White Wedding Fairytales

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White Wedding Fairytales:

(re)-reading the bridal traditions of Australian bridal texts

Christyana Bambacas

Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Social Sciences University of New South Wales — 15th November 2013— 1

Abstract

The white wedding narrative of popular discourses concerns the ideal wedding and bridal moment. The bride is protagonist and “star” of this fairytale, which begins with a marriage proposal, accompanied by a dashing groom and dazzling diamonds, and ends with “happily ever after” for the bridal couple. Replete with the celebratory aspects of a rite of passage, the white wedding fairytale is characterised by bridal traditions, and an exhaustive list of etiquette requirements.

Representations of “real life” wedding fairytales (for example, the wedding of Mary Donaldson to Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark) are circulated by Australian women’s and gossip magazines. A context is thereby provided for the narratives constructed by the more specialised genre of bridal magazines and planners. The bride is invited by such texts to plan and perform a range of manufactured bridal traditions in the execution of the ideal wedding of popular discourses.

Critical considerations of the white wedding have posited this ritual as a site for the reproduction of cultural norms and ideals, such as prescribed femininity, heterosexuality and “whiteness”. The literature has typically focused on either cultural production (the wedding industry) or on cultural consumption (more general experiences of the wedding). Despite this polarity, studies tend to understand cultural power as dominative, romance ideology as manipulative, brides (consumers) as living in a state of false consciousness as passive consumers, and most importantly, cultural meaning as “fixed” through the production process. This thesis draws from Stuart Hall’s seminal paper on televisual texts, reworking his encoding and decoding method towards a reading of women’s and bridal publications. Bridal traditions are often reproduced, with little or no variation, and mass disseminated across a range of women’s texts, encoding a preferred meaning/reading of these cultural practices. However, cultural meanings are not understood to be “fixed” through the production process or passively consumed by the “unsuspecting” masses. Departing from existing critical literature, cultural meanings are recast as contradictory, fluid, and open to interpretation. This thesis argues that in positing the white wedding fairytale as the preferred reading of cultural texts, one can query the idea that weddings reproduce hetero-normativity.

Acknowledgments

This thesis has been written with the support and guidance of the following mentors, colleagues, family members and friends.

First, I want to extend my gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor Paul Jones, for his constructive criticism, persistence, academic insight and guidance; Associate Professor Stephen Fortescue, for his unwavering support and encouragement; and Professor Ursula Rao for her considerate criticism and supportive guidance during the latter stages of writing.

I would also like to thank the Head of the School of Social Sciences, Dr Christopher Walker, and the administrative staff of the School.

This thesis was supported by the following teachers and mentors at the University of New South Wales: Emeritus Professor Clive Kessler, Professor Vicki Kirby, Maria Markus, Associate Professor Rogelia Pe-Pua, Dr Jocelyn Pixley and Dr Claudia Tazreiter.

Special gratitude is extended to feminist mentors and teachers Professor Margaret Allen, Dr Hélène Bowen Raddeker, Professor Chilla Bulbeck, Dr Catherine Driscoll, Dr Pam Papadelos, Dr Roslyn Richardson, Associate Professor Margie Ripper, and Professor Kay Schaffer.

Many thanks to colleagues at the University of Wollongong, Professor Mark McLelland for his guidance and mentorship, and Dr John Lees for his unwavering friendship. I would also like to thank Arwen Wilson who meticulously proofread the final version of this thesis.

I am indebted to Anna Pedersen from Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing, Amelia Bloomfield from Pacific Magazines and Renata Gortan from Universal’s Magazines for permission to reproduce the images contained in this thesis.

This thesis is a reflection of the love and support of my family and friends, for which I am eternally grateful.

The enduring, unwavering and unconditional love and support from my parents, Mary and Nicolas Bambacas, are indelibly imprinted upon my life and this thesis.

The happiest memories of my life are of my childhood spent with my brothers and sister. A special thank you to Michaelis Bambacas, Anna Schwarz, and George Bambacas.

I also want to thank my brother-in-law, Christian Schwarz, and my sister-in-law, Karan Bambacas.

To my beautiful niece and nephews, Amalia and Lucas Schwarz, Nicolas and Thomas Bambacas: thank you for the joy.

My girlfriends, who are the heart of my friendships, are the most intelligent, creative and independent women I know. Many thanks and admiration to Natanya Andonas, Janine Aston, Matina Bourmas, Julie Herraman, Julie Grove, Daniella Florio, Dandy Laing, Pam Papadelos, Ros Richardson, Vicky Summerton, Lorna Toko, Laura Vasquez Maggio and Natasha Vorrasi.

I would also like to extend my gratitude and appreciation to my “new” family, Kevin and Tina Hardaker, Kirstie, Dave and Benjamin Turner and Nanna Clarice Sandquest.

Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Brendon Hardaker, for his unwavering support, love and patience.

This thesis was written with loving memories of my brother Tomi Bambacas, my uncle Doug Allen Smith and my yiayia Anna Moustakas.

Contents

Abstract 1 Acknowledgements 2 Contents 4 List of tables and images 6

Introduction 8

Part 1 Reviewing the wedding literature

Chapter 1 Thinking about “weddings” 16

“Weddings” and cultural reproduction 17 Exploring the feminine 29 Commercialisation of “weddings” 40

Chapter 2 Studying “weddings” 48

Cultural production, class and gender 49 Rethinking ideology and cultural power 57 Domination as institutional practice 68

Chapter 3 Methods , methodology, bridal texts 78

Thinking about methods 79 Australian publication market 87 Semiotics, representation and texts 100 Reading bridal texts 108

Part 2 (Re)- reading bridal traditions

Chapter 4 Australian bridal publications 125

White wedding narrative 126 Women’s and gossip magazine covers 143 Bridal publication covers 155 Bridal planners as interactive 162

Chapter 5 Australian bridal planners 180

Bridal planners 181 Groom’s guide 193 Knowing bridal traditions 209

Chapter 6 Bridal planner traditions 229

Bridal traditions 230 Bridal cake 244 White bridal gown 256

Conclusion : Extending Tradition 263

Bibliography 278

Magazines 284

Film/documentary 285

Websites 285

List of Tables and Images*

List of Tables

Table 1: Australian Bridal Publications 88

List of Images

Image 1: 173 Bride-to Be: Wedding Planning Guide Front Cover (2006/2007)

Image 2: 174 Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide Workbook Cover (2006/2007)

Image 3: 175 Bride-to-be: Wedding Planner Chapter 4: The Bride (2002)

Image 4: 176 Bride’s Diary Interactive Wedding Planner Front Page (2002)

Image 5, 6, 7: 177—179 Bride’s Diary Wedding Services Directory and Budget Planner (2002)

Image 8: 219 Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner Wedding Reception Etiquette (1999)

Image 9: 220 Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide Gift Registry (2006/2007)

Image 10: 221 Bride’s Diary The Groom’s Guide Advertisement (1999)

Image 11: 222 Groom’s Guide Front Cover (2006)

Image 12: 223 Groom’s Guide Wedding Day Checklist (2006)

Image 13: 224 Groom’s Guide Wedding Rings Checklist (2006)

Image 14: 225 Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide Wedding Workbook: Engagement Rings (2006/2007)

Image 15: 226 Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide Wedding Workbook: Throwing Bouquet (2006/2007)

Image 16: 227 Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide Wedding Workbook: Invitation Wording (2006/2007)

Image 17: 228 Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide Wedding Workbook: Wedding Cake (2006/2007)

*Images have been removed due to Copyright restrictions

Introduction

The centrality of the bride to the white wedding is established by popular texts which posit the bride as ‘star’ and/or ‘celebrity’ of the wedding day. The white wedding is marked as such by a set of cultural conventions that are popularly coded as traditional bridal practices. These bridal traditions include, amongst others, the gifting of a piece of wedding cake to guests, the throwing the bridal bouquet and the white bridal gown.

Popular discourses participate in the circulation of the white wedding as a social and cultural ideal. As such, women’s and gossip magazines publish special wedding souvenir editions to showcase royal and celebrity weddings. Royal weddings are coded as ‘real-life’ fairytales in the establishment of what constitutes the ideal wedding.

Women’s publications function to disseminate ideas about the bridal role and traditional wedding thereby providing a context for the specialised genre of bridal publications.

Historically, weddings have not been an object of critical investigation despite the popularity of this cultural ritual. Critical reflections about the bridal role, traditions and the wedding are generally scant but the recent focus on weddings has resulted in the materialisation of studies concerned with either the wedding industry or wedding related consumption experiences. Although these studies have different concerns there is a general tendency within the literature to understand weddings as a means for the reproduction of norms such as prescribed gender roles, heterosexuality and ‘whiteness’.

These studies are underpinned by conceptual frameworks which understand ideology as manipulative and power as dominative. ‘The people’ are therefore understood to be passive consumers of patriarchal and capitalist ideologies. The underlying assumption of this passivity of reading is that ‘the people’ reproduce gender, class and race inequities through the planning and performance of the wedding. Hence, they are understood to be complicit in their own oppression.

This theoretical position is a part of the ‘false consciousness’ argument which maintains that ‘the people’ are unsuspectingly manipulated by the culture industries. More specifically bridal culture, which is generally consumed by a disproportionate number of girls, is understood to be a vehicle for the circulation of patriarchal and capitalist ideologies. The literature also tends to understand that textual meaning is fixed by the producers of texts. In other words, cultural meanings about the wedding and bridal traditions are understood to be fixed by textual conventions. These cultural meanings function to validate prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality as normative. As ‘the people’, but in this case more specifically ‘girls’, are passive consumers, and in the planning and performance of the wedding and bridal traditions, they unsuspectingly reproduce patriarchal and capitalist ideologies. The execution of the wedding, according

to current critical studies, therefore becomes a vehicle for the reproduction of cultural norms and social inequities.

This thesis contextualises debates on how cultural meaning functions within political economy, feminist and cultural studies frameworks. This thesis argues that political economy approaches to weddings are limiting in their understandings of power, ideology, meaning and culture and seeks to intervene in existing debates, which posit weddings as a vehicle for the reproduction of cultural norms, by considering feminist and cultural studies methods. Drawing from Stuart Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding method this thesis posits women’s and bridal publications as an object for semiotic analysis. Semiotics, the study of sign systems in language, provides the tools to read bridal traditions for their symbolic effect. A semiotic analysis of bridal planners allows for a reading of how this discourse constructs normative notions of sex, gender and sexuality but also how these contradictory texts function to disrupt hetero-normative ideals.

This thesis argues that cultural meanings attached to bridal traditions, the bridal role and white wedding are inherently paradoxical and contradictory. The existing wedding literature understands cultural meanings as being fixed through the production process.

However this thesis claims that the dominant meaning of the white wedding is contradictory aiding in oppositional and resistant readings of popular cultural texts.

Thesis structure

The first part of this thesis critically considers the current wedding literature and outlines the semiotic analysis employed in the study of women’s and bridal

publications. While the first two chapters focus on an exploration of existing critical wedding studies the final chapter outlines the publications chosen for analysis and formulates a methodological approach for a reading of these texts. The second part of this thesis applies Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding method in a reading of bridal traditions.

Chapter One undertakes a survey of the wedding literature and considers how current wedding studies understand romance ideology as oppressive, consumers as passive and the wedding as a means of the cultural reproduction of norms such as prescribed gender roles, heterosexuality and “whiteness”. Even though the literature identifies the gendered nature of weddings, these studies do not deploy bridal in a meaningful way to reflect this characteristic. Critical studies about weddings tend to be scant so this chapter also considers how disciplinary fields such as such as sociology, feminism and cultural studies have historically engaged with ‘the feminine’. This chapter argues that theoretical shifts in understandings of femininity, pleasure and popular culture has opened the space to critically reconsider how bridal culture functions.

Chapter Two explores in further detail some of the theoretical approaches employed to study weddings. As the literature is generally concerned with how the wedding industry functions there is a current trend to employ tenets of political economy in wedding studies. This critical focus is also complemented by research on bridal consumption and wedding related experiences. This chapter explores the counter arguments to political economy frameworks, as formulated by feminist and cultural studies practitioners. The main aim of this chapter is to highlight the utility of feminist and cultural studies approaches to the study of weddings. These approaches allow for a recasting of cultural

meanings as contradictory, and cultural power as interactive, thereby challenging assumptions that the wedding is a site for the cultural reproduction of prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality. Finally, this chapter also highlights the absence of critical studies which employ textual readings of bridal publications.

The main focus of Chapter Three is to outline the women’s and bridal publications chosen for analysis and to formulate a methodological framework for a reading of texts.

This chapter begins by considering the multiple methods employed by feminists and cultural studies practitioners in the study of culture. Although this thesis primarily employs a semiotic approach in a reading of bridal publications, my readings are informed by my personal familiarity with wedding and bridal culture. This context informed the choice of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of women’s and bridal texts. In delineating the texts chosen for analysis this chapter also explores the women’s publication market outlining ownership, distribution and merchandising patterns. A further focus of this chapter is a reworking of Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding method to a reading of bridal planners. This approach to the study of cultural texts allows for a reading which reveals the paradoxical nature of meaning.

Chapter Four identifies a preferred reading of the wedding which is nominated as a white wedding narrative. This narrative is a fairytale story about the ideal bride and white wedding of popular discourses. Women’s magazines participate in the circulation of this narrative in the representation of Mary Donaldson’s royal wedding as a ‘real-life’ fairytale. These magazines therefore provide a context for the more specific genre of bridal publications which invite the bride to emulate this ideal. This chapter delineates similarities and differences between women’s, gossip and bridal publication covers and

argues that these covers function to code the bride as protagonist of the white wedding.

This chapter also considers how bridal planners are structured in such a way as to invite the bride to practise bridal traditions.

Chapter Five explores how bridal planners construct a preferred reading of the bridal role as a rite of passage for ‘girls’. According to this discourse the transformative aspect of this role requires learning relevant bridal etiquette and traditions and the labour required for this transformation is rewarded by the promise of being a ‘star’ for the day.

Although there are many bridal publications available to educate the bride about bridal traditions there is currently only one groom’s guide publication. A reading of this publication provides insightful commentary on popular constructions of masculine and feminine identities. This chapter argues that bridal planners construct a contradictory bridal identity which disrupts the preferred reading of the bridal role as an example of emphasised femininity. Finally, there is a consideration of how bridal planners construct historical ‘truths’ in order to validate ‘invented’ bridal traditions and their symbolic meanings.

Chapter Six is concerned with undertaking a reading of bridal traditions such as the engagement ring, the proposal, bridal invitation etiquette, the ‘wedding’ cake and the white bridal gown. Bridal planners construct a preferred reading of these bridal traditions and etiquette construct as symbolic of eternal love and devotion. These bridal traditions functions to naturalise prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality as normative. However, this chapter highlights the contradictory symbolisms attached to bridal traditions. This chapter argues that the paradoxical nature of bridal texts disrupts

the preferred reading of the white wedding as a signification of a bridal rite of passage and heterosexual love.

The final chapter of this thesis considers how the bride is central in the transmission of bridal traditions. However, in order for bridal traditions to be meaningful these traditions are disseminated via other social institutions such as the family, the church and the media. Building upon the existing material on bridal planner traditions this chapter also considers how the Australian documentary Brides of Khan (Uberoi 2001) and the film Muriel’s Wedding (1994) constructs and disseminate bridal traditions.

Part One

Reviewing the ‘Wedding’ Literature

Chapter One Thinking About ‘Weddings’

Although weddings have not traditionally been a subject of critical discussion, some analytical attention has recently been paid to the topic. The scant available literature points to a current interest in the wedding as a means of the cultural reproduction of norms such as prescribed femininity and masculinity, as well as heterosexuality. Such studies highlight the gendered nature of this cultural field. However, recognition of the centrality of the bride is not reflected by the deployment of the term weddings. One of the reasons why weddings is only an emerging field of research is the historical tendency within critical circles, including a range of disciplinary fields such as sociology, and cultural studies, to trivialise the ‘feminine’. Some aspects of second- wave feminism had an uneasy relationship with ‘femininity’ and as such defined the

‘feminine’ within a restrictive set of cultural parameters. The implications of this trend

to dismiss and/or marginalise the feminine include the exclusion of cultural traditions such as weddings as proper objects of study, as well as the politically divisive construction of the binary feminist/femininity.

This chapter extends upon and contributes to existing research on weddings which has been undertaken within the fields of sociology, feminism, cultural studies and political economy. Hence, the literature being referred to here is ‘wedding’ literature. One of the main objectives of this literature review is to initiate an exploration of the central questions of this thesis. As such this thesis is concerned with considering the following: how does the white wedding narrative of popular texts function to construct a preferred reading of bridal traditions; does the mass dissemination of the white wedding narrative across multiple forms and texts fix the meanings associated with the wedding and bridal traditions; do popular representations of the white wedding participate in the reproduction of cultural norms such as prescribed gender roles, heterosexuality and

‘whiteness’?

‘Weddings’ and Cultural Reproduction

In this section, the discussion, contextualised within critical debates on weddings, considers the following: first, how weddings are considered a site for the cultural reproduction of norms, such as prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality; and second, how the gendered nature of weddings is highlighted, but not mirrored, in the use of the term weddings. This section foregrounds the reconsideration and recasting of concepts such as weddings and cultural reproduction. This thesis complements existing literature by recasting cultural power to think beyond the dichotomous understanding of weddings as either a form of cultural reproduction or of cultural resistance. Moreover, I argue the

importance of illuminating the centrality of the bride in popular understandings of the traditional wedding by deploying the term bridal in reference to this cultural field.

Critical debates have historically focused upon marriage as a proper object of study in contemplating power interactivity, but have only just begun to consider weddings in a similar light: while ‘sociologists have produced a significant body of research on marriage, no U.S. sociologist has ever published a study on weddings... they are rarely examined in any academic discipline’ (Ingraham 1999:3). The analysis of marriage, unlike the wedding, is underpinned by an extensive body of feminist scholarship. This broad range of critical questions regarding marital relations is succinctly captured by

Brook (2002:46), who states that

… the history of feminist engagement with marriage almost amounts to a history of feminist thought more generally... the range of feminist opinions on marriage is large and critically diverse.

This political interest in marriage is logical, as this social institution, sanctioned by various religious, legal, medical and educational discourses, formalises sex/gender relations (Brook 2002). However, weddings could also be seen as validating prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality (to the marginalisation of other sexualities), and are socially and culturally sanctioned as a precursor to marriage, the nuclear family, and biological offspring. Marriage is made possible through the cultural act of the wedding.

Yet critical scholarship on weddings is a new and emerging field.

An important aspect of theorisations of marital relations has been a focus on the unequal division of labour within the private and public spheres.1 This has been a critically diverse debate which has also produced studies wanting to expand on ideas about

1 For a comprehensive guide to and review of literature on the division of labour within households refer to Coltrane (2000).

inequitable labour relations within marriage to those of engaged couples. Hence, echoing established concerns about women’s unpaid labour within familial arrangements are some contemporary questions about the bride’s labour. As such, there are considerations regarding how ‘bridal work’ reflects the devalued labour undertaken by the wife and mother, logical extensions of the bridal role. Currie (1993), for example, initiated this discussion with her ethnographic study of Canadian brides and the persistence of the ‘traditional’ white wedding. The main consideration of her research is

‘the role which they (traditional white weddings) play in reproducing patriarchal marital relations’ (Currie 1993:403; itallics added). Although Currie acknowledges that in the pursuit of white weddings, many traditions have been modified, such as vows which no longer include references to wives obeying their husbands, she argues that the patriarchal meanings attached to wedding rituals remain. Hence the bride, in planning a traditional white wedding, assumes most of the responsibility for the wedding work.

Patriarchy, in the context of Currie’s study, is therefore understood as a set of unequal power relations which benefit men. As such, through the practice of white wedding traditions, primarily by the bride, traditional gender roles are reproduced. The wedding is therefore a cultural ritual that establishes the inequity of labour relations within marriage, despite perceptions and/or the desire for equality.

Tradition here is associated with the concept of weddings as a site of patriarchal power, and hence as a means of cultural reproduction of prescribed gender roles. The concept of tradition, how meaning is produced, and relational aspects of power interactivity are queried extensively throughout this thesis. Complementing but also moving beyond

Currie’s (1993) assumption that meaning is fixed, this thesis will include an exploration, contextualised within political economy, feminism and cultural studies, of meaning as

fluid and contradictory. This recasting of the concepts of tradition and meaning opens the theoretical space to consideration of power relations as interactive, contextual and paradoxical. Most importantly, however, the wedding can be re-thought as a site where cultural norms are not only reproduced but also resisted.

The trend to build on existing sociological studies of the gendered dimension of family work to wedding work is also apparent in Sniezek’s (2005) more recent research, which was based on qualitative interviews. This study, resonating with Currie’s (1993) investigation, views wedding planning as another manifestation of unequal labour relations within the family unit. Specifically, Sniezek reconceptualises ‘family work’ to also include women’s wedding labour, which is analogous with housework— unappreciated, unrecognised and unpaid. Despite this inequity, interviewed couples perceived their wedding work to be divided equally. This finding is explicated by the appropriation of (by marrying couples) the contemporary ideology of equality as an integral part of intimate relations. This ideology of equality, according to Sniezek, conceals unequal gendered labour relations during wedding planning, which then shapes other divisions of labour for married couples. Inextricably linked with this concept of ideology is that ‘the people’, engaged couples, are ignorant of their power struggles and passive in their consumption of the idea of equality. Sniezek (2005:230) claims that

‘wedding work serves to prepare women for their future traditional roles’. Hence, in this instance, the wedding is understood (in a position similar to that assumed by Currie) to be a site of cultural reproduction.

The wedding as a site for the reproduction of gender roles is not only considered in the literature on wedding work, but is also investigated in relation to gender performances

at bridal and co-ed wedding showers. Montemurro’s (2005) research explores a possible correlation between contemporary ideals of gender equality and the rise in the popularity of the co-ed wedding shower. Unlike traditional bridal showers, the engaged couple are both guests of honour, whilst both men and women are guests. Montemurro’s ethnographic study, which incorporated interviews with engaged couples and guests as well as a form of participant observation at bridal/co-ed wedding showers, reveals, in line with Currie (1993) and Sniezek (2005), how ideals of equality obscure unequal gender relations. For example, according to Montemurro, the wedding industry in

America promotes an ambiguous form of liberal feminism via the idea that co-ed showers are in some way an empowering process for women. Although the co-ed shower appears to appropriate feminist ideals of egalitarianism through the presence of the groom, it is in fact a ritual that adheres to the strict performance of prescribed gender roles. Rather than being a sign of gender equality, the co-ed shower is a product and a reflection of a heterosexist society: ‘it is merely a more complicated and elaborate means of reproducing and perpetuating traditional gender roles and ideals’

(Montemurro 2005:32; itallics added).

Building upon this approach to weddings is research conducted by Humble, Zvonkovic and Walker (2008), who reveal that engaged couples not only reproduce, but also resist prescribed gender roles. This theoretical understanding of weddings is an exception to the rule, as there have been limited studies which consider this contradiction and tension

(Levine 2005). Humble, Zvonkovic and Walker’s (2008:7) ethnographic research was concerned with ‘gender construction, how and why people organized wedding work and how they presented themselves to their partners and others’. These authors noted that

gender performance tended to conform to traditional gender roles with only some minor exceptions.

In planning weddings, Humble, Zvonkovic and Walker (2008) find that ‘traditional couples’ tend to appropriate prescribed gender roles. The bride was present as planner and orchestrator of the wedding, whilst the groom was largely absent from these aspects of this cultural ritual. In these instances, it was understood that the bride ‘strongly identified with dominant wedding ideology’ (Humble, Zvonkovic and Walker 2008:10).

‘Egalitarian couples’ were also recognised in this study, and were perceived to share the wedding work equally. These couples queried gendered ideologies about weddings, such as the idea that the wedding is a domain exclusively for the bride. ‘Transitional couples’, on the other hand, identified themselves as participating equally in the wedding work, but in practice, the bride tended to undertake the majority of organisational duties. For example, in the display of this work, these couples presented an image of the groom as being more involved in the planning, a stark contradiction of reality.

As such, this study concluded that the performance of gender by ‘traditional couples’ is consistent with traditional ideology, that ‘egalitarian couples’ adhere to an ideology that challenges the status quo, and that ‘transitional couples’ draw from competing ideologies, upholding dominant wedding ideology whilst simultaneously constructing their relationship as modern and egalitarian. Viewing ideologies as competing, multiple, contradictory is perhaps a more useful way of considering how power functions than was previously delineated by Sniezek (2005). This perspective opens the theoretical

space to consideration of how weddings, as well as associated practices and traditions, not only function to reproduce but also resist cultural norms.

Departing from Humble, Zvonkovic and Walker (2008), I want to consider how bridal texts are contradictory in their construction of bridal texts, bridal and groom’s roles, and traditions. This focus will be shortly complemented in Chapter Two with an exploration of political economy and cultural studies approaches to how cultural power operates.

Ingraham (1999) and Engstrom (2003) undertake research on the wedding and media industries which mirror political economy frameworks in an investigation, of the production of cultural meaning and operational aspects of power. I argue that political economy has the tendency to analytically prioritise the site of production and class relations, restricting understandings of the wedding as a site where cultural norms are replicated and reproduced.

Hence, there is a critical examination of political economy approaches to cultural power, meaning, ideology, false consciousness and passive consumption. Cultural studies frameworks are used to recast cultural power, meaning and consumption. As such, research undertaken by Levine (2005) on weddings and media monopolies will also be considered. In illuminating the contradictory interests of media conglomerates and the complexity of bridal televisual texts, she recasts cultural power as interactive, ideology as fractured, and meaning as fluid and contextual. In other words, Levine moves beyond the idea that weddings are a cultural site for the reproduction of norms and traditions. Levine’s approach complements the existing research on the wedding and media industries by considering the complexity, contradiction and tension in and between texts. She therefore argues that bridal texts, in their multiplicity, are unable to

maintain any one ideological stance. Hence, media monopolies not only secure cultural ideals but also function to disrupt them.

Building upon this literature, I will draw from Hall (1998), who is concerned by the tendency of cultural power to be constructed as either a form of cultural domination or cultural resistance. By recasting power as interactive, the existing literature on weddings is complemented by an analysis which considers bridal culture, and in particular bridal texts, as functioning not only to reproduce but also disrupt hegemonic ideals. In other words, I argue that bridal traditions are not only appropriated but also challenged and re-invented. To recapitulate briefly, there is a trend within the literature to posit weddings as a site for the cultural reproduction of norms which establishes the sex/gender binary and heterosexuality as natural. As a consequence, the inherently contradictory nature of power relations and ideologies as well as the multiplicity of meanings that any one sign/code could signify is obscured. Underlying this position is a conceptualisation of cultural power as all-encompassing, dominant and manipulative. In recasting cultural power as interactive, and ideologies, texts and cultural meanings about the bride as contradictory, I point to the multiplicity of ways in which bridal traditions are coded and the various decodings which can be deciphered in the re- appropriation and re-invention of these traditions.

Secondly, I will focus on the term ‘wedding’ because of the literature’s general lack of critical engagement with the use of this concept. I would like to shift this conceptual frame to consider the political implications of highlighting the gendered nature of this cultural field. It is argued here, and further substantiated in the ensuing analysis of bridal publications, that weddings are culturally and socially constructed as being

associated with the realm of ‘the feminine’. A defining feature of the wedding is the centrality of the bride, as apparent in popular culture. As such, I want to contribute to underscore how weddings are popularly constructed as a bridal moment.

Critical debates on weddings encompass a variety of concerns, such as the division of labour, traditions and media industries, amongst others. This diversity of interests is marked by a tendency to highlight the gendered nature of weddings. Despite these reflections on power relations, critical insights about the conceptual use of the term

‘weddings’ is limited. In some instances, this oversight can function to contradict the argument that wedding labour is women’s work. To explicate more clearly, Currie

(1993) and Sniezek (2005), as established earlier, are both concerned with highlighting the unequal division of labour in wedding planning. They claim that the bride, including her female relatives and friends, are responsible for the organisational aspects associated with this cultural tradition. Similarly, Humble, Zvonkovic and Walker (2008) are concerned with how wedding ideology, which embodies concepts of traditional gender roles, functions in tandem with equality ideology to conceal the unequal division of wedding labour. In other words, by deploying the term wedding, the aforementioned authors tend to obfuscate the very gender imbalance in the planning of this ritual that they are attempting to underscore. I want to build upon this idea that weddings embody gendered power relationships and consider how cultural power functions in relation to bridal texts. However, there is also an added desire to signpost how the cultural field of weddings is not only popularly understood to be, but also culturally constructed as women’s domain. It is for this reason that the utilisation of the term bridal will be deployed in my own critical analysis of this cultural field.

