White weddings and the reproduction of white femininity

Carter, Julia

Abstract

When my colleague and I entered the wedding show venue in London we were immediately confronted by a salesperson asking if she could see our legs so that she could administer a hair removal treatment. This was somewhat off-putting and neither my colleague nor I took her up on her offer. It also, however, set the tone for the rest of our visit to this wedding show and to the subsequent shows we visited- our bodies were central to the experience of wedding shows and, by extension, weddings. This may seem like an obvious point but it nevertheless deserves stating: weddings in the UK, or rather, the particular brand of white weddings offered at national wedding shows, at least, require the bodies, emotions, thoughts and dreams of women. Not just any women either, for the special brand of femininity bartered at wedding shows is white, middle-class, young (or ageless) and heterosexual.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 15, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Oct 13, 2018
• Publication Date: Oct 13, 2018
• Deposit Date: Aug 14, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 13, 2019
• Journal: Families, Relationships and Societies
• Print ISSN: 2046-7435
• Electronic ISSN: 2046-7443
• Publisher: Policy Press
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 515-520
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/204674318X15384699062912
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/857435
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1332/204674318X15384699062912
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy edited version of an article published in Families, Relationships and Societies. The definitive publisher-authenticated version [Carter, J. (2018) White weddings and the reproduction of white femininity. Families, Relationships and Societies. ISSN 2046-7443] is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1332/204674318X15384699062912.
• Contract Date: Aug 14, 2018