My Controversy

Very few things can simultaneously bring strangers together and tear families apart in the way politics, religion, money and "The Dress" can.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/26/us/blue-black-white-gold-dress/

"The Dress" phenomenon was covered by media outlets ranging from CNN to People Magazine. A New York Times headline referred to the garment as "the dress that melted the internet".  The Dress sparked contentious debate on social media, in classrooms, even in the scientific community. 

Of all the incredibly important issues of 2015, why did I choose to write about something so insignificant as the color of an ugly dress?  In the face of police brutality, political and racial unrest, and global tensions; everyone was talking about a piece of clothing. There are many reasons why I'm fascinated by The Dress.

At face value, its shocking and saddening that our culture was so focused on this seemingly insignificant argument while so many other things were going on. ISIS is out there and we're arguing about the COLOR of a DRESS. However, I believe The Dress reveals important information about  the nature of human interaction.

The Dress symbolizes the polarizing effect of controversies and serves as a visual representation of the human inability and unwillingness to see another's point of view. The dress represents the cut and dry "its either black (and blue) or white (and gold) stance taken on issues. I used to believe I was an open-minded person before I encountered the dress and experienced the frustrating confusion and anger when people disagreed with how I saw it. I was unable to see it as anything but black and blue. No one could convince me otherwise, no matter how long I examined the photo. What should have been an objective fact instead was contested as a matter of opinion. I was shaken when intelligent people who's opinions I usually valued and trusted saw something completely different than I did. My entire family saw white and gold, was I crazy or color blind? 

The Dress embodies what a controversy does and how it affects people individually and society as a whole. I learned a lot about the subjective nature of our own individual reality an and my own reaction to intellectual conflict.