The Blurry Line

Although being a debutante sounds glamorous and respectable, it’s actually quite surprising all of the issues that arise throughout the process. One of those is alcohol consumption. In recent years it has been hard to draw the line at these events. We preform this ceremony to introduce these debutantes as women, yet if they are caught with a drink it is shamed upon. So, it has been left a loose rule and relative to the board organizing the events during the time.

Recently, one of the best friends, who I have mentioned before, Olivia, had a run in with this arbitrary rule. She, another deb and the deb’s father had been talking near the bar during an event and the father bought his daughter and Olivia a glass of wine. One of the stricter board members noticed Olivia walking around with the drink in her hand and immediately pounced on her for it. Olivia’s mother, vice president of the board, was not present so Olivia felt completely ambushed. The woman accused her of used a “fake ID” to purchase the alcohol, even though that was not the case. It immediately became a huge debacle and over the span of a few days the board member received the new knowledge that one of the parents had, in fact, purchased the drink for Olivia and nothing illegal or against the rules had happened. The board member was forced to apologize to Olivia, despite her reluctance.

It did not end there though; Olivia was so upset and so concerned of her reputation when I talked to her about it, and it is understandable because that’s the kind of pressure a lot of these girls are under, it is vital for these girls so keep a pristine reputation in order to be an honorable debutant. To continue, though, we entered together into the next event together, because she was too nervous to go alone, and who else was standing at the front of the venue but the same woman, passing out name tags!! Almost like clockwork, one of the waitresses who was passing out drinking bands asked Olivia and I, “anyone drinking tonight?” and the board member snaps, “absolutely not!”

I felt so bad for Olivia in that moment because I knew she was completely innocent in the situation. This goes for sure how blurry the line can be for debutants and how easy it is, without clarification, to cause problems.

Tomorrow afternoons I will be posting the top 10 rules not to break while training to be a deb and look forward to my next post where I will be talking about the upcoming event, Courtsies and Courtesies!!