White Wedding

Every morning when I check my email, I am usually bombarded with articles that are really of no importance. But today I came across an article that was not only interesting but also related to American Studies. It was called "Why Wedding Dresses are White." I instantly clicked on it because I thought that it would tie in really well with what we were discussing in class. We have been reading the Narrative of Frederick Douglass and have been discussing the issue of race for a few weeks. One of the ideas that we have discussed is why certain colors are given a specific meaning. For example, black is usually thought of as evil, dark, bad, scary etc...while white is more pure, and innocent of a color. And that is what I thought the article would say. I thought the reason wedding dresses were white was because they symbolized purity and virginity and innocence. But what surprised me most is that wedding dresses were not always white. Many wedding dresses used to be black, or purple or red, which I thought was strange because those colors, in my opinion, are not usually associated with innocence, or happiness, or purity. Another interesting fact was that wedding dresses first started being white after Queen Victoria's wedding. She chose a white dress because according to the article she wanted to show her people that she could run her country in an economic way, and white was the cheapest color fabric to use. And that idea stuck. So while many people think that wedding dresses are white because they are supposed to symbolize purity, they might be surprised to know that the color was chosen for political and economic purposes. This article showed me that not everything has to be related to race and color, and that was a refreshing change.