Wednesday Weirdness
The ever fabulous SJ sent me a link to this article about a Romanian priest who is levying a fine upon non-virgins who want to marry in white in his church.
Father Petrica Bratu, 37, from Valea Sarii in central Romania said he wanted to introduce the fine to uphold Christian traditions.
Father Bratu said: ‘The fine depends on how intimate a couple have been before they get married. If they have just moved in together it will be around ten pounds but it goes up to 60 pounds if the bride is pregnant or already has a child.’ Thus introducing the interesting concept of a sliding scale of virginity.
He added: ‘What is the use of the white bridal dress if the bride went from one man to the next, or if she comes into church holding the hand of her child? White is a symbol of purity. I want this to stay unchanged. I do not want young people to think that there is no such thing as sacred matrimony.’
Okay, then. I just hope Bratu isn’t ‘seeing for himself’ before levying the fine.
Susanna of The Bling Blog pointed me toward a recent post of hers that discussed Vera Wang’s new line of matresses. Yes, that’s right, the black-clad gown designer is turning into Martha Stewart.
For an unintentionally hilarious and quasi-disturbing experience, go to Serta and click on old Vera’s picture and watch a little video wherein the mattress mistress herself tells you in her nasal New Yawker voice how a mattress needs to be “romaaaantic” and how “life is but a dream” whilst rolling about on her mattress collection in her signature black adult footie-pajama-leggings or whatever it is that she always wears that make her look like a Cirque du Soleil performer.
She’s selling the Vera Wang lifestyle and the Vera Wang brand. The Vera Wang Bride needs Vera Wang shoes, Vera Wang bridesmaids, Vera Wang registry items, Vera Wang invitations, Vera Wang perfume, Vera Wang lingerie, and, apparently, a Vera Wang mattress. All of it, thus far, in good taste. But she’s teetering on the precipice, no? Is she going to jump the shark in the manner of Fonzie? I am exhausted from typing “Vera Wang” and I know you’re tired of reading it.
And then there is this:
Indian husbands are becoming victims of an anti-dowry law which is being misused by their wives to extort money, a group representing men who have been accused of dowry abuse said on Tuesday.
The custom [of dowries], outlawed more than four decades ago but still widely practiced, is often exploited with the groom’s family demanding more money in return for not abusing the bride.
But members of 498a.org – a group representing thousands of men and their families named – claim there are growing numbers of false cases being registered under the anti-dowry law or Section 498a of the Indian Penal Code that seeks to protect women.
“There are thousands of men and their families who are victims of the abuse of this law, who are locked up in jail and undergo severe mental, emotional and financial and social trauma as a result,” Anupama Singh, a member of 498a.org, named after the dowry law told Reuters.
Yipes!
meh, Vera Wang has always been a brand. Most fashion designers are anyway. The photos, logos, endorsements, and fragrances matter as much as the clothes.
I remember that article with the priest from the Romanian press. Romania can be such a silly country sometimes. I guess he forgot to say what happens if a bride wants to wear a different color? Would that reduce the fine??
But… wearing white isn’t a Christian tradition, and it has nothing to do with virginity (although I guess it is fairly common for people to think it does). Wearing white was a craze started in Englad by Queen Victoria; until then the “Christian tradition” was to wear the nicest dress you had. ?!?
White was for the rich and the very young, not necessarily the virginal. The white wedding gown equals virginity thing started looooong after the white for weddings thing.
White for weddings happened in large part because white was a very popular fashion color for more than two decades at the start of the nineteenth century, and then got re-started by Queen Victoria when she chose white for her wedding gown. By the time a white wedding gown was specifically associated with a virginal bride rather than simply a young and reasonably well-to-do one, Victoria was in widow’s weeds.
Even with that, most women, as Style Graduate points out, wore the best dress they had, or had one made that would serve as the bride’s best dress for quite some time to come. As I’m fond of noting, for some thirty years in the American West, the most popular color for wedding gowns was plaid, because that was the most popular look for clothes at the time.
And of course white for wedding gowns actually dates back to Roman times as well, when it was for all brides, regardless of the state of their hymens. White gown and flame-colored veil. Rather a snazzy look, really. And yes, utterly non-Christian.
As for Vera Wang mattresses…I lost all respect for her when she was a guest judge sitting in for Michael Kors on Project Runway in season 3. She showed no taste at all in her comments. I’d much rather have had three weeks of Ivanka Trump; at least she seemed to have a clue what she was talking about!
I think this priest is in it for the dough, folks. Because if his little fine has nothing to do with greed, he’s pretty dumb.
Not to mention, excuse me, if the bride is a widow, or divorced, with children? Does she still get “punished” for having known a man, in the biblical sense? How’s this for an idea: white as a symbol of a new beginning – which is always what a wedding is about [in addition to whatever else it symbolizes for the happy couple]. Regardless of anything else, a wedding is the beginning of their lives as a married couple – notwithstanding children, number of partners, or suspected partners, or even number of other weddings. Ugh. I can’t imagine anything more unpleasant than “Let’s start their married lives together by punishing the bride!!” I note that no such punishment is suggested for the groom. What about the children? Can we make them wear something to suggest that Mommy is a bad, bad person for having had sex? Can we punish the parents, too? Surely there’s a way to punish as many people as possible. Ugh, ugh, ugh. Way to go to cement the notion in people’s minds that the Church is interested in gouging as much money out of its congregants as possible.
As long as Vera Wang isn’t trying to market that aaaaaaccent, she should do all right.
From what I’ve read in the past, Indian women are much more likely to be victimized by Indian men who marry, collect the dowries, then abandon their brides. I’m not suggesting that men aren’t victimized also, nor am I suggesting that somehow it makes it “all right” to victimize men. Because it doesn’t. I think, however, that where weddings are connected to an exchange of money, i.e., some version of a dowry, they immediately become more attractive to con men, embezzlers, blackmailers, and other such scum.