I wanted to understand why my educated girlfriends and women in general conformed to the sexist traditions of the white wedding. In this research I assume that couples talk about their white wedding in a way that gives the wedding its value and alludes to the magic of the wedding.
White Weddings
- Introduction
- Weddings: Past and Present
- Pioneering Research on White Weddings
- Conclusion
This emphasizes the expectation and need to conform to the prescribed practices of the marriage rituals. This can be seen in wedding traditions such as the tossing of the bride's bouquet and garter (Benshea & Benshea, 2005).
System Justification Theory
Introduction
System Justification Theory
- Social Identity Theory
- Belief in a Just World
- Cognitive Dissonance Theory
- Marxist-Feminist Theories of Ideology
- Social Dominance Theory
- Ego and Group Justification
Research has shown that subordinate groups tend to show out-group favoritism to the dominant group (Dixon, Levine, Reicher & Durrheim, 2012; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). From this angle, it is assumed that subordinate groups are not manipulated, but can think for themselves regardless of the dominant ideology.
Depressed Entitlement
Out-Group Contact
A statement measuring benevolent sexism stated “in a disaster, women are not necessarily saved before men” (p. 135). What makes this dilemma more problematic is that research conducted in South Africa shows that women's benevolent sexism scores are higher than men's benevolent sexism scores (Glick et al., 2000).
Ideological Dissonance
Consequently, women, as a subordinate group, may explain the unequal distribution of housework as fair because they are aware that little can be done to change the status quo (Jost et al., 2003). Interestingly, being communal is also associated with being subordinate, suggesting that complimentary gender stereotypes encourage the subordination of women (Napier et al., 2010).
Conclusion
As such, system justification reduces ideological dissonance and provides other mitigating effects for subordinates and dominants (Jost et al., 2003). To summarize: this research aims to study how systemic justification is present in heterosexual white weddings, how systemic justification contributes to the performance and reproduction of gendered practices, and how and why couples justify the gendered nature of the white wedding through common applied discourses.
Introduction
Research Design
Qualitative Research
At the same time, the researcher must make sense of the meaning the participants attributed to their white wedding. Interpreting the data is an attempt to answer questions to gain a deeper understanding of the research problem (Jack, 2010; Silverman, 2013).
Social Constructionism
Correspondingly, the context of the interview itself is considered to have an influence on the discourses that are produced. By considering their reflexive position in the research study, the researcher reflects on their own history and how this may affect the results of the research.
Discourse Analysis
This orientation towards discourse analysis is also called conversation analysis and studies how individuals can use and apply language (Hodges et al., 2008). This approach to discourse analysis explores social practices critically and considers the impact of constructs such as power or inequality on social relations.
Sampling Procedure
In summary, discourses are identified as stemming from the dual meaning that participants create meaning and that meaning is created for participants through the existing language of society and social interactions (Coyle, 2007). From the sample size of ten couples, contact was initiated and maintained with seven brides and three grooms.
Participants
Although half of the participants were non-native English speakers, all participants were proficient in English. In three of the interviews, the grooms left for 5-20 minutes and then returned to the interview.
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Seventh, the different versions of the social world that co-exist in the text are identified. For the purpose of this research, the wedding photos of the participants were therefore deemed more useful as prompts during the interview.
Ethical Considerations
- Informed Consent
- Confidentiality
- Freedom to Withdraw from the Study
- Avoidance of Harm
- Reflexivity
- Data Storage and Dissemination
- Gender of the Researcher
- Validity, Reliability and Generalisability
Although contact information was provided, none of the participants contacted the researcher or her supervisor. In addition, the reflexive preface (see Chapter 2 Reflexive Preface) and the reflexive epilogue (see Chapter 10 Reflexive Epilogue) serve to promote understanding of the researcher's positioning in the study. Participants were informed that they can request a copy of the research results from the researcher after completing the study.
Conclusion
The first part of the analysis chapter provides a description of the sexist wedding practices that the participants incorporated into their weddings. In the second part of the analysis, two discourses are identified, analyzed and discussed, namely the discourse about the bride's day and the discourse about the fairytale wedding. The third part of the analysis provides a deeper analysis and discussion of how the discourse of the bride's day and the fairytale wedding enable a systemic justification function.
An Account of Sexist Wedding Practices
- Introduction
- Sexist Wedding Practices
- Proposal
- Planning
- Attire
- The Bride being walked down the Aisle
- Speech
- Bouquet and Garter
- Changing Surnames
- The Problematic
- Conclusion
However, the groom realizes that the wedding is more for and about the bride. On the wedding day, the father walks the bride down the aisle to the groom (Geller, 2001). It seems that the bride has to justify her decision, but the groom does not.
Discourses of the Bride’s Day and the Fairy-Tale Wedding
Introduction
Discourses of the Bride’s Day and the Fairy-Tale Wedding
By referring to a stereotypical female toy, the groom connects the wedding with the bride's childhood. This emphasizes the idea that the wedding is a female fantasy and that the groom allows the bride. This statement points towards the bride's agency and her control in wedding planning.
Conclusion
The couple shows that they are in touch with reality, as opposed to being tricked into a fairy tale. However, couples are aware of the fairy tale discourse and only through this awareness can they deviate from it. Stereotypical gender roles that reinforce benevolent sexism can easily be justified with this fairy tale discourse (Glick & Fiske, 1997).
