The prom ritual regulates heteronormativity and white class privilege.

Evidence

Prom is a sphere where regulating adults from dominant social agencies try to guard white middle class privilege and sustain hetero - normative space … Prom with its attendant elements rooted within unchallenged definitions of masculinity, femininity, and the inherent relations of the two, then, is essential to normalizing heterosexuality and to pathologizing any non-gender conforming identities. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 830

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels Bowers’ critique of rituals as unrecognized carriers of cultural assumptions and connects to the classroom-metaphor work in chapter 10. — connects to: Exclusion ceremonies psychologically reaffirm the included members’ belonging; Whiteness ideology makes racial passing unnecessary by legitimizing whitening through mixing — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1209; Prejudice is a cultural mechanism protecting dominant groups’ privileges — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 653

Broader Connections

• Exclusion ceremonies psychologically reaffirm the included members’ belonging #expands (0.80)
• Prejudice is a cultural mechanism protecting dominant groups’ privileges #expands (0.80) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 653
• Whiteness ideology makes racial passing unnecessary by legitimizing whitening through mixing #complicates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1209