Not only is the literature concerned with wedding work, but there has also been a recent interest in how the wedding industry functions. The reasons for this newly-emerging interest, which will be considered shortly, include theoretical developments within the fields of feminism and cultural studies, and the rapid commercialisation and globalisation of the white wedding. I want to point to the tendency for the literature to nominate this cultural industry, including the associated media industry, as a wedding industry. Consistent with the aforementioned literature regarding wedding work,

Ingraham (1999) is careful to expose inequities, based on gender, race and class, as apparent in the production and consumption of cultural goods and services associated with the wedding.

In highlighting racial inequities, Ingraham (1999) critically reflects upon the concept of whiteness and its relation to the wedding industry. She deploys the term white wedding to illuminate how images of the wedding reflect and reinforce class and race distinctions. Ingraham argues that the white wedding embodies racist, sexist and, capitalist ideologies. However, this reflection is not as evident in her utilisation of the term wedding, despite her concern to also explore gender relations. For example, she states the following:

Viewing the various sites in popular culture where images and messages concerning white weddings dominate, it becomes clear that the intended audience is women, particularly white women, and that weddings are the domain of the feminine (161).

Ingraham, in her analysis of the wedding industry, deploys a feminist materialist framework, and is concerned with delineating the industry as being predominantly marked by the ‘feminine’. However, this is not reflected in her consideration of the utilisation of the term wedding. Her interest in investigating the political implications of the interactivity of patriarchy, capitalism and race dilutes her focus on the gendered

nature of the wedding industry. When class is considered in conjunction with gender, there is a theoretical tendency to obscure the analytics of gender inequities. Further discussion of this complexity, in relation to possible theoretical approaches to the wedding, is included in the following chapter.

In analyses of the wedding industry, the terms wedding media and bridal media tend to be conflated. For example, Engstrom (2003) utilises these terms interchangeably. This is despite the fact that she is concerned with illuminating how the media reinforces prescribed gender roles and the quintessential example of femininity through the image of the ideal bride. In another instance, the subtle distinctions between weddings and bridal are not delineated because there is a focus on how the wedding is a heterosexist construct. Oswald (2000), for example, is primarily concerned with how the wedding excludes and marginalises GLBT (gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender) family members. More specifically, her concern is with heterosexist attitudes as apparent in the wedding rather than with how the wedding is the quintessential performance of femininity. As a consequence, Oswald employs the term wedding rather than bridal. In other words, the utilisation of the term weddings is a direct result of her methodological approach. This approach ultimately prioritises uncovering hetero-sexism, which is an imperative, but it does so to the exclusion of gender interactivity within heterosexual relations.

The importance of the deployment of the term bridal instead of wedding cannot be underestimated, as it underscores the fact that ‘wedding’ goods, products and services are a part of a cultural field that is discernible as ‘feminine’. This is succinctly stated by

Montemurro (2005:13): ‘the fact that we retain the term bridal shower, rather than the

more gender-neutral wedding shower, indicates that this is a women’s ritual, one in which men’s roles have been peripheral’ (itallics added). Similarly, Driscoll (1998;

2002) nominates her field of study as bridal culture rather than wedding culture, clearly highlighting the gendered nature of this cultural phenomenon. This is so as she explores how cultural studies understand girl culture by considering the bride and bridal culture.2

The centrality of the bride to popular constructions of the wedding is reiterated by

Driscoll (2002:171), who states that ‘the bride not only comprises one of the most consistently visible roles for girls in late modern society but also exemplifies the supposedly natural field of heterosexual identity.’ I argue that when the literature uses the gender-neutral term wedding rather than the more specific term bridal, the political implications of the bridal act are diluted.

Complementing the existing literature, I want to consider how cultural power functions by highlighting how weddings, as a cultural field, are popularly constructed and understood to be associated with the realm of the feminine. I argue that even though this cultural rite of passage is not always delineated as such, the wedding is, in effect, popularly understood to be a bridal moment. A textual analysis of women’s and bridal publications considers how these texts, through the dissemination of bridal traditions, construct the bride as the bearer of cultural norms. The centrality of the bride to the white wedding narrative, as apparent in bridal texts, points to the wedding as a bridal cultural field. As a consequence, I will use the term bridal instead of wedding in relation to the chosen objects of study, highlighting how weddings are culturally and socially constructed as a gendered act.

2 For further cultural studies on girls refer to McRobbie (1978; 1982; 1993).

This recasting of the wedding as a bridal moment points to the preferred reading of the white wedding narrative of popular women’s and bridal publications. A more specific delineation of what constitutes the white wedding narrative will be undertaken in

Chapter Four. However, it is prudent to introduce the concept here, as it explicates the importance, to this study, of the term bridal. In highlighting the contradictory nature of texts, there is a consideration of how texts construct a preferred reading of the wedding which is recognisable as a white wedding narrative. The bride is constructed as the protagonist, the ‘star’ of this narrative, and the wedding is represented as a rite of passage. I argue that although this is the preferred reading of bridal texts, it does not necessarily determine all meaning about the white wedding or the bridal moment. In other words, texts, located within other texts, are encoded with a multiplicity of meanings and can be decoded from a variety of reading positions. In deploying bridal I am highlighting the preferred reading and/or coding of weddings as being a part of the realm of the ‘feminine’.

This section has highlighted the trend to posit weddings as a site of cultural reproduction, but also how the employment of weddings within the literature contradicts gendered accounts of this cultural field. I argue that a recasting of cultural power opens the theoretical space to also consider weddings as a site of resistance. To highlight this cultural field as gendered, the term bridal will be used in my analysis.

Exploring the Feminine

Women’s cultural forms and practices have historically been marginalised within mainstream accounts of cultural relations. Interest in women’s popular activities has however emerged as a part of feminist scholarship on the ‘feminine’. I want to explore

how some elements of the second wave of feminism tended to dismiss, trivialise and devalue aspects of femininity. This highlights how devaluing and/or marginalising women’s cultural practices had the following political implications: firstly, restricting what is considered to be an appropriate object of analysis; and secondly, generating a political distance between ‘feminists’ and ‘women’. Following, I want to consider how feminism’s engagement with cultural studies in the 1970s at Birmingham at the Centre of Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) contributed to the recasting of concepts such as popular pleasures, consumption and femininity. These theoretical shifts have opened the way to critically reconsider weddings and bridal culture, how cultural power functions and representations of femininity.

To begin, amongst other critical concerns, feminism has produced a broad range of research on the institution of marriage, the family and sexualities. However, there has only recently been an emergence of critical literature concerned with weddings. I argue that the tendency amongst some second-wave feminists to dismiss, trivialise and/or devalue women’s activities has had political implications in terms of what was deemed a ‘proper’ feminist object of study, and how it was studied. In considering feminist approaches to femininity, Hollows (2000) argues that some second-wave feminists had a tendency to construct ‘good’ feminist identities in opposition to ‘bad’ feminine identities. Drawing from a selection of key second-wave feminist texts, she notes feminism’s tendency to posit femininity as inferior to masculinity. More specifically, this approach to gender relations has understood men as a social group dominating women, and oppression as the consequence of the socialisation of girls into submissive and dependent roles as wives and mothers. In other words, some second-wave feminists, in their general desire to redress gender inequities, have tended to ‘reproduce a

masculine value system which sees feminine qualities as inferior’ (Hollows 2000:12).

The rejection of feminine identities as well as the appropriation and validation of the masculine ideal as normative has then been distinguished by some feminists as the solution to patriarchal inequalities (Hollows 2000).

From this perspective, anything commonly associated with the feminine, inclusive of but not limited to behaviour, values, popular pleasures, and women’s goods and services, has been dismissed and/or trivialised by feminists. This is particularly apparent in the approach toward studies of women’s magazines undertaken by second-wave feminists. McRobbie (1997) claims that this was part of a more general ‘angry repudiation stage’ toward studies on the feminine, marked by a devaluing of these cultural texts. Specifically, this ‘angry repudiation stage’ was the tendency of second- wave feminists to read girl’s and women’s magazines as a tool to oppress women. Most feminists were critical of these publications, as they were understood as another vehicle for disseminating sexually objectifying images of women. Women’s magazines were therefore condemned by some, as they not only invited girls and women to emulate the ideal sexual object of male desire, but also encouraged them to participate in consumerist culture (McRobbie 1997; Turner 2000). McRobbie (1997:191) states that

‘this is exactly what liberation meant: to be free of the paraphernalia of oppression’.

This feminist condemnation of women’s magazines has also been explored by Turner

(2000), who notes the centrality of the celebrity to women’s and gossip publications.

Turner is critical of the idea that the presence of celebrities is the reason for feminism’s dismissal and derision of these cultural texts. He adduces the presence of celebrities in other publications such as TV Week, Premiere and Face and in other genres of

magazines such as sports and music. More specifically, Turner notes that other magazines which feature celebrities could also be considered to be as intrusive and trivial as women’s magazines. Despite this similarity, he notes that feminism has been more critical of women’s publications than any other. This, he believes, is a consequence of feminism’s general tendency to devalue the feminine (Turner 2000).

It has already been established that Hollows (2000) formulates a coherent argument about feminism’s tendency to construct good feminist identities in opposition to bad feminine identities. Similarly, McRobbie (1997) highlights the political implications of the assumptions underpinning some second-wave feminist approaches to femininity.

She argues that in rejecting feminine identities and popular pleasures, feminists have been also drawing a politically divisive distance between feminists and women. This constructed binary is criticised by McRobbie for its lack of political utility. She states that feminists

... certainly never imagined that the editors of magazines like these might also think of themselves as feminists. Perish the thought! But ‘we’ feminists are many and diverse, and who is to say who the real feminist is? (McRobbie 1997: 201)

In considering the relationship between feminists and femininity, Moseley and Read

(2002) undertake an analysis of the popular television series Ally McBeal. They point to generational differences between second-wave feminists and more contemporary feminists, and how these disparities have impacted upon approaches to femininity.

Reflecting upon the popularity of Ally McBeal, they argue that this programme is a response to a generation of women who, whilst enjoying the benefits afforded to them by second-wave feminist activism, also want to embrace femininity.

This is a generation who have found that despite the best efforts of feminists, you can not just wish femininity away, relegate it to the dustbin of history as the bad ‘other’ of feminism. This is a generation for whom ‘having it all’ means not giving things up (the

pleasures of feminine adornment and heterosexual romance) but struggling to reconcile our feminist desires with our feminine desires (Moseley and Read 2002:237-238).

The rejection of feminine identities by feminists constructs an opposition between good feminists and bad femininities (Hollows 2000) as well as a political division between feminists and femininity (McRobbie 1997). Importantly, it has also impacted upon what is seen to constitute a ‘proper’ object of feminist study. For example, in considering the political implications of devaluing femininity, Game and Pringle (1986:274) argued that

‘feminists and secretaries are popularly regarded as mutually exclusive, if not polar opposites’. These authors highlighted how this oppositional construction contributed to the absence of critical debates during the 1970s about secretarial work. In other words, secretaries were ignored in critical debates because they represented an ‘ideal’ of femininity which feminists feared and wished to reject.

For feminists of all political persuasions, secretaries represent something of an embarrassment. Their femininity is everything ‘we’, defined as feminists, wish to reject, hope we have left behind, fear is still buried deep inside us. Secretaries have been despised for aligning themselves with their bosses and for using their sexuality to gain favours within the system… Feminists often spoke with contempt about the nature of the secretary’s work and assumed that the aim was to help women move out into more ‘creative’ fields (Game and Pringle 1986:273–274).

Although weddings have not traditionally been considered a proper object of study, this cultural ritual has been afforded recent interest within critical circles. This interest can be partly attributed to the rapid rise in commercialisation of love and romance in the form of the white wedding, as well as to theoretical shifts within feminism and cultural studies. In the following section, there will be a consideration of how the visibility and expansion of the wedding industry has contributed to the recent interest in weddings.

There will be a contemplation of the theoretical shifts in understandings of popular culture, femininity, popular pleasures and consumption. These shifts have opened a

theoretical space to considering weddings and bridal culture, as well as recasting femininity.

Firstly, weddings have rarely been posited as an appropriate subject for study because of the ‘tendency for a male-dominated sociological field to overlook those activities, which are traditionally important to women but less important to men’ (Sniezek 2005:216).

This criticism of the field of sociology can also be applied to approaches to the study of culture at the CCCS at Birmingham in the 1970s. For example, one of the defining features of cultural studies was to challenge traditionalist views that posited culture within a hierarchical value system, privileging high culture to the exclusion of popular culture (Shiach 1998). It has been noted that forefathers of British cultural studies, such as Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams and E. P. Thompson, were concerned with redressing this dichotomous ordering to be more inclusive of working-class cultural experiences (Shiach 1998). Through this process, the understanding of what constitutes culture was re-defined to also be inclusive of popular cultural forms and practices.

Ironically, this concern with being more inclusive of working-class cultural experiences in fact resulted in the construction of a narrative of culture that in effect ignored and/or marginalised the experiences of working-class girls and women (Shiach 1998). The theoretical models and methodological procedures employed dismissed the gendered dimension of working-class culture. Shiach argues, through a reading of key texts, that cultural studies has had a history of positing class as its starting point of analysis, which relegates issues of gender to a secondary or non-existent position. More specifically, feminism’s engagement with cultural studies has transformed ‘traditional’ conceptualisations of culture to be more inclusive of women’s cultural forms and

practices. This is particularly apparent in relation to feminism’s intervention at the

CCCS in the 1970s, as feminists sought to rectify the exclusion of women’s cultural forms and practices from analysis (Driscoll 2002; Hollows 2000; Shiach 1998; Tasker

1991).

In 1978, at the CCCS, with the publication Women Take Issue, feminists were concerned with highlighting the previously absent gendered dimension of cultural interactivity.3 According to Shiach (1998), this intellectual contribution was instrumental in transforming the political landscape of cultural studies. Cultural studies began to consider the relationship between gender and class, as well as cultural forms of production and consumption. Further cultural studies could no longer be clearly defined by questions of resistance and class, but also encompassed discussions of reproduction, consumption and ‘the problematic of “femininity”’ (Shiach 1998:338).

However, one of the defining features of cultural studies is the interdisciplinary nature of the field. This interdisciplinarity posed problems for the feminist contributors to

Women Take Issue, and impacted upon the future terrain of feminist studies.4 According to Hollows (2000), cultural studies’ interdisciplinarity was troubling for feminists, as they were required to engage in and critique a broad range of theories and methods to

3Women Take Issue was published by the Women’s Studies Group at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS). Other contributors to this editorial group include Martin Culverwell, Rachel Harrison, Trisha McCabe, Frank Mort, Rebecca O’Rourke, Olivia Smith and Christine Weedon. Although this publication significantly changed the landscape of the CCCS by theorising gender’s relation to cultural interactivity, feminist work within the CCCS was undertaken prior to this moment. In 1974, Images of Women was published by Helen Butcher, Rosalind Coward, Marcella Evarista, Jenny Garber, Rachel Harrison and Janice Winship, while in 1976, Jenny Garber and Angela McRobbie published ‘Girls and subcultures’. This work, including Women Take Issue (1978:11), was produced through the collective participation of the Women’s Studies Group established at the CCCS in the 1970s.

4 For further information on the impact of feminism’s intervention at the Centre of Contemporary Cultural Studies, Birmingham (CCCS) refer to Hall (1996), Gray (1997), Thornham (2000), Turner (1990).

redress women’s exclusion from analyses of cultural forms and practices. Consequently, this difficulty impacted upon the decision by feminists to focus their research on what they considered the central concerns for women, such as consumption and femininity, but also the problematic of pleasure (Hollows 2000).

Women Take Issue, according to Franklin, Lury and Stacey (1991) was also an attempt to critically engage with and transform Marxist approaches to culture. As such, this publication queried cultural production and reproduction, but was also interested in engaging with the ‘personal’ dimensions of cultural interactivity. Brundson (1996:282), a member of the group, and one of the collaborators on Women Take Issue, underscores the diversity of interest amongst feminists at Birmingham but also highlights the concern with femininity, subjectivity, sexuality and gender:

CCCS Women’s Studies Group in the 1970s provided a strange meeting-place for women on very different journeys. For women interested in research on aspects of conventional feminine culture; people concerned with the theorization of subjectivity, sexuality and gender; people with more activist commitments; people who were perhaps directed to the group because they were women...

Feminism’s impact on cultural studies at Birmingham meant that there was a shift from concerns with ideology and hegemony to an interest in identity and subjectivity as well as sexuality. This shift from deploying tenets of political economy in the analysis of culture will be explored in more detail in the following chapter. There will be an investigation of Garnham’s (1995) criticism of cultural studies’ move away from concepts of ideology and hegemony. The utility of employing tenets of political economy will be explored in relation to the wedding literature. I will argue that the theoretical developments outlined here within feminism and cultural studies provide a useful tool for considering bridal culture and how meaning is made.

As previously outlined, feminists, as well as sociological and cultural studies practitioners, have had a general tendency to dismiss, devalue and/or deride ‘the feminine’, impacting upon the choice of subject of study. However, feminist debates on pleasure opened the theoretical space to considering cultural forms such as bridal publications as an appropriate area of study. More specifically, rather than engage in debates on pleasure, I want to explore the political implications of these debates for feminist studies. These implications include a dismantling of the politically-constructed division of feminism/femininity, a recasting of women’s cultural practices as valued, and a move from understandings of ‘the masses’ as cultural dupes of a culture industry.

One of the most notable features of the pleasure debates, which were concerned with how women experienced pleasure during the consumption process, was that they developed at the same time that some feminists began to articulate their own pleasure in reading magazines (McRobbie 1997). This was made particularly apparent by Winship

(1987), who in her defining study on women’s publications clearly delineated her interest and pleasure in reading these magazines. In addition, she alluded to the importance of reclaiming women’s cultural practices as valuable. She articulated this at the outset of her study Inside Women’s Magazines:

I felt that to simply dismiss women’s magazines was also to dismiss the lives of women who read and enjoyed them each week. More than that, I still enjoyed them, found them useful and escaped with them. And I knew I couldn’t be the only feminist who was a ‘closet’ reader (Winship 1987:xiii).

These considerations of pleasure by feminists functioned to dismantle the theoretical distance between ‘feminism’ and ‘femininity’ (McRobbie 1997). To digress briefly, some of the political implications of this theoretical distance have been established.

These implications included a tendency to dismiss the realm of ‘the feminine’ and

cultural forms such as weddings as an appropriate area of study. However, by challenging the previously constructed binary of feminism/femininity, it was possible for feminists to justify the study of, and reclaim popular cultural forms which had generally been trivialised, marginalised and relegated to a low status. Because of this, popular culture became an important object of study as well as a site for political intervention for many feminists (McRobbie 1997). Hence, a theoretical space was opened to consider cultural forms such as women’s publications, Barbie, reality television, weddings and so forth as worthy of investigation.

Accordingly, since the early 1980s, feminism has been forced to reconsider women’s popular past-times. These past-times have generally been understood by feminists to be a part of the performance of femininity, and as such have been historically devalued

(Tasker 1991). Feminists began to query previous assumptions that equality could and should be achieved through the valuing of, and replication of the male ‘norm’. Debates on how women experience pleasure resulted in a move amongst feminists to have reservations about their own proclivity to devalue the ‘things’ women do. The re- conceptualisation of audiences as creative and strategic in their use of cultural forms further dismantled the separation between feminists and women as well as feminism and femininity. More specifically, the idea that ‘the people’ passively consume ideologies whilst in a state of false consciousness was recast. There was a recognition that ideology did not only happen to other people but also to those who were intervening critically with popular culture. Generally, feminists became concerned with interrupting the dichotomous ordering of feminist/femininity by re-assessing the feminine, a re- assessment that led to a redefinition of what constitutes popular culture (Tasker 1991).

However, since popular culture had become a site of negotiation/contestation, it was not only acceptable to engage with it, but politically correct. And, for feminism, this

engagement was deeply rooted in the desire to reclaim a woman’s culture. That is, popular culture had been re-named and in the process became a different object (Tasker 1991:85–86).

To summarise, ‘pleasure’ debates opened the space for feminists to re-think the hierarchical and operational aspects of binaries such as feminism/femininity and culture/popular culture. As such, there was a transformation of the theoretical and political landscape in relation to concepts such as culture, popular pleasures, femininity and consumption. This of course resulted in a re-definition of these concepts, and not only afforded feminists the opportunity to analyse cultural objects and texts that were previously eschewed (such as weddings), but also offered alternative theoretical explanations about the processes of cultural power as well as the production and consumption of cultural forms.

I argue, in the following chapter, that the wedding literature, in positing cultural power as domination, ideology as manipulative and consumption as passive, tends to mirror some earlier feminist approaches to the ‘feminine’. In other words, the wedding literature persists in drawing a political distance between feminist and femininity by devaluing and deriding the wedding industry and bridal culture as a tool of oppression.

In recasting how cultural power, ideology and meaning making functions, I reconsider bridal texts as contradictory and open to interpretation, thus challenging previously held assumptions that the bridal moment can only ever be a site for the cultural reproduction of norms and values.

Commercialisation of ‘Weddings’

The recent critical interest in weddings is not only a consequence of theoretical shifts within critical circles, but also because the contemporary Australian bridal industry functions in a markedly different manner from the way it did in the 1970s. This cultural industry has seen a rapid growth in the commercialisation of weddings, particularly in the past 30 years. New bridal cultural forms have been introduced, such as bridal planners, bridal websites, bridal expos, bridal consultants, bridal registries, amongst others. In addition, there has been a rise in the production of wedding/bridal films and reality television programmes that circulate ideas about the bridal moment and the wedding.5 With the introduction of new forms of technology such as live streaming, the internet and so forth, these images are disseminated en masse to a global market.

The literature suggests an interest in the commercial and/or consumerist aspect of romance and weddings. I argue that this critical focus is a consequence of the commercialisation of romance, love and the white wedding. The literature reveals two main focuses for the study of weddings as responses to the exponential growth of local and international wedding industries since the 1970s. First, there is a concern with how the wedding industry has appropriated liberal feminist ideals to promote commercial aspects of the wedding (Blakely 2008; Montemurro 2005). Second, there is an interest in the economic parameters of the wedding industry and in particular how multinational corporations function to maintain class, patriarchal and racial divisions.

5 For a comprehensive list of wedding films that have been produced from 1980−1999 refer to Ingraham (1999: 177- 183).

To begin, the increased critical interest in weddings has been in response to the rapid expansion of the wedding industry with a consideration of how feminism is represented by this industry.6 Blakely (2008), for example, is concerned with the commodification of women’s labour within the household. In drawing a link between wedding planning and domestic work (both are unpaid, devalued and undertaken by women), she argues that wedding planning has become commodified: ‘wedding planners are a form of outsourced labour; the unpaid work of mothers and daughters is transported from the home to the public workplace’ (Blakely 2008:640). The wedding then becomes a commodified domestic service which responds to the demands, pressures and time constraints faced by women balancing work and home responsibilities. In order to successfully market wedding planners, Blakely (2008:639) argues that the industry draws on ‘liberal feminist ideals of “having it all”’ as the solution for busy career women. Similarly, as previously noted, Montemurro (2005) is also concerned with how the wedding industry promotes an ambiguous form of liberal feminism by suggesting that the co-ed shower signifies marital and gender equality. The co-ed shower, according to Montemurro, does not challenge gender relations but does contribute to the commercial growth of the wedding industry.

Second, in response to the growth of the wedding industry, there has also been a focus in the literature on investigating the commercial interests of multinational corporations and their synergistic ties (Ingraham 1999; Engstrom and Semic 2003; Engstrom 2008;

Levine 2005). This concern with the economic parameters of the industry would suggest that a focus on capitalist and patriarchal relations is useful in analyses of weddings. As such, the literature has had a tendency to deploy frameworks which draw from feminism

6 For popular representations of feminism in the media refer to Hollows and Moseley (2006); Moseley and Read (2002).

and political economy in understandings of how cultural production functions. For example, Ingraham’s (1999) interest in how media corporations function in relation to cultural production is contextualised within and substantiated by the economic parameters of this industry. Nominating a primary and secondary wedding market,

Ingraham delineates, through the use of statistical information on annual wedding- related spending, the growth of this industry. Accordingly, the primary wedding market includes wedding goods and services such as the white bridal gown, diamond wedding jewellery and wedding consulting,7 destination weddings and honeymoons.

Ingraham (1999:27) asserts that the primary wedding market in the United States of

America in 1997 ‘represented total revenues of $32 billion’. On the other hand, the secondary wedding market is dominated by multi-national and media-related companies such as Mattel and Disney who produce wedding-related cultural products such as wedding films, bridal Barbies and so forth. She states that:

This multibillion dollar industry includes the sale of a diverse range of products, many of which are produced outside of the U.S.—wedding gowns, diamonds, honeymoon travel and apparel, and household equipment. Also included in the market are invitations, flowers, receptions, photos, gifts, home furnishings, wedding cakes, catering alcohol, paper products, calligraphy, jewelry, party supplies, hair styling, makeup, manicures, music, books, and wedding accessories e.g., ring pillows, silver, chauffeurs, and limousines (Ingraham 1999:27−28).

The aforementioned study not only demonstrates the expansiveness of the current wedding industry in America, but is also indicative of why tenets of political economy have been employed in studies of this industry. The trend within the American literature to posit capitalism and its interaction with patriarchy as central to theoretical frameworks in the analyses of weddings has not however been replicated in Australia.

7 In addition, Ingraham (1999) notes how wedding planning, which has traditionally been associated with the domain of the ‘family’, has been outsourced and has therefore given rise to the wedding consulting industry.

Wilding (2006:75−76) notes that ‘it is surprising that an industry of such reputed scale has attracted very little research attention in Australia’. The only research available on the economic profile of the Australian wedding industry is produced from within the bridal publication market itself.

Publishers of Bride-to-Be magazine and planner series have been conducting a survey annually since 1997. The ‘Cost of Love’ survey considers the thoughts, feelings, purchases, income, socio-economic status as well as the relationships of the brides, readers of the Bride-to-Be magazine and planner series. Wilding (2006) notes that the respondents are not a representative sample of Australian brides, but rather reflect the consumption patterns of the more financially established upper-middle-class (i.e., the readers of the Bride-to-Be publication series). Hence, the estimated annual spending figure on bridal goods and services, which is $AU 5.8 million, is questionable. The

‘Cost of Love’ survey claimed that in 2011 brides spent an average of $AU 48,296.00 on their weddings. This survey claims that the Australian bridal industry has not only doubled since 2001, but that the average expense of weddings has increased by 73%, which is three times the rate of inflation (Bloomfield 2008).

Although these figures are questionable, especially because the ‘Cost of Love’ survey is published to secure potential advertising revenue, they do reveal the rapid expansion of the industry. As such, there is some scope to undertake a comprehensive critical study of the Australian bridal industry. As this thesis is concerned with positing women’s cultural texts as primary objects of study, there is a delineation of the ownership patterns of the women’s magazine market in Australia in Chapter Three. However, in recasting existing feminist approaches to the wedding which incorporate tenets of

political economy, I want to more thoughtfully consider the cultural production of meaning from within feminist cultural studies frameworks. As such, I argue that the fundamental assumptions underpinning political economy approaches to weddings tend to deride bridal culture as a site of oppression and therefore cannot account for popular culture as a site of contestation and resistance nor the pleasures of the bridal performance.

In other words, this thesis is less concerned with exploring this cultural industry, as appears to be the current trend (Engstrom 2003; Ingraham 1999), and more concerned with how bridal culture functions. Currently, intellectual conversation on what constitutes cultural studies is as diverse and as contested as the idea of culture (Driscoll

2002). However, a chief concern of this field is consideration of culture and of how cultural power operates. Culture, as well as the idea that cultural forms, practices and objects can be read as texts, is central to cultural studies (Barker and Galasinski 2001), and thus appropriate for a reading of bridal texts. Following Driscoll (2002:175), I recognise that bridal culture

... clearly intersects popular culture—enthusiastically embraced by large numbers of people as a significant component of their lives and pleasure; mass culture—as a nexus of diverse industries and mass produced forms; and public culture—the circulation of discourses on family, law, majority and consent.

Bridal culture is thus not confined to the products that are sold to brides, although this is still the most visible, and most derided, form of bridal culture.

