Letters to the Editor
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Inherited petrochemicals
Even still, mommy took the time to preserve that dress and keep it in good condition - with good reasons.
Why aren't we seeing those very same reasons today?
Because most wedding dresses are polyester and plastic, not silk and pearl. Inheriting one would be a bit like inheriting Grandma's costume jewelry.
There's also the fact that saving the dress for one's daughter is absurd in many cases. My mother is 5'2". I'm 5'7". Had she saved her dress for me, it would have had to be rebuilt from the ground up.
Most brides don't wear Vera Wang. Most of them, at least the ones I've known, have drooled over several really nice dresses, and then ended up with whatever was on sale at the bridal shop that wasn't completely ghastly. The only reason it looked smashing was the alterations.
That said, most of the pics really don't involve rage and destroyed dresses. For the most part, they seem to involve irreverence, which I think is long overdue. The dress can be dry cleaned and donated afterward, so there's no real harm done.
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Some Symbols Are Timeless
Whoa. Was I truly the only reader to pick up on the symbolism of a newly married woman, lying on her back, in a despoiled, stained white wedding dress, gazing up at the viewer with heavy-lidded eyes and a satisfied smirk? Or in the embrace of her equally besmirched husband gazing approvingly his eyes? Oft with the skirts lifted or rumpled up to the thigh? Or with her head thrown back in abandon and her mouth wide open (as in the illustrating photo with this article)?
Well, at least I appreciate just which stage of the wedding those photos commemorate. Hubba hubba!
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The Patiarchy
Thought provoking article!
The classic wedding is at its heart antithetical with the modern conception of womanhood. Women were originally traded between men for financial and political reasons and the wedding dress came to symbolize that. The white dress, symbolizing the virginity of the woman, is a symbol of just how fucked up that dominance and willingness to control and barter women's lives was and still is.
And yet society still values weddings, that's why people spend MONTHS AND MONTHS planning them and why people still ultimately participate in them (that said of course any two consenting adults should be allowed to marry). But that doesn't mean we have to respect the wedding dress, the inherently unequal symbol of both wedding and the history of the patriarchy. I mean, both the bride and the groom wear wedding rings, but only the woman is forced to prove she is a chased virgin (men wearing black anyone)?
So, if a woman wants to prove/photograph/document that she rejects the unfortunate history of weddings, but still values what the wedding stands for, why the fuck wouldn't she destroy the dress? Frankly destorying the dress discourages others from spending too much money on the dress (if they are jsut going to destroy it anyway).
If I were a woman, you'd bet I would buy a non-white wedding dress and burn that mother fucker.