If you’ve logged on the Internet in the past week or have friends who are apt to keeping up with social trends, then you’ve probably been dragged into the biggest debate since Kim Kardashian’s butt was rumored to be fake.
Yes, I’m talking about The Dress.
Caitlin McNeill posted the now infamous photo of the dress on her Tumblr page Feb. 25 with the caption “guys please help me – is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can’t agree and we are freaking the f**k out.”
Like many Internet trends and viral content, everyone weighed in. Taylor Swift tweeted “I don’t understand this odd dress debate and I feel like it’s a trick somehow. I’m confused and scared. PS it’s OBVIOUSLY BLUE AND BLACK.” Kim and Kanye, Anna Kendrick, Ellen DeGeneres and pretty much everyone else on the Internet had something to say about this particular garment.
But the pandemonium over this less-than-beautiful dress went far beyond Twitter. One man, Daniel Howland of Austin, Texas, made the debate personal and permanent by tattooing the dress (which was colored as blue and black) on his leg, with the words “WHITE AND GOLD?” surrounding it.
Some folks have taken to Vine with reaction videos in a crying, Chris Crocker (the “Leave Britney Alone” guy) manner. Others, who were likely tired of hearing about all this dress nonsense, debunked the whole thing with the use of their phone camera and a white light.
It’s always interesting to see what gets a society riled up, but of course, there is a breaking point for this. Along with tweets debating the actual color of the dress, there was a flood of social commentary on the “scandal” as a whole.
One thought that resonated was a variation of Yik Yak posts and tweets said that this was the most engaged America has been about color in a long time. The irony of that sentiment is that Feb. 26 was one of the first days the dress caught fire on the Internet, but it was also the anniversary of the killing of Trayvon Martin. Yet, the only color people seemed to care about was that of the dress.
During the debate, news also broke about a secret Chicago detainment area in Homan Square, comparable to the likes of Guantanamo Bay, where hundreds of detainees have been tortured, shackled and left for unknown amounts of time. Again, this was completely overlooked.
We don’t need to lose our ability to have fun with things that are trending in popular culture; that would make us sad and cynical. However, it is important to not get so swept up in these happenings that we lose sight of the bigger, more impactful news that is often overshadowed.
