Yes, I am one of those single women that occasionally reads the "Vows" section of the NY Times. I was actually looking for a story that I was interviewed for earlier this week. I guess decided not to run it, but I was already there and I like reading folks business. This story of course drew my eye because Mike Tyson was the best man at the wedding of Jeff Greene and Mei Sze Chan.
Well anyway, I was reading some things that the reporters just threw out there matter of factly as if there was nothing out of the ordinary.Would she be labeled as a "jump off" if this was a Black couple? We talked about this on the podcast last Thursday. How would the Black Blogosphere be reacting if this was a Black couple? Well I think they would have been savaged, but the reaction on blogs so far has basically been to wish them well and sound perplexed at the selection of Mike Tyson as best man.
The Times managed to make this sound like a fairy tale, the tone from almost all the articles is "Well of course she would have a lavish wedding! Of course a 51 year old man would marry a 32 year old woman. Of course they would party on his yacht on the first date. Of course she would move in after a month. Why on earth wouldn't they?" it isn't even an issue.
The groom is 51, the bride is 32.(Commence gnashing of teeth) She turned to the party circuit to seek acceptance. On their first date they partied on his yacht. One month later she was living on his yacht. The guest list included< Hugh Hefner, Owen Wilson, Heidi Fleiss, Oliver Stone, Michael Bay, Russell Simmons and Tara Reid lawyer Robert Shapiro, Clippers' owner Donald Sterling, Tao owner Mark Packer and the Earl of Dartmouth.
“I had all this success and made all this money, but I didn’t have anyone to share it with,” said Mr. Greene, who had not been in a serious relationship in more than five years. “What’s the matter with me?” he said he asked himself.Then he met Mei Sze Chan, who had been asking herself the same question. “I wasn’t sitting home,” said Ms. Chan, 32, and an owner of a real estate business in Mountain Dale, in the Catskills region. She sometimes attended a half dozen parties a night in New York or the Hamptons. “I would meet hundreds of people in a week,” she said. “When you’ve got that kind of turnaround in numbers and you still can’t meet somebody, you’re never going to.” SOURCE
I am just thinking of the Juanita Bynum and Star Jones weddings.hmm, just something to think about. I wish the happy couple well. I don't know them from a can of paint, but their photo looked cute so I read their story. The times makes most of these stories sound like fairy tales
What say you? Are Black women allowed to have fairytale weddings too? If not, why not?
UPDATE:I guess I should rephrase. Can "famous" Black women have had the same wedding as this couple without getting doused in a bucket of hateration? If they also were 19 years younger than their husband would there be gnashing of the teeth and if she admitted to moving in after a month would folks be howling at the moon? I don't know. That is why I asked.is it that folks panned Star and Juanita's nuptials for reasons that have NOTHING to do with the wedding and EVERYTHING to do with the BRIDES. I know Black women have dream weddings all the time, I have had the misfortune of being in a few of them ( I'm looking at YOU- You know you were wrong for making us wear banana yellow, spaghetti strap dresses with CLEAR SHOES! Or lest I forget the lettuce green confection I was forced to dawn in shoes that were two sizes too small because the bride made a mistake in ordering that we didn't discover until the wedding day. I wore the shoes ANYWAY to avoid drama!)
