2. Redress the Red Dress

A simple red dress can have numerous functions. In the strikingness of the color, certain fashion designers used red as their signature color or to make powerful statements. More specifically, fans of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale (now an influential television show by Hulu) know the power of the red uniform that the handmaids wear. These women were forced to have sex with powerful men, with the goal of procreating and helping the struggling population. Yet, a handmaid known as June defies the rules and leads a mutiny, one that Americans have started mimicking in protests in real life. Donning the red dress and white-winged bonnet, women protest their shrinking rights over their own bodily autonomy, which includes access to abortion and healthcare. While these dresses appear in DC and across the country, red dresses are also appearing on and standing in for Indigenous women across Canada and the United States. Jamie Black began using red dresses to symbolize the many Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirits (MMIWG2S), hanging the dresses in trees and in installations, working to create awareness for the women whose lives have been lost and forgotten by all but their families and close friends. The striking vision of red combined with these strong political beliefs and symbolic powers allows these often-straightforward dresses to challenge the beliefs of everyday people and key political figures everywhere. Especially for the families of MMIWG2S, this can help them process their grief but also push for more resolution regarding the crimes that had been committed against loved ones.