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Debutante ball organiser Lynne Rizzoli knows others believe the balls are sexist, but she views them differently.
- A 'big deal' or a 'waste of time'? Inside the 'unkillable ...
Share article. At debutante balls held across Australia each...
- 'Hijacking a tradition': Why debutante balls represent a rare ...
The debutante ball tradition came from the aristocracy in...
- A 'big deal' or a 'waste of time'? Inside the 'unkillable ...
- The Daughter Problem
- A Country Rite of Passage
- A Mark of Wealth and Class
- Chinese-Australian Communities Embrace Deb Balls
- One Young Woman Campaigns For Change
- What Will The Future Look Like For Debutante Balls?
- Credits
Kristen Richardson became a bit of a history detective when she first tried to trace debutante balls right back to their starting point. After a lot of legal and social research the writer “figured out it was actually because of the Reformation —not solely, but it was precipitated by Henry VIII,” she says. When the infamous monarch broke away from ...
Maria O’Sullivan still remembers all of the details of her debutante ball. The academic now works at Monash University in Melbourne, where she researches human rights and refugee law. But before her legal career began, she took part in a debutante ball through her school in Canberra in 1989. “There was quite a strict dress code so we couldn’t wear ...
In the wealthy communities in the US and even Russia, where Kristen researched debutante balls, she says these balls are often also used to signify wealth and class. In places like New York, she says, some balls have celebrities attend and the events are covered by fashion magazines. Television show Gossip Girl, which followed the fictional lives o...
Michael Louey was just a teenager when he attended one of the last debutante ball held by the Young Chinese League in Melbourne during the 1980s. “It was exciting leading up to the event, the boys went out to hire suits and we knew the girls were arranging their dresses,” he remembers. Ball organisers would pair young people up to do the ball toget...
Kiana Prewett always knew she wanted to do a debutante ball. “I guess it just was growing up as a young girl seeing it on TV and the magic of it all and I just wanted to experience that,” she says. “And coming from a lower socio-economic class it just seemed so fancy.” In 2014 she had a chance to take part through her school Mount Clear College in ...
After writing a book about the history of debutante balls, Kristen has come to believe that they are an “unkillable” tradition. She spent a lot of time talking to young women about why they wanted to take part in a debutante ball. Kristen says there are a range of factors which influence the popularity of balls including politics and culture, class...
Reporting: Elise KinsellaPhotography: Danielle BonicaDigital production: Sian JohnsonEditor: Kate HigginsAug 27, 2005 · The debutante tradition began long ago in England, where aristocratic families sought to marry their daughters into suitable partnerships, promising a fat dowry, of course. Kind of sexist,...
Jun 16, 2020 · The debutante ball tradition came from the aristocracy in the UK. It's incredibly exclusive, it's classist, it's sexist. It was a way for lords and royalties to trade daughters because daughters ...
Dec 22, 2020 · When one thinks of a debutante ball, certain pop culture references spring to mind. Here’s one: “The business of her life was to get her daughters married,” Jane Austen wrote of the Bennet sisters’ mother Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.
- Vivian Manning-Schaffel
Jun 7, 2021 · CNN — Actress Ellie Kemper is apologizing for her involvement in a debutante ball as a teenager that has come under recent criticism for the organization’s controversial history. Kemper was...
Jun 7, 2021 · The century-old organization that hosted the debutante ball had an unquestionably racist, sexist and elitist past. I was not aware of this history at the time, but ignorance is no...
