Generations know that Homecoming proposals, slow dances, and dates make up the quintessential high school dance experience. Still, within the longstanding tradition, comes a unique experience as the decades pass and the practices around the dance evolve. 

Join Wildcat Media Editor Sahaana Mehta (‘25) and Opinion Editor Sofia Rodriguez (‘26) for the first episode of the Wildcat Pawdcast, as they delve into the changes from the old-school love stories from the past to the superficial romance of teenagers they see today, and what that means when it comes to having an enjoyable night.

Host: Sahaana Mehta

Guest: Sofia Rodriguez

Producer: Sahaana Mehta 

Transcription: Sofia Rodriguez

Art: Claire Kim (’25)

Theme Song: “Lounge Fashion Chill” by Capcut

Transcript

Sahaana (00:00):

Hey, Wildcats. Welcome to the first episode of the Brea Olinda podcast. My name is Sahaana Mehta and I’m here today with our special guest, Sofia Rodriguez.

Sofia (00:10):

Hi, I’m Sofia, and I’m a junior and the Wildcat Opinion Editor.

Sahaana (00:15):

As Homecoming season is approaching, our topic for today’s episode will be centered around homecoming romances, the rise of platonic dates, slow dances, and homecoming proposals. Back in the fifties and sixties, most students went to homecoming with a romantic partner. There was something about that classic couple experience that everyone wanted to have. The emphasis during this time was on dating or going with a date. Everyone wanted to share the special experience with someone during the seventies and eighties. Dating was still a huge part, but there was more freedom in how people, the event and some people started to attend in groups. But the core idea of going with the date was still there during the nineties and the early two thousands, the idea of friendship started to gain more importance. Homecoming could be just as fun with friends,

Sofia (01:10):

Especially since the two thousands. There’s definitely been a rise on the emphasis of platonic connections. And I think that a lot of it started around female friendships because well, girls would go in groups and then guys would go in separate groups. But I feel like now it’s becoming more normalized to have a platonic date to go to homecoming with. And I think that that’s actually a really great thing because the pressure that was put on people in the fifties and sixties to have a date, I don’t necessarily think that that was the healthiest thing to bring into our modern era, especially when it could lead to a lot of ostracization if you don’t have a date. And I think that things being more casual surrounding homecoming means that people are able to have a lot more fun without societal expectations being placed on them.

Sahaana (01:52):

And this is just my personal experience, and even within my friend group, I just feel like social media has made dating so much more casual. So even if you do go with the date to homecoming, there’s this sort of concept of even, or instead of going one-on-one with your date, you go as a big group, and then multiple people are just there with their dates. And now instead of going and having it turn into a little romantic experience, it just becomes a big group hangout with all of your friends.

Sofia (02:17):

Exactly.

Sahaana (02:18):

And I think in general, people just feel more comfortable hanging out with their friends versus, as you were saying earlier, there’s a lot of societal pressure to go with and stay with your date the entire time, which it doesn’t allow you to have as much fun. Your freedom is restricted.

Sofia (02:33):

And I think that freedom is so important because the idea of not putting as much emphasis on romantic dates takes so much pressure off people. And it’s so important to recognize that girls and guys can definitely have platonic connections. And then it’s not needed to be in a romantic relationship to have fun at homecoming with your date.

Sahaana (02:51):

And I feel like also when you’re with your date, there’s kind of this expectation that you stay with that person the entire time. And if the other person isn’t as excited to go into the mosh pit and they’d rather go outside to talk with their friends, then you’re kind of stuck being dragged along with them.

Sofia (03:05):

Yeah, that’s not fun. It doesn’t make for a well-rounded, enjoyable homecoming experience.

Sahaana (03:10):

Exactly. And if you’re going to spend that much money, you’re going to go dress shopping, you’re going to put that much time into your hair and makeup. You want to have a good time. It should be picture worthy and become a memory that stays with you forever because you only get a few of them in your entire life.

Sofia (03:23):

As high schoolers, we only get four. And on that same topic as we’ve seen parallel to the rise of Platonism in dates for homecoming, I think we’ve also just seen the rise of Platonism in general, whether you’re talking about the homecoming environment or outside of that, but especially in the homecoming environment, we have a lot more emphasis on things that have to do with friends, like people going as a group, dancing with friends than dancing as a couple, which means that there’s been such a decline in slow dancing. I don’t remember the last time I heard a slow song at Homecoming.

Sahaana (03:57):

I think in general, this explosion of hip hop and pop culture, it’s been this dramatic energy shift. And all of the playlists that you hear for homecoming, they’re…

Sofia (04:05):

Like all hype songs.

Sahaana (04:06):

Yeah, exactly. They’re made to feel like a party instead of you sneaking off to do this romantic rendezvous.

Sofia (04:13):

And there’s such a difference because people cared about the slow songs. I don’t know how far back, but I know definitely in the older decades people cared about the slow dances and they went for the slow dance, but there’s just not that much emphasis on that anymore. And we don’t have slow dances. We have party songs.

