High school dances.

Students flock to them, administrators tolerate them and parents are appalled by them.

Personally, I love them. It’s always a lot more fun to rock out to “Low” by FloRida with friends than to bop around my room to “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne. But sometimes I wonder if they’re worth all the trouble, especially when girls have it so much harder than guys.

The girls get together a few hours before the dance starts and do their makeup, hair and nails. When it’s 5 p.m. and I’m doing this, I always forget that the make-up will simply smear off and I’ll look like a raccoon by the end of the dance. My pin-straight hair will have to go up in a ponytail, no matter how much time I spend trying to force it into Shirley Temple curls.

It seems that all guys do to get ready is shower (hopefully) and put on a random shirt.

Girls are expected to make creative outfits, whether it’s cutting up a tank top or ironing on designs. Target runs out of fish net tights and cheap tank tops in about two days. But most of the time, I end up lending out all the shirts I own and wearing someone else’s cute top, anyway.
For formal dances, there’s even more preparation. Guys always complain that they have the pressure of asking a girl to a dance, but here’s a secret, boys: You still have it easier — as always.

First, there’s the stress of getting a date. Most of the time, we gossip with our friends about who we want to ask us to the dance, who we think is going to ask us and who we need to avoid like the plague so they don’t ask us. We wait on edge, wondering if we’ll be the unlucky ones spending a Saturday night at home instead of dancing the night away because no one asked us to go. My sister’s theory was to look really cute until two weeks before the dance, and if no one asked her by then, take matters into her own hands.

You could always go stag. I’ve gone with the same group of friends to Winter Ball the past two years and had an absolute blast. But there’s something about being an upperclassmen that makes that option not so attractive anymore.

Then there’s the problem of finding an appropriate dress. Having a mother from the Midwest, I often get comments in the dressing room, including the classics: “that’s way too low cut;” “you can’t wear that to a formal;” and “even if you’re a runner, you’re not showing that much leg.” The problem is, the entirety of Macy’s Junior Department is filled with dresses my mother deems “unsuitable for my 16-year-old daughter to wear to her high school formal.”

We still have to do our hair, make-up and nails. Obviously, fingernails can make or break an outfit. Everyone notices whether you have a French manicure or a gorgeous decal on your pinky.

All that is only part of what us girls have to deal with before dances. And I didn’t even mention the shoes, accessories or pictures.

So next time you guys are stressing over renting a limo or a tux, think about how much preparation we girls go through to make you happy. And by the way, I would go for the white limo; it’s classier and will probably match our dresses better.