Why The Dress Debate Made Me Feel A Little Better About This Crazy World
When I got out of my nightly Spinning class, I did what I usually do: check my phone. I must say though, the text that greeted me was a bit strange: it was an ugly, poor-quality photo of a dress. It followed with a simple question, “What color do you think the dress is?”
Little did I know that simple question would go viral. Every social media account I had became flooded with that question. Why? The answer is simple.
Some people see the dress as blue and black. Others see it as white and gold. Personally, I saw blue and black. But was I right or was this dress actually white and gold?
I interrupted my dinner with my mother, took out my phone, opened the photo and asked her the question. She replied, “White and gold.” When I say my mouth dropped, I’m not lying.
I then tried to turn my phone in as many awkward directions and positions, simply trying to prove to my mom that she was wrong.
“Mom, just turn it a little to the right,” I said. “This dress is obviously blue and black! You’re just not looking at it right.”
I continued by saying, “Just try to imagine it from my view.”
This is where I digress to a much larger issue hidden behind a quite unstylish dress.
If I swear this dress is black and blue, and you swear it is gold and white, how can I possibly align my views with your views, on lets say, abortion? Or Isis, Israel and Gaza, or even President Barack Obama? The list of controversial, ill-never-see-your-view topics goes on.
No matter how hard my mother and I tried, we could not see it from the other’s perspective.
Now let me make something clear, I have and will always stand by my mom in regards to almost anything… but this. I never thought that a tacky, blue and black, white and gold, dress would be what stands between her and I.
And while some of you might wonder why such absurdity went viral in a matter of hours opposed to a laundry list of much more pressing issues, I leave you with this.
Asking what color a dress is needs no prior knowledge. It’s a simple, “blue or white” answer.
If I looked up at the sky and told you it was yellow, what would you say to me and how passionately would you react? Now just substitute sky for a tasteless dress.
You didn’t need any knowledge or insight to tell me the sky is blue, and not yellow. Your defense was, “Well, that’s just how it is. If you saw it clearly, you would see it’s blue.”
While dresses don’t kill, and a lot of our disagreements on current issues do, I understand that it’s hard to compare.
But I do admit, I think it’s strangely beautiful that I swear this meaningless dress is blue, and my mother doesn’t. No matter how hard I try, I will never see it her way.
In no way am I saying to not stand up for what you believe in, whatever that may be. But try to take peace in knowing that you will never see something exactly the same as someone else does.
I promise you, it’ll make you feel a hell of a lot better in the long run. Because I say tomayto, and you say tomahto, who knew a dress would create such a problem?