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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I wouldn't say "yuck."  Nothing wrong with real debs.  But 15:05 gives them a bad name.  It's O.K. to be a poseur and a relic, but it's quite sad to be clueless about it.  Read Fiona MacCarthy's "Last Curtsey," if you want to learn about the TIMELY demise in 1958 of the only persons who truly were debutantes - those presented to the Queen as such.  Those were the young women to whom the term is most narrowly applied.  And the real debutantes had a season, not a dance.  My clubs, and 15:05's club, merely ape the term.   Fortunately, my clubs had the decency to stop misappropriating this class laden term years ago.

Even 50 years ago, the debutante idea had lost its social purpose.  Not only does Ms. MacCarthy describe how trivial the notion had become in a modern society, she explains why it needed to go away just when it did.  That's even more true in our country.  We never had a queen to present to, and don't need one.  Women have the god given right to ride only side saddle.  And they break no law by calling themselves debs.  But neither group should expect the rest of us to take them very seriously.

So, let's continue having father-daughter dances.  But, the next time 15:05 tells you she was a deb, just smile.  Heaven forbid she should understand she's closer to being an alumna of a Knights of Columbus ball than being the real thing.  As for the handful of Mrs. Simpsons who have managed to lumber into 2008, well, Ms. MacCarthy devotes more than a bit of prose to the Simpsons of her day.  You'll bust a gut when you read about them.  And the gift will keep on giving.  You can laugh yourself into tears each time you take dc to Cotillion-Simpsonland next year and see all the  preening 15:05s.  You, and I will know proper Society killed the whole dang thing on March 18, 1958.[/quote]

15:05 evoked "yuck." 11:26 evokes pity.

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