There’s some talk about “men get to wear the same tux over and over again, why shouldn’t we.” Michelle Obama made that point at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in 2017, when she said her husband had worn one tuxedo all eight years he was in the White House, but she couldn’t do the same thing because “people take pictures of the shoes I wear, the bracelets, the necklace.”

That’s true, but I also think the issue is about more than gender equality.

Ms. Haddish may have joked about it on “S.N.L.,” when she said, “I feel like I should be able to wear what I want, when I want, however many times I want, as long as I Febreze it,” but the point is a serious one.

It’s about valuing an investment.

It’s about the fact, as Ms. Haddish told W magazine, that her approximately $4,000 dress was the equivalent of “a down payment on a car, that’s a medical bill. So, even though everyone says I shouldn’t wear the dress in public again, I’m wearing it.”

It’s about the fact she actually bought her dress herself, as opposed to borrowing it, or being contractually obliged to wear it, as so many celebrities do and are on the red carpet. I think the last time I remember an actress copping to purchasing her own dress was in 2016 when Bryce Dallas Howard announced she had bought her Golden Globes Jenny Packham (size 6!) from Neiman Marcus.

And when you buy something yourself, especially when it is an expensive something, it has value it doesn’t necessarily have when it isn’t directly linked to your own labor and bank balance. You have usually weighed the pros and cons, sacrificed a bit, had an internal debate, and then made a decision.