Cotillion, left in the past or brought into the modern world?
January 17, 2020
Ball gowns, different-sized utensils, escorts in tuxedos, pricey meals, tall heels, and a lot of manners. All things that come with an event called Cotillion. Cotillion is an event that is used to showcase the manners of middle school aged children of upper class families. It is more commonly practiced in the South.
The term ‘Cotillion’ was recently in a book that I read, and I was intrigued to learn more about it. The vague knowledge that I had was not entirely accurate. I thought Cotillion was a way to introduce high school-aged females into society by way of a ball, however the event that does that is called a Debutante Ball. A Debutante Ball is where girls the age of 18-21 are presented to society through a ball, and they use the manners that they learned at Cotillion to prepare. A Cotillion is also a type of ballroom dance that is taught in preparation for a Debutante Ball, and is commonly performed by the female being presented and her escorts. Their escorts are typically boys in the same age group.
These are both old traditions that I did not believe were still practiced today. However, in doing research and further investigation I discovered that it is still a common practice for the upper class in the south. In fact there are many organizations dedicated to keep the tradition alive.
I am interested to see how these traditions fare in the modern day era. The world has evolved in ways that have allowed for girls to refuse to wear dresses, and instead wear suits. It is okay for a girl to go to a dance with another girl, or for a boy to go with another boy. Manners are no longer really taught in school except for saying “please” and “thank you.”Most people do not know how to waltz anymore. All the aspects of a Debutante Ball have changed.

Marandah Mangra-Dutcher is in her final year on the newspaper staff. She is in charge, and hoping everything will stay intact by the end of the year. Everything...
The Black & White encourages the student body to comment on the issues covered by the newspaper. The Black & White believes that user feedback is beneficial to maintain a balanced journalistic perspective. However, we encourage all comments to remain respectful and constructive to the issue. We also encourage students to restrain from using profanity and making inappropriate comments. The Black & White editors review all online comments before being posted. The Black & White reserves the right to refuse to publish individual comments, remove previously published comments and to suspend the comment function on a story.