Sadie Hawkins Dance - Wikipedia

School dance to which women invite men

This article is missing information about semi-recent and contemporary usage. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (July 2025)

A Sadie Hawkins dance or turnabout[1] is a usually informal dance sponsored by a high school, middle school or college, to which the ladies invite the gentlemen to be their dates.[2] This is a gender role reversal, contrary to the custom of the gentlemen typically inviting the ladies to be their dates to school dances such as prom in the spring and homecoming in the fall. These dances are primarily an American tradition.

Origin

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The Sadie Hawkins dance is named after the Li'l Abner comic strip character Sadie Hawkins, created by cartoonist Al Capp.[2][3] In the strip, Sadie Hawkins Day fell on a given day in November, on which the unmarried women of Dogpatch would chase the bachelors and "marry up" with the ones that they caught.[2] The event was introduced in a daily strip that ran on November 15, 1937.

The date for Sadie Hawkins Day most commonly reported is November 13, two days before the first appearance in the comics,[4] but the exact date was never actually specified by Al Capp until he finally set it as November 26 in his last Li'l Abner daily strip on November 5, 1977.[5]

History

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This section needs expansion with: more details about dances past the 1930s - what about the 60s? the 90s? now?. You can help by adding missing information. (July 2025)

By 1939, two years after the daily strip that introduced the concept, Sadie Hawkins events were held at over 200 colleges, according to Life magazine.[6]

Similar dance events

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The Tolo Dance in the Pacific Northwest began several decades before Capp's comic strip. The word tolo comes from the University of Washington's Mortar Board, which began as an all-women's honor society called the "Tolo Club", named for a Chinook Jargon word that allegedly means "to win", "to earn", or "to succeed". To raise funds, the group first held a dance where women asked men in 1909.[7][8]

See also

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• Gender roles
• Leap year, for traditions on women proposing marriage
• Powder Puff, a football game pitting girls against girls
• Winter Formal, a formal dance that may be had instead of Sadie Hawkins dances from January through March

References

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1. ^ Twersky, Carolyn (November 16, 2022). "What Is a Sadie Hawkins Dance and Where Did It Come From?". Seventeen. Hearst Magazines. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
2. ^ a b c Lewis, Casey. "The History of Sadie Hawkins Dances". LiveAbout. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
3. ^ "Sadie Hawkins Day". Li'l Abner. 13 February 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
4. ^ "The Ugly Truth Behind Sadie Hawkins Day". Women You Should Know. November 13, 2015.
5. ^ "First and Last – Li'l Abner". 29 October 2018.
6. ^ McComb, Mary C. (2006). Great Depression and the Middle Class: Experts, Collegiate Youth and Business Ideology, 1929-1941. Taylor & Francis. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-415-97970-2.
7. ^ Lovejoy, Bess (September 16, 2024). "What's the Deal with Tolo Dances?". Seattle Met. Retrieved December 5, 2024.
8. ^ "Tolo Chapter History – University of Washington Mortar Board – Tolo Chapter".

External links

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• Sadie Hawkins Day at lil-abner.com

v t e Al Capp's Li'l Abner
Characters and elements	Dogpatch Joe Btfsplk Fearless Fosdick Lower Slobbovia Sadie Hawkins Day Shmoo
Adaptations and spin-offs	Dogpatch USA 1940 film 1959 film The Flintstone Comedy Show Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo Kickapoo Joy Juice Shelly Manne album Musical Sadie Hawkins dance Skunkworks project The New Shmoo
Related articles	Li'l Abner: The Complete Dailies & Color Sundays (reprint book collection) Abbie an' Slats Elliot Caplin Comic Strip Classics double-whammy Frank Frazetta Long Sam Bob Lubbers -nik Shmoo plot Toby Press Basil Wolverton