Lifting the Veil on Traditional White Weddings

The topic for my thesis is a critique of traditional American white weddings and the associated fairytale imagery using a materialist feminist approach. The idea for this topic came to fruition after a classroom discussion regarding a single patriarchal wedding custom sparked my interest in researching the ways in which weddings validate and reinforce traditions that symbolize women\u27s secondary status in society. I wanted to explore each aspect of the mainstream American wedding- the traditional, white wedding. Upon delving into the scholarly research on the subject, it became apparent that only a few ctitical examinations of weddings existed and no single body of work combined all of the elements involved in the ideological creation of the traditional white wedding. After perusing through various primary and secondary resources, I started to recognize the complex interplay between history, popular culture, and capitalism and their combined role in perpetuating rituals of subordination obscured by notions of romance and fantasy