Traditional inequalities and inequalities of tradition: Gender, weddings and whiteness

Carter, Julia

Abstract

The (British) white wedding offers a unique lens for studying a number of social and cultural phenomena from practices of intimacy, consumption and romance to macro level studies of economics, value and exchange. The wedding also represents an ideal focus for studying the intersection of intimacies and inequalities as it acts as a location for the practice and performance of intimacy which simultaneously encapsulates historical and contemporary gender, race and class inequalities. These inequalities are often upheld, celebrated even, in the name of ‘tradition’ in relationships, marriage and weddings. This paper aims to interrogate this notion of tradition to understand how, rather than being a neutral concept, it is used to reproduce and reinforce existing gender inequalities, middle-class values and privileging of Whiteness. The argument in this paper draws on 3 years of research on weddings including interviews and ethnographic observations. I conclude that while wedding traditions may have become increasingly reflective of democratic choices, they retain traditional inequalities in their representation and conceptualisation.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 11, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Feb 11, 2021
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Dec 12, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 18, 2022
• Journal: Sociological Research Online
• Electronic ISSN: 1360-7804
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 60-76
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780421990021
• Keywords: Bridezilla, gender, inequalities, tradition, weddings, Whiteness
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6952887