A friend of mine was asked to be a bridesmaid. Keep in mind she is not close friends with The Bride. Then The Bride asked her if I could be a bridesmaid too. I have met The Bride maybe three times and have never had one moment of extended life-affirming-sharing interaction with her.
WTF?
Is the wedding a Cecil B. DeMille production and she needs extras? Does she not have friends?
See the dress:
http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridesmaids_detail.jsp?stid=1575&prodgroup=110
Now that you looked, aren't Brides crazy? Normal rational people are turned insane by wedding planners, mothers, Bride Magazine. It's a conspiracy that many a liberated woman has fallen and will fall prey to.
All except my best friend who got married on the volleyball court @ a friend's house (the epicenter of the burgeoning lust/love). The owner of the v-ball court became a minister through the Internet just to perform the ceremony. (The newly-minted padre has taken to wearing a Roman collar at some formal occasions but that's a subject for another entry.) The Bride wore a corset, the groom--leather pants! They were rock stars!
We drank before the ceremony, there were no bridesmaids' dresses, and the party at a nearby restaurant ended with a bar tab that was the most expensive thing bought for the wedding! But before you assume that my friend's wedding was all gloss & no substance, they wrote their vows and had their close friends and family there. Every moment was planned and considered for its spiritual and communal significance.
So . . . why the need in most "conventional" weddings for bridesmaids, and especially those in ugly dresses? So The Bride can be the prettiest woman standing up there? Are we still in high school where "getting the guy," or better getting The Dress, then finding the guy (or some guy) to take us out in Said Dress should also involve metaphorically elbowing other women out of the way?
Standing up for my friend at her wedding didn't involve me donning an ugly/expensive dress (my friend was too kind for that), although for her I would have. Once again I owe her for getting me out of this latest expensive dress and allowing me an escape from standing up for someone I don't even know.
Maybe that's the real kicker. Homophobics & Bible-thumpers aside, overall many straight people still oppose gay marriage, and they use the "sanctity" argument.
Yeah us straight people have done such a bang-up job on protecting that "sanctity." No, it's all about The Dress and not about the commitment or the community. How else can someone ask a near stranger to support her and bear witness on the day she is making a pledge before God?
It's all about The Production, Baby. No sweat; Maybe it's her "starter marriage": http://www.startermarriage.com/
Pamela Paul writes that this trend of the trial or starter marriage is a bellwether for the end of the traditional concept of marriage, and it comes from our "matrimania culture," [where] weddings, marriage, and family are clearly goals to which most young Americans aspire. Why are today’s twenty- and thirtysomethings—the first children-of-divorce generation—so eager to get married, and so prone to failure? Are Americans today destined to jump in and out of marriage? At a time when marriage at age twenty-five can mean a sixty-year active commitment, could 'serial marriages' be the wave of the future? "
Matrimania. So there you have it: This Bridesmaid's dress isn't just an expensive and irritating costume; it is a sign of the cultural breakdown. If the Beast is slouching toward Bethlehem, I'm sure it is wearing an ugly dress.
WTF?
Is the wedding a Cecil B. DeMille production and she needs extras? Does she not have friends?
See the dress:
http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridesmaids_detail.jsp?stid=1575&prodgroup=110
Now that you looked, aren't Brides crazy? Normal rational people are turned insane by wedding planners, mothers, Bride Magazine. It's a conspiracy that many a liberated woman has fallen and will fall prey to.
All except my best friend who got married on the volleyball court @ a friend's house (the epicenter of the burgeoning lust/love). The owner of the v-ball court became a minister through the Internet just to perform the ceremony. (The newly-minted padre has taken to wearing a Roman collar at some formal occasions but that's a subject for another entry.) The Bride wore a corset, the groom--leather pants! They were rock stars!
We drank before the ceremony, there were no bridesmaids' dresses, and the party at a nearby restaurant ended with a bar tab that was the most expensive thing bought for the wedding! But before you assume that my friend's wedding was all gloss & no substance, they wrote their vows and had their close friends and family there. Every moment was planned and considered for its spiritual and communal significance.
So . . . why the need in most "conventional" weddings for bridesmaids, and especially those in ugly dresses? So The Bride can be the prettiest woman standing up there? Are we still in high school where "getting the guy," or better getting The Dress, then finding the guy (or some guy) to take us out in Said Dress should also involve metaphorically elbowing other women out of the way?
Standing up for my friend at her wedding didn't involve me donning an ugly/expensive dress (my friend was too kind for that), although for her I would have. Once again I owe her for getting me out of this latest expensive dress and allowing me an escape from standing up for someone I don't even know.
Maybe that's the real kicker. Homophobics & Bible-thumpers aside, overall many straight people still oppose gay marriage, and they use the "sanctity" argument.
Yeah us straight people have done such a bang-up job on protecting that "sanctity." No, it's all about The Dress and not about the commitment or the community. How else can someone ask a near stranger to support her and bear witness on the day she is making a pledge before God?
It's all about The Production, Baby. No sweat; Maybe it's her "starter marriage": http://www.startermarriage.com/
Pamela Paul writes that this trend of the trial or starter marriage is a bellwether for the end of the traditional concept of marriage, and it comes from our "matrimania culture," [where] weddings, marriage, and family are clearly goals to which most young Americans aspire. Why are today’s twenty- and thirtysomethings—the first children-of-divorce generation—so eager to get married, and so prone to failure? Are Americans today destined to jump in and out of marriage? At a time when marriage at age twenty-five can mean a sixty-year active commitment, could 'serial marriages' be the wave of the future? "
Matrimania. So there you have it: This Bridesmaid's dress isn't just an expensive and irritating costume; it is a sign of the cultural breakdown. If the Beast is slouching toward Bethlehem, I'm sure it is wearing an ugly dress.
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