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~ A Socio-Anthropological Analysis ~ We've all heard of status jeans, right? Those Sassoons, Calvins and Sergios from the 1980s. We're also familiar with status cars—Mercedes, Porsches and Lexuses. There are even status zip codes—90210 being one of the most highly-coveted in the United States. So could there be such a thing as a status party? A few weeks back, Jolique published an article about the debutante ritual in Euro-American society (see Coming Out: The Debut of the Young American Woman). As Jolique explained, the event is more than just a party, it is perhaps the most important event in a girl's life. It is not only a rite of passage, marking her transformation from girl to woman, but also an opportunity to reunite with friends and family, and to make important social and career contacts. And as will become apparent in a moment, the debutante ball is also an important opportunity for status demonstration. According to Stanley Tambiah, "[...] rites of passage, however prescribed they may be, are always linked to status claims and interests of the participants" (1985: 125). This status is not so easily achieved, however. In fact, it takes years of time, energy, training and of course, money. According to Barron, Day, Knudsen and others, daughters are groomed for their debuts at a very early age—well before they reach puberty. Beth Day calls them "embryo debs" (37). According to Day (37), the first of many steps on the path to debut-dom is admittance to an appropriately expensive nursery school, followed by preparatory school. In addition to formal education, there are also dance lessons and etiquette training costs. In some cases, the etiquette training costs come in the form of disciplinary energy dispensed by the parents. One quantitative study of the parental discipline practices of debutante and non-debutante daughters revealed that:
Specifically, Knudsen showed that in cases where punishment of debutantes and non-debutantes occurred, the reasons for punishment were more often explained by the parents of the debutantes than by those of non-debutantes. In addition, certain forms of punishment, such as taking away rights, were twice as common among debutantes than as among non-debutantes (306-7). Among non-debutantes, physical punishment (arguably a less effective form of discipline in terms of achieving behavior improvement) was more common (Knudsen 306-7). Although published thirty years ago, this study reveals that debutante parents invest very heavily in the fitness of their daughters, not just financially, but in terms of training, too. Parents must pay their dues as well, either literally, in the form of cash, or figuratively, in the form of "time-tithing [...,] a standard social climbing procedure," to a worthy cause, such as the New York Infirmary-Beekman Downtown Hospital (Day, 37). Then, when the daughter reaches the age of about ten, the real debutante preparation expenses begin. First, the parent hires a social secretary who selects the date of the daughter's debut (several years in advance). As the date of the debut approaches, the secretary makes arrangements with caterers, dress designers, florists, the orchestra, stationers, etc. Parents must make their preparations, too:
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