Here, I want to point to Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd, publishers of the

Bride’s Diary series, to illuminate how this niche publication market functions. The historical development of the Bride’s Diary provides a snapshot of the growing bridal industry in Australia during the last 30 years. It also foregrounds a more in-depth analysis, undertaken in Chapter Three, of how the Australian bridal publications market

functions, in terms of the production of texts. In other words, there will be an exploration of how the women’s and gossip magazine market is characterised by a different set of ownership patterns to bridal publications. The Australian magazine market will be considered in relation to political economy, feminism and cultural studies debates. I argue that in spite of the domination of the Australian publication market by a few, the publication market is also characterised by fragmentation and competing interests.

Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd cross-promote their products, have economic ties with other bridal businesses, and dominate the bridal expo and bridal planner publication landscapes. The Bride’s Diary was first published in Australia in 1986, and has developed considerably since its inception. It was originally published as an etiquette book, in black and white, with spiral binding and a sketch of a cupid’s angel on the cover. By 1990, the publication had begun to resemble a bridal planner, fusing elements of bridal etiquette with the advertising of appropriate bridal consumer goods and services. This bridal planner had transformed from a hardcover publication in the early 1990s to a publication that resembled more sophisticated women’s magazines by

2003 (Worsthorne 2007).

Most importantly however, is the more recent publication of other magazines and guides such as The Groom’s Diary, as well as Wedding Toasts and Speeches. In diversifying, this publisher has constructed their own importance as bridal/wedding experts, including knowledge about the groom’s roles and responsibilities. This reiterates their elevated position within the bridal industry, of having the ‘appropriate’ knowledge for brides to plan a wedding. To complement the bridal and groom’s

planners is the recent publication of Weddingstar Magazine, which showcases wedding- related products such as invitations, bonbonnières, decorations and so forth. With the introduction of new technologies, this publication house has also been able to move into web publishing, and have established complementary interactive bridal websites such as www.bridesdiary.com.au and www.weddingstar.com.au. Advertising bridal businesses are able to cross-promote their services and products at local bridal expos.

This section has outlined how there has been a rapid rise in the commercialisation of love, romance, and in particular, the white wedding. Recent scholarly comment on weddings, which will be explored in more detail in Chapter Two, is a response to this commercialisation. Critical arguments about weddings tend to focus on how the industry functions to appropriate liberal feminist ideals in the promotion of the wedding and to reproduce cultural norms and inequities. Complementing the existing literature, I want to focus on a semiotic reading of bridal publications.

This chapter has argued that weddings have generally not been a focus of critical research. This exclusion of weddings from cultural analyses is a consequence of the tendency within earlier mainstream and some second-wave feminist accounts to disregard/trivialise the realm of the feminine. Political implications of this exclusion include restrictions on what constitutes an appropriate area of study and the construction of the politically divisive opposition of feminism/femininity. The more recent interest in weddings can be attributed to theoretical shifts which occurred within feminist and cultural studies circles in relation to culture, popular pleasures, femininity and consumption. Further, the focus on weddings, particularly the American bridal industry, can be accredited to the recent rise in the commercialisation of this cultural tradition.

Complementing existing research into the wedding industry, I want to explore how this cultural field functions by undertaking a critical reading of bridal texts.

Weddings as a cultural ritual are pivotally marked by the idea that they in some way manifest, reflect and/or embody gendered power relations. So, when weddings are a focus of study, there is also a general concern with exploring aspects of gender and sexuality in relation to power interactivity. A significant feature of this research is the finding that cultural practices and traditions associated with, and including the ritual act of the wedding, function to reproduce, reinforce and/or validate cultural norms such as prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality. The idea that the cultural practice of weddings could also function as a site where these norms are disrupted, undermined and/or resisted is rarely considered. Further, there is a consideration within the literature of the gendered nature of weddings which is not reflected by the possible deployment of the term bridal.

I argue that the existing literature on weddings can be complemented by a recasting of concepts such as cultural power, culture, weddings, meaning and production. One of the main aims of this thesis is to disrupt the oppositional constructions of power/resistance, production/consumption, culture/popular culture, feminism/femininity as well as meaning as fixed/static to reconsider how bridal culture functions.

Chapter Two Studying ‘Weddings’

The literature is predominantly concerned with either positing cultural production (the wedding industry) or cultural consumption (inclusive of wedding-related experiences and consumption practices) as primary analytical frameworks for investigating weddings. Although such studies differ in terms of methodology and objects of inquiry, there are similarities in relation to conceptualisations of cultural power, ideology and hegemony as dominative and manipulative, of consumption as a passive enterprise, and of cultural meanings about weddings and associated traditions as fixed through the production process. The wedding, according to the literature, is therefore a medium through which cultural norms such as heterosexuality, prescribed gender roles and whiteness are reproduced.

This chapter firstly considers the utility of deploying tenets of political economy frameworks in analysing the wedding and media industries. The problems associated with such approaches to cultural production, power, ideology and false consciousness are explored in the context of feminist and cultural studies debates. Second, how cultural consumption has been studied in relation to weddings, and how ‘wedding’ traditions are understood as a site of cultural reproduction will be considered. Finally, this chapter argues for a recasting of cultural production and consumption, through a semiotic reading which posits texts, contextually located within these cultural processes, as the primary object of study. In sum, this chapter posits cultural power and meaning, ideology and bridal traditions as paradoxical.

Cultural Production, Class and Gender

The recent commercialisation of love and romance is evident in the rapid expansion of the wedding industry. This has not gone unnoticed within those critical circles focused on how this industry functions to produce meanings about the wedding, the bride and femininity. This interest in cultural production and in how the wedding and media industries function to construct meaning is underpinned by studies which draw from political economy (Ingraham 1999; Engstrom and Semic 2003; Engstrom 2008). One of the defining features of political economy is the positing of capitalism as central to analyses of inequities. The limitation of this approach, namely the lack of consideration of gender and race, is highlighted by both feminism and cultural studies frameworks.

Ingraham includes an analysis of how patriarchy and race interact with capitalism to maintain and sustain inequities. Hence, there is a consideration here of how Ingraham

and Engstrom, who both draw from political economy, understand the media as functioning to monopolise cultural meanings of the wedding.

The centrality of concepts such as class and ideology to political economy frameworks is highlighted by Garnham (1995) in his criticism of cultural studies approaches. He identifies two problematic developments within cultural studies: first, the shift from analyses of class inequities to considerations of other forms of inequities such as gender, race and ethnicity; and second, the general abandonment of the concept of ideology for considerations of textuality. Here, I want to consider the political implications of positing class as primary to an analysis of bridal culture. According to political economy accounts, class is a structure that determines access to means of production and the distribution of economic surplus. Hence, class is considered to be the ‘key to the structure of domination’ (Garnham 1995:70), even though other forms of domination, such as gender and race, are considered to be present within and even pre-exist the current capitalist system. The political solution to gendered and racial hierarchies, according to political economy standpoints, is the dismantling of capitalism. It is assumed that once capital relations are challenged, other forms of inequity will also be redressed (Garnham 1995).

This centrality of class to analytics of power interactivity has been subjected to rigorous critical debate, particularly within feminist circles. It has already been established that feminist interventions at the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies

(CCCS) in the 1970s queried the prioritisation of class to the exclusion of gender in cultural analyses (Shiach 1998). It was highlighted that the focus on capitalist relations marginalised women’s cultural forms and practices such as weddings. However,

feminism’s engagement with culture transformed the theoretical landscape of cultural studies to consider other forms of inequities. As Morris (1997:40) suggested, ‘there is... breaking of canons going on in cultural studies around the world at the moment—at a national level, certainly, but also in terms of gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality and experience of colonialism’.

The analytical prioritisation of class is inherently reductionist as a political solution, as it constructs a universalising notion of class relations. This universality eradicates the possibility for a recognition of, and intervention within, the specificities of political relationships that exist between distinct and emerging social identities. According to

Grossberg (1995), political economy approaches tend to dismiss pertinent questions about the intersections of gender and class as well as power and cultural interactivity.

Whereas, cultural studies underscores the idea that both racism and sexism are embedded within economic relations and that all forms of power cannot be reduced to, or explained by, capitalism (Grossberg 1995).

As such, one of the main criticisms of political economy is that the analytical prioritisation of class is inherently reductionist as a political solution. The assumption that dismantling class relations will also result in the dissolution of other inequities has been extensively criticised within feminism and cultural studies (Grosz 1990; Hartmann

1981; Grossberg 1995). Some second-wave Australian feminists, influenced by French philosopher Louis Althusser’s revitalisation of Marx, queried women’s oppression within the context of class relations (Grosz 1990). Accordingly, there were a ‘number of debates about whether a thorough analysis of capitalism could explain the oppression of women, or whether capitalism is a distinct system overlaid on patriarchy’ (Grosz

1990:71). These debates were not restricted to Australian feminist thought, and were extensively theorised in a Western global context, as indicated by the seminal book

Women and Revolution: a Discussion of the Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and

Feminism (1981).

Hartmann (1981), a contributor to the aforementioned publication, proposed a ‘dual systems’ theory of oppression which addressed the shortcomings of traditional Marxism as well as radical feminism. In noting that Marxist analyses of class relations were sex- blind, she warned that ‘women should not trust men to liberate them after the revolution... because there is no reason to think that they would know how... no necessity for them to do so... their immediate self interest lies in our continued oppression’ (Hartmann 1981:32). Hartmann therefore advocated an analysis which incorporated historical materialist methods, as employed by Marxists, in conjunction with feminist understandings of patriarchy. As such, she would argue that in order to understand weddings/bridal culture, as a form through which power relations of domination and subordination are manifested, it is not only necessary to delineate how capitalism functions to produce class inequities, but also how patriarchy functions within this set of relations to produce gender inequities.

The limitations of political economy approaches to culture, specifically the prioritisation of class, are addressed by the deployment of a materialist feminist framework by

Ingraham (1999). As a part of earlier discourses initiated by some second-wave feminists, including Hartmann (1981), Ingraham considers the relationship between capitalism and patriarchy, and also race, in her analysis of the white wedding. As such, her method incorporates an examination of materialism, i.e., the division of labour and

distribution of wealth such as private property, within the ‘context of historically prevailing national and state interests and ideological struggles over meaning and value’

(Ingraham 1999:19). Material feminists argue that cultural power and economic resources are distributed unequally, based on ‘gender, race, class and sexuality’ differences (Ingraham 1999:19). Thus, patriarchy and capitalism are understood to regulate culturally and socially normative behaviour. In defining patriarchy, Ingraham

(1991:19) argues that it is ‘historically variable, producing a hierarchy of heterogender divisions that privilege men as a group and exploit women as a group’. Patriarchy structures the practice of social rituals and institutions such as the wedding and marriage, but also importantly represents these social practices as natural and universal.

Patriarchy positions ‘men in hierarchical opposition to women and differentially in relation to other structures, such as race or class’ (Ingraham 1991:19−20).

As Ingraham (1999:26) incorporates a feminist materialist approach to the wedding industry, when contemplating how meaning is made, she posits this industry as omnipresent, expansive, pervasive and as a part of a ‘wedding- industrial complex’. In other words, this industry is not only identified as encompassing primary, secondary as well as tertiary wedding markets, but these markets are considered to work in tandem with the state, religious institutions, and the mass media to maintain hetero-gendered divisions. According to Ingraham, the primary wedding market is constitutive of those goods and services that are directly related to the wedding, such as the white wedding gown, wedding gifts, diamond wedding jewellery, wedding consulting, destination weddings and honeymoons. The secondary market ‘is made up of companies using white weddings to sell products that are only indirectly related to them’ (Ingraham

1999:62; Ingraham’s italics), such as Disney films. The tertiary wedding market

comprises companies that do not produce wedding-related goods and services, but deploy images of white weddings to entice intended consumers. Ingraham highlights how these markets are dominated by a handful of profit-driven multi-national companies; the revenue secured by these companies; and how these markets participate in the production and naturalisation of the heterosexual imaginary. The heterosexual imaginary is ‘that way of thinking that conceals the operation of heterosexuality in structuring gender (across race, class and sexuality) and closes off any critical analysis of heterosexuality as an organizing institution’ (Ingraham 1999:16).

The state, religion and mass media function in tandem with the aforementioned markets to maintain heterosexuality as normative as well as the illusory aspect of the wedding industry (Ingraham 1999). The state regulates and validates the wedding and marriage as sacred heterosexual institutions through legal sanctions; religious institutions legitimise marriage through appeals to morality; and the mass media is ‘primarily ideological and comprised of... “consciousness industries”’ (Ingraham 1999:72). The mass media as a consciousness industry disseminates symbols, myths, images and ideas that are a part of the dominant culture. It is a vehicle through which romantic ideologies and the beliefs and value system of the status quo are disseminated en masse and naturalised for consumption (Ingraham 1999).

Media ownership in America is currently monopolised by six major conglomerates, each with diversified media interests and holdings (Ingraham 1999). For example,

Disney is a conglomerate which has vested economic interests in ‘multimedia, home videos, book publishing, motion pictures, magazines, TV and cable, retail, sports teams, newspapers, music, insurance, petroleum and natural gas, and theme parks and resorts’

(Ingraham 1999: 73). This concentration and monopolisation of the media, an expression of capitalism, means that the cultural production of what constitutes ideal femininity and the white wedding is based on myths and stereotypes that ‘tend not to vary much’ (Ingraham 1999:73). The economic power of multi-national media companies means that they can produce cultural meanings that not only lack variation, and are inherently ideological, but are also consumed by a passive audience.

The contemporary white wedding under transnational capitalism is, in effect, a mass- marketed, homogenous, assembly-line production... In order for the wedding industry to be ‘recession-proof’—that is, that people will pay for a wedding no matter what —it must rely on a very powerful meaning-making apparatus guaranteeing our compliance and consent to participate (Ingraham 1999:74, 82).

It has already been established that Ingraham’s (1999) theoretical framework, with the inclusion and consideration of how patriarchy and race interact with capitalism, is responsive to the problematic of positing class as the primary analytical category.

However, some critical concerns surrounding the use of a political economy approach to culture continue to be present in Ingraham’s study. These include the deployment of mass cultural theory which understands cultural power and ideology as dominative and manipulative, and consumers as passive and living in a state of false consciousness.

Interestingly, a study undertaken by Engstrom (2008) on The Knot (a bridal media company) and its synergistic ties is underpinned by the same assumptions and problematics about cultural power, ideology and meaning-making. These problematics will be considered in more detail below in conjunction with a delineation of how

Engstrom conceptualises the wedding media industry and consequently cultural production.

Undertaking a political economy approach to analysis of The Knot, Engstrom (2008) is concerned with how hegemony functions in relation to cultural production. According

to her, this bridal media company has various vested interests in production across several multi-media formats such as a wedding websites, magazine publications, books and a reality television programme, Real Weddings from The Knot. The focus of

Engstrom’s (2008:60) analysis is this reality television programme, which is produced by The Knot in partnership with the cable outlet Oxygen. She examines how this show

‘and its media synergy create for its female audience the image of the perfect wedding, which maintains a status quo reinforcing femininity and consumerism’. Engstrom argues that The Knot, an example of the political economy of the media, disseminates hegemonic messages about American weddings, consumerism and women’s roles.

Hegemony is defined as a form of power that is indirectly exercised through civil institutions such as the media industry and it is the ‘prevailing, commonsense view for the majority of social participants’ (Engstrom 2008:61):

Thus, The Knot combines political media economy, through its advertising and merchandising affiliations with its print and television versions, with hegemony, as it continually sends women the same message: they need a big, white wedding and The Knot can help them create it (Engstrom 2008:62; italics added).

Most importantly, however, hegemony functions to circulate messages about the ideal wedding and when not examined critically, the transformative capacity of the bridal role and consequent performance of femininity are often considered innocuous. Hence,

Engstrom (2008:61) casts cultural power as a ‘silent domination that is not experienced as domination at all’. One of the underlying assumptions functioning through this use of hegemony is that The Knot only presents images of women engaged in popularly ascribed aspects of ‘femininity’.

In positing cultural production as a site of analysis and drawing from political economy, with a focus on how media conglomerates function, Ingraham (1999) and Engstrom

(2008) conceptualise cultural meaning as lacking diversity. In other words, the ‘same message(s)’ (Engstrom 2008:62) about gender, sexuality, whiteness and the wedding are circulated en masse and ‘tend not to vary much’ (Ingraham 1999:73). The assumption underlying these approaches is that meaning is fixed through the production process and that brides are passive in their consumption of ideologies. Although these studies highlight the cultural power of media companies, a consequence of economic and financial power, there is a lack of consideration of how cultural texts and meanings about the wedding, romance and femininity are inherently contradictory. These studies, therefore, tend to replicate some of the problematics of political economy approaches, inclusive of but not limited to perceiving ideology as domination and manipulation, and consumption as passive.

Rethinking Ideology and Cultural Power

Through the prioritisation of the wedding and media industries as sites of analysis, there has been a shift within the literature toward formulating studies that employ tenets of political economy. Here there is a consideration of some of the criticisms, as outlined by feminist and cultural studies practitioners alike, of ideology. In particular, there is a recasting of what constitutes cultural power and popular culture through reference to

Hall (1998). Finally, there is an exploration of how ideology has been reconceptualised by Levine (2005), who accounts for the diversity of the production of cultural meanings of romance, weddings and the bridal role, in spite of the monopolisation of cultural production by media conglomerates.

Ideology is generally conceptualised within the critical literature on weddings as functioning to oppress women. This trend has already been introduced in relation to the ideology of equality, which is understood as not only operating to conceal the unequal distribution of wedding work (Currie 1993; Sniezek 2005) but also to reproduce prescriptive performances of gender (Montemurro 2005). Ingraham (1999:21) argues that ‘central to a materialist feminist analytic is its critical focus on ideology’, which is understood to be ‘central to the reproduction of the social order’. Ideology thus encompasses the beliefs and values of the ruling class which are ‘authorised and inscribed in subjectivities (what it means to be a woman, a wife, a bride, or a mother), institutional arrangements (marriage), and various cultural narratives (films, magazines, television, and ads)’ (Ingraham 1999:20).

Capitalist and patriarchal social arrangements are inherently contradictory, according to

Ingraham (1999), and require dominant ideologies such as romance to conceal these contradictions. The culture industries, and more specifically in this instance, the wedding industry, are therefore understood as a vehicle for the dissemination of the oppressive ideology of romantic love which in turn sustains inequities. Ingraham

(1999:21) deploys a theory of ideology that ‘addresses the meaning-making processes embedded within any social practice, including the production of wedding and marriage culture’ in an attempt to ‘effect emancipatory social change’.

The idea that romance ideology is a form of domination and manipulation is part of larger critical discourses on romantic love. Light (1999), for example, argues that romance novels have generally been disparaged by Marxists, who deploy tenets of political economy in their analyses. She argues that this condemnation is a consequence

of the understanding that romance narratives invite the reader (women) to identify with a passive heroine who finds true happiness by submitting to a powerful man. As such, the ideology of romance, within Marxist frameworks, is conceptualised as a way of oppressing women within a patriarchal and capitalist society. Light (1999:372) therefore states:

What happens to women readers is then compared to certain Marxist descriptions of the positioning of all human subjects under capitalism. Romance thus emerges as a form of oppressive ideology, which works to keep women in their socially and sexually subordinate place.

Inextricably linked to the idea of romantic love ideologies as oppressive are the concepts of false consciousness and passive consumption. Political economy and some second-wave feminist approaches have tended to employ the concept of false consciousness to explain how social, political and capitalist systems of domination and subordination are maintained. False consciousness relies upon the assumption that ‘the people’ are manipulated to accept inequities through the dissemination, via social and cultural institutions such as the media, of capitalist and/or patriarchal ideologies

(Garnham 1995).

An aspect of second-wave feminist politics was the formation of groups to raise awareness of women’s oppression (Gunew 1990; Papadelos 2010; Summers 1975).

Consciousness-raising included public and political action, such as the demonstrations at the Miss America pageant in September 1968, and at the Miss World pageant in

London in 1970 (Hollows 2000; Thornham 2000). Following on from the assumption that ‘the people’ are passive and unsuspectingly manipulated is the idea that academics, who have the ability to engage in critical reading, are not only able to reveal this form of manipulation but can lead a revolutionary charge through consciousness-raising

(Garnham 1995). These assumptions are implicit in Ingraham’s (1999:21-23) study, which posits the media as comprised of ‘consciousness industries’. She encourages readers to ‘Allow yourself to be conscious of your reactions to this study... What the white wedding keeps in place is nothing short of a racist, classist, and heterosexist social order. Is that what you planned for your wedding day?’ (Ingraham’s italics).

False consciousness has received considerable critical attention within feminist and cultural studies circles, amongst other disciplinary fields. In other words, cultural studies practitioners do not consider popular culture “as merely serving the complementary systems of capitalism and patriarchy, peddling ‘false consciousness’ to the duped masses” (Currie 1997: 458). Grossberg (1995) queried how effective consciousness-raising can be when ‘the people’ are so easily manipulated by the media.

Feminists such as Ang (1998) and McRobbie (1997) argued that false consciousness draws a political distance between feminists and women. In delineating what constitutes cultural production and critical reading, de Certeau (1984:492) claimed that ‘reading thus introduces an “art” which is anything but passive’. Grossberg (1995:76) argued that:

The fact that certain institutions (and individuals) would like to control how people interpret texts or what they do with them does not mean that such ‘intentions’ actually determine what people do and think…

An aspect of cultural studies is therefore a concern with the exploration of the mechanisms of cultural consumption practices and how the ‘people’ employ popular tactics against manipulative ideologies by making meanings out of texts (Grossberg

1995). For example, de Certeau (1984) initiated discussions about the ‘self production’ of culture which understands ‘the people’ as having the ability to strategically utilise available resources in order to improve their own lives. ‘The people’ are therefore

involved within complex power relations, allowing a space for resistant strategies

(Grossberg 1995).

One of the problems with the idea of cultural implantation, as enforced by the status quo upon ‘the people’, is that it assumes that the culture industries have the ‘power to occupy our minds... as if we were blank screens’ (Hall 1998:447). Hall (1998) argues the importance of understanding that cultural domination by the elite does exist, but that it is not as omnipresent as political economy approaches would suggest. Grossberg

(1995:76) states that:

Cultural studies does believe that culture matters and that it cannot simply be treated (dismissed) as the transparent—at least to the critic—public face of dominative and manipulative capitalists. Cultural studies emphasizes the complexity and contradictions, not only within culture, but in the relations between people, culture and power… it is obvious from Garnham’s paper that culture matters only as a commodity and an ideological tool of manipulation (Grossberg’s italics).

Cultural studies has been influenced by Stuart Hall’s considerations of ideology as not only being deployed by the elite as a form of social control, but as also being a product of the ‘people’ who employ ideology for their own functions (Fiske 1996). In other words, Hall understands that subordinate groups can also produce ideologies within historically and socially contingent conditions and through the ability to enact social agency. Ideology is therefore conceptualised as being ‘simultaneously a strategy of domination and a terrain of struggle’ (Fiske 1996:213). This recasting of ideology is connected to a consideration of culture and power as inherently contradictory, and moves beyond the binaries of power/powerlessness and domination/subordination as apparent in political economy approaches as well as in some aspects of the literature on weddings.

To explicate further, in considering the question of what constitutes popular culture,

Hall (1998) recasts conceptualisations of how cultural power functions. This reconsideration of cultural power is useful, as it moves beyond the idea—espoused by many political economy practitioners and evident in some current wedding studies— that power is omnipresent, manipulative and dominating. However, there is also the recognition that the culture industries do have some capacity to influence ‘the people’.

As such, Hall reconsiders the tendency within the critical literature on popular culture to understand cultural power as either omnipresent or absent. In juxtaposition to the literature which understands cultural power as all-encompassing is the idea that there is an ‘authentic’ form of popular culture produced by the ‘real’ working class who are not manipulated by the culture industries. In this instance, ‘the people’ stand outside cultural forms of domination and subordination in producing their own ‘authentic’ culture. Hence, ‘the study of popular culture keeps shifting between these two, quite unacceptable poles: pure “autonomy” or “total encapsulation”’ (Hall 1998:447).

Critical of the stance that ‘the people’ produce an ‘authentic’ culture, Hall (1998) argues that this position undermines the power of cultural implantation. In other words, this definition relies upon the problematic idea that popular cultural forms and practices exist outside the field of power. Moreover, there is no whole, authentic and autonomous field of popular culture which could be attached to a separate enclave of ‘real’ working- class people. As such, there is difficulty in ascertaining and delineating what does and does not constitute popular forms and practices, just as there are difficulties in establishing what constitutes ‘the people’. Cultural forms, depending upon socio- historic contexts, are constantly in a state of flux. Cultural forms and practices may during a particular period have a high cultural value, but in another, be transformed

through entering the realm of the popular. The cultural value of forms and practices are in effect maintained by social institutions such as schools and the educational system

(Hall 1998).

Deploying various aspects of the aforementioned understandings of popular culture,

Hall (1998) moves beyond the tendency to posit cultural forms as ‘either wholly corrupt or wholly authentic’ (Hall 1998:448). He points to the importance of examining ‘those forms and activities which have their roots in the social and material conditions of particular classes; which have been embodied in popular traditions and practices’ (Hall

1998:449). In a sense, this position retains what is useful about the definition of popular culture that is concerned with delineating what is of ‘the people’. The focus is moved from constructing a descriptive category of what does and does not constitute popular culture, as well as ‘the people’, to a focus upon ‘the relations of power which are constantly punctuating and dividing the domain of culture into its preferred and its residual categories’ (Hall 1998:449).

Therefore, in defining the popular, Hall suggests that it is important to consider cultural forms and practices as constantly changing as a consequence of unequal power relations that delineate these forms into the categories of high and low culture. He considers this to be a form of cultural struggle, and as such, the focus of this position is ‘the relation between culture and questions of hegemony’ (Hall 1998:449). Cultural power is thus considered to be a form of cultural struggle over meaning, such as what constitutes high and low culture. Departing from political economy, Hall recognises that power is enforced by the dominant culture, but that there are also moments and points of resistance. Cultural struggle is considered to be unequal, but there are ‘complex lines of

resistance and acceptance, refusal and capitulation’ (Hall 1998: 447). As such, the field of culture, and hence cultural power, is likened to a battlefield ‘where no once-for-all victories are obtained but where there are always strategic positions to be won and lost’

(Hall 1998: 447).

Research undertaken by Levine (2005) departs from the idea that ideology is a form of domination and manipulation. Levine explores the political implications of media monopolies, engaging in a textual analysis of the television series Weddings of a

Lifetime, produced by the synergistic melding of Disney, ABC and Lifetime. This study is atypical in its analyses of media monopolies and weddings, as it differs significantly from recent trends. In highlighting the economic contradictions and tensions of media corporations as well as the tensions within and between cultural texts such as Weddings of a Lifetime, Levine argues that media conglomerates are unable to endorse any single ideological position.

In considering media corporations and their synergistic ties, Levine (2005) posits questions of intertextuality as central to her analysis of the Weddings of a Lifetime series. Levine, unlike Ingraham (1999) and Engstrom (2008), does not consider media companies as functioning as a cohesive homogenous group. In noting the various and broad capital interests encompassed by these media companies, Levine highlights the diversity of demands embodied within these social institutions. In other words, there is the understanding that the mass media, and its product, mass culture, are not uniform but conflicting and contradictory. As such, media corporations are unable to monopolise cultural meanings or secure a particular ideological position. In contemplating the relationship between the mode of production and their textual products, Levine

highlights how texts, operating within the context of other texts, are contradictory in their construction of cultural meaning. Underpinning the idea that meaning is paradoxical is a conceptualisation of power as negotiable. Levine’s analysis reveals the potential of a multiplicity of cultural readings of texts in spite of media monopolies.

According to Levine, Weddings of a Lifetime participates in the circulation of the traditional romance narrative as endorsed by Disney. This narrative is marked by traditional heterosexual family values, including the representation of prescriptive gender performances. These gender roles function to ‘assist in the continuation of heterosexual hegemony through the creation of a new family unit’ (Levine 2005:79).

Not only are myths of heterosexual masculinity as potent sustained, but the white wedding fairytale is also marked by the ‘whiteness’ of the couples. However, Levine

(2005:80) argues that the preferred meanings of the white wedding, as represented by

Disney, are complicated through the ‘program’s attempts to mix reality with fantasy rais[ing] doubts about the believability of each and thus about the idealized family values the company represents’. As such, Levine (2005:80) claims that the fairytale romances of the real-life couples are both disrupted and fractured by the ‘intertextual associations evoked through the program’s hosts, Jack and Kristina Wagner’.