Sahaana (04:28):

Exactly. And in general, with fast pacing songs dominating the dance floor, it’s a lot easier to enjoy dancing when you’re with your friends. And I feel like one of the biggest parts of homecoming is that mosh pit, like shoving your way to the middle, screaming your lungs out, jumping and dancing to the beats. You can’t hear the lyrics.

Sofia (04:44):

And sometimes it could get a little crazy, but none of the current freshmen will remember this. But at last year’s homecoming at the Arctic, there were these pedestals that people would stand there, and then the mosh pit kept moving, so people would fall off it. So maybe that’s not the best, but it was fun, and I remember it being so enjoyable, but maybe that’s not the best representation of a mosque mosh pit is getting pushed into a pedestal. But I think that that whole experience made it so much more fun and enjoyable because if a slow song comes on and you’re not in a romantic relationship, what are you going to do? You’re just going to say nothing. Don’t stand up to the thigh, nothing to do, and you’re standing around until the song ends. So I think that it’s definitely better that even with how high energy, semi dangerous monster, I think that it’s nice that there’s more of an emphasis on hanging out with your friends and dancing with friends, and that we’ve moved away from the slow songs, and that’s definitely been a change.

Sahaana (05:43):

And I totally agree. And the whole thing of there being a pressure to go with a date, it’s significantly less now. I feel like us as a generation, we’ve eased that pressure because we’ve introduced the idea that another way to have fun is to go with friends, but also a societal way that they’ve eased up on this topic is that before they used to give discounts if you went with a date. So in a way, they were sort of promoting the idea of you going with a partner, someone as a date, and then these tickets would be sort of an incentive, which are being significantly lower priced. And that was a way of encouraging you to, I guess, focus on romance instead. And now since that doesn’t really exist, you can still go with the date, but you’re going to be paying the same amount.

Sofia (06:24):

The most you get is a $5 discount on your own ticket if you have ASB card.

Sahaana (06:27):

There’s nothing for couples. And the way that they’ve stopped promoting it, I feel like has also allowed us as high school kids to accept the fact that it’s okay not to go with the date. And I think that’s definitely made a really big difference.

Sofia (06:41):

I feel like there’s still a place for romance and homecoming, especially with people making big deals out of homecoming proposals and looking at homecoming proposals through other years. There’s definitely been a lot of changes in those two. I think that that’s really cute if you’re in a relationship or you both have a mutual agreement that it’s like, yeah, we would like to go to homecoming with each other. I think that homecoming proposers are really cute. You always see it on social media. You see your friends getting asked, or you see people at football games getting asked, and I think that’s really cute. I think that even though we’ve made a space for platonic connection in Homecoming, I think that it’s nice that we’re still preserving some of the traditions.

And I feel like, I dunno, in my friend group, I feel like homecoming proposals have just oh bra. So in the early days of homecoming, people would just ask each other and it would be a short and sweet proposal. I think seventies and eighties is when these proposals began to gain flare, and then signs and gifts became kind of like a special touch that people would add for each other. And I feel like just recently, maybe nineties and two thousands is when scavenger hunts and these elaborate themed proposals began to become a thing. And I feel like it was inspired by people wanting their proposals to go viral or gain attention on social media, and that just made everyone want to be more unique. So on the topic of traditions being just kind of continued on, they definitely continued the tradition of proposals, but I feel like now we have our own special touch to it, and I think that’s really special. Would you prefer the classic approach or the modern approach?

I think that there’s definitely benefit in both, depending on what you want. I think it’d be really cute to ask when simpler in simpler terms, like one-on-one, but then if you’re the type of person that wants a elaborate display, then I think that, yeah, it’d be cute to have that flare that was brought into the 90, 60 thousands. But I just think that with the expansion of social media, I definitely think that maybe sometimes the reasons for homecoming proposals has shifted a little bit to become more of just a shock or something to show off in social media. But I feel like that’s kind of rare. I think that if you’re going to put in the effort to ask somebody, I think that most of the time it’s pretty genuine. But

Sahaana (09:25):

Do you feel by any chance that sort of the motivation to have something that is going to go viral or gain attention, do you think that makes the proposal less personalized towards the person that you’re asking?

Sofia (09:38):

Yeah, I think so. Because I’ve seen proposals where the sign is based off of something that you could have seen on Pinterest or on another TikTok video instead of personalizing it to the interests of that specific person. And I think it’s way more important to focus on who you’re asking rather than how you’re going to ask them. Right. I agree. I think that overall, the most important thing to remember about Homecoming is to make sure that you’re having fun with or without romance involved. We all deserve to enjoy our night with friends, with dates, and honestly with whoever you want.

Sahaana (09:40)

Thanks for the perspective, Sofia. Stay safe and enjoy your Homecoming night, Wildcats. See you October fith at Wild Rivers.