White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture
by Chrys Ingraham
From the back cover:
"White Weddings is a groundbreaking study of our culture's obsession with weddings. By examining popular films, commercials, magazines, advertising, television sitcoms, and even children's toys, White Weddings shows the pervasive influence of weddings in our culture and the important role they play in maintaining the romance of heterosexuality, the myth of white supremacy, and the insatiable appetite of consumer capitalism. This entertaining and irreverent analysis of one of our culture's most important traditions will make you think twice about ever wanting to catch the bouquet."
Casey's review:
Despite its oftentimes conversational tone, this book actually includes some complex academic terms and ideas. The average reader might find concepts going over her head, such as heteronormativity, the ideas of French theorist Jacques Lacan, and materialist feminist ideology. Some of the statisitics are becoming out of date, as the book was published in 1999. Also, the format of the book is unusually square and uses large margins on either side whose text is sometimes hard to read because it is printed over black and white photographs. This book does contain some good information related to feminism and weddings, but as the title indicates, it is primarily geared toward discussion of the institution of heterosexuality as its overall theme and how society is structured around the unit of the couple.