Although these hosts represent the ideal romantic fantasy of heterosexual marriage, and hence reinforce the fantasy of the white wedding, they are also represented as the ‘old married couple... For the Wagners, the fairytale is seemingly over; reality has set in’

(Levine 2005:81). For example, in considering the Wagners’ real-life relationship in juxtaposition with their soap characters’ relationship, Levine argues that this complex intertextuality disrupts the preferred reading of romance narratives. In real life, this

couple did not conform to a traditional trajectory of heterosexual romance, as they lived together for many years and had a child out of wedlock. On the soap opera, their characters, Frisco and Felicia, had a white wedding, but this romance narrative was disrupted by their divorce.

When Jack and Kristina exchange gender-prescriptive dialogue during Weddings of a Lifetime, the intertextual association between Weddings, the actors’ personal relationship, and their soap opera characters suggest not only the permeability of boundaries between fact and fiction but also the disputability of ideals like the fairy-tale romance and marriage. In one sense, the Wagners and their soap character counterparts represent ideals of heterosexual romance and marriage, perfect synergistic reflections of the fairy-tale romances featured on the show. In another sense, the Wagners’ unorthodox romance (an on-and-off relationship, a baby out of wedlock) and the disruption of Frisco and Felicia’s love story might suggest that heterosexual partnering is rarely as ideal as Disney makes it seem, that Disney’s fairytales—even the real-life ones featured on Weddings—only exist in fantasy (Levine 2008:82).

Further, Levine (2008) argues that the format of Weddings of a Lifetime incorporates various genres which contribute to a multiplicity of potential readings. These are the

Disney fantasy genre and the reality genre which is represented by the real-life couples.

In essence, this programme incorporates the ‘fairytale and nonfictional genres such as the live event, the tabloidized reality show... and the infomercial’ (Levine 2008:83).

This show participates in the cross-promotion of Disney products whilst blurring the boundaries between fantasy and reality and endorsing the heterosexual family as ideal.

However, Levine (2008:83) also argues that ‘the intersection of these fairy-tale elements with elements of nonfictional programming, particularly the live event, the reality program, and the infomercial, complicate the program’s assertion of heterosexual marital bliss’.

For example, the ‘liveness’ of this television show is pivotal in marking the couple’s fairytale romances as real. Aspects of the show which cultivate the sense that a live event is being transmitted to audiences include the use of microphones by the hosts in

addressing the audience; interviews with wedding guests and the guest performers; the couples’ and wedding parties’ awkward performances during the ceremonies; and the anchoring of the telecast with the graphic ‘Live’ in the corner of the screen. This television programme mimicks the genre of other ‘live’ shows, such as sports broadcasting, as it includes breaking news and a ‘“play-by-play” analysis of the pre- wedding and post wedding ritual’ (Levine 2008:84) by the hosts. The deployment of techniques to construct a live event, however, not only functions to validate the weddings as fairytale romances, but also to disrupt the romance of the fairytale. This disruption is due to the incompatibility of the ‘live’ and fantasy genres, as live ‘genres are usually so unrelated to stories of fantasy romance, their invocation might also disrupt the seamlessness of the Disney fairytale’ (Levine 2008:84).

Similarly, the tabloid aspect of the reality genre in Weddings of a Lifetime functions to validate the ‘realness’ of the romance between the couples, but is also disruptive to this heterosexual ideal. The nature of the reality genre, inclusive of interviews and re- enactments of significant events, highlights these romances as constructed. The further use of the infomercial genre ‘clashes so harshly with the idealized world of the fairytale,

Weddings of a Lifetime’s infomercial elements not only undercut its fairy-tale elements but undercuts themselves too’(Levine 2008: 85). Rather than consider the ideology of romance as functioning to conceal and reproduce inequities, as has been the trend within the literature, Levine (2005:86) states:

Perhaps what Weddings of a Lifetime most assuredly says about the cultural politics of media conglomeration is that as powerful as synergistic ties can be, the multiplicity of meanings they contribute to a single text can keep that text from fully endorsing any one ideological stance, even one as deeply ingrained as that of heterosexual romance and marriage.

In this instance, Levine’s focus on meaning and texts as multiple, contradictory and incongruous opens a theoretical space to reconsidering how ideology functions.

To conclude, analyses of the wedding and media industries have tended to deploy tenets of political economy. Underpinning this framework are assumptions which posit cultural power and ideology as dominating and manipulative, brides as living in a state of false consciousness, passively consuming romantic ideologies, and as a consequence, cultural meanings as repetitive and fixed through the production process. However, feminist and cultural studies practitioners have highlighted the limitations of the aforementioned assumptions, and have reconsidered cultural power, ideology and meaning as paradoxical and contradictory. In the ensuing discussion of bridal texts, positioned at the nexus of cultural interactivity, I want to move beyond the existing literature which considers cultural power and ideology as a tool of manipulation and domination. Following Hall (1998) and Levine (2005), I want to recast culture, power, ideology and meaning in a semiotic reading of bridal texts, specifically women’s and bridal publications.

Domination as Institutional Practice

This section considers the propensity within the literature to focus on how weddings are consumed and experienced. As such, ethnographic techniques are commonly employed in analyses of cultural consumption. This trend does however include, in some instances, studies that incorporate analyses of ‘wedding’ publications. Despite this inclusion, I argue that these studies tend to posit ‘wedding’ traditions as a site of cultural reproduction.

There is a tendency within the critical literature to incorporate ethnographic techniques in analyses of weddings. More specifically, the literature illuminates a concern with investigating weddings through ethnography, participant observation and focus groups.

One of the reasons for the utilisation of these methods is a more general concern within the literature with understanding consumption experiences. For example, Boden (2003) conducted interviews with 15 British marrying couples, as she is concerned with how emotion interacts with consumption experiences. Currie (1993) interviewed 13 engaged

Canadian couples to explore how consumption is experienced by the bride during the planning of the wedding. Montemurro (2002; 2005) is concerned with how traditions such as the bridal and co-ed shower are consumed as well as experienced, accordingly deploying methods such as participant observation. She also conducted interviews with brides, hostesses and guests. Oswald (2000) considers how GLBT people experience weddings, and formed focus groups to investigate experiences of weddings. Finally,

Wilding (2003) who undertook a textual analysis of films and performed interviews with engaged Australian couples, explores how romantic messages are consumed/read by audiences.

The use of ethnographic techniques is connected to a general desire to uncover ‘the people’s’ experiences and voices. As such, these studies are not concerned with analyses of women’s and bridal publications, but rather with bridal and co-ed showers

(Braithwaite 1995; Montemurro 2002; Montemurro 2005), bachelorette parties

(Montemurro 2003; 2005a; 2006), married couples (Braithwaite and Baxter 1995), marrying couples (Currie 1993; Boden 2003; Wilding 2003), bridal workers (Corrado

2002) and GLBT relatives of marrying couples (Oswald 2000). When bridal publications are considered, it is generally within studies that are focused on the

wedding industry (Engstrom 2008; Ingraham 1999) or consumption experiences (Boden

2003; Currie 1993; Montemurro 2002; 2005).

Currently, there are limited studies of wedding publications, and only one study interested with aspects of Australian wedding magazines. This is despite statistics which reveal that the consumption of magazines in Australia is significant, and may be characterised by its gendered nature: ‘Women’s magazines represent the dominant segment of the magazine market’ (Bonner 2006:202).8 Wilding (2006), however, considered how theoretical distinctions are drawn between editorial content and advertisements in wedding magazines. As the literature tends to focus on cultural production or consumption processes, wedding magazines are generally deployed as an object of study to complement these interests. In other words, wedding publications are not central to analytical queries and investigations.

A British study undertaken by Boden (2001) considers wedding magazines and how they impact upon the bridal consumption experience. The focus of this study is how wedding magazines give meaning to both the pre-wedding and wedding-day experiences. Wedding magazines are understood to construct a ‘superbride’ identity which embodies the contradictory characteristics of rationality and emotionality. An interesting aspect of this study is that it delineates the contradictory nature of wedding texts in the construction of the bridal identity. However, it does not consider these contradictions in terms of how meaning is constructed more generally or in terms of

8 There are twenty-six magazine titles with sales over 100,000 per issue with fourteen of these titles recognised to be women’s magazines whilst only 2 of these titles are men’s magazines, the remainder are considered to be non-gender specific. The popularity of women’s magazines is further substantiated by circulation figures. For example, FHM is considered to be the highest selling Australian men’s magazine however there are eleven women’s magazines which have higher circulation figures than FHM. Further FHM only achieves about one-sixth of the sales of the Australian Women’s Weekly (Bonner 2006).

bridal traditions. As such, this thesis considers Boden’s observations about the bridal identity as relevant. In an attempt to move away from the literature’s primary concern with bridal consumption, I want to posit women’s and bridal publications as tools to read the process of cultural interactivity.

Hence, there are limited studies which deploy thorough-going textual analyses of bridal texts, and when textual readings are employed, the most commonly studied objects are reality television programmes (Engstrom 2008; Levine 2005; Sgroi 2006) and film

(Wilding 2003; Mackey 2001). This research is generally constrained within restrictive methodological frameworks, as the forms of textual readings employed are concerned with noting similarity within and between texts rather than textual contradictions and tensions. A case in point is the study undertaken by Engstrom and Semic (2003), who, as established, illuminates pervasive images of quintessential femininity. In doing so, they are required to seek out the commonalities that exist between images of femininity to substantiate claims that these images are part of dominant hegemonic discourses. One of the implications of this methodological approach is that it cannot note or account for the contradictory construction of femininities and bridal identities. Similarly, Wilding

(2003), who is primarily concerned with drawing comparisons between the narratives of wedding films and her interview material, employs a methodological framework concerned with underscoring the commonalities between these cultural texts. Wilding is thereby constrained within a methodological approach which limits the possibility of considering the idea that romantic narratives are in their construction contradictory, fluid and interpretative.

Complementing existing studies on wedding traditions, this thesis is concerned with the operational aspects of cultural meaning with a specific focus on the textual construction of bridal traditions. Currently, there are two emerging trends apparent within the literature, which focus on consumption and how meaning is appropriated in the practice of wedding traditions, and on production processes and how cultural meanings are fixed by producers of texts. Underlying these contradictory concerns, and mirroring ideas about weddings, as established earlier, is the uniform agreement that wedding traditions function as a site for the cultural reproduction of norms. I argue that by shifting the focus from both production as well as consumption to positing texts as central to understanding how cultural meaning functions, a theoretical space is opened to reconsider cultural interactivity.

To begin, I want to direct attention to ethnographic studies that are concerned with wedding traditions. These studies understand wedding traditions as a site for the reproduction of cultural norms. Cultural traditions such as the bridal shower are generally nominated by the literature as a medium through which prescribed gender roles are reproduced. This argument proceeds from the standpoint that cultural expectations which frame performances at bridal showers link the bride, and women more generally, to the domain of the home (Montemurro 2002; 2005). In-depth interviews conducted with 51 women, including brides, hostesses and guests at bridal showers revealed that:

Bridal showers, both explicitly and implicitly, reinforce traditional gender roles. The feminizing gifts bestowed on the bride underscore the housewife role as consisting of primary or sole responsibility for cooking and cleaning (Montemurro 2005:88).

Wedding magazines are also deployed as an object of study in order to complement research concerned with bridal experiences and consumption. As established, Currie

(1993) highlighted how the labour required by the bride to organise a wedding reflected the unpaid labour that would be required of her within the marital union. In order to substantiate the claim that gender inequities exist prior to and within marriages in relation to household- related work, Currie explores bridal work and consumption.

Wedding magazines were understood by respondents to be an instrumental guidance manual for the planning of a ‘traditional’ wedding. These respondents revealed that they were more likely to refer to wedding magazines for guidance about wedding traditions than to seek out information from a female relative and/or friend. In a desire to replicate the ideal bride of the ideal wedding of wedding magazines, the bride is invited to increase consumption of wedding goods as well as services, and as a consequence, is required to undertake more labour in the planning of the wedding. Hence, in the context of Currie’s study, the wedding magazine is considered in terms of bridal experiences of consumption and unpaid labour.

In considering what constitutes a ‘traditional’ white wedding, Currie (1993) identified the white wedding gown and religious ceremonies as central. It has already been established that Currie, in her investigation of wedding work, considers the wedding as a site of cultural reproduction. Exploring her argument in more detail also reveals how cultural meaning is understood within the context of her ethnographic study. The centrality of traditions to the white wedding were re-affirmed by Currie’s respondents and hence a focus for her study. It was found that although wedding magazines and marrying couples re-write ‘tradition’, these cultural practices continue to embody patriarchal meanings. In other words, wedding magazines invite readers to identify with

traditional wedding practices by linking these traditions to wedding themes. By linking wedding traditions to wedding themes, according to Currie, cultural meanings are disassociated from their patriarchal origins. However, this disassociation is then re- established with the practice of these traditions. In other words, the bride is unknowingly invited, in the performance of these traditions, to reproduce prescribed gender roles within the marital union (Currie 1993).

A study undertaken by Oswald (2000) departs from the literature which is concerned with how, in the practice of traditions, cultural norms and values are reproduced. This study was chiefly interested in the way GLBT people experienced heterosexual weddings. The focus was therefore on hetero-sexism and whether or not it was performed and/or resisted by wedding participants. Some of the weddings traditions which were explored included invitations, attire, the wedding party, God talk, family portraits, catching the bouquet and garter, dancing and pressure to marry. There was a general consensus amongst GLBT people that traditions such as throwing the bouquet and garter reinforced and validated heterosexuality to the exclusion of other forms of sexualities. In uncovering the cultural meanings of the aforementioned traditions,

Oswald found that her respondents considered the throwing of the bouquet to be a ritual practised by single women competing for the opportunity to enter into heterosexual marriage. Alternatively, the throwing of the garter signified a form of male bonding and ultimately the ‘sexual domination of women within marriage’ (Oswald 2000:359).

Hence, many of the respondents considered these traditions to be inherently heterosexist:

During the bouquet and garter rituals, GLBT guests (even those who were ‘out’ and in committed relationships) perceived heterosexual guests as treating them as if they were single women and men who desired heterosexual marriage: ‘I think the bouquet is the

worst part of the wedding for me. Because, like even when I was there with my partner, people were like, ‘Get up there, you’re single!’ (Oswald 2000:359–360).

Although this may be the case, other traditions such as wedding invitations revealed that heterosexuality as normative was resisted. Ordinarily, wedding invitations are extended to a heterosexual couple, or if a heterosexual person is single, to them and a ‘guest’.

Oswald’s (2000) study demonstrated instances where GLBT people were invited to weddings with their partners or a ‘guest’ and identified these instances as moments when hetero-sexism was being challenged. Not all respondents, however, were validated in this way, as there were also occasions when GLBT interviewees were not invited to the wedding or were pressured to not bring their partners so their sexuality could be obscured. Hence, Oswald concluded that in the practice of wedding traditions, cultural norms such as heterosexuality were not only validated and reproduced but also challenged and resisted by wedding participants. Oswald (2000) departs from the existing literature on weddings by highlighting how cultural meaning is negotiated and reworked. However, the understanding that wedding traditions are a part of the cultural reproduction of norms and values persists. This is not only evident within ethnographic studies concerned with experience and consumption but also within research which posits the mode of the production of cultural goods, services and products associated with the wedding.

It has already been established that Ingraham (1999) posits cultural production as the primary site of investigation. Drawing from political economy frameworks, she considers meaning as being fixed through the production process. Here I want to illuminate her understanding of how cultural meaning and ‘wedding’ traditions function in relation to her example of diamond wedding rings. Ingraham points to how the

symbolism of these rings is inextricably linked to the idea, particularly for women, of marriage as monogamous. As such, she understands that the wedding ring, worn by the wife, signifies monogamy and fidelity. This conceptualisation of the cultural meaning of the wedding ring recognises that the signifiers (monogamy and fidelity) are symbolically fixed within this cultural tradition. The fixed cultural meaning of the wedding ring is a consequence of social sanctions which have been established to ensure that the moral idea of monogamy is central to contemporary marital practices.

These sanctions are considerably more severe for married women who have affairs than married men, as women (who have extramarital affairs) are more threatening to the dominant social order than men. Because the bride rather than the groom has historically been required to wear wedding rings, they signify ‘her monogamous bond to the husband’ (Ingraham 1999:104). Moving on from the idea that meaning is fixed, I want to explore through a semiotic reading how bridal texts such as bridal publications function to construct contradictory signifiers in the construction of bridal traditions.

This chapter has considered how the literature, with its focus on the wedding industry, deploys tenets of political economy in its analysis of weddings. I have argued that this literature tends to mirror some of the problematics of political economy, particularly in relation to conceptualisations of cultural power. Through feminist and cultural studies criticisms, the limitations of concepts such as power as omnipresent, ideology as domination, as well as consumption as passive have been delineated. In order to recast these concepts in relation to an investigation of weddings, it becomes apparent that feminism and cultural studies considerations of cultural power as interactive are useful.

Further wedding studies have also more generally been concerned with consumption experiences, and have tended to posit wedding participants as sites of investigation

whilst deploying ethnographic techniques to undertake analyses. Although these approaches are distinct, these studies tend to participate in the idea that ‘wedding’ traditions are a site for the cultural reproduction of norms and values. Complementing the existing literature on weddings, I want to shift the focus from the wedding industry and cultural consumption to bridal texts in an analysis of cultural interactivity. A semiotic reading of bridal publications, which will be delineated more clearly in the following methodology chapter, recasts cultural power and how meaning functions.

Chapter Three Methods, Methodology, Bridal Texts

Ordinarily, cultural studies and feminism employ a variety of methods in the study of culture. However, in the 1980s cultural studies was inclined to undertake textual readings of cultural products. This trend however was not reflected in wedding studies which have had a tendency to employ ethnographic techniques. Complementing the existing literature on weddings, I want to move the critical focus from consumption experiences and the wedding industry to women’s and bridal publications. This is so as this thesis is concerned with the following: how popular texts function to construct a preferred reading of the ideal white wedding and bridal traditions. In doing so, this thesis makes extensive use of a range of evidence, including magazines, films and documentaries. This chapter outlines the semiotic approach which is employed in the subsequent reading of women’s and bridal publications.

First, there is a consideration of how participant observation can be employed to complement textual analyses. Second, this chapter outlines the women’s, gossip and bridal publication chosen for analysis. In doing so there is an exploration of how the

Australian publication market functions. Third, concepts commonly associated with semiotics are introduced with a particular focus on how language is a system of representation. Finally, this chapter delineates how Stuart Hall’s (1980) encoding and decoding method for reading televisual texts is relevant to a reading of women’s and bridal texts.

Thinking About Methods

Cultural studies and feminism have transformed the way in which culture has been studied. This has been achieved via a multiplicity of theories, methods and methodologies. In the 1980s, however, cultural studies tended to employ textual readings in analyses of culture. One of the criticisms leveled at this approach was the resulting absence of studies of consumption experiences—how “the people” experience culture. But wedding and bridal culture studies do not necessarily reflect this trend, as weddings are characteristically studied using ethnographic approaches. This section outlines how participant observation exercises were employed to gather relevant information about bridal publications and to gain an understanding of bridal consumption experiences.

The fields of cultural studies and feminism share an interest in cultural hierarchies and the social construction of subject identities. Most importantly, however, both disciplinary fields have challenged conventional conceptualisations of what constitutes

literature, and of what constitutes proper objects of study. Cultural studies, with the introduction of film and media as literary texts, questioned the normalised idea that only literary texts are high literature (Shiach 1998). Similarly, feminism has not only participated in the introduction of cultural forms such as magazines as objects of study

(McRobbie 1997), but has also (re)-worked literary history by including women’s writing. One of the consequences of this dismantling of cultural hierarchies is that both feminism and cultural studies have become concerned with a range of cultural texts, forms and practices in their analysis of cultural interactivity (Shiach 1998). As culture

(the object of cultural studies’ inquiries) encompasses a multiplicity of forms and practices, the deployment of a diverse set of tools is required for cultural investigations

(During 2005).

Hence, a defining feature of feminism(s) and cultural studies is that they both employ an eclectic array of theories, methods and methodologies in their analyses of culture.

Mirroring the vagaries of feminism’s identities, cultural studies draws from other disciplines such as English, sociology and anthropology, and considers a diverse set of conceptual frameworks, inclusive of but not limited to “Marxism and feminism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism and postmodernism” in cultural analyses (Nelson,

Treichler and Grossbery 1992:2). As such, cultural studies can not be characterised by a

“discrete and stable set of methods [...] cultural studies is basically anti-methodological”

(During 2005:8). This varied arrangement of methods and methodological frameworks demonstrates the malleability and fluidity of this disciplinary field and its ability to respond to its cultural context (Gray 2003).

The wedding literature has tended to either explore how the wedding industry functions through a focus on media ownership and production processes, or to concentrate on consumption and how the wedding is experienced. Complementing existing critical studies on weddings, I want to consider how bridal cultural texts operate as a part of cultural interactivity. As such, this thesis employs a semiotic analysis of women’s and bridal publications. In the 1980s, there was a move within cultural studies toward the textual readings of cultural products. This shift reflected a general desire to rethink consumers as creatively reworking texts rather than being cultural dupes of the culture industries (McRobbie 1995). McRobbie (1995) considers the limitations of textual analyses and claims that in order to conceptualise how consumption processes function, it is imperative to incorporate the voices of the “people” in studies on culture. In other words, it is difficult to achieve an understanding of the “people” as creatively remaking culture when there are “very few voices to be heard in these debates other than those of the cultural intellectuals who first initiated them” (McRobbie 1995:26). Further, she claims that cultural studies should be

…reintroducing to the field of cultural analysis more institutional voices, more ethnography, more participant observation. It would also mean turning away from the temptation to read more and more from the cultural products and objects of consumption, readings which invariably are of most enjoyment to our own interpretative communities (McRobbie 1995:38).

Accordingly, Driscoll (2002:184) also considers some of the limitations of textual readings and states that “the most likely criticism of such a focus is that it does not account for how girls experience bridal culture and thus cannot act on or elucidate any person or group’s experience”. More specifically, in an investigation of how bridal magazines and planners are consumed, seeking (for instance) to understand the meanings their audiences draw from them, it would be imperative to also conduct

interviews or surveys, or pursue an ethnographic form of observation. This approach would allow for an understanding of how ideas about weddings and images of the bride intersect in the lives of girls, what the role of the bride means for girls, what weddings mean for brides, how these texts are consumed, and how readers interact with these texts.

Although bridal publications are the primary object of analysis, I will also consider the aforementioned limitations of textual readings. A semiotic reading of bridal texts does move the focus of this thesis from questions on how the wedding and bridal role is experienced to questions about representation and cultural meanings. However, in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of bridal cultural meanings and how bridal texts operate during the research process, some ethnographic techniques were employed.

Following on from Gray (2003), who endorses the deployment of participant observation to contextualise data collected from interviews and focus groups, this thesis considers its analysis of bridal publications within the context of data collected through participant observation exercises. Therefore, during the process of researching bridal publications, I also reflected on how the wedding and bridal moment is experienced, inclusive of the process of the consumption of related wedding products, goods and services. In other words, informal participant observations were employed in this exploration of Australian bridal culture in order to contextualise the primary object of analysis: bridal publications.

Participant observation as a method has been more rigorously developed within the field of anthropology than cultural studies. This is because anthropologists engage in the study of "other" cultures, whereas cultural studies practitioners are generally more

concerned with analysis of their own cultures. Unlike anthropologists, cultural studies researchers generally conduct studies of familiar cultural frameworks. It is for this reason that participant observation as a method can also encompass just being a part of the culture that is being investigated (Gray 2003). To delineate more clearly, participant observation exercises used to research this study on bridal culture are more closely aligned with cultural studies than anthropological ethnographic methods. For example, during the process of researching I participated as a guest, bridesmaid, maid of honour and bride at various weddings—including my own. I also participated in engagement parties, hen’s nights, kitchen tea parties and was witness to the practice of many bridal cultural traditions such as throwing the garter and bouquet, cutting the cake, and the gifting of jewellery. As an Australian-born Greek, there was also the opportunity to participate in and observe bridal cultural traditions practised by Australian Greeks. The opportunity to partake in and discuss these cultural traditions was a consequence of my

"everyday" life—my experience of "my" culture.

Hence, when invited to converse about weddings and/or be a part of cultural practices associated with weddings, I would critically reflect upon these experiences. Formal interviews with structured questions were not used, but information about experiencing weddings and bridal culture was gathered during informal conversations. Through family, friends, colleagues, students, "wedding industry experts", editors of bridal publications and random acquaintances, information was gathered on consumerist aspects of the wedding and bridal experience, the meaning and employment of bridal traditions, wedding planning, bridal publications, bridal expos, and many other related topics.

As the subject matter covered by this thesis is familiar to the "everyday" person, I found that people were eager to convey their own experiences of weddings. The information gathered from my own participation and from these informal conversations informed my considerations of bridal culture and bridal publications more specifically. Many of these conversations and participant observation exercises were documented and drawn upon to inform my analysis of bridal publications and how bridal traditions are practised. In other words, the information gathered from these exercises steered theoretical considerations employed in this thesis. Hence, the theoretical framework chosen to analyse bridal cultural texts responds to my observations about bridal cultural.

These observations suggest that "the people" experience and practise bridal traditions in a multiplicity of ways.

Bridal publications are often closely tied to and cross-promoted by bridal expos. In order to gain further insight to how bridal publications function, research was also conducted at bridal expos. The exclusiveness of entry into bridal businesses such as bridal salons and expos became apparent during the research process. In order to gain entry to the expos, it is necessary to be a bride, relative of a bride or a part of the bridal party. The bride is identified upon entry through the establishment of door entry competitions and the gifting of complimentary bridal bags. In order to receive complimentary gifts and enter competitions, the bride is required to provide not only personal details but brief information about her impending wedding, such as date, size of bridal party, preferred theme and so forth. P. J. Hogan, writer and director of the popular Australian film Muriel’s Wedding, outlined his own observations about the exclusiveness of entry into the “bridal” world.

Day after day I sat there (in a cafe) feeling like I would always be unemployed, and nobody would ever make any of my films. I just happened to keep noticing this bridal-

wear shop across the street, and girls would go in there and I could see them trying on bridal wear and they would be transformed into brides. It was amazing, I was struck by how much just putting on those dresses and veils gave them a sense of realising their fantasies, and there I was sitting around wanting to be transformed into something myself, a working film maker. I got this idea that being invited to become a bride was also being invited to go the bridal-wear shop as if it was an exclusive club—not just a place anyone would walk into. You had to be chosen, you had to have a fiancé (as quoted in Driscoll 2002:179-180).

Therefore, in order to gain entry to various bridal expos and to be able to access information on bridal goods, services and products (such as the complimentary bridal planners, bridal websites and mailing lists) there was a necessity to participate in the performance of the bridal role. This bridal role, coded as a heterosexual engaged girl, provided the opportunity to research aspects of bridal culture that would have otherwise, as a researcher, been unavailable. It was not always necessary to appropriate the bridal role in gathering information, as I also had access to bridal expos as a part of the bridal party of female relatives and friends. During the later stages of my research, I attended bridal expos in preparation for the planning of my own wedding.

The information gathered from the aforementioned observation exercises has not been subjected to the same kind of critical analysis as more rigorously developed anthropological ethnographic techniques. In other words, the data was collected to gain further insight into how Australian bridal culture functions, to contextualise bridal texts and to inform the choice of theoretical frameworks. This departs from previous studies on weddings, which employ ethnographic techniques to investigate consumption experiences.

One of the preferred methods for analysing weddings is via ethnographic and other qualitative approaches, including interviews, participant observation and focus groups.

The limitations of textual analyses have already been touched on; here, there is also a consideration of the constraints of ethnography. Some general criticisms of ethnography include the tendency to overlook the constructivist aspect of this enterprise (Ang 1998;

Gray 2003; Barker 2000). In other words, ethnography has often been understood as providing researchers with material that can be examined objectively, as if this investigative technique has the capacity to uncover some kind of “truth” about the social world (Gray 2003). This criticism highlights how ethnographic practices produce texts which are then involved in a process of (re)interpretation and (re)construction during the development of the research: “in a sense, doing ethnography is itself a political intervention in that its activity helps to construct the culture it seeks to describe and understand, rather than merely reflect it” (Ang 1998:525). Hence, the limitations of ethnography as a constructivist exercise mirror some of the criticisms of textual readings.

