The Nation columnist Patricia J. Williams called out Southern plantations that serve the public, not as champions for education concerning the sins of America’s past - but as wedding venues!
The reactions many expressed soon after definitely missed the point.
Some argued that plantation homes and the properties they stand on, be it for historic record or antebellum nostalgia, deserve to be preserved. They claimed revenue from hosting events (most lucrative of which are weddings) aids those efforts.
The most important takeaway is going completely over their heads.
Brides who willingly host the “happiest day of their lives” upon the sites where our ancestors were brutally tortured, traumatized, and enslaved for centuries, should ask themselves would it be okay to throw a party at a Nazi Germany concentration camp because it “looked pretty?”
Wedding-planning platforms Pinterest and The Knot Worldwide both did an about-face on the matter.
“We are working to limit the distribution of this content,” said a Pinterest spokesperson. “Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity. Plantations represent none of those things.”
Forthcoming guidelines will finally prevent users and vendors from rebranding the violent horrors of our past as “elegant” and “charming.”
Good to see these companies finally put some respect on our ancestors’ names by acknowledging how gross it is to dance (err… wed) on our graves.