Popular school dances such as prom and homecoming always create a lot of buzz-girls excitedly shop for dresses, friend groups coordinate dinner plans, etc. But historically this level of excitement hasn’t surrounded the February Sadie Hawkins dance. In fact, this sophomore led dance has become a struggle this year. Just over 100 students attended this dance compared to homecoming, which had around 480 students.
Student council adviser Bozena Lawson gets to oversee the creation process of the dance.
“So the idea of the Sadie Hawkins dance is, the ninth and tenth graders get to be in charge of the dance…and I know our school Trinity, the dance is a tradition for over 40 years,” Ms. Lawson said.
The name “Sadie Hawkins” came from a controversial comic strip. In the comic strip, Li’l Abner, the main protagonist of the story is a girl named Sadie with unattractive features who fails to catch a husband even with the help of her own father, the town’s most wealthy and powerful man, Hezekiah. Hezekiah feared his daughter would live without a husband at age 35 and suffer humiliation of becoming an old maid. To avoid this, he declared Sadie Hawkins Day a mandatory event and called all of the bachelors in town. The event consisted of a race of the eligible bachelors with Sadie chasing after them. Whoever Sadie caught was legally bound to marry her.
This inspired real-world Sadie Hawkins events, the premise of which is that women ask men out on a date or to a dance.
Whether people call it a Sadie Hawkins dance, Turnabout, or something different, Sadie’s is a long-lasting tradition in most high schools nationwide. Unlike most dances when boys ask girls, Sadie Hawkins provides an opportunity to switch these conventional gender roles so girls can ask guys out. Ms. Lawson believes the gender role switch doesn’t matter as long as the students have fun.
“The girls on this occasion ask the boys, and I think for a while it made sense,” Ms. Lawson said. “But it doesn’t really matter who is asking whom to the dance, it’s about having fun with friends and inviting friends.”
Since this is 2023, it’s not too big of a deal for a girl to ask a guy to a dance or even ask them out. Gender roles are less fixed now than in the 1950s when something like Sadie’s Hawkins was a novel. Mathematics teacher Beth Wehr remembers the excitement around Sadie Hawkins when she was a student at Trinity.
“The guys would ask the girls to homecoming and prom,” Wehr said. “So that was just the switch around…it was always exciting and also nerve-wracking to witness.”
Student council picks the theme for these types of dances every year and it’s a whole process to decide.
“Student council meets in the summer and they start conversations about all their activities and events, which happens during the year,” Lawson said. “One of the conversations we have, it’s about the Sadie Hawkins event. So we select the committee, and they are in charge of selecting a theme…they always try to choose something fun, but also proper. We all felt like this year choosing the Mardi Gras theme would be great for the occasion.”
Ms. Lawson points out that students don’t necessarily need to stick to tradition with the Sadie Hawkins dance.
“If there is a couple and a boy wants to invite a girl to Sadies, he’s more than welcome to do that,” Lawson said. “If the girl feels like going with the tradition and wants to ask the guy out, I think it’s fun.”
Many students enjoy all of the dances the student council puts on for them and in the end it’s all about having fun.
“It’s all for fun, and in a good spirit of just being together, especially socializing and having a great time with friends.” Lawson said.