To conclude, cultural studies and feminism employ an array of different methods, methodologies and theoretical approaches in analysis of culture. In the 1980s, cultural studies was criticised for abandoning studies of cultural consumption for textual readings. Although cultural studies practitioners undertook semiotic readings, this approach was not reflected in studies on weddings and bridal culture. One of the preferred methods for analysing weddings is via ethnographic and other qualitative approaches, including interviews, participant observation and focus groups. This thesis therefore seeks to move the focus to how cultural meanings imbued with power relations function.

Although reading bridal texts is central to the subsequent analysis, there is also consideration of how these cultural texts operate within the broader context of

production and consumption processes. The use of informal participant observation

techniques during the research stage allows for consideration of how bridal traditions are experienced. Further, reference to the Australian film Muriel’s Wedding (Hogan

1995) and the documentary Brides of Khan (Uberoi 2000) is deployed to demonstrate how these texts portray the ‘experience of the wedding’.

Australian Publication Market

This section is primarily concerned with delineating the bridal magazines and planners chosen for analysis. An exploration of how the Australian publication market functions in relation to women’s, gossip and bridal publications is also undertaken. Even though the print media tends to be dominated by a few media companies (in relation to the publication of women’s magazines) bridal magazines and planners are generally published by “boutique” publishers. In order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Australian publication landscape there will also be a concern with outlining distribution patterns as well as readership and circulation numbers of women’s and bridal publications. The bridal magazines and planners that have been chosen for the subsequent reading of bridal texts are delineated in Table 1 pg 89.

Publishing Pty Ltd Worsthorne Pedersen International Wildfire Publishing Universal Magazines Magazines IPC/ Time Inc/ Pacific Magazines Hardie Grant ACP Magazines Publisher

Modern Wedding (2002) Flowers (1999) Bride Bride Sydney Bride (2007) (2002) Cosmpolitan Bride Bridal Magazine

- -

to to

- -

Be: Wedding Be (2003)

(2002;2008) Bride’s Diary: Bride’s Diary (2005;2008;2009) Modern Wedding Planner Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999) Planning Guide (2006/2007) Bride Bride PlannerBridal

- -

to to

- - Be: Wedding Be: Wedding Planner (2002)

Sydney

Adelaide (1999; 2001; 2002)

www.bridesdiary.com.au www.modernwedding.c www.bridetobe.com.au www.bride.com.au Bridal Website

om.au

Bridal publications are generally distributed bi-annually and annually (Wilding 2006) by smaller “boutique” (but also in some instances multinational) publication houses, and are circulated to newsagents, supermarkets, bridal expos, bridal businesses and amongst family and friends. In order to ensure a representative sample of bridal magazines and planners, there was a concerted effort to obtain complimentary planners from a cross- section of these distribution sites. Bridal magazines and planners were purchased and/or obtained in Adelaide, South Australia and Sydney, New South Wales, between

1999 and 2009. Initially, bridal publications were collected from newsagents, major bookstores and supermarkets in Adelaide. Complimentary bridal publications were also collected from bridal expos. For example, the Bride’s Diary: Adelaide was collected at the corresponding bridal expo in Adelaide, but the Bride’s Diary: Sydney was obtained from a recently married relative (the bride, not the groom) located in Sydney.

Despite the fact that many friends and relatives had been married during this data collection process, only a couple of magazines were collected from recently married women. It was generally found that they wanted to retain their bridal publications as mementos. The only published groom’s guide was obtained through a mail order purchase. Worsthorne and Pedersen, publishers of the Bride’s Diary, also publish the

Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner, which they advertise and cross-promote in the aforementioned bridal planner. Generally, the purchase price of bridal magazines and planners, unless they are complimentary, are about AU$15.95, but range between

AU$9.95 and AU$19.95. The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner was AU$13.75 plus postage and handling.

Most of the bridal publications from Sydney were obtained in the latter stages of the data collection. This provided the opportunity to not only collect a sample of bridal publications from the epicentre of Australia, Sydney, but also from a smaller market such as Adelaide. Although Adelaide is one of Australia’s capital cities, it is considerably smaller than Sydney, with a population of approximately 1.1 million, as compared to Sydney’s approximately 4.5 million. The other distinct difference between

Adelaide and Sydney is that Sydney is often understood to be a global city, whereas

Adelaide is often described colloquially as a large country town. One of the advantages of collecting bridal publications from these distinct metropolises is that it allowed for a comparison of publications distributed in these distinct socio-economic locations.

The women’s magazines that inform this study were also purchased from a variety of outlets such as major supermarkets and newsagents, between 1999 and 2009, and included New Weekly (NW), Cosmopolitan, Cleo, and Woman’s Day, which are all published by ACP Publishing Pty Ltd—the same publication house which publishes

Cosmopolitan Bride. Who and New Idea are published by Time Inc/Pacific Magazines, which also publishes the Bride-to-be magazines and planners. Generally, the magazines chosen for analysis featured wedding stories of celebrities, best and worst dressed celebrity brides, top ten weddings of the year, and so forth. These magazines are clearly less expensive than bridal magazines at approximately AU$5.00 an issue.

A distinguishing feature of Australian bridal magazines and planners is that they are generally published by smaller "boutique" publication houses rather than multi-national print media corporations or conglomerations. As such, the Australian "wedding" magazine market is considered unique within the context of mass media international

publishing markets (Wilding 2006). In considering this publication trend, an explanation of how the Australian magazine market functions will be presented. As established early, studies on the media industry are ordinarily concerned with how the media is monopolised by a few large multi-national corporations (Ingraham 1999; Engstrom

2003) or the synergistic melding of conglomerates (Levine 2005). Both Ingraham and

Engstrom view corporations as functioning to monopolise cultural production and meaning, whilst Levine highlights the fragmented interests of synergies and the contradictory construction of cultural meaning. The Australian bridal publication market, however, is marked by its diversity of ownership, whilst the Australian women’s magazine market is generally dominated by multi-national print media corporations. Complementing the existing focus upon conglomerates such as Disney, which have a variety of vested capital interests, this thesis is concerned with how the bridal publications market functions. This is undertaken within the context of the more general women’s publication market, which is dominated by the following publication companies: Australian Consolidated Press (ACP), Pacific Magazines and Federal

Publishing Company (FPC) (Bonner 2006).9

One of the reasons wedding publications tend to be owned and produced by small local companies and not multi-nationals is that they represent a specific local wedding industry (Wilding 2006). In other words, brides consider local content in wedding publications to be more relevant (in terms of purchasing goods and services) than international content (Wilding 2006). A case in point is the Bride’s Diary. This planner has a basic template in terms of editorial, structure and bridal images, but is tailored to

9The Australian Audit Bureau of Circulation figures reveals that in 2009, ACP publishers dominated the magazine market, with a 51.3% share, whilst Pacific Magazines had a 27.6% share (www.mediabiznet.com.au/pdfs/auditreport.pdf).

differing locales, and varies in relation to the advertising of bridal goods, products and services. To clarify, this bridal planner is distributed in major Australian capital cities, so the Bride’s Diary: Adelaide may contain the same editorial as the Bride’s Diary:

Sydney, but all advertised bridal goods and services are specific to the respective bridal industry localities (Bambacas 2002).

However, it must be noted that bridal publications such as Universal’s Complete

Wedding Planner are published in and cater for Melbourne and Sydney brides. Despite this, the aforementioned bridal magazine was purchased in Adelaide. Many of these publications, even if they are tailored to a specific locality, are distributed nationally

(particularly publications from Sydney and Melbourne). One of the reasons these publications are relevant to a national audience, despite the fact they advertise local goods and services, is because they educate brides on how to plan and execute an

Australian wedding. They also offer brides from smaller Australian cities, such as

Adelaide, an emulation of the ideal wedding in cosmopolitan cities such as Sydney and

Melbourne.10 For example, the purchase by an Adelaide bride of a bridal gown from a

Melbourne haute couture designer could be considered to be a marker of success, but also situates the bride as cosmopolitan, elegant and privileged.

In responding to the specificities of each of the Australian bridal markets, boutique publishers have established unique distribution patterns, particularly in comparison to women’s and bridal publications distributed by multi-national companies. For example, bridal magazines and planners, published by boutique houses, are often distributed free at bridal fairs/expos. These smaller boutique publishers, in catering for the niche bridal

10 For urban studies and debates about Sydney as a global city, please see McNeill, Dowling and Fagan (2005); and Sassen (1995).

market, are closely tied to, and cross-promoted at, bridal expos and with bridal businesses. The distribution of bridal planners at expos caters to brides who are specifically concerned with purchasing local bridal goods and services (Bambacas

2002). The following boutique publishers are currently closely connected to various bridal fairs/expos in Australia. Hardier Grant Magazines, publishers of Australian

Bride, Melbourne Bride and Sydney Bride, distribute copies at the Melbourne Bride

Expo. Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd, publishers of the Bride’s Diary, distributes approximately 80% of their publication through bridal expos in Australian cities such as Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and the Gold Coast. Another distribution pattern which responds to the needs of local markets is the gifting of planners to consumers by advertising businesses. More specifically, the Bride’s Diary relies upon cross-promotion by advertising bridal businesses. As such, Goldmark jewellers, a company which advertises in the Bride’s Diary, are supplied with copies of this planner to give as a complimentary gift to brides who purchase their engagement and/or wedding ring(s).

Similar to multi-national media companies (but to a lesser extent) boutique publishers also tend to distribute their publications in newsagents and through subscription. A stark difference in distribution patterns between multi-national and boutique publishers is that the former distribute via major supermarket chains, whilst the latter do not. This pattern of distribution will be examined in more detail shortly. Unlike women’s magazines, and some bridal magazines/planners which are published by multi-national companies, only twenty per cent of the Bride’s Diary is distributed to and sold at newsagents, whilst none are distributed to supermarkets. The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner is only distributed through subscription, and is advertised in the Bride’s Diary where it can be

purchased via mail order. Hardier Grant Magazines, publishers of Australian Bride,

Melbourne Bride and Sydney Bride, distribute 20,000 magazines to newsagents annually, but as mentioned previously, are also closely tied to bridal expos and do not distribute via supermarkets. Some other bridal publications published by boutique publishers generally distribute their magazines and planners in newsagents. For example, Universal Magazines publish the more generic Universal’s Complete Wedding

Planner bi-annually and distribute 15,000 copies per issue via newsagents for a national audience. They also distribute planners to newsagents which are more responsive to their respective localities. The Complete Wedding: Sydney and The Complete Wedding:

Melbourne are both distributed nationally, but principally in Sydney and Melbourne respectively.

Although the Australian bridal publication market is characterised by a collection of smaller boutique publication houses such as Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd,

Hardier Grant Magazines and Universal Magazines, bridal magazines and planners are also published by publication companies such as Time Inc, IPC Media and Pacific

Magazines. These publication companies dominate the Australian print media landscape, particularly in relation to women’s and gossip magazines. For example, Time

Inc and IPC Media formerly published the Bride-to-Be wedding magazine and planner series. In 2007, another Australian publication company, Pacific Magazines, acquired this series and has been publishing these titles ever since. These multi-national companies have been involved in the publication of many women’s and gossip

Australian magazine titles, including but not limited to the following: Who (Weekly),

New Idea, Marie Claire, Girlfriend, and Better Homes and Gardens. Cosmopolitan

Bride, published by ACP, and Vogue Weddings, published by Conde Nast, are both

spin-offs from their respective parent fashion magazines, Cosmopolitan and Vogue

Australia. Similarly to other multi-national media companies, ACP, publishers of

Cosmopolitan Bride, also publish other women’s titles such as The Australian Women’s

Weekly, Woman’s Day, NW (New Weekly), Cleo and Cosmopolitan.

For these companies, extending into the subgenre or niche market of bridal publications is a capitalist enterprise which not only increases capacity to dominate the publication market but also increases profits through the utilisation of existing economic ties and resources. More specifically, these companies, unlike boutique publishers, are able to access already existing production processes, financial resources, economic partners and so forth in publishing and distributing bridal magazines. Consumer surveys, for example, are considered to be important in increasing the volume of advertising by relevant bridal businesses. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the only publisher with the financial resources and established infrastructure to conduct such surveys is one of Australia’s media monopolies, Pacific Magazines, current publishers of the Bride-to-Be magazine and planner series. These publishers are hence able to collect relevant marketing information from their target audience. Most importantly, however, distribution patterns of bridal publications are affected by the use of existing financial relationships by these companies.

As mentioned previously, multi-national publication companies, unlike smaller ones, distribute their bridal titles via supermarkets and newsagents. A cursory glance at the history of Australian women’s and gossip magazine distribution patterns provides a clearer understanding of the difference in bridal publication distribution between publication companies and boutique publishers. As such, Turner, Bonner and Marshall

(2000) note that prior to the 1980s women’s magazines could generally be either obtained by subscription or were distributed via newsagents. However, this form of distribution began to change with the sale of Woman’s Day (a monthly women’s magazine published by ACP) in supermarkets in 1980. Previously, the only women’s magazine that was distributed via supermarkets was the home-maker title Family Circle, published by IPC (Turner, Bonner and Marshall 2000). Whilst estimates suggest that 60 per cent of women’s and gossip magazines are sold at newsagents, the remainder are sold at supermarkets (Bonner 2006). Hence, utilising existing business relations, ACP publishers, unlike boutique publication houses, are able to distribute Cosmopolitan

Bride through Australian supermarket chains such as Coles and Woolworths.

Although these multi-national print media companies are able to access existing resources to extend into the sub-genre of bridal publications, their varied interests function to disrupt the monopolisation of cultural meaning. As previously stated, Levine

(2005) highlights the political implications for conglomerates such as Disney when they expand into niche markets. In some instances, this expansion complements the conglomerates’ existing cultural ideals, and in other instances, the fragmentation of mass-produced cultural products into niche markets contradict these ideals. I will now explore how Australian publication companies have a variety of vested, competing and contradictory interests. I argue that the expansion into the niche market of bridal publications by multi-national companies tends to complement the existing cultural ideals of heterosexuality, the family, and prescribed gender roles which have predominantly been circulated by women’s magazines.

It is also important to note that the introduction of women’s and gossip magazines into supermarkets to increase sales also functioned to contradict existing cultural ideals and norms upheld by these print media companies. The distribution of women’s magazines into supermarkets created increased competition, and as a consequence, magazine covers became more important in attracting potential consumers. Turner, Bonner and

Marshall (2000) note a distinction between newsagent and supermarket consumers; the former enter a newsagent with the intent to purchase print media, whilst the latter are usually interested in other household purchases when they enter a supermarket. These authors argue that the cover of women’s and gossip magazines therefore needed to become more sensational in order to attract the impulse buyer.

... they (the consumer) had to be offered something more attention-grabbing, more sensational to be moved to add a magazine to their grocery purchases. A cover promising several racy stories about the lives of a range of celebrities proved capable of achieving this successfully (Turner, Bonner and Marshall 2000).

In other words, there was a trend amongst some of the women’s and gossip magazines to publish sensationalised stories that undermined the sanctity of marriage and heterosexuality. More specifically, even though the expansion by multi-nationals into the subgenre of bridal publications does not disrupt these ideals, the change in the distribution of women’s and gossip magazines does challenge these ideals.

One of the reasons women’s publications are often made accessible to consumers at the supermarket check-out is to ensure that “floating” purchasers, customers waiting for service, are able to access and purchase these publications readily and easily (Bonner

2006). One of the aims of this merchandising strategy is to ensure that the customer will peruse these magazines whilst waiting for service. Hence the inconvenience of “waiting in line” is not only distracted by entertainment, but is also a marketing moment, a moment to increase the exposure of the publication brand. Publishers rely upon the

potential of magazines to be read by a wider audience than just the purchaser. This is not only achieved by the placement of women’s and gossip magazines at the supermarket check-out, but also in waiting rooms (Bonner 2006). Further, the visibility of these titles also depends upon the “pass-on rate” of these publications amongst families and friends.

Although bridal magazines and planners tend to be quiet formulaic in their production, they cannot hope to secure the same kind of circulation numbers as weekly gossip and monthly women’s magazines. Clearly, this is because their appeal is not as far-reaching.

Although weddings are a popular cultural practice, they will generally only occur a couple of times in a woman’s (person’s) life, if at all. As a consequence, bridal publications, unlike women’s and gossip magazines, which are published weekly or monthly, are usually only published bi-annually or annually (or rarely, quarterly).

Wilding (2006) contends that it is expected that a maximum of two issues of any given bridal title, or one of each available title, is purchased between the engagement and wedding day. This lack of potential in sales is significant in terms of the placement of bridal publications in supermarkets, as unlike women’s and gossip magazines, bridal publications are not located at the check-out. Rather, these bridal publications are located in the supermarket aisle with other more specialised magazines. There are similarities in how these publications are merchandised in supermarkets and newsagents. Newsagents tend to have newspapers, weekly gossip as well as monthly women’s magazines as focal points of their shop front displays, whilst bridal publications are often not as visible. Bridal magazines and planners are usually situated in newsagents (as in supermarkets) amongst other magazine genres generally

understood to be “women’s special interest”, such as house and garden, pregnancy and so forth.

To recapitulate, a distinguishing feature of bridal magazines and planners is that they tend to be published by “boutique” publication companies. Despite this, bridal magazines and planners tend not to vary much in terms of editorial content, structure, bridal images and related bridal goods and services. However, bridal publications are also published and distributed by multi-national media companies that tend to dominate the print media and more specifically the women’s and gossip magazine market. The specificity of bridal markets and the aforementioned ownership trends impact upon the distinct distribution and merchandising patterns of bridal publications. Boutique publishers tend to distribute their publications through expos, and to a lesser extent, newsagents and subscription. Multi-national publishers tend to distribute via existing economic partners, and as such, mostly distribute through newsagents and supermarkets. The uniqueness of the Australian bridal print media market is that bridal publications are published by small “boutique” publishers and multi-nationals publication companies.

Although the print media is dominated by a few corporations, in their quest to increase sales, these companies are confronted by contradictory concerns. The expansion of women’s publications into supermarkets not only increased sales, but also competition.

Publishers reconsidered the content of their magazines, and opted to cover more sensational stories, challenging the stability of cultural ideals and norms such as heterosexuality, romance, monogamy, marriage and the nuclear family. The bridal publication market is located within the more general women’s publication market. This

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location is a consequence of existing economic ties, but can also be perceived as a context in which to understand the white wedding narrative. Complementing Levine’s

(2005) considerations of media monopolies, I plan to build upon the argument established here that the contradictory interests espoused by these companies function not only to monopolise but also destabilise cultural meanings.

Semiotics, Representation and Texts

The existing wedding literature has not generally posited bridal publications as an object of study, and has rarely employed textual analyses as a methodological approach. In considering how cultural meaning operates, particularly in relation to bridal traditions, I want to employ a semiotic analysis in the reading of women’s and bridal texts.

Specifically, I will consider how Stuart Hall’s (1980) application of semiotics

(encoding/decoding model) to televisual discourses also has relevance in a reading of popular discourses originating from the bridal print media. In the following section, the application of this method to bridal texts will be outlined in more detail.

This section, however, is concerned with foregrounding some key semiotic concepts, with reference to the work of Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes, who transformed the study of language, representation, meaning and "texts". Following on from the tradition of cultural studies, I argue that the recasting of what constitutes a

"text" opens the theoretical space to considering the multiplicity of cultural meanings, particularly in relation to bridal traditions.

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A central feature of the study of culture has been questions about how language functions to represent the material world, thoughts, objects and practices (Hall 1997).

According to Hall (1997), there are three main theoretical approaches to representation.

First, the reflective approach, which posits language as reflecting pre-cultural, pre- existing meanings which originate from within the object themselves. Second, the intentional approach, which understands language as an expression of the "true" intended meaning of the author. Third, the constructionist approach that understands meaning as being constructed, in and through, language (Hall 1980). The constructionist approach to language does not understand meaning as originating from objects, forms or people. In other words, this approach is critical of the idea that meaning is fixed by nature, and argues that meaning is the consequence of social, cultural and linguistic conventions.

Constructionist debates about the relationship between language, representation and cultural meanings have contributed significantly to the development of semiotics, the study of sign systems. In considering how representation functions, Hall (1980) identifies two systems of representation. The first system is a shared conceptual map:

“all sorts of objects, people and events are correlated with a set of concepts or mental representations which we carry around in our heads” (Hall 1980:17; Hall’s italics). The second system of representation requires a common language which functions to translate this conceptual map. In other words, a common language functions to correlate concepts with particular words, sounds and images to effect communication. Hall states that:

The general term we use for words, sounds or images which carry meaning is signs. These signs stand for or represent the concepts and the conceptual relations between them which we carry around in our heads and together they make up the meaning- systems of our culture… The relation between “things”, concepts and signs lies at the

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heart of the production of meaning in language. The process which links these three elements together is what we call “representation” (Hall 1980:18−19; Hall’s italics).

According to semiotics, all cultural objects and practices depend upon and convey meanings, and as such must deploy signs which function in similar ways to language.

Hall, for instance, recognises that languages do not only encompass written and spoken systems but also visual images, “whether produced by hand, mechanical, electronic, digital or some other means” (1997:18). Visual images are languages “when they are used to express meaning” (Hall 1997:18). In other words, a semiotic approach recognises that objects, rather than just words and images, can also function as signifiers in the cultural production of meaning. For instance, clothes are an example of a cultural product that is not only functional, but is also a sign, and consequently has signifiers, particular cultural meanings. The bridal gown, for instance, may signify elegance, a rite of passage and femininity, whilst a pair of jeans may signify casual dress. In western consumer cultures, there is a fashion code which marks certain items of clothing with particular signifieds. Through this coding of the bridal gown as a signifier of elegance, it becomes a sign, and can be “read” for its cultural meaning (Hall 1997). Consequently, any cultural form that produces meaning can be subjected to a semiotic “reading”. A

“text” is ordinarily understood to be related to the act of writing and the written word, but cultural studies understands “texts” as any cultural form that can generate meaning

(Barker and Galanski 2001).

Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, whose work has significantly influenced the development of semiotics, studied how language functions as a sign system. Concepts related to the sign system, such as the signifier/signified, langue/parole, codes and structures, and the sign as arbitrary, as outlined by Saussure, have been reworked and deployed in the reading of a multiplicity of cultural forms (Hall 1997). Roland Barthes,

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influenced by Saussure, also transformed the landscape of cultural studies by rethinking what constitutes a “text” through the application of semiotics. He highlighted how popular cultural practices and forms could be understood as a set of signifying practices, and hence be read as “texts” (Barker and Galanski 2001). For example, in Mythologies

(1972), Barthes studied “The World of Wrestling” and “Soap Powder and Detergents” as well as the “Face of Greta Garbo” (Hall 1997). In deploying a semiotic approach to a

“reading” of these cultural texts, he identified and examined sign systems, reading their cultural meanings (Hall 1997). The re-interpretation of cultural goods, products and services as texts ensured that all cultural forms could be considered by cultural studies researchers as objects of study, but in particular, as objects for semiotic readings

(Barker and Galanski 2001).

In the early twentieth century, through the study of structural linguistics, Saussure not only developed the concept of the sign, but also “the accompanying model of language as a system” (Jones and Holmes 2011:198). This approach gained credence within the humanities and social sciences and was initially understood, outside of linguistics, as structuralism. Jones and Holmes (2011) note that for Saussure, there were two basic principles of language. The first principle is the recognition that the character of a sign is arbitrary, thereby challenging the “natural” relationship between “words” and

“things”. The second principle is concerned with drawing a distinction between langue/parole. Langue is a system incorporating linguistic conventions and practices, so established that they are not only instinctively known but also deployed without reflection. Parole, on the other hand, is the “speech that results from the operations of those conventions” (Jones and Holmes 2011:199).

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The distinction drawn by Saussure between langue and parole, according to Hall (1997), recasts how language functions. Rather than positing language as originating from individual speakers or writers who became the authors of meaning, Saussure argues that communication is made possible because people share common rules and codes of a language system, the langue. This framework thereby challenges the intentional model of representation which understands language as an expression of the speaker’s

“intentional” meaning. As such, according to Saussure, the speaker is able to choose what is said, but in order to be understood, is constrained by linguistic conventions.

Language is therefore understood as a social phenomenon; individuals are born into the meanings and codes of language and cannot formulate their own rules of language (Hall

1997). As such, meaning “lies in society, in the culture, in our shared cultural codes, in the language system—not in nature or in the individual subject” (Hall 1997:35).

Saussure’s great achievement was to force us to focus on language itself, as a social fact; on the process of representation itself; on how language actually works and the role it plays in the production of meaning. In doing so, he saved language from the status of a mere transparent medium between things and meaning. He showed, instead, that representation was a practice (Hall 1997:35).

Even though Saussure highlighted representation as a social practice, he tended to be concerned with only two components of the sign: the signifier and signified. The signifier is the sound-image of the sign, whilst the signified is the concept associated with the sign. Signification, according to Saussure, is the relationship between the sign and the referent. To explicate further, the signifier can be the word “dog”, which evokes the signified, an image of the dog. The sign, the dog, is a combination of all these elements. In this instance, for the purpose of analysis, there is a separation of signifier and signified. However, in the perception of signs, there is no separation of signifier and signified. In actual fact, they are inseparable (Lacey 1998:57). However, Saussure rarely

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considered, if at all, the relationship between the signifier and signified and how it refers to the material world. In his study of representation and sign systems, he was mostly concerned with meaning rather than reference (Hall 1997). Charles Sanders Pierce approached representation in a similar fashion to Saussure, but focused more specifically on the relationship between the signifier and signified and their referents

(what signs referred to) (Hall 1997).

A criticism levelled at Saussure is his focus on the formal rules of language, which, it is argued, detracted from an analysis that could have considered the interactive nature of language (Hall 1997). More specifically, he was not concerned with how power functioned within social contexts and in relation to differently positioned speakers (Hall

1997). Whereas Barthes’ work on the process of signification which considers how meanings are produced and circulated - has often been deployed within cultural studies in the analysis of culture. This is so as his application of semiotics revealed how power functions to construct hegemonic discourses/ideologies as “natural” (Papadelos 2011).

During the 1980s, there was a general move in academe toward the deployment of theoretical considerations by such thinkers as Barthes, Derrida, Foucault and Bakhtin

(Pearce 1995). Contentions by Barthes that the “author was dead”, that texts are untied from the author (Pearce 1995), and that any one signifier can have multiple signifiers, challenged the idea that texts have one correct or fixed meaning (Papadelos 2011).

Hence, critical reading shifted from an endeavour to uncover the author’s true intent, the one correct meaning of the text, to a concern with exploring the hidden and contradictory meaning of the text (Pearce 1995).

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In Barthes’ earlier work on language, he extended Saussure’s concept of the sign to a different understanding of signification, which incorporated both a denotative and connotative level. He replaces the terms employed by Saussure of primary and secondary signification to formulate a semiological system of signs. Denotation (the primary level of signification) is in effect a mental image, sound and/or the written word; this level of signification produces a literal meaning. In other words, the mental image “woman” literally denotes a female member of the human species. At the connotative level, meanings are generated through the connection of signifiers with wider cultural concerns. Therefore, while “woman” denotes a female human being, it could also (depending on cultural context) connote femininity, passivity, nurturance and so forth (Storey 1993).

According to Barthes (1972), the second level of signification (connotation) which is the level of the myth: “as linguistic signifiers denote signifieds, so too do such signs signify myths” (Jones and Holmes 2011: 201). As such, Barthes claimed that some myths “seek to naturalize political ideologies” (Jones and Holmes 2011: 201). Most importantly, the

“systems of ‘cultural’ familiarity on which such connotations relied Barthes called codes” (Jones and Holmes 2011:201; Jones and Holmes’ italics). For example, in an analysis of a French Panzani pasta advertisement in 1964, Barthes considered how signification functioned to construct the text’s message. Consequently, he was concerned with drawing a distinction between denotation and connotation. He argued that although linguistic signs are arbitrary, a photographic message cannot also be considered to be arbitrary (Jones and Holmes 2011). This is so, as visual images in some way resemble the signified:

... it is iconic. A photographed tomato signifies a tomato. That is only a primary, denotative level of signification, however. The message of the entire advertisement also

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relies on the anchoring of such images to connotative codes by the linguistic message (Jones and Holmes 2011:201; Jones and Holmes’ italics).

