Homecoming, a time-honored tradition in high schools around the country, has a significant influence over the fall schedules of many high schoolers. People can take weeks, even months to prepare for this event, and spend their entire day leading up to it in the excitement of what’s to come. The problem is, there is a large divide between the planning times of boys and girls. Girls usually spend more than two hours getting ready, while boys typically spend around 45 minutes.

    When discussing the timing around Homecoming, junior Tiarra Jeff explained her schedule.

    “I start to find a dress about two to three months before because I know they sell out quickly. My hair and makeup probably take an hour and a half together, if it’s not like super complicated to do. So probably like two to three hours, in general, to get everything ready.”

    Her routine takes her many hours to complete and is highly dependent on aspects out of her control.

   Boys, on the other hand, require a much shorter, less extravagant preparation routine. Senior Marty Payne told how long it takes him to get ready for the dance.

   “I start by making sure that clothes I am going to wear are clean and have no wrinkles in them, after that I take a hot shower, then brush my hair, put my clothes on, and meet up with my friends at one of our houses. This rigamarole takes me about 30 to 45 minutes to get done,” said Payne.

   In general, people are aware of the disparity in effort and cost that different genders put into their preparation routine for a dance; Payne expressed his gratitude that his routine doesn’t require as much time and energy as many girls’ do.

   “I think it typically takes girls four to five hours to get everything they want done including hair, nails, makeup, and dress. Personally, I wouldn’t want to [go through that] because that’s so much time being taken out of my day when I could be doing other things such as meeting up with friends, watching television, or playing video games,” said Payne.

    With the disparity in the expectations of the sexes, there is a difference in the known prep times. This causes confusion between what is expected, and what is the reality. Jeff explains her views on the amount of preparation she believes boys undergo.

    “It probably takes dudes fifteen minutes. I mean, they don’t have to wear a super nice tux, they can just wear any formal clothes that they have at home. So for them, it’s not that hard to find something, and they don’t need to do their hair or makeup as much as girls do. It’s just so much easier and they don’t have to put as much effort in to look nice. It’s not a huge stress thing for guys, whereas girls it’s like, ‘Oh I have to look super pretty so that everyone comments or says how pretty I look.’ Guys don’t really care about that.”

    Girls are expected to spend so much time and money on their hair, makeup, and outfits, whereas boys often get by with a short, simple, and cheap routine.

    The opposing perspectives between the genders show the difference in the expectations for each.