Wedding Industrial Complex in Celia Laskey’s So Happy for You
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Abstract
This paper examines the wedding industrial complex in modern American culture via a feminist lens and through an analysis of Celia Laskey’s (2022) So Happy for You. It expands on Ingraham’s study from White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture (2008), focusing on the impact of the American wedding business on American wedding beliefs, specifically on its role in promoting capitalist, heterosexist, and racist narratives about weddings. The paper highlights a variety of factors, ranging from familial and cultural pressures to internet matching and popular culture, that contribute to entrenched traditional roles, collective heterosexual fantasies, and the pursuit of marital perfection. The paper also emphasizes the negative effects of these factors on individual and relational well-being, such as mental and physical health difficulties, reduced intimacy, and strained marital compatibility. The paper goes on to explain how these interactions perpetuate established gender standards, racial biases, and socioeconomic distinctions. Laskey’s story is a sobering mirror of current society realities, warning of the dire consequences if the celebration of weddings continues unabated. The findings call for a critical analysis of the wedding industrial complex’s upheld values and narratives, as well as their ramifications on both personal and societal levels. The paper’s goal with this investigation is to develop a more thorough understanding of the complicated interplay between societal expectations, personal goals, and the commercialized wedding industry.
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