In other words, the second level of signification is the mythical dimension of the advertisement, as it connotes Italian-ness. The advertisement, which includes a picture of pasta, a tin, tomatoes, onions, capsicum, mushrooms and a sachet of parmesan cheese spilling out of a string shopping bag can be read by “linking its completed message... with a cultural theme or concept of ‘Italianicity’” (Hall 1997:41). Hence, “at the level of the myth... the Panzani ad becomes a message about the essential meaning of Italian- ness as a national culture” (Hall 1997:41; Hall’s italics). This concept of Italian-ness can only be decoded because it is reliant upon a “paradigmatic chain of cultural stereotypes” (Jones and Holmes 2011: 201). Jones and Holmes (2011:201) argue that

precisely because the denotative and connotative messages are simultaneously “received” by the reader, however, the overall implication is to “naturalize” the cultural work of the advertisement and such stereotypes. Hence, for Barthes, it also works ideologically.

In Barthes’ later work, he considered how the anchoring of signification also indicated that meaning was in actual fact polysemic, a multiplicity of meanings.

... the semiotic form that generates polysemy is a floating chain of signifiers, the meaning of which otherwise remains “unfixed”... the fixing and unfixing of meaning also suggested a more fluid form of critic-political practices that emerged most notably in media studies around conceptions of popular (Jones and Holmes 2011:202).

As suggested earlier, this approach contributed to the “increasing ‘textualisation’ of social phenomena—that is, to read non-linguistic phenomena not only as if they were structured like a language but also if they were no more than texts” (Jones and Holmes

2011:202).

To conclude, this section has highlighted how language functions to disseminate meaning in the representation of culture. Through the development of semiotics, there

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has been a concern with studying the constructionist nature of language. Saussure’s initial distinction between langue and parole opened a theoretical space to considering language as a cultural and social construct. Barthes’ reflection on the second level of signification, connotation, considered the ideological dimension of cultural messages and how meaning can embody multiplicity. Further, his insights provided cultural studies practitioners with the analytical tools for reading all cultural forms, products and practices as sign systems. Drawing from these theoretical traditions, Hall (1980) considers how cultural codes function in the dissemination of cultural meanings. As such, the following section considers Hall’s encoding/decoding method in the reading of bridal texts.

Reading Bridal Texts

One of the reasons Stuart Hall’s method is considered relevant to a reading of bridal texts is the complexity of his approach to understanding communication. He considers how, in positioning the meaning of a text, there is a complex interaction of power between producer, text and audience. In considering how cultural texts can be read,

Pearce (1995) queries who or what is responsible for the meaning of a text. For example, she questions if it is the author, the text, the reader or a complex combination of these which positions a text’s meaning. More specifically, Pearce argues that in deploying textual analysis, it is important that the researcher determine “who or what it is that one is investigating (i.e. author/‘means of production’, text, or audience/readership)” (Pearce 1995:81; Pearce’s italics). As such, methodological choices require an understanding of which element holds the balance of power: the author, reader or the text (Pearce 1995).

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Although the primary concern of this thesis is to employ a semiotic reading of bridal texts, there is also an interest in how these texts function more broadly as a part of cultural interactivity. It is for this reason that it is useful to look at Stuart Hall’s (1980) understanding of how meaning is “encoded and decoded” within and through media.

Complementing Hall’s (1980) existing focus on televisual texts, I want to contemplate how his communication model can be relevant in a reading of bridal texts. I want to consider how bridal texts can be understood as a part of a communication process, a

“structure produced and sustained through the articulation of linked but distinctive moments—production, circulation, distribution/consumption, reproduction” (Hall

1980:128). This understanding of the communication process as delineated by Hall

(1980:128) considers how the aforementioned “moments” in this circuitous model are not only interconnected, but also distinctive in mode, forms and conditions of existence.

This model sharply highlights “how a continuous circuit of production-distribution- production can be sustained through a ‘passage of forms’” (Hall 1980:128). Further, a distinction between discursive and other types of production by modern media systems can be illuminated.

The relevance of Hall’s approach to my subsequent analysis of bridal texts is his distinction between the labour process required during the mode of production and the production of discourses. In other words, I want to distinguish between these forms of production to undertake an examination of how popular discourses on brides, bridal traditions and the white wedding construct cultural meanings about sex, gender, and sexuality. Although Hall (1980) posits broadcasting as the medium central to his analysis of communication, a consideration of how this communication model can also be applied to the bridal print media will be given. An underlying feature of the

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encoding/decoding model has been understood to be relational to and applicable to televisual texts. However, Hall has also deployed these concepts to consider the application of semiotics to news photographs and the “ideological role of the media”

(Jones and Holmes 2011:73). As mentioned previously, cultural studies argues, following Barthes (1972), that any cultural object and form generates meaning, can be read as a text and can be subjected to a semiotic analysis. Here, I want to consider the similarities between the modes of production of broadcasting and the print media. I argue that these similarities, particularly the capacity to produce and disseminate cultural meaning in the form of sign vehicles, makes Hall’s methodological approach relevant to a reading of bridal texts.

To begin, there are clearly differences which can be drawn between broadcasting and print media in relation to production routines and conventions, as well as technical skills. The former is a visual and aural medium, whilst the latter, although visual, is a written cultural medium. Despite this, similarities can also be drawn between these production sites in terms of modes of production, particularly in relation to labour processes, the discursive aspect, and how the production process does not constitute a closed system. In terms of the labour process required for cultural production, it can be noted that both broadcasting and the print media are “institutional structures... with their practices and networks of production, their organized relations and technical infrastructures... required to produce a programme” (Hall 1980:129). It has already been established that the bridal print media is comprised of both smaller boutique and multi- national publication companies. These types of publishing company have noted differences between them in terms of infrastructure, availability of resources and how they distribute bridal magazines and planners. However, similar to broadcasters, these

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companies are social institutions and require technical knowledge and skills in order to publish as well as an organised set of work relations and relevant labour processes.

The production process for television broadcasting, for example, necessitates direction, actors, producers, lighting, sound, cameras, an administrative structure and broadcasting equipment. In the case of publishing, the production process requires a different set of technical structures and equipment to print and distribute magazines as well as a distinct set of professional skills and relationships. Publishing requires editors, writers, fashion experts, models, stories, high fashion as well as technical infrastructure and administration structures. It is not necessarily pertinent to highlight the specificities of the different aspects of these various production processes. However, it is relevant to illuminate the fact that both broadcasting and print media are social institutions with relations of production. This aspect of the production process is the “‘labour process’ in the discursive mode” (Hall (1980:129). It is considered to be the site where the message of the cultural product, such as a televisual programme or bridal publication, is constructed.

As such, there is also a discursive aspect to both broadcasting and publishing production processes. In other words, these institutional structures with their relations and infrastructure of production are also embedded and

... framed throughout by meanings and ideas: knowledge in use concerning the routines of production, historically defined technical skills, professional ideologies, institutional knowledge, definitions and assumptions, assumptions about the audience... (Hall 1980:129).

This discursive aspect of cultural production not only embodies ideas from within the production process itself, but also “other discursive formations within the wider socio- cultural and political structure of which they are a differentiated part” (Hall 1980:129).

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In other words, production structures of the televisual discourse do not constitute a closed system, as ideas, topics, meanings, agendas and so forth are drawn from other public and popular discourses. Similarly, the production structures of discourses that originate from the print media can also be considered open systems, as will be demonstrated in the following chapters. In particular, I argue, in Chapter Four, that bridal publications draw from romance narratives and fairytales in their construction of what constitutes the ideal bridal "moment" and white wedding. Further, the representation of the white wedding by this popular discourse mirrors dominant cultural values as disseminated and circulated by public and political discourses such as heterosexuality, prescribed gender roles and "whiteness".

As established, the production process of bridal publications embodies features of cultural production that mirror the televisual production process. Similar to broadcasting, the bridal print media’s mode of production is characterised by institutional structures, labour processes, and a discursive aspect. Most importantly, both the aforementioned media, as a part of the cultural production process, disseminate meanings and messages in the form of sign vehicles. In other words, women’s and bridal publications are a written visual medium, but are understood (in cultural studies terms) as "texts" because they produce and disseminate meanings about the white wedding in the form of sign vehicles. These publications therefore disseminate and circulate—through the publication of editorials, advertisements and bridal images— cultural meanings about the ideal bride, bridal traditions and the white wedding in the form of sign systems. According to Hall (1980:128), sign vehicles are subjected to the formal rules of language and are “organised through the operation of codes”. They constitute the discursive "form" of modern media cultural products, and are issued at the

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"moment" of production/circulation during the communication process. Although the encoding/decoding model is circuitous, it is the discursive form of the message that is posited as privileged. It is in this form that cultural products are not only circulated but also distributed to different audiences and consumers. As Driscoll (2002:176) states,

“what bridal magazines sell is not wedding dresses, dinner sets, or any other commodity so much as popular discourses on the public roles of girls”.

However, in order for the communication circuit to be realised and considered effective, this discourse must be transformed into social practices. The circulation and reception of

(televisual) messages are “re-incorporated, via a number of skewed and structured

‘feedbacks’, into the production process itself” (Hall 1980:130). According to this view, consumption is about "meaning" and how it is appropriated, because if “the meaning is not articulated in practice, it has no effect” (Hall 1980:128). The consumption/reception of televisual messages is considered important, as it is the "moment" the message is realised; but Hall argues that the production of the televisual message predominates the

"moment" of consumption because it “is the ‘point of departure for the realization’ of the message” (Hall 1980:130).

The aforementioned formulation, by Hall (1980), of how meaning is appropriated, has not only influenced the turn toward ethnographic research and how audiences actively engage with texts, but also the shift from “media content analysis towards semiotic approaches” (Jones and Holmes 2011:73). According to the encoding/decoding model, an understanding of how meaning is appropriated would also require a thoroughgoing ethnographic approach to bridal culture. Although the primary concern of this thesis is to undertake a semiotic reading of bridal texts, there is also an interest here in how these

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texts more broadly function as a part of cultural interactivity. Consumption processes are not a central focus of this investigation, but Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding method, discussed in more detail below, provides the analytical tools to "read" the contradictions and complexities of romance ideologies and bridal cultural meanings.

Through the identification of dominant cultural narratives about the white wedding, there is an opportunity to read how these bridal texts encode a preferred reading of bridal traditions. Accompanying this semiotic analysis, I have considered how cultural meanings are appropriated through participant observation exercises and also published accounts and/or readings of weddings.

It has already been established that contemporary wedding studies, which posit the mode of production (wedding industry) as central to analysis, understand that meaning is fixed by the producers of texts (Engstrom 2008; Engstrom and Semic 2003; Ingraham

1999). Complementing the existing focus on how meaning operates, it is useful to consider Hall’s (1980) conceptualisation of how televisual messages appear at the sites of production and consumption. Hall’s model allows for an understanding of the cultural production of meaning which differs significantly from the aforementioned wedding studies. In other words, the encoding/decoding method opens the space to a consideration of the fluidity of cultural meanings, thereby challenging the idea that meaning is fixed in the production process. Hall’s model highlights how power is structured in relations of dominance and subordination, but allows for “the contradictions in society, the contradictions in meanings, the contradictions in ideologies and the contradictions in subjectivities” (Fiske 1996:219).

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In the encoding/decoding model, televisual messages, when located either at the site of production or consumption, are not identical. This lack of sameness does not preclude these messages from being interrelated, as the communication process, which is formed by social relations, is constitutive of these differentiated "moments" of production and consumption (Hall 1980). In order for a message to be understood, it is necessary for production institutions such as broadcasting and publishing structures to ensure that messages are encoded into a meaningful discourse so that they may be meaningfully decoded (Hall 1980:130). To effect the realisation of a text, the production process, as established, requires a combination of technical infrastructure frameworks of knowledge and relations of production. However, according to Hall (1980:129), “a ‘raw’ historical event cannot, in that form, be transmitted by, say, a television newscast. Events can only be signified within the aural-visual forms of the televisual discourse” (Hall’s italics).

Hence, when an event is signified it must not only conform to the formal rules of language but also evoke shared cultural values. In this sense, the text appeals to the audience in the form of a "meaningful discourse".

For example, in the construction of what constitutes a white wedding, Australian bridal publications not only adhere to the "proper" conventions of the English language, but also rely upon common cultural values. In this sense, a meaningful discourse on weddings is constructed through the dissemination of bridal traditions which rely upon shared cultural values about what constitutes these traditions. The white bridal gown, for instance, is popularly recognisable and identifiable as a bridal tradition. However, this gown is also distinguishable as such because it relies upon common cultural values that bridal dresses are exclusively reserved for female sexed bodies, that they are a rite

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of passage for girls, and are the expression of a quintessential performance of femininity.

The encoding/decoding model allows for an understanding of audiences as actively engaging in the cultural production of meaning rather than being passive in their consumption. This method provides the opportunity to contest previous wedding studies which not only posit meaning as fixed, but also consider ideology as manipulative and consumers as passive (Currie 1993; Engstrom and Semic 2003; Engstrom 2008;

Ingraham 1999). In other words, Hall’s semiotic approach allows for an analysis which moves beyond existing research positing the white wedding as a site for the reproduction of cultural norms. He argues that although messages are both encoded and decoded within a meaningful discourse, “the codes of encoding and decoding may not be perfectly symmetrical” (Hall 1980:131). Hall argues that the degree of symmetry between understanding and misunderstanding depends upon the “(relations of equivalence) established between the positions of the ‘personifications’, encoder- producer and decoder-receiver” (Hall 1980:131). These relations of equivalence between, encoder and decoder, is also dependent upon “the degrees of identity/non- identity” (Hall 1980:131) between the codes.

In other words, codes at the "moments" of encoding and decoding are asymmetrical because of the different structural location between broadcasters (publishers) and audiences (brides-to-be) as well as the lack of symmetry between “the codes of ‘source’ and ‘receiver’ at the moment of transformation into and out of the discursive form”

(Hall 1980:131). More specifically, producers/publishers may encode a text so that its meaning is interpreted within a specific and limited frame of definitions, but there are

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no guarantees that consumers will decode the intended meaning of the producers

(publishers). Even though Hall (1980:131) identifies that there is a lack of equivalence between encoding and decoding in the communication process, he argues that this lack

“defines the ‘relative autonomy’ but ‘determinateness’, of the entry and exit of the message in its discursive moments”.

In considering the complexity of the televisual sign, Hall highlighted how "reality" is in effect a form of representation, as it is constantly being mediated by and through language. The televisual sign is not only iconic (possesses some of the properties of the thing represented) but it also constitutive of two different discourses, visual and aural. In considering visual discourses, Hall noted how television transforms three dimensional images into two dimensional images. Hence the televisual image cannot be the referent or the concept it signifies; a “dog in a film can bark but cannot bite” (Hall 1980:131).

As such, "reality" is understood as simultaneously existing outside of, but being constantly mediated by and through, language. It follows then that our capacity to know and speak can only be produced in and through discourse (Hall 1980:131). Hall

(1980:131) succinctly states:

Discursive "knowledge" is the product not of the transparent representation of the "real" in language but of the articulation of language on real relations and conditions. Thus there is no intelligible discourse without the operation of a code.

Although codes often appear to be natural, particularly iconic codes, they are culturally and socially constructed, learnt from childhood and are widely disseminated in any specific language, culture and community. Codes are however naturalised when there is an articulation between the sign and the referent. Naturalised codes do not reveal language as being transparent, but rather demonstrate the near universality and

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regularity of which the code is being deployed. These naturalised codes have an ideological effect, as they produce a natural recognition which conceals the practice of the codes. In relation to communication, where there is exchange of meaning, naturalised codes are recognisable when there is uniformity between the process of encoding and decoding. Visual signs are more likely to be understood universally, and hence naturally occurring, because visual signs contain at least some of the properties of the sign being represented. “This leads us to believe that the visual sign for ‘cow’ actually is (rather than represents) the animal, cow” (Hall 1980:132). This is unlike linguistic signs, which do not posses any of the qualities which are being represented.

As such, Hall points to the visual representation of a cow in a manual on veterinary science and the linguistic sign "cow" to demonstrate how “both, in different degrees, are arbitrary with respect to the concept of the animal they represent” (Hall 1980:132).

The articulation of an arbitrary sign—whether visual or verbal—with the concept of a referent is the product not of nature but of convention, and the conventionalism of discourses requires the intervention, the support, of codes (Hall 1980:132).

Hall (1980) clearly outlines how there are very few moments when signs, as apparent in discursive formations, can signify a literal meaning. Ordinarily, in linguistic theory, as previously discussed, denotation is associated with a literal meaning of a sign;

“‘denotation’ has often been confused with a literal transcription of ‘reality’ in language—and thus with a ‘natural sign’, one produced without the intervention of a code” (Hall 1980:132−133). Connotation has been deployed to refer to meanings that are more fluid and contextually understood, requiring the intervention of codes. The utility of the aforementioned distinctions between denotation/connotation is underscored by Hall (1980) in terms of its value as a tool in analysis. For analytical purposes, signs are comprised of aspects which appear in any language to have a literal meaning

(denotation) but are also constitutive of associative meanings (connotation).

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Although this analytical distinction is drawn, Hall (1980:133) questioned the relevance of this distinction to the "real world", and argued that the organisation of signs into discourses can rarely “signify only their ‘literal’ (that is, near-universally consensualized) meaning” (Hall’s italics). It is at the denotative level, however, that the ideological value of the sign is strongly fixed. It is at this level that signs are conceptualised to not only be understood universally, but are also naturalised. The analytical distinction between denotation and connotation is therefore useful for analysis, as it is at the connotative level that signs acquire their full ideological meanings. It is at this level that meanings are not considered to be fully naturalised; that is, meaning is characterised as fluid, and hence open to interpretation. Consequently, it is at the connotative level that ideologies can be altered and transformed. The sign is therefore open to new readings, and as such, there is a possibility for struggle over meaning, which as Hall argues, is a class struggle in language. Hence, the analytical distinction between denotation/connotation is useful because it opens a conceptual space to considering the different levels where ideologies and discourses intersect.

In employing Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding method, I want to challenge existing wedding studies which understand cultural meanings as fixed. In a reading of women’s and bridal publications, following Hall, this thesis argues that any one sign can have multiple signifiers. The white bridal gown, for example, has already been identified as a sign that can signify, depending upon context, femininity, elegance and a rite of passage. However, the meaning of the bridal gown is, at the connotative level, fluid and open to interpretation. The white bridal gown (a sign) can have more than one signification and more than one meaning. This therefore requires an understanding that signs at the connotative level are polysemic, open to transformation and interpretation

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(Hall 1980). Despite the fact that a bridal gown can have a multiple significations, according to the encoding/decoding model, these significations are structured in relations of dominance and subordination. To clarify, unlike pluralism, polysemy recognises that codes are not equal and that language is ordered and classified according to the often contested "dominant cultural order". Despite the potential for a sign to generate a multiplicity of connotative meanings, connotative codes are generally classified in relation to the socio-cultural and political context in which they were formulated.

To explicate in more detail, there is a mapping of social and cultural life onto discursive domains that are hierarchically organised into dominant or preferred meanings. These meanings are considered to be dominant rather than determined, because signs can be ordered, assigned and decoded in more than one mapping. Preferred meanings not only embody institutional, political and ideological structures, but are also institutionalised.

The social order which encompasses particular meanings, practices, beliefs and values are embedded within the preferred meanings of texts. An analysis of the connotative level of signs therefore allows for an understanding of social life, economics, political power and ideology of any given society. The communication process also encompasses, as Hall delineates, performative rules. These rules actively prefer one semantic domain in relation to another. However, dominant meanings do not determine how all meanings will be signified. Instead there is a necessity, at the moment of encoding, to attempt to enforce a particular kind of decoding. This is achieved by attempting to contain meaning within limited dominant definitions. As such, Hall is critical of the idea that a text’s meaning is "determined" that it is fixed.

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In the subsequent analysis of bridal publications, there is an identification of a "white wedding narrative" weaving through these cultural texts. Here, narrative is deployed to refer to what Hall (1980) nominates as the preferred reading/meaning of cultural texts.

In identifying a white wedding narrative, it is argued that bridal texts construct a narrative around the central figure (protagonist) of the bride, with whom the reader is invited to identify. According to Hartley (2002), narratives reveal how ideology and discourse function in the plot and presentation of a narrative. In considering how the bride is constructed, the role she is invited to assume in the planning and performance of the wedding and how associated bridal traditions are constructed, it is argued that the white wedding narrative, following Hartley (2002), evokes dominant cultural beliefs.

The white wedding narrative is a story about the ideal wedding, as apparent in popular culture, featuring the ideal bride as protagonist. This narrative relies upon constructed bridal traditions, and also provides a commentary on traditional aspects of courtship, romance, commitment, love and so forth. These constructed traditions are embedded within cultural ideals and norms such as heterosexuality, prescribed gender roles, monogamy, virginity, the ‘nuclear’ family, and Christianity. In some sense, the white wedding narrative could be considered, as delineated by Hall (1980), the preferred or dominant reading of bridal cultural texts. Following Hall, the white wedding narrative, although dominant, does not determine all meanings of and about the bride/wedding, or bridal/wedding traditions. In other words, bridal texts can also be contradictory, open to interpretation and a site where meaning is contested.

In undertaking a reading of bridal publications, I want to consider how texts can be decoded from the following subject positions. Hall argues that there is no necessary link

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between the process of encoding and decoding; encoding does not determine how meanings will be decoded. As such, Hall identifies three possible audience positions that can be assumed during the consumption of texts. The first one is the "dominant hegemonic position" which is when the consumer decodes the connoted meaning of the message as it was meant to be decoded. There is symmetry here between the encoding and decoding of the message: in this instance, the consumer is operating within the dominant code. The second position is the "negotiated position", which encompasses a combination of adaptive and oppositional elements. This position is when the consumer is in accordance with the dominant definitions, but in his/her practice negotiates the meaning. Finally, the "oppositional code" is when the message is decoded within the preferred reading but is also decoded in an alternative frame of reference. Hall

(1980:138) claims that it is “here, the politics of signification—the struggle in discourse—is joined.”

The employment of Hall’s encoding/decoding model opens the theoretical space to consider how cultural meanings about the ideal white wedding, bride and bridal traditions functions at the nexus of cultural interactivity. The methodological approach provides a solid basis for moving beyond the tendency within the existing wedding literature to posit the wedding as a site for the reproduction of cultural norms. In considering how the white wedding narrative is the preferred meaning of the white wedding, this thesis demonstrates how semiotics can be applied to challenge existing notions of cultural meanings as fixed. Building upon Hall’s methodological approach I highlight the contradictions and tensions within and between bridal texts and how these contradictions allow for the re-invention of bridal traditions.

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To conclude, this chapter considered how the Australian publication market is generally characterised by the domination of print media ownership by a few multi-national corporations whilst bridal publications are owned and operated by smaller “boutique” publishers. This chapter has outlined some of the key characteristics of the Australian publication market to delineate the ownership, distribution and merchandising strategies of women’s and bridal publications. The semiotic analysis employed to read women’s and bridal publications has been complemented by informal participant observation exercises. Most importantly, Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding method has relevance in the reading of bridal publications. The employment of this methodological frame opens the space to consider the contradictory nature of cultural texts and meanings. The application of semiotics to a reading of women’s and bridal texts complements the existing wedding literature. This is so, as it not only responsive to the lack of textual analyses employed to study weddings but a semiotic approach also recasts cultural meanings as fluid.

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Part Two

Reading bridal traditions

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Chapter Four Australian Bridal Publications

Women’s and bridal publications participate in the dissemination of a white wedding narrative. This narrative constructs a set of bridal traditions that the bride is invited to perform in the execution of the ideal wedding of popular discourses. The centrality of the bride to the white wedding is made apparent by the circulation of bridal images on the front covers of women’s, gossip and bridal magazines. The publication of special souvenir editions of royal and celebrity weddings by women’s and gossip magazines provides a context for the more specialised bridal publications. Mirroring dominant discourses on gender identities and sexuality, these publications function to construct heterosexuality as normative.

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This chapter endeavours to highlight how women’s and gossip magazines function to construct a preferred reading of the bridal role and white wedding. I argue, however, that these publications cannot entirely fix the meaning of the white wedding. The introduction of sensationalist gossip magazine covers functions to disrupt the preferred meaning of bridal traditions as symbolic of hetero-normativity.

White Wedding Narrative

The term white wedding refers to the circulation of ideas about the ideal bride and wedding, constructed through traditional bridal practices such as the white bridal gown, wedding/bridal rings, bride’s/groom’s cake, throwing the bridal bouquet and garter.

Popular discourses on white weddings are those that construct an ideal of the perfect bride and wedding through the production of a set of rituals that are designated, validated and coded as traditional. A reading of women’s and bridal magazines reveals the presence of a ‘white wedding narrative’ weaving throughout these bridal texts. The following section is therefore concerned with defining what constitutes the white wedding narrative of popular cultural texts.

Within the domain of the popular, the term white wedding is frequently employed to discuss Western weddings more generally. As such, the term has also been appropriated by the critical literature on weddings, and is often linked to the concept of tradition. For example, Engstrom (2003:145) states that “the traditional American white wedding arguably serves as the most public display of commitment two people can make”, whilst

Currie (1993:403) also considers the “traditional white wedding” (my emphasis) in her analysis. Despite the employment of the term white wedding as denoting a traditional wedding, there seems to be an absence of commentary which reflects upon how these

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terms are conceptually linked. This thesis will thus consider the conceptual link between the white wedding and tradition as apparent in popular cultural texts. In other words, there is interest in outlining how the white wedding is coded as traditional. In delineating what constitutes the white wedding narrative, following Hall (1980), it is argued that the white wedding narrative is the preferred meaning/reading of weddings as apparent in women’s and bridal publications.

Although the critical literature is not generally reflective as regards the deployment of the concept of the white wedding, Ingraham (1999), an exception to the aforementioned rule, posits the white wedding as a part of her critical analysis. In doing so, she presents a consideration of how the white wedding functions as part of capitalist, patriarchal and race relations. Through the deployment of a materialist feminist framework, Ingraham considers how the white wedding is symbolic of the privileging of “white” middle- to upper- class American men, and as such, links this concept with wealth and

“whiteness”. Examining various cultural sites, she argues that the intended audience of white weddings is women, but in particular, white (Anglo-American) women. The white wedding, as apparent in popular culture, secures the interest of the status quo. This is because the idea of the white wedding “seeks to produce feminine subjects whose very existence and identity is organised by the ideology of romantic love” (Ingraham

1999:161).

Consequently, women are initiated into a “heterogendered” division of labour, where their work as housewives and mothers is unpaid. However, according to Ingraham

(1999), the ideology of romantic love, as apparent in the white wedding fairytale, maintains not only the status of men and heterosexuality, but also of “whiteness”. The

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dominant ideology of romantic love functions to justify the social order, as the combination of class power with the dissemination of romantic messages justifies the privileging of white middle- to upper-class heterosexual marriage to the exclusion of other relationships. Further, the ideology of romantic love is consumed passively by an unsuspecting public, which in turn maintains inequities. As such, Ingraham, contrary to some cultural studies practitioners, is critical of theoretical positions which posit

“resistance” as a part of “dominance”. Rather, critical consciousness is understood as essential in recognising the political implications of the dominant “white wedding” fairytale.

Accordingly, images of the ideal white wedding—symbolic of heterosexuality, wealth, traditional gender roles, and “whiteness”—are a part of a formulaic “dominant romantic fairy-tale story” (Ingraham 1999:160).

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a handsome prince met a beautiful maiden, swept her off her feet, married her in a perfect white wedding ceremony, and carried her away to a land of fairytales and dreams where they raised three gorgeous children and lived happily ever after (Ingraham 1999:160; emphases added).

In positing that the aforementioned fairytale is “dominant” in popular culture, Ingraham is commenting on its prevalence within this cultural domain. In other words, this fairytale is recognisable through its repetition across a wide range of popular cultural texts and the fact that, as stated previously, it “tend(s) not to vary much” (Ingraham

1999:73). The prevalence of this fairytale sustains a romance ideology which functions to conceal the contradictions of patriarchal and capitalist discourses and to uphold the existing inequitable social order. As this fairytale is “dominant” (prevalent) in popular culture, it follows that the meaning of what constitutes romance and the white wedding is fixed through the production process. Therefore, according to Ingraham, romance ideology, the fairytale of popular texts, functions to legitimise particular sexual and

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gender identities, whilst privileging “whiteness” and sustaining various forms of distinctions, including class distinctions.

