subject: Every Time A Marriage Takes Place [print this page] In many of these 26 stories the costume zentai acts as both symbolic and literal conduit zentai for change and transformation. In Anita Rau Badamis's Bridal Pink, the author recalls her horror upon realizing that the shocking pink sari she insisted on wearing (eschewing the traditional white silk), means that she ends up locked in the bathroom weeping on her wedding night, trying to scrub the shocking pink dye from her skin while the other half of her arranged marriage waits, mystified. Upon finally being allowed to see his bride, the new husband laughs (in a good way), setting the entire tone of a marriage. In My Mother, My Zentai, Ilana Stanger-Ross explores what is probably the most clichd yet potent costume zentai of wedding-planning dynamics - the struggle between mothers and daughters for control, a struggle that masks a boatload of emotions and personal history. With 20/20 hindsight, Stanger-Ross recognizes that at least part of it is connected to loss. "There's a Jewish saying," she writes. "'Every time a marriage takes place, a new world is created.' But with every new world created, two old worlds, however gently, are destroyed." It must be said (spoiler alert) that this story ends with the mother stepping on her daughter's wedding spider man costume gown hem (rip!), but the bride fortunately has the best of all possible responses. She looks at her mother . . . and laughs.
