Conversation

All the people mentioning competitive sports… no. The key feature of a debutante ball is an age cohort being formally presented to society for the first time. You do it only once and together. Possibly medieval tournaments might count for first-timer jousting knights though
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Kinda weird. It’s like batch-processing IPO of young women into marriage market. I’m kinda surprised the tradition has survived in the south at all. Feels vaguely like racehorse breeder’s market or something. Like those races they have specifically for first-timer young horses
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You're losing track of the status aspect. Not nearly the whole generational cohort goes to debutante balls. Not even close. This is a ritual that requires the entrant's family to be made in some way. This is a high stakes accomplishment if "marrying well" is a realistic goal.
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This is sort of why the answer is no, there isn’t an equivalent to debutante balls for men, because the tie to marriageability is asymmetrical, but I stand by the answer historically being military service (and could be again, some kind of mandatory national service).
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makes sense in the market framing. wouldn’t expect the bids to present, only the asks. generally there’s still a strong norm of men approaching first, maybe that’s the “bidding”.