Summary
A Sadie Hawkins dance or turnabout[1] is a usually informal dance sponsored by a high school, middle school or college, to which the ladies invite the gentlemen to be their dates.[2] This is contrary to the custom of the guys typically inviting the girls to be their dates to school dances such as prom in the spring and homecoming in the fall. These dances are primarily a United States event.
History edit
The Sadie Hawkins dance is named after the Li'l Abner comic strip character Sadie Hawkins, created by cartoonist Al Capp.[2][3] In the strip, Sadie Hawkins Day fell on a given day in November, on which the unmarried women of Dogpatch would chase the bachelors and "marry up" with the ones that they caught.[2] The event was introduced in a daily strip that ran on November 15, 1937. By 1939, Sadie Hawkins events were held at over 200 colleges, according to Life magazine.[4]
The date for Sadie Hawkins Day most commonly reported is November 13, two days before the first appearance in the comics,[5] but the exact date was never actually specified by Al Capp until he finally set it as November 26 in his last Li'l Abner daily strip on November 5, 1977.[6]
In 2012, The Atlantic questioned the future of the tradition.[7] In 2022, Seventeen magazine characterized the idea as "heteronormative and non-inclusive".[8]
Similar dance events edit
The Tolo Dance in the Pacific Northwest began several decades before Capp's comic strip. The word tolo comes from the University of Washington's Mortar Board, which began as an all-women's honor society called the "Tolo Club", from the Chinook word for success and achievement. To raise funds, the group held a dance where women asked men.[9]
See also edit
- Gender roles
- Leap year, for traditions on women proposing marriage
- Powder Puff, a football game pitting girls against girls
- Winter Formal, a formal dance that may be had instead of Sadie Hawkins dances from January through March
References edit
- ^ Twersky, Carolyn (November 16, 2022). "What Is a Sadie Hawkins Dance and Where Did It Come From?". Seventeen. Hearst Magazines. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
- ^ a b c Lewis, Casey. "The History of Sadie Hawkins Dances". LiveAbout. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
- ^ "Sadie Hawkins Day". Li'l Abner. 13 February 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
- ^ McComb, Mary C. (2006). Great Depression and the Middle Class: Experts, Collegiate Youth and Business Ideology, 1929-1941. Taylor & Francis. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-415-97970-2.
- ^ "The Ugly Truth Behind Sadie Hawkins Day". Women You Should Know. November 13, 2015.
- ^ "First and Last – Li'l Abner". 29 October 2018.
- ^ https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/11/the-strange-history-and-uncertain-future-of-sadie-hawkins-day/265272/
- ^ https://www.seventeen.com/prom/a26328293/sadie-hawkins-dance/
- ^ "Tolo Chapter History – University of Washington Mortar Board – Tolo Chapter".
External links edit
- Sadie Hawkins Day
- Sadie Hawkins biography at Steve Krupp's Curio Shoppe