There has been a tentative link made between white weddings and tradition in the critical literature as well as a conceptual recognition that the white wedding relies on popular fairytale narratives. Complementing these concerns, I want to consider how the white wedding narrative, although coded as the preferred meaning of the wedding, does not necessarily determine all readings of weddings and bridal traditions. As such, the subsequent analysis follows Hall (1980), who, as delineated in Chapter Three, demarcates a difference between dominant/preferred and determined meanings. In considering that there are dominant/preferred meanings/readings of texts, there is a recognition of the polysemic nature of texts; any one sign can have multiple significations which are anchored within a dominant/preferred meaning. Hall is critical of the idea that a text’s meaning is “determined”. Although Ingraham (1999) deploys the term “dominant” in understanding how meaning functions, her theoretical use of the term is closely aligned with Hall’s use of “determined”. Hence, for Ingraham, the white wedding fairytale is not only prevalent in popular culture but also disseminates fixed meanings about heterosexuality, gender roles, “whiteness”, class and so forth.

Therefore, in defining what constitutes the white wedding narrative of women’s and bridal texts, I want to consider how this narrative is coded as a romantic fairytale. As suggested by Ingraham (1999), the white wedding narrative tends to be formulaic, and

“appears” across multiple popular cultural texts. The publication of the “real life” tales of romance of celebrities and royals, for example, as circulated by women’s magazines, constructs a white wedding narrative which is coded as a romantic fairytale. These “real

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life” or “true” tales of romance function to construct a meaningful discourse on what constitutes a traditional white wedding. More specifically, the representation of “real life” fairytales in women’s magazines functions to make the white wedding narrative of bridal magazines and planners literate. In considering how royal weddings are represented in Australian women’s and gossip magazines as “real life” and/or “true” fairytales, it is useful to reflect upon Mary Donaldson’s wedding to the Crown Prince of

Denmark, as presented in The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir

(June 2004:14−30).

Celebrity and royal weddings are often featured in women’s publications. However, this story is of particular interest to the subsequent analysis. Some of the reasons why this fairytale could be considered more relevant to this analysis than others include the distinctively “Australian” context in which this romantic narrative began and unfolded.

The story also received extensive media attention, not only in women’s magazines, but also in Australian television and news networks more generally. Further, this marriage has remained a constant reference point in the Australian media with coverage of the couple’s trips to Australia, as well as the births and christenings of their children. For example, The Australian Women’s Weekly (October 2013) commemorated their 80th birthday issue (the magazine was first published as a newspaper on June 10th 1933) with a cover story about the Crown Princess Mary. Not only did she appear on the cover of the celebratory issue, but she was also featured in an eight-page spread which included a

“world exclusive” interview and images of her showcasing Australian designer gowns at

Amalienborg Palace in Denmark (The Australian Women’s Weekly October

2013:90−98). Although Donaldson is a representative Head of State for Denmark, her relevance to Australian audiences, as a quintessential example of femininity as a

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princess, wife and mother, is made relevant through reference to her Australian identity.

Anchoring the cover image of Donaldson, which is also replicated as the introductory bi-line to the article, is her statement “part of me will always be Australian, it’s who I am” (The Australian Women’s Weekly October 2013: cover; 91).

It has been noted by Bonner (2006) that popular women’s magazines tend to feature more stories about celebrities than about royals. The exception to this rule, however, was the coverage of Donaldson’s engagement and wedding in 2004, which was featured more regularly than celebrity stories (Bonner 2006). This was because it was a news story that had all the proper elements of a popular fairytale: she was a young woman from the globally obscure Australian state of Tasmania who married the Crown Prince of Denmark. Referred to as the “unassuming commoner” by The Australian Women’s

Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (June 2004:20) and “Aussie commoner” by Woman’s

Day: Royal Wedding Special Issue (May 24, 2004:19), Donaldson’s story seemed to be incredible. She was literally and metaphorically catapulted, by the media, from obscurity into the spotlight through her appearance as the ideal bride, and her transformation into a literal princess. The representation of this “real life” fairytale became one of the quintessential examples of the ideal romance and white wedding of

Australian popular culture.

In considering the political implications of how the Australian women’s magazine market is monopolised by a handful of media corporations, as detailed in Chapter Three, this analysis will also explore how Donaldson’s wedding was represented in other women’s and gossip magazines, published by Australian Consolidated Press (ACP),

Pacific Magazines and Time Inc. However, there are several reasons why The

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Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (June 2004:14−30) magazine feature was chosen as the primary object for this analysis. These include the publication’s longevity, high circulation numbers, and ownership pattern. To explicate further, The Australian Women’s Weekly is one of the oldest publications, and has always had among the highest circulation numbers, in Australia (Bonner 2006). Most importantly, this magazine was published by ACP, owned by Kerry Packer, which in

2004 dominated 47.5% of the magazine market in Australia. As such, ACP also published other high-circulating women’s, gossip and bridal magazines such as

Woman’s Day, Cosmopolitan, Cleo, NW and Cosmopolitan Bride.11 Packer, who was considered to be one of the wealthiest Australians, not only had a share in the magazine market but his media interests also extended to the ownership of Channel Nine, a free- to-air Australian television network. Packer inherited ACP from his father Sir Frank

Packer. In 2004 ACP was the major shareholder of, with a 37% holding in, Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL). Publishing Broadcasting Limited owned Channel

Nine and also had interests in the Hoyts Cinema chains (Ha & Ganahl 2007). As Bonner

(2006:197) states, “television and magazines are quite intricately involved with each other, especially those magazines published by the major media magnates”.

The ownership of The Australian Women’s Weekly by a multi-media corporation, which had controlling interests in a large share of the Australian media market, demonstrates how mass and popular cultural production functions within relations of dominance and

11 Between the period of January 2004 and June 2004, the circulation numbers for some of these magazines are as follows: The Australian Women’s Weekly 682, 111; Woman’s Day 521, 200 (these are the two highest circulated titles, with the highest selling men’s magazine, FHM, only having one-sixth of the sales of The Australian Women’s Weekly); Cosmopolitan 209, 850; Cleo 190, 012; NW 183,560 (Bonner 2006:194).

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subordination.12 Following Ingraham (1999), it could be argued that Australian media corporations such as ACP, in the production of mass-disseminated popular cultural products, goods and services, circulate a “dominant” romantic fairytale story about the white wedding. It is certainly the case that the representation of Donaldson’s wedding mirrored the fairytale romantic narrative of the white wedding, as previously identified by Ingraham (1999). More specifically, these women’s and gossip magazines coded

Donaldson as a maiden-in-waiting who married a handsome prince in a perfect white wedding ceremony at Copenhagen Cathedral, and as a newly-anointed princess, was carried “away to a land of fairytales and dreams” (Ingraham 1999:160). Following

Ingraham (1999), it could be argued that this ideology of romance is then passively consumed by “the masses” and ultimately functions to maintain a range of inequities.

In this instance, the meaning of the white wedding fairytale is fixed at the site of cultural production, and these meanings tend not to embody variations. It is certainly the case that a particular constructed narrative of Donaldson’s life, romance and wedding was mass-disseminated across a multitude of print media platforms. For instance, ACP publications, publishers of Australian Women’s Weekly, and Women’s Day, constructed a tightly- constrained fairytale narrative about Donaldson that was repeated in both the aforementioned women’s magazines with little variation. This can be particularly noted through reference to the introduction of this narrative in these publications.

A TRUE ROMANCE It was a historic day when Australia’s own Mary Donaldson married her prince charming, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, in a stunning ceremony at Copenhagen

12 It is important to note that Kerry Packer passed away on December 26, 2005 (Ha & Ganahl 2007), and after his death, his media interests have been restructured. In 2007, James Packer, Kerry Packer’s son, sold the Nine Network, ACP and some other media assets to the private equity group CVC for $4.5 billion. In 2010, David Gyngell, the chief executive officer, renamed the media company Nine Entertainment Co. In 2012, ACP was sold to the German publisher company, Bauer (Chessell 2012).

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Cathedral on May 14 (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir, June 2004:15).

OUR princess bride It’s a fairytale come true as Australia’s Mary Donaldson marries her own Prince Charming in a romantic and magical ceremony in Copenhagen...(Woman’s Day: Royal Wedding Special Issue, May 24, 2004: 18−19).

This narrative, the preferred reading of these cultural texts, was also replicated across other women’s and gossip magazines. For example, New Idea: Royal Wedding Souvenir

(May 22, 2004) has on its cover a close-up image of the bride and groom walking down the aisle, linking arms, after the ceremony. In the background are blurred images of the bridal attendants. The image is anchored by the title “MARY & FREDERIK: A

FAIRYTALE COME TRUE”. The symbolic representation of Donaldson’s wedding as a fairytale in various publications owned by a couple of different Australian media monopolies illuminates how the meaning of the white wedding is temporarily fixed through the production process.

A notable feature of the coverage of Donaldson’s wedding by women’s and gossip magazines was that these texts not only relied upon popular fairytale codes, but that this wedding was signified as a representation of a “real” event. For example, anchoring the image of Donaldson as bride on the front cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly:

Royal Wedding Souvenir (June 2004:14−30), is “MARY & FREDERIK: A TRUE

ROMANCE”. Replicating this representation of the wedding, Woman’s Day claimed that Donaldson, on her wedding day, became “Australia’s first real-life princess” and that “It’s a fairytale come true” (Woman’s Day: Royal Wedding Special Issue, May 24,

2004:18−19; emphases added). Ordinarily, fairytales are understood to be fictional narratives. Hence, in coding Donaldson’s story as “real” and “true”, these texts temporarily function to fix the preferred reading of this romance as “real” rather than

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fictional, or in other words, as a representation. In doing so, these texts also construct a narrative on what constitutes the ideal white wedding.

It has already been noted in Chapter Three, in reference to Hall (1980), that signs, whether visual, aural or written, can never fully signify a literal universal meaning. In other words, “reality” can only ever be represented/signified through language. The broadcasting of television news events, according to Hall, can only ever be a signification of, rather than the transmission of a “raw” event. Although broadcasting and publishing are different cultural production media, both embody a discursive aspect and disseminate meanings in the form of sign vehicles (Hall 1980). In this sense, the magazine features of Donaldson’s wedding are representations of Donaldson’s wedding as a “real life” fairytale. I want to consider how cultural codes commonly and popularly associated with fictional fairytales were deployed to temporarily fix the meaning of

Donaldson’s wedding as a real fairytale. Moreover, I argue that women’s and gossip magazine not only deployed common cultural codes associated with fairytales but also referred to fictional fairytales to substantiate Donaldson’s fairytale as “real”. Through reference to Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish author of fairytales, an opposition between reality and fiction was constructed. This oppositional construction of

“reality”/fiction functioned to code Donaldson’s wedding as a “real” fairytale.

For instance, The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (June

2004:20), in establishing the centrality of Christian-Judeo religious ceremonies to the white wedding narrative, symbolically codes Copenhagen Cathedral as historically significant. Logically, the historical importance of this site would be less apparent to an

Australian audience, whose knowledge of the history other states such as Denmark

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would be fairly limited. This is a generalist remark, but the point here is that it is more likely that an Australian audience would be aware of the cultural and historical significance of sites such as Ayers Rock and Sydney Opera House. Hence, in order to establish the historical centrality of the cathedral for Australian audiences, the aforementioned texts deploy cultural codes common to Australians to code it as historically significant.

In establishing the historical significance of Copenhagen Cathedral and its relevance to

Australian audiences, the cathedral is symbolically linked to Hans Christian Andersen.

The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (June 2004:20) states that the Cathedral was

built on a site where churches have stood since the 12th century, the nave had not been so full of dignitaries since Hans Christian Andersen’s funeral was held there in 1875.

As Mary awaited to take her vows, you sensed that Denmark’s immortal teller of fairytales would have enjoyed this girl’s story...

Through a reference to Andersen’s funeral, this text functions to establish the importance and exclusivity of Copenhagen Cathedral and further substantiate

Donaldson’s wedding as an historic occasion. The text refers to Andersen as

“Denmark’s immortal teller of fairytales”, and hence functions to code his life and stories as eternal, enduring and everlasting, establishing fairytales as popular narratives.

In other words, a meaningful discourse is constructed about Donaldson’s fairytale romance and wedding by reliance on cultural codes associated with popular fairytales.

In doing so, this text, and other women’s and gossip magazines, deploy fictional fairytales to code Donaldson’s as "real".

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The reference to Andersen, who is popularly known in Australia as an author of fairytales, not only establishes the importance and relevance of the cathedral as central to the white wedding narrative, but also constructs a meaningful discourse about this tradition for an Australian audience. In other words, reference to other important historical events at the cathedral would have disrupted the preferred reading of

Donaldson’s wedding as a fairytale. This is because the reference to other Danish historical figures would not have been as relevant and/or recognisable to an Australian audience, and would not have fitted as neatly with the preferred narrative. Hans

Christian Andersen is signified by The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding

Souvenir (June 2004:20) as being an “immortal teller of fairytales”, and as such, is linked to the significance of Copenhagen Cathedral. In representing Andersen in this way, this text functions (as introduced earlier) to code Donaldson’s fairytale romance and wedding as "real". The comparisons which are delineated between Andersen’s enduring stories and Donaldson’s wedding function to signify her wedding as amazing and magical. Most importantly, however, her experience is coded as a dream that has become a "reality".

As mentioned previously, the preferred narrative of Donaldson’s wedding, as apparent in women’s and gossip magazines, tended to be mass-produced and mass-disseminated, due to the concentration of media print ownership. This is particularly evident in The

Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (June 2004) and the Woman’s

Day: Royal Wedding Special Issue (May 24, 2004) published by ACP.

And how appropriate her amazing journey to royalty should culminate in wonderful Copenhagen, where Hans Christian wrote his very first fairytales back in 1835 (Woman’s Day: Royal Wedding Special Issue, May 24, 2004:19).

Hans Christian Andersen couldn’t have imagined a more magical fairytale—our beautiful Mary Donaldson, the 32-year-old Tassie girl adored by all, becoming

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Australia’s first real-life princess (Woman’s Day: Royal Wedding Special Issue, May 24, 2004:19).

The New Idea: Royal Wedding Souvenir (May 22, 2004), published by Pacific

Magazines, a competing publication company, also replicates this preferred reading of

Donaldson’s wedding as a "real" fairytale.

It was a tale even Hans Christian Andersen couldn’t have dreamt up—two people from opposite ends of the earth and vastly different backgrounds meeting in a Sydney pub and falling in love (New Idea: Royal Wedding Souvenir, May 22, 2004).

The construction of Donaldson’s fairytale as "real" functions to make the white wedding narrative of bridal magazines and planners literate to their preferred audience: heterosexual, engaged "girls". In coding Donaldson’s fairytale wedding as real, these publications construct a preferred reading of the white wedding narrative. In other words, the construction of Donaldson’s wedding as a real fairytale functions to establish what constitutes the "ideal" white wedding of popular discourses. This ideal wedding of popular texts is coded as traditional, and delineates bridal traditions. In the ensuing analysis of bridal publications, I argue that women’s and gossip magazines, in their oppositional construction of "real" and fictional fairytale weddings, function to make bridal magazines literate. Bridal publications are made literate to their preferred audience through their contextual placement within the women’s publication market more generally. As such, there will be an exploration of how bridal publications also rely upon the idea of "reality" in constructing a white wedding narrative, as a distinction is drawn, by these publications, between "real" and editorial weddings.

Although this narrative is infused with fantastical and romantic elements such as a maiden in waiting, a dashing prince, everlasting love, triumph, celebration and so forth, it also participates in the circulation of dominant ideologies of gender roles and

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sexuality. The written textual elements of The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal

Wedding Souvenir (June 2004:14−30) article on Donaldson’s wedding was anchored by images which highlighted bridal traditions such as the bride at the entrance of the cathedral, the bride and groom entering the reception hall, bridesmaids attending to the bridal gown, the first kiss, the bridal table, the bridal cake, and the first dance.

Concluding this fairytale narrative was an image of the bride and groom leaving the reception in a car that had "newlyweds" spray painted on it with foam. These bridal traditions construct a meaningful discourse on what constitutes the ideal white wedding.

However, this popular discourse also participates in the circulation of cultural norms.

As established earlier, despite aggressive competition for a share of the publication market between major media corporations, women’s and gossip magazines reproduced similar narratives of Donaldson’s wedding. Ingraham (1999) would possibly argue that this lack of variation functions to fix the meaning of the white wedding as a fairytale.

However, following Hall (1980), any one sign can have multiple significations. Hence, it is argued here and will be substantiated in more detail shortly that these texts temporarily fix the preferred meaning of Donaldson’s wedding, which can be decoded in a variety of ways. As delineated in Chapter Three, Hall (1980) argues that texts can be decoded in the following ways: within the dominant hegemonic position, from a negotiated position, or in oppositional code. For example, when a text is decoded within the dominant hegemonic position, the reader decodes the connoted meaning of the message as it was meant to be decoded. The negotiated position embodies a combination of adaptive and oppositional positions, which means that consumers decode the message within the dominant position, but negotiate the meaning in its

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practice. When a text is decoded in an oppositional code, the message is decoded within the preferred reading but is also decoded from an alternative frame of reference.

It has so far been argued that the concentration of media ownership means that the production process involves the circulation of dominant ideologies, and as such, meaning can be fixed at the site of production. I want to consider how, in spite of this relation of dominance, following Hall (1980), meaning is in effect polysemic and can be decoded in a variety of ways. In illuminating how meaning operates, I want to undertake a reading of an image from the article on Donaldson’s wedding in The Australian

Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (June 2004:21). In establishing the significance of this royal wedding, there is a full page image, taken from a distance, of the bride and groom with their parents on the balcony of Amalienborg Palace. In the foreground of the image, there is a crowd of onlookers waving Danish and Australian flags and taking photographs of the royals. Underneath the balcony are large entrance doors to the palace with a guard at either side, standing to attention and holding their rifles upright. Anchoring this image on the left page is the following text, which informs readers who is featured in the photograph.

The full wedding party (from left), Mary’s stepmother, author Susan Moody, Frederik’s father, Prince Henrik, the happy couple Mary and Frederik, the groom’s mother, Queen Margrethe and Mary’s father, John Donaldson, smile and wave to the ecstatic and patriotic crowd below (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir 2004:20; emphasis added).

The preferred reading of this text, following Hall (1980), and from within a dominant hegemonic position, would be to read this wedding as a cultural representation of the ideal coupling. Pearce (1995), discussing the interaction between reader and text, argues that the reader exists in a dialogic relationship with texts. She argues that the text positions the reader, whilst the reader simultaneously positions the text. In considering

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the aforementioned image, it is interesting to note that the reader is invited to identify with the royal wedding onlookers. As the onlookers are in the forefront of this image and are looking upward toward the royals, this text also positions the reader as a member of these well-wishers. In other words, the camera angle functions to ensure that the reader has the same point of view of the royal wedding as the “patriotic crowd”. The

Danish and Australian flags held by the crowd, with the anchoring text "the ecstatic and patriotic crowd below”, are coded as a celebration of patriotism and the ideals of love, marriage, and family. This text temporarily fixes the preferred meaning of this wedding as a national celebration for Danes and Australians alike, and reflects hegemonic ideals.

The reader is therefore invited to participate in the celebration of wealth, whiteness, heterosexual love and romance, the preferred reading of the white wedding narrative.

According to Ingraham (1999), these capitalist and patriarchal ideologies disguised within romance discourses are consumed passively by an unsuspecting audience, thereby replicating inequities arisen from the establishment of cultural norms.

However, the egalitarian and patriotic dimensions of this fairytale image seem to be in tension. For example, the patriotic dimension of this image is a point of vulnerability in this coding, as Donaldson is not an Australian head of state. In actuality, women’s publications coded Donaldson as an Aussie commoner, which temporarily functions to disrupt the dominant reading of this image as an expression of egalitarianism and patriotism. Further, a wedding can not be patriotic for citizens of two different nation states simultaneously, unless the wedding solidifies an alliance between them, as such weddings used to. The egalitarian aspect of this image is not only disrupted by the coding of Donaldson as commoner, which is contrasted with her husband’s status and title of the Crown Prince of Denmark. But, in constructing this bridal role as a

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transitional one, from commoner to Princess—inclusive of the appropriation of the

Crown Prince’s status, name and title —the egalitarian aspect of this wedding is challenged.

Negotiated and resistant readings of this image are aided by the contradictory nature of the egalitarian and patriotic dimensions of this image. Hence, the aforementioned text can also be decoded from an oppositional position. This form of interpretation aligns more closely with Hall’s (1980) idea of decoding from within an oppositional code. In this instance, the meaning of this text could for example be decoded within the preferred reading, but can also be decoded from an alternative frame of reference, such as feminism. For example, this image could be read as being symbolic of the exclusion of other "forms" of sexuality, or as the representation of conspicuous consumption by the elite or as a representation of the masses being duped by the elites. Further, although this image can be decoded from within the dominant hegemonic position, the meaning of this text can be negotiated in its practice. More specifically, the reader may decode the text in the way that it was meant to be decoded, and as such, would concur with the idea that nationalist pride and patriotism is important in the celebration of this royal wedding as an ideal. However, this may have little or no bearing on the reader wanting to replicate this ideal wedding as a princess bride or to participate in more nationalistic ventures in her everyday life.

In conclusion, there has been a consideration of how the white wedding narrative appears in women’s and gossip magazines. I have argued that although this narrative is replicated and mass-disseminated across various women’s and gossip publications, it does not and cannot determine all meanings about the wedding. Departing from

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Ingraham (1999), and following on from Hall’s encoding and decoding method, there has been an examination of how women’s publications construct a preferred reading of the wedding in the form of a white wedding narrative. This narrative, which is marked by the coding of weddings as romantic fairytales, was deployed to construct

Donaldson’s royal wedding as a "real" fairytale. Further, these magazines construct a meaningful discourse on what constitutes the bridal role, white wedding and bridal traditions.

Women’s and Gossip Magazine Covers

The white wedding narrative, as apparent in women’s publications, constructs the bride as the central figure of the white wedding. More specifically, the front covers of women’s and gossip magazine participate in the circulation of popular discourses which code the bride as the protagonist of the white wedding fairytale. Covers of women’s publications feature images of the ideal bride and wedding by showcasing royal and celebrity weddings. The coding of the bride as the protagonist of the white wedding narrative, as apparent on women’s publication covers, provides a context and makes literate the centrality of the bride to bridal magazine covers. In other words, exclusive cover stories on royal and celebrity weddings in women’s publications function to construct a white wedding narrative which is indeed drawn upon in the construction of what constitutes the ideal bride, white wedding and bridal traditions of bridal publications. Through a reading of women’s magazines covers, I want to highlight how the bride is constructed as the protagonist of the white wedding narrative. In doing so, there is also a consideration of how heterosexuality is central to this narrative.

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This section explores how cultural ideals associated with the white wedding, such as prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality, mirror dominant political discourses.

However, I argue that sensationalist stories in gossip magazines, about broken fairytale marriages and gay marriages, function to not only validate Mary Donaldson’s royal wedding as an ideal, but simultaneously disrupt cultural ideals associated with the white wedding.

These covers not only function to fix a preferred reading of the bride as central to the romance of the white wedding, but the wedding is also coded as a heterosexual institution. In considering the centrality of the bride and heterosexuality to the fairytale of popular cultural texts, it is useful to undertake a reading of the cover of The

Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (June 2004:cover). To begin, I want to consider how this magazine cover deploys cultural codes associated with weddings so that it is recognisable as a wedding issue, and hence distinguishable from other monthly issues. To ensure that the brand of this publication is identifiable, the magazine title, The Australian Women’s Weekly, is in its trademark size and font.

However, in order to code the magazine as a special wedding issue, the title is in silver font whilst it is anchored by the words Royal Wedding Souvenir in a smaller-scripted white font. The silver and white scripted fonts juxtaposed with the cover’s gold border is reminiscent of formal wedding invitations. The scripted font not only highlights the intention for the magazine to be retained as a keepsake of the royal wedding, but in emulating handwritten cursive, also functions to personalise the publication.

Reminiscent of bridal wear magazines, which also situate the bride as the protagonist of fairytale weddings, the aforementioned cover features an upper-body image of

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Donaldson as a bride. This image of her relies upon cultural codes such as the white bridal gown, lace veil, pearl-drop earrings and bridal bouquet. These adornments combine to construct a discourse on what constitutes an ideal bride and bridal traditions.

These signifiers combine with the central figure of Donaldson as bride to construct a narrative about the magazine’s content on the royal wedding. This cover therefore connotes a personal invitation to “a true romance” and the wedding of “our new queen of hearts” (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir June

2004:cover).

Inset on the right-hand side of The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding

Souvenir (June 2004) cover, anchoring the larger image of Donaldson, is another smaller image of her kissing Crown Prince Frederik. This image is framed by a thin white border and larger gold border, reminiscent of a wedding photo. Most importantly, this image functions to establish the centrality of heterosexual relations to the white wedding narrative. The bride is coded as the protagonist of the white wedding; but the wedding is also coded as a heterosexual institution. These cover images are anchored by the text:

MARY & FREDERIK A TRUE ROMANCE How our new QUEEN OF HEARTS is REDEFINING ROYALTY (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir June 2004:cover)

Although the Woman’s Day: Royal Wedding Special Issue (May 24:2004) cover includes an image of the bridal couple, rather than just Donaldson as princess bride, the centrality of the bride to the white wedding narrative is fixed as such by the anchoring subtitle, in a large baby blue font at the bottom right-hand corner of the cover: “Mary’s

Fairytale Wedding”. Coding the royal wedding as the ideal on the front cover of Who

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magazine is an image of Donaldson as bride, kissing Crown Prince Frederik on the cheek. In this 2004 “celebrity nuptial” special wedding edition, Who (November 15,

2004) magazine showcases 46 celebrity weddings. Anchoring the cover image is the text: “Weddings of the year 2004” and the subtitle “46 celebrity nuptials”. This image and text function, in juxtaposition, not only to code celebrities as representative of ideals such as success, wealth and happiness, but also to code weddings as central to their social lives. This cover further functions to fix Donaldson’s romance and royal wedding as the cultural ideal. The royal wedding, the central feature of this front cover, is coded as the ideal “celebrity” wedding.

The front covers of the aforementioned women’s and gossip magazines differ slightly in terms of their coverage of Donaldson’s wedding to Crown Prince Frederik. However, these covers all participate in the circulation of popular discourses on what constitutes the ideal coupling and white wedding. Not only do these covers construct a meaningful discourse on what constitutes bridal traditions—such as the bridal gown, bridal bouquet and veil—but the bride is also understood to be central to the white wedding narrative, whilst the wedding validates prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality. Popular representations of the white wedding, as apparent on women’s and gossip magazine covers, symbolically code the wedding as a heterosexual institution and as a rite of passage for the publicly validated roles of wife and mother.

However, the white wedding narrative of women’s and bridal publications depends upon and draws from public political discourses. In other words, these publication covers are imbued, as detailed in Chapter Three, with current political, social, cultural and ideological structures (Hall 1980), and are marked by hegemonic ideologies. Hall

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(2010) argues that the codes deployed by media producers to produce texts embody ideologies that form representations of gender, sexuality and race in a hegemonic way.

Hence, the preferred meanings of a text are the consequence of dominant codes that create representations, which reinforce hegemonic ideals such as prescribed gender roles and hetero-normativity. The preferred meaning of a text is what it “means” on a thematic or cultural level, and as such draws from and validates dominant cultural ideologies (Hall 2010).

The women’s magazines and bridal publications chosen for analysis were primarily collected between 1999 and 2010. In considering how the white wedding narrative, the preferred reading of women’s and bridal texts, is inscribed with political, social, cultural and ideological structures, it is useful to consider this narrative within the context of contemporary Australian politics. Here, I want to delineate how the popular discourse of women’s publications on weddings is permeated by political ideologies which value women as wives as well as mothers, and heterosexuality as central to the marriage ideal.

This is undertaken by outlining the dominant political discourse, as circulated through public policy by the governing Liberal Party, and their leader, John Howard, who held the office of Australian Prime Minister between 1996 and 2007. The socially conservative politics of this government was reflected in the implementation of regressive policies directed toward women (Summers 2003).

