. This is the least popular of the dances. What really pushes me to not even bother with this dance is that it's held not in the gym, but the cafeteria. I feel that during the dance I'd just be like "I was eating lunch her six hours ago..." Then there's the point of the dance: girls ask the guys. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that's the guy's job. Girls have to look pretty and bear the children, all the guy really has to do is hold the door open and ask the girl out.
     I'm clearly not the only one who feels this way, considering that since Turnabout became so unpopular, that they're changing it to the "Spring Bling Bash", supposedly to be the "hip hop version of Disco". They're even hiring a professional coordinator for the entertainment. The problem: it's still being held in the cafeteria. But complaining about this "Spring Bling Bash" is not my point for this blog entry. My point is: guys, don't let chivalry die. Hold those doors open. Get up the courage to ask the girl you like out. And, I'm sorry, but you're probably also going to have to pay for that date. Yes, women can vote and be in the army now, but in some cultures they're also beaten to death if they want to divorce their husband or they have to throw themselves on their husband's cremation fire if/when he dies, so you can at least show a little chivalry every once and a while. The female population of the world thanks you.