This entire post is written in response to this BuzzFeed article. As always, I mean no criticism to the author. Flo Perry is a creative woman who has written some cool and interesting things to read. I suggest you check out her work. That said, everyone writes things that can come off as… silly.
Weddings are incredible ordeals. They are a staggering show of commitment. Two individuals agree to share their lives together. More than that, they fulfill a contractual agreement stating that they will share their lives together. Damn, that idea is terrifyingly adult. With all that said, I feel that labeling any aspect of a wedding as ‘super cute’ is to use the complete set of wrong language. It would be on par with labeling a successful open-heart surgery as ‘fantastically adorable.’
All joking aside, that’s a nitpick. Weddings are beautiful occasions and words like cute, beautiful, adorable – these positive terms should be tossed around freely.
Now here is my one suggestion, the bizarre omission that I felt justified an article response.
1. Do Something that Embodies Your Relationship
A lot of these 23 suggestions have to do with celebrating being gay. To me, this makes as little sense as this following suggestion for interracial marriage: have half the aisle wear white and the other half wear black. I do not mean to undermine the enormous struggle that gays have gone/are still going through in beginning to achieve marital equality. It is a victory that is not yet complete in these United States.
HOWEVER
To reduce a relationship to something as non-character oriented as sexuality strikes me as insulting. I would not like it if someone came up to me and offered this suggestion: “so is everyone on your side going to dress like a guy, and everyone on her side dress like a girl?”
I’m hammering in the point because I feel like it is a big one.
If both people involved are human rights’ activists then yes, by all means – have a wedding that celebrates the fantastic achievement that is gay marriage. To say that “you’re gay, I bet you love rainbow cake on your wedding!” is stereotyping.
Do something to celebrate your relationship, not your sexuality (unless of course, those two ideas do not conflict). If you’re Star Wars geeks – have a Star Wars themed wedding. If you met while scuba diving on shipwrecks – use that theme. Judging people as extensions of their sexuality is not a way to know them. It is a way to create laughable caricatures such as this:
I may be wrong on this issue. I may be downplaying the incredible solidarity and courage that the Gay Pride movement brings to people. If that is the case: I do apologize. This just struck me as a very bizarre article to write. Again, I do not mean to single out Flo Perry, I do not believe that she meant this to be insulting or anything negative at all. This article, to me, represents a greater problem when viewing people. Judge a person by the content of their character… not by their sexuality (or race, gender – anything of this nature). To do anything less appears kind of, well – silly.
Colin McMahon 