The Bride’s Day and Fairy-Tale Discourses as System Justification
Introduction
Justifying the Distribution of Labour
Although she did most of the wedding planning, this is considered fair because the bride is a woman (Sniezek, 2005). The illusion of equality is conversely distorted by the couple describing the role of the groom in wedding planning as greater than that of the bride. Furthermore, the groom gently shifts the responsibility for wedding planning to the bride by implying a fairytale discourse in which the bride is the princess (line 1494).
The Groom’s Lack of Involvement
The following passage shows the bridegroom while giving reasons why a wedding is a bigger event for the bride than for the groom. The groom takes on a less masculine role as he is more involved in planning the wedding; however, it notes the benefits of wanting a more equal relationship (Schrock & Schwalbe, 2009; Sniezek, 2005). The difference between the groom's speech and his actions is reduced by the groom's mention of justice, his active participation in the planning of the wedding, and his expression of attention to the bride.
The Father of the Bride giving her away
This turns out to be a new realization for both the bride and groom during the interview. During interview 4, the concept of the bride's father walking her down the aisle to give her to the groom is discussed. The bride connects this act with the one where the bride changes her surname to the groom's surname.
Changing Surnames
When the interviewer asks if the groom would double his last name, the bride replies with a laugh. Laughter suggests the bride's disbelief at the thought of the groom changing his surname (Macpherson, 2008). The couple is aware that with the bride not changing her surname to that of the groom, they are behaving in a way that defies the norm.
Conclusion
Finally, the positive and flattering discourses of the bride's day and the fairytale wedding, as well as the love and consideration expressed by the groom throughout the interviews, allow brides and grooms to justify gender inequalities to the extent that the discursive system allows make. justification and the maintenance of the status quo. This is noted in this section through the performance of traditional wedding practices and rituals, such as the bride and groom justifying the gender unequal division of labor, the groom's lack of involvement in the wedding planning, the father of the bride giving her to the groom and brides who change their surnames when they marry.
The Palliative Effects of System Justification Theory
- Introduction
- The Palliative Effects of System Justification Theory
- The Wedding Planning and Complementary Gender Roles
- The Bride being walked down the Aisle
- Wedding Speeches
- Conclusion
Excerpt 23 highlights the complementary gender roles of the bride and groom during wedding planning. The self-evident nature of the bride doing most of the wedding planning is strongly defended by the bride in the following excerpt. In the short clip above, the bride explains that she walked down the aisle because of tradition.
Introduction
Wedding Discourses as System Justification
The discourses of the fairytale wedding and the bride's day are framed positively towards the bride suggesting that the wedding is for and about the bride. According to the brides and grooms in this research, the rationalization for this is that the wedding is for the sake of the bride and therefore she has to do the majority of the work. In this research, three possible explanations are plausible as to why women encourage and conform to the discourses of the bride's day and the fairytale wedding, thus strengthening support for benevolent stereotypes and the existing social arrangements.
Depressed Entitlement
Women's depressed sense of entitlement thus serves a system justifying function by encouraging a gender unequal division of labor and thus prevents the pursuit of social change towards gender equality (Becker & Wright, 2011; Jost, 1997). The practice of women changing their surname to their husband's when they get married, as nine out of ten brides did, offers another tradition indicative of women's depressed sense of entitlement. Conforming to the gender-biased status quo suggests that even in the practice of changing one's surname, women indicate a depressed sense of entitlement.
Out-group contact
This suggests that out-group contacts, complementary gender roles, and benevolent feelings toward women are encouraged during wedding planning between brides and grooms. This pro-feminist disclosure suggests to the interviewer the positive association of in-group contact shared by the bride and the interviewer. The connection within the group contact is seemingly overridden when the groom returns and the bride shows views in favor of complementary gender roles.
Ideological Dissonance
This was evident during the groom's absence in Interview 2 when the bride said “I'm more the matriarch, I say what goes around most of the time” (lines 828–829). Brides can justify the gender unequal nature of the wedding and wedding planning by assuming the benevolently sexist role of princess (Hammond & Sibley, 2011). Further negative consequences can be that of brides conforming to the benevolent role of the 'bride-as-princess'.
Implications
In addition, as mentioned earlier, social change in the form of gender equality is hindered by preoccupation with system justification (Becker & Wright, 2011). This research has shown that even in Eurocentric cultures, which are more individualistic, system justification motives for women predominate over ego and group justification motives (O'Brien et al., 2012). An explanation for this may be that women are stereotypically viewed as more communal than men and therefore pursue system justification regarding gendered practices in favor of ego and group justification ( Eagly & Steffen, 1984 ).
The South African Context
Rituals, such as the white wedding, are particularly effective in maintaining the status quo and therefore represent ideal sites in which to study the effects of SJT. Because the white wedding ritual is taken for granted and taboo to criticize, it is for the most part a good conduit for the status quo. Collective social action is required by women and men to change the status quo and build a gender equal society (Dixon et al., 2012).
Conclusion
Because of this oppressed sense of entitlement, these brides would expect less of themselves and thus become involved in most of the wedding work. They were passive brides – not questioning, not confrontational, not challenging, just following and fitting the script of the white wedding. For example, they suggest that women complete most of the wedding work because it is the bride's day and.
