Why did this dress go viral? Why did it spark stories in national media as well as across the internet?
The reason is that people are astonished that what they plainly see with their own eyes is denied by the friend or family member next to them: I see blue and black, you see gold an white. This is very disturbing. We normally rely heavily on the assumption that those close to us -- those who are part of our club -- "see things" in the same way as ourselves. This is a shorthand that makes everyday life possible, so we can rely on each other and don't have to argue about everything.
We know more and more clearly that there are people "out there" who see things very differently. For Whites, the recent evidence that Blacks have a completely different view of the police is hard to grasp. Liberals and conservatives are painfully aware that the other side just has entirely a different "point of view".
The easy thing to do is to say that the others are ignorant, or evil. We say that those who disagree with us are deniers, stupid, tools of bad forces -- anything to avoid trying to see things from their point of view. Because seeing it from another point of view is disruptive: it makes us question ourselves, our sanity. The dress does this, in a way that is amusing, challenging, not too threatening.
This national conversation about the dress color could be a lesson: people have gradually simmered down and accepted that there really are just different ways of looking at it. Maybe we could learn from it to think about other kinds of color, such as that of skin.
The reason is that people are astonished that what they plainly see with their own eyes is denied by the friend or family member next to them: I see blue and black, you see gold an white. This is very disturbing. We normally rely heavily on the assumption that those close to us -- those who are part of our club -- "see things" in the same way as ourselves. This is a shorthand that makes everyday life possible, so we can rely on each other and don't have to argue about everything.
We know more and more clearly that there are people "out there" who see things very differently. For Whites, the recent evidence that Blacks have a completely different view of the police is hard to grasp. Liberals and conservatives are painfully aware that the other side just has entirely a different "point of view".
The easy thing to do is to say that the others are ignorant, or evil. We say that those who disagree with us are deniers, stupid, tools of bad forces -- anything to avoid trying to see things from their point of view. Because seeing it from another point of view is disruptive: it makes us question ourselves, our sanity. The dress does this, in a way that is amusing, challenging, not too threatening.
This national conversation about the dress color could be a lesson: people have gradually simmered down and accepted that there really are just different ways of looking at it. Maybe we could learn from it to think about other kinds of color, such as that of skin.
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