Sharon Bden Assuming Pleasure On The Wedding Day Analysis

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In her chapter “Consuming Pleasure on the Wedding Day: The Lived Experience of Being a Bride”, Sharon Boden provides an insight into the ways brides utilize their wedding fantasies for their own pleasure on their wedding day. She discusses about the balance between the concept of romantic intimacy and the public space of the wedding that brides have to manage. Due to the changes in culture, weddings not only implicate consumerism but also the community structures and rituals of courtship which united the joining families as well as “sanctioning… woman’s property be passed into the hands of the man she was to marry”(Boden, 2007, p.110). However, due to the industrial revolution and an increase in wage-earning wives, there were amendments in the legal status of …show more content…

As a result, weddings now, are just romantic desires for the wedding day and there is no association of the wedding to the marriage of two people and the married life. Thus, Boden argues that due to consumerism, there is a greater emphasis on the wedding as being a cultural event involving romance rather then a religious celebration. Subsequently, Boden presents the wedding fantasy of a bride as a transformation process that allows brides to stage their weddings into socially constructed events despite not feeling them to be authentic and romantic. Boden regarded these transformations of brides into Cinderella-like princesses who depended on industry professionals for their beautification and appearance. Furthermore, the emotions experienced by the brides were depicted as overwhelming, however, they were regarded as inevitable and it was seen at a more fantasy level symbolizing the wedding