The Perfect Prom Analysis

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Countless teen magazines such as Teen Vogue, Teen Prom, and Seventeen emphasize ideals of prom from Nichole Zlatunich’s Prom Dreams and Prom Reality: Girls Negotiating “Perfection” at the High School Prom, specifically girls’ expectations of “The Perfect Prom” and “The Perfect Look”. In the coding below, the Perfect Prom is when magazines utilize the word “perfect”, give advice to readers on how to avoid prom trauma, describe the ideal dress for the reader, mention trends to attract the reader, and stress the importance of prom. The Perfect Look is described as instructing the reader what to buy, giving advice on preparing girls’ bodies, offering the tips and tricks to make prom perfect, and utilizing advertisements for specific prom dress …show more content…

In Prom Dreams and Prom Reality, Zlatunich states that, “Prom magazines define the prom as an event that requires girls to invest time and money in order to achieve success” (357). This correlates to how the most popular ideals emphasized in the magazines from the study above are about what to buy whether it is a dress, makeup, heels, or accessories. In order to achieve the perfection magazines describe of prom, the companies are able to abuse their influence to convince young girls to buy the products advertised. A common theme amongst all of the magazines in the study above is that, besides the prom dress company advertisements, products that readers are instructed to buy are not explicitly listed. For example, instead of having a list of the top ten products to buy for a hairstyle, the magazine would show multiple hairstyles and list the products needed to buy to complete the look. This effectively tells the reader to buy those products in order to attain the perfection of that specific look. Another common theme amongst all of the magazines is that prom dress companies would have various multiple-page advertisements throughout the magazine. Towards the end of looking at the magazines, I was able to tell which prom dress company was advertising through the use of what background and models they used. This type of advertising indicates how magazines abuse their influence to emphasize the need for the perfect prom dress. Amongst all teen girls, especially at Presentation, an emphasis is put upon not having the same dress as another girl. Every year an Instagram account is made with the description of “DM a picture of your prom dress and we will post it so we can avoid having duplicates!”. This demonstrates the desire girls have to achieve the Perfect Prom and the lengths of planning and preparing they will

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