Summers (2003) notes that these regressive policies were underpinned by patriarchal ideologies that encouraged women to return to the “home”. Policies were implemented to reduce the availability and accessibility to childcare for working mothers. Other policy implementations also functioned to curtail women’s independence, such as the

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closing of many women’s shelters and limiting access to appropriate healthcare. Many of the political advancements achieved by Australian feminists to aid women’s equality and independence were eroded by these policies (Summers 2003). The government’s focus on policies that valued traditional gender roles, the nuclear family and heterosexuality was underscored by the infamous comment made by Peter Costello, the

Australian Federal Treasurer, who announced that women should consider having children: “one for the father, one for the mother, and one for the country” (Summers

2004).

Summers (2003) argues that underpinning this government’s policy formulations were patriarchal ideologies which she nominated as the “breeding creed”. By all accounts, this creed was not only advocated by the Australian Federal Government, but also had alliances with other social, economic and cultural institutions. The “breeding creed” focused on procreation and was considered to be a reaction to Australia’s declining birth rate. Most importantly, it encouraged women to consider motherhood as their primary and only objective and was reminiscent of the “populate or perish” doctrine of 100 years earlier. These traditional views of women’s roles influenced governmental policies which made it difficult for women to undertake full time work as mothers. Hence, since the late 1990s, policies on childcare, employment, family assistance and taxation were deployed by the government to make it more financially viable for women to either undertake a full time motherhood role or to encourage women to have more children

(Summers 2004).

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Not only did the Liberal government erode political advances obtained for women by feminists, but it also participated in exclusionary politics in relation to concerns expressed by the “queer” community. Activists from the queer community began to rally more openly and publicly during this era for legal changes which would extend the partnership rights of heterosexual couples to homosexual ones. As such, one of the topics debated publicly at this time was the issue of same-sex marriage. In response to these debates, John Howard re-affirmed his conservative position. Not only did he oppose same-sex marriage, but he also wanted to ensure that the definition of marriage did not change. In an interview on a current affairs programme, Lateline, broadcast on the government-owned ABC television network, Howard stated to reporter Greg

Jennett, in reference to the Marriage Act, that he wanted...

to insert into the Act the commonly accepted definition of a marriage as the union of a man and a woman, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life... The definition of marriage is something that should not over time potentially be subject to redefinition or change by courts (www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1117638.html).

Political discourse during the Howard era validated conservative social values in relation to sex, gender and sexuality. In other words, the dominant discourse of

Australian politics makes literate the preferred reading of the white wedding narrative, of popular women’s publications. Public and political discourses on gender roles and heterosexuality validate the significance of the white wedding narrative. The white wedding narrative mirrors dominant Australian political discourses on gender roles and normative sexuality. More specifically, the “exclusive” coverage of Donaldson’s wedding to Crown Prince Frederik by women’s and gossip magazines temporarily fixed this royal wedding as a cultural ideal.

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It has already been established that the front covers of women’s publications code the significance of the wedding as central to social life. However, these covers also reflect other dominant public and political discourses on what constitutes a traditional wedding and the performance of the ideal bride. Mirroring dominant political discourses, women’s publication covers code the wedding as a heterosexual institution and a bridal

‘moment’. Thus far, there has been an interest in undertaking a reading of how these front covers construct a preferred reading of the bridal role and white wedding.

Although women’s publication covers construct a narrative about the white wedding which reflects dominant political discourses, these covers also participate in the circulation of ideas from more marginalised discourses originating from feminist and gay rights movements.

The attractiveness of women’s and gossip magazine covers to consumers are integral in increasing circulation figures in the competitive mass print market (Turner, Bonner and

Marshall 2000). As delineated in Chapter Three, these publications are distributed to newsagents and supermarkets. In order to attract potential consumers there is a need for

“eye-catching” covers which showcase sensationalised celebrity stories to respond to competition for market share. This is because consumers who acquire publications from newsagents, although generally having the intent of purchasing a magazine, are presented with a myriad of choices. Alternatively, supermarket consumers are more likely to be concerned with other purchases related to the home than the purchase of a magazine. The need for sensationalised cover stories in this instance therefore functions to attract the impulse buyer (Turner, Bonner and Marshall 2000). Such gossip stories not only function to validate weddings such as Donaldson’s as ideal, but also to disrupt the preferred reading of the white wedding as an expression of monogamy,

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heterosexuality, prescribed gender roles, protection, egalitarianism and success. For example, The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (June 2004:cover), in revealing the content of the magazine, includes text on the left hand border with titles such as “Broken Becks: How Posh is making life hell” and “Shocking tragedy: My husband killed my babies”.

The “Broken Becks” story is about David and Victoria Beckham—he is a well-known

English footballer (soccer player) and she a former member of the popular girl’s group,

The Spice Girls, in the character of “Posh Spice”. The British and Australian media alike have had a fascination with this celebrity couple, who appear across multiple media formats. Their “fairytale” romance and ostentatious wedding and the birth of their children have been well-documented, as have their marital woes. The article in The

Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (June 2004:38−42) covers the alleged claims that David had had an extra-marital affair. The article is introduced by the following bi-line:

POSH ‘N’ BECKS EXPERT GEOFFREY WANSELL EXAMINES THE RAPIDLY UNRAVELLING WORLD OF BRITAIN’S “OTHER ROYALS” IN THE WAKE OF A SEX AND TEXT MESSAGES SCANDAL (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir June 2004:39)

In coding the Beckhams as the “other royals”, this text establishes and validates their celebrity status whilst coding Donaldson’s royal wedding as the ideal. It has already been established that Donaldson’s wedding was represented as a “real” fairytale romance. However, contrasting with and validating this representation is the representation of the Beckhams’ marriage as “deeply troubled” (The Australian

Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir June 2004:38). This magazine claims that the Beckhams, as a part of their branding as a celebrity couple, had projected an image

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of a fairytale romance, wedding, marriage and family, an image which many women’s and gossip magazines also participated in constructing. The Beckhams’ fairytale life, inclusive of their wedding, is coded as fantasy rather than reality. This contrasts significantly with the representation of Donaldson’s royal wedding as a “real” fairytale.

The article states in relation to the Beckhams’ marriage that

... the alleged affair... [has] fractured the perfect (and perfectly cultivated) family image of Posh and Becks forever... the fairytale that they created for themselves as the golden couple has proved to be fantasy (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir June 2004:40−41).

The reference to the Beckhams’ life as a fantasy (a failed fairytale: a marriage marred by infidelities) in juxtaposition with Donaldson’s prominence on the front cover and the representation of Donaldson’s wedding as a “real” fairytale functions to construct the royal wedding as a cultural and social ideal. However, the Beckhams’ story not only functions to establish Donaldson’s wedding as the ideal but also to disrupt the preferred reading of the white wedding. After all, the white wedding is not only a story of the ideal romance and wedding, but also holds the promise of a “happily ever after” ending for the bridal couple. The representation of the Beckhams’ marriage as troubled due to

David Beckham’s sexual infidelities disrupts the preferred reading of the white wedding narrative. In other words, the white wedding, the romantic fairytale of popular discourses, does not only signify monogamy, devotion and love, but also infidelity, dishonesty, mistrust and disrespect.

In response to competition for consumers, New Idea: Royal Wedding Souvenir (May 22,

2004:12−15) also featured sensational and scandalous stories, entitled “gay rights” and

“broken-hearted”, about gay couples wanting to marry and have children. These stories not only function to code Donaldson’s wedding as an ideal (her wedding is prominently

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featured in an attached booklet), but also function to disrupt the ideals of the white wedding such as prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality. In other words, these stories function to challenge the hetero-normative assumptions underpinning the white wedding and associated dominant romantic discourses. I want to reflect upon the story entitled “gay rights”, about Gav and Waz, who, according to the magazine, were the first openly gay couple on prime time Australian television, with their appearance on

The Block, a competitive reality home renovation and design show. The couple are described by the magazine as “the flamboyant pair, who now run their own pre-sale styling and interior design business, Designer Boys” (New Idea: Royal Wedding

Souvenir May 22, 2004:13).

The representation of this couple tends to conform to broader representations, by the media, of male homosexuality as “overwhelmingly associated with fashion, style and consumption” (McLelland 2005:256). McLelland argues that the shift from representations of homosexuality as pathological in the 1970s to the portrayal as

‘lifestyle gays” means that male homosexuality is more closely associated with conspicuous consumption and lifestyle whilst allowing avoidance of references to gay male sexuality. Although this may be the case, this story does draw upon marginalised discourses of feminism and gay rights as well upon dominant discourses on equality to discuss the right to marry. In response to the Australian government’s attempt to change the marriage act, as delineated in the previous section, the couple are said to be

... fuming about the federal government’s proposed reforms to the 1961 Marriage Act that will prevent gay couples from gaining recognition of their unions, even if they get married in legal ceremonies overseas (New Idea: Royal Wedding Souvenir May 22, 2004:12).

‘A wedding with all the trimmings isn’t our style,’ Gav says. ‘But we are fully committed to each other and we want to be considered as equal life partners... We are

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on the same journey as any other couple’ (New Idea: Royal Wedding Souvenir May 22, 2004:13).

Accompanying this story are images of same-sex weddings of celebrities such as Rosie

O’Donnell and Melissa Etheridge. These images challenge normative ideals of the traditional white wedding as a ritual for heterosexual coupling. According to the New

Idea: Royal Wedding Souvenir (May 22, 2004:13), “Etheridge and Tammy Lynn

Michaels exchanged platinum and diamond wedding bands in a wedding ceremony in

September 2003 in Malibu”. An image is included of Michaels (in a white bridal gown) and Etheridge (in a cream suit) holding a knife together to cut the wedding cake.

Although Elton John is not yet married, an image of John and his partner David Furnish is included, anchored by the text “could he be next?” (New Idea: Royal Wedding

Souvenir May 22, 2004:13). The featured story on Gav and Waz and the inclusion of same-sex celebrity weddings functions to disrupt assumptions that there is a natural order of desire—for example, that male bodies produce masculine identities, which desire female sexed bodies which perform femininity. This challenges the preferred reading of the white wedding as exclusively reserved for heterosexual couples whose performance of sex, prescriptive gender roles and sexuality are congruent.

To conclude, although women’s and gossip publication covers construct heterosexuality as central to the white wedding, this ideal is contested by sensationalist stories about infidelity (Posh and Becks) and same-sex marriage (Gav and Waz). As established, the women’s publication market tends to be dominated by a few multi-national corporations. Women’s and gossip magazines participate in the circulation and dissemination of the ideal bride of popular discourses through the figure of Mary

Donaldson. The dominant narrative of Donaldson’s wedding as a fairytale is reproduced

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by several competing publications. Even though this coverage of Donaldson’s wedding functions to fix her wedding, the bridal role and heterosexuality as ideals these cultural values are disrupted.

Bridal Publication Covers

Bridal publications are highly specific about the kind of dreams to which they respond and construct. Through the use of the white wedding narrative, bridal magazines and planners construct fairytale dreams about heterosexual love, desire, desiring and romance. The potentiality of the literacy of the white wedding narrative, as present in bridal publications, can only be made possible through its contextual placement within, as well as its ability to evoke, other popular discourses that circulate ideas about the ideal romance and wedding. There is therefore an interest, through the subsequent analysis of bridal publication covers, in substantiating the argument that this cultural field should be nominated as bridal rather than wedding. I argue that bridal publication covers establish the centrality of the bride to the white wedding narrative.

There are considerable differences between assumed consumers of women’s as well as gossip magazines and bridal publications. Women’s and gossip magazines, although they may include stories about celebrity weddings, are geared toward a more general audience of young girls and women, whereas bridal publications are produced specifically for brides-to-be who are planning a wedding. Moreover, as detailed in

Chapter Three, bridal publications, with the exception of those published by multi- national publication companies, are generally produced by boutique publication houses and are hence distributed through newsagents, bridal expos and other bridal businesses.

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In other words, the purchase of bridal publications is likely to be intended rather than impulsive. As such, bridal publications, unlike women’s and gossip magazines, do not deploy celebrity or royal cover models to increase their circulation in a competitive publication market. However, bridal publications do rely upon the idea of the bride-to- be as celebrity and star to emphasise the centrality of the figure of the bride to the white wedding. Most importantly, bridal magazine covers code the bride as central to the white wedding narrative by drawing from popular discourses as mass-disseminated by women’s and gossip magazines.

One of the most significant features of the bridal magazine cover, as with other magazine covers, is that it acts as the primary advertisement for the magazine while also marking its difference from other magazine genres (McCracken 1993). In other words, the covers of bridal publications are signified as such by culturally and socially relevant significations associated with weddings such as the bridal dress, wedding rings and so forth. A reading of these covers, as suggested by McCracken in relation to women’s publications more generally, operates to inform readers that bridal magazines contain information on bridal wear. However, these covers are not only an advertisement for the content of the magazines but they also function to construct a preferred reading of the bridal role and the centrality of heterosexual relations to the white wedding narrative.

That bridal magazines and planners are produced specifically for brides, rather than any other person involved in a wedding, is indicated quite obviously by the fact that many of these cultural texts include the word bride in the titles. For example, we have

Cosmopolitan Bride, Sydney Bride, Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide and Bride’s

Diary. However, in some instances, such publications employ the word wedding in their

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titles; for instance, Modern Wedding, My Perfect Wedding Planner and Universal’s

Wedding Planner. Despite the employment of the word wedding, a reading of the front covers of these cultural texts reveals that they are still directed at brides-to-be who are planning a wedding. A case in point is the bridal magazine Modern Wedding (2002).

Despite the title, a closer examination of the front cover reveals that the preferred readership is still a heterosexual engaged "girl". The centrality of the bride to the white wedding narrative is evident through the use of an image of a bride on the cover who is coded as such by the white bridal gown. In establishing the preferred reading of the wedding as a heterosexual institution, this image is anchored by the text “AMAZING

RINGS show him what you really, really want” (Modern Wedding 2002:cover). The combination of signifiers such as the bride, the white bridal gown, and the textual use of

"you" and "him" mean that this image and text function together to code the white wedding as a heterosexual institution.

The front cover of Modern Wedding (2002) has an image of a bride which is anchored by text that articulates the magazine’s content, which is predominantly bridal gowns.

These texts are: “No.1 for bridal fashion”, “Gorgeous bridal fashion” as well as “125 beautiful dresses” (Modern Wedding 2002:cover). Other texts that can anchor the image of a bride and are positioned as of secondary importance to bridal dresses involve wedding photography, honeymoon destinations, wedding invitations and so forth. Some of the variations include the use of different colours and fonts.

An analysis of the front cover of Sydney Bride (2007) is demonstrative of bridal magazine covers in general. “Gorgeous bridal fashion” is scripted in large white print and positioned in the right-hand corner of the magazine cover against a shimmering

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silver backdrop. The reader’s eye is invited to drift across the front cover from the title of the magazine, “Sydney Bride”, to the anchored text. The bride is coded as classic and timeless, complete with Marilynesque-styled curls, red pouting lips, and long white gloves. The juxtaposition of image and text, the centrality of the figure of the bride, as well as the use of white and silver fonts is reminiscent of The Australian Women’s

Weekly: Royal Souvenir Edition (June 2004:cover). As such, it also emulates a wedding invitation, but in this instance the reader is invited to construct/imagine her own bridal

"moment". This bridal magazine cover functions like a wedding invitation for the bride- to-be, an invitation to an exclusive world where the bride becomes a star and the white wedding dress a crucial marker of transformation.

One of the most notable differences between the front covers of bridal magazines and planners is that the latter tend to rely less upon the image of the bride in a white wedding dress. The only bridal planner that has an image of the bride and is not accompanied by images of bridal traditions on the front cover, as reminiscent of bridal magazines, is the Bride’s Diary (Adelaide 1999; Adelaide 2001; Adelaide 2002; Sydney

2002; Sydney 2008). Moreover, there is only one instance when this bridal diary also includes an image of the groom with the bride on the front cover (Bride’s Diary:

Adelaide 1999). The inclusion of the groom in the photograph functions to affirm and validate the importance of the centrality of the bride and heterosexual relations to the white wedding narrative. His image is often (as is the case with the aforementioned publication) blurred in the background with his gaze firmly and intently focused on the bride, who is in the foreground and the focal point. As argued by McCracken (1993) images of cover “girls” often imply a male presence, which can be noted through her

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sexualised facial expression, body pose, as well as through the angle of the camera, lighting and colour.

The other distinguishing feature of this planner is that it is the only publication to use the name diary rather than planner. This personalizes and romanticizes the planning aspects of the wedding. When referring to this publication in subsequent analyses it will be referred to as a diary, but will conceptually be understood as being a part of the bridal planner genre. The consistent use of the bride on the cover of the Bride’s Diary distinguishes this diary from other bridal planners, whilst the lack of accompanying written textual elements (other than the magazine’s title) to anchor the image differentiates it from other women’s magazine genres. Most importantly, the white bridal gown, which is distinguishable from everyday clothing, does not necessarily need to be framed by other bridal traditions in order for it to be recognisable as a bridal gown in this instance.

Other bridal planner covers tend to have images of a more general field of constructed bridal traditions, such as the bridal cake, bridal flowers, bridal rings (the engagement ring and “wedding” ring) as well as bonbonnieres. In some instances they include images of the bride in the white bridal gown (Bride-to-be: Wedding Planner 2002;

Bride-to-be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007; Modern Wedding Planner 2005).

The use of other images associated with the wedding on the front covers of bridal planners functions to establish a general field of popularly constructed bridal traditions while also signifying to the reader that these planners have a different content to bridal magazines. As McCracken suggests

individually and collectively, the verbal and non-verbal signifiers on the cover extend meaning to the material inside. After seeing them, even in a brief glance, readers carry a

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set of cultural prejudgments to their perceptions of the magazine’s content (McCracken 1993:32).

The Bride-to-be: Wedding Planning Guide (2006/2007) and Modern Wedding Planner

(2005) are quintessential examples of bridal planners. Like most, they feature on their covers images of wedding rings, bouquets, the wedding cake and other cultural forms associated with the wedding. These bridal planners inform the reader that they contain the appropriate knowledge and steps required to organise an ideal white wedding.

However, the main focal point of the Bride-to-be: Wedding Planning Guide

(2006/2007) (Image 1) cover is a country-style rose bouquet. The bridal bouquet, on this cover, is of pastel pink and cream rosebuds delicately unfolding into full bloom amongst twigs of lilac greenery. The ivory satin and lace material of the bridal gown, the backdrop for the bouquet, as well as the manicured fingertips holding the bouquet, are the only visible markers of the bride on this front cover. This image is anchored by the text “your ultimate creative companion—advice, etiquette and inspiration” in black cursive. On the right-hand side border the cover features the contents of the planner.

These images and anchoring texts construct a narrative on the planning details and steps required to organise a wedding from the engagement to bridal fashion and beauty, invitations and decorations, and rings to reception.

As bridal planners and other popular discourses suggest, the bridal bouquet can symbolically be understood to function as the passing on of “good fortune” by the bride to a single female friend and/or relative. As popular discourse dictates, the constructed

“tradition” of the bride throwing the bouquet suggests that the single girl who is lucky enough to catch the bouquet will also have the good fortune of finding a husband. The bridal bouquet, held out toward the camera, functions to position the reader, the bride-

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to-be, as the “special” recipient of heterosexual desire and desiring, love as well as marriage. The prominence of the flowering bouquet juxtaposed with the imagery of the bride in ivory also constructs the bridal role as a transitionary moment from girlhood to womanhood, through her gentle deflowering.

However, the use of the image of the bridal bouquet, which is held by a bride, has the effect of assuring the reader that this planner has the necessary experience and knowledge of weddings, which can be passed onto the reader. The bride on the front cover, in effect, is positioned as a friend of the reader, with intimate and detailed information about her own completed bridal moment, which is now being offered to the bride-to-be, the reader. While evoking the idea that the reader can utilise the planner as a personal journal, the preferred reading of this cover signifies that the planner is a space where the bride is able to record details of her bridal preparations. This cover constructs the bridal planner as a friend and confidante with expert wedding knowledge, which is an essential part of the transformative journey of the bride: “your ultimate creative companion—advice, etiquette and inspiration”. As with the front covers of bridal magazines, bridal planner covers are reminiscent of wedding invitations, functioning as an invitation to the reader, the bride-to-be, to participate in the dreams of creating and executing her own wedding. In other words, bridal magazine “writers become substitute motherly figures, or stretching the point, textual fairy godmothers helping all bridal dreams come true” (Boden 2003:60−61).

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Bridal Planners as Interactive

This section considers the differences between women’s magazines and bridal publications, particularly the ways in which they are structured. Despite the differences,

I argue that bridal planners draw upon the white wedding narrative, as apparent in women’s and gossip magazines, to delineate what constitutes the ideal wedding, bridal

“moment” and bridal traditions of popular discourses. Specifically, bridal planners are made literate to their readers through their contextual location within the women’s publication genre.

Women’s and gossip magazines, such as the Australian Women’s Weekly, Women’s

Day, New Idea and Who Weekly convey detailed information on weddings and the traditions associated with them. In many instances, these magazines display cover stories about the weddings of celebrities and the rich and famous which establishes the significance of weddings in the lives of women and help form a market for more specifically bride-oriented publications (which are often, of course, produced by the same publishing houses). Although women’s magazines provide various helpful hints on wedding traditions and survival guides for bridesmaids, these magazines also contain advertisements, articles and advice about diets, boyfriends and husbands, sex, clothes and other supposed elements of women’s lives.

For example, Sheridan (1995) claim that the Australian Women’s Weekly is concerned with aspects of the housewife as consumer, but also contains articles on sex, romance, marriage, women’s work in relation to domesticity, house and garden, food and cooking, health as well as fashion and beauty (Bonner 2006). Turner, Bonner and

Marshall (2000) further suggest that the content of mass-market women’s magazines

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contain both a service and personality section. Again he notes, similarly to Sheridan et al., that in the service section there are regular articles on fashion, beauty, health, cooking and other home-making activities, as well as advice columns and articles on psychic phenomena. In addition, Turner, Bonner and Marshall also highlight the importance of celebrities to these women’s magazines through reference to the personality section. This section not only contains celebrity stories but also stories of ordinary people who do extraordinary things (Turner, Bonner and Marshall 2000).

As demonstrated earlier, women’s and gossip magazines publish stories about royal and celebrities’ weddings. Significantly, these stories are encoded with a preferred narrative about love, romance, the white wedding and the bridal moment. Here, there is a consideration of how the representation of royal weddings in women’s and gossip magazines makes bridal publications literate to its assumed audience, heterosexual, engaged “girls”. Bridal publications, unlike women’s and gossip magazines, do not use celebrity and royal wedding stories, nor celebrity/royal cover models, to showcase bridal traditions. As mentioned previously, women’s and gossip publications tend to construct fairytale narratives about royal and celebrity weddings. It has been noted that

Mary Donaldson’s wedding was not only represented as a fairytale, but that it was also constructed as a representation of a “real” fairytale. Although bridal magazines do not rely upon royal and celebrity stories, they do showcase “real” life weddings of

“ordinary/everyday” people (Bride-to-Be 2003:173-184; Sydney Bride 2007:195−216).

Wedding magazines, when showcasing “real” life weddings, construct a narrative about what constitutes a “real” as opposed to an editorial wedding. This is in contrast to women’s magazines, which are concerned with delineating between the “real” fairytale weddings of royals as opposed to fictional ones.

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Foregrounding the article on “real” life weddings are editorials and advertisements on the various traditions of the white wedding such as the bridal gown, bridal cake, flowers, groom’s wear and so forth. Bridal magazines are generally most concerned with producing editorials on bridal gowns, and as such they introduce various wedding themes such as “Stormy Weather,” “Cast a Spell” and “Garden Party”. Bridal gown editorials construct a preferred reading of these gowns within the context of a romantic narrative. Sydney Bride (2007), for example, creates a garden wedding ambience with images of a bride wandering through a romantic garden setting. The foregrounding of these editorials prior to the article on “real” life weddings functions to establish the availability of bridal goods, products and services to the bride-to-be. However, the placement of the “real” life wedding stories at the end of the magazine functions to establish the possibility of achieving the ideal wedding through the consumption of bridal products, goods and services. In other words, these magazines present the various options available to brides for their wedding day but also illustrate through the depiction of “real” weddings how the wedding of bridal magazines can be replicated. Editorial depictions of weddings foreground choice and availability whilst the representation of real weddings at the end of the publication highlights the “reality” of these possibilities.

For example, Sydney Bride (2007:195) has an article on the “real-life weddings” of six

Australian couples. A narrative is constructed about each romance and wedding, with titles such as “Lucky nine” for the couple who met during a Mandarin class and married on the lucky date of the 9th day of the 9th month. Each story describes how the couple met and fell in love, and then constructs a discourse on what constitutes a white wedding through the establishment of bridal traditions. As such, Sydney Bride (2007) showcases what is popularly understood to be the significant traditions of the white

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wedding day. Hence, in constructing a discourse on what constitutes a white wedding, this magazine showcases the following traditions: bridal gown, groom’s attire, bridesmaids, hair and make up, flowers, ceremony, reception, cake, photography and honeymoon. The white wedding narrative functions to frame the bridal traditions of bridal magazines. However, similar to the aforementioned articles on Donaldson’s wedding, these stories of "real life" weddings are merely a manufactured representation of "ordinary" weddings (Hall 1980). This representation of "ordinary" and "real" life weddings reflect hegemonic ideals that posit the bride and heterosexuality as central to the wedding ritual, as all the weddings feature heterosexual couples. Although bridal magazines do not contain information on celebrities nor use celebrities as cover models, they do rely upon the centrality of the bride, as a celebrity and star, to the white wedding narrative as apparent in women’s and gossip magazines. The "real life" weddings section includes images of various traditions such as the bridal cake and the ceremony. However, images of the bridal moment feature most prominently. The cultural diversity of Australian brides, although recognised in this publication, is also standardised. The exclusion of the representation of other sexualities and possible couplings functions to temporarily fix/code the preferred meaning of the traditional white wedding as a heterosexual ritual.

Although women’s magazines are designed to be passed between friends and family as well as circulated in waiting rooms, they are not generally designed as keepsakes. The exception to this rule is when these publications produce special editions. In some instances, these editions are published to memorialise the life of a celebrity or royal, but on other occasions, they showcase royal weddings. Women’s and gossip magazines such as The Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day and New Idea, when featuring

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Mary Donaldson’s wedding, produced special souvenir editions. These souvenir editions are distinguishable from the ordinary weekly and monthly publications from their front covers, as delineated in the previous section. In some instances (e.g., New

Idea) the editions had a special attached booklet showcasing Donaldson’s wedding. In a more contemporary example, The Australian Women’s Weekly: Souvenir Edition (May

2011) published a 50-page royal wedding souvenir edition to showcase Prince

William’s wedding to Catherine Middleton, with complementary stories as well as pictorials on Princess Diana. This magazine’s front cover did not feature any other articles contained in the magazine, and was distinguishable by a white border that framed an image of the bride and groom kissing. As such, this cover is reminiscent of a framed wedding photo which can be symbolically understood to be a memorial of the wedding moment. This preferred reading of the special souvenir editions makes literate to its readership (girls and women) the importance of keeping bridal publications as mementoes of the bridal planning and wedding. In other words, these magazines establish the importance of the wedding and bridal moment in the lives of girls and women.

The contextual placement of bridal publications as a subgenre of women’s and gossip magazines makes the bridal magazine and planner literate to brides. Brides are aware that bridal publications are meant to be kept as a memento of the wedding day because women’s publications produce souvenir editions on royal weddings. For example, the

Bride’s Diary is printed with a hard cover, suggesting that the planner is published so that the reader may retain it as a keepsake of their wedding day. As a memento, the bride is able to relive the experience and her memories of the wedding, eternally re- writing the dream of "princess for a day". Not only are bridal planners made literate to

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their audience through their contextualisation within the women’s and gossip magazines genre, but they also draw upon romance novels in their construction. The white wedding narrative is apparent in popular and mass disseminated cultural texts. It has already been established that this preferred reading of romance and the white wedding ideal is not only replicated in some of the highest circulated women’s publications, but is also, as noted by Ingraham (1999), a narrative of popular discourses such as film, television and novels. The previous section considered how bridal publication front covers do not only signify the beginning of, but also delineate the bridal traditions of the white wedding narrative. I will now explore how bridal planners draw upon (and indeed depend upon) the white wedding narrative of romance novels.

Structured like a romance novel, the Bride-to-be: Wedding Planner (2002) is organised into sections, which are nominated as chapters. Hence, the white wedding narrative of this planner begins with "Chapter One", which is aptly entitled "You’re Engaged!" A full- length shot of a bride, in a garden, playfully leaning toward the camera but with head slightly turned away signifies the joy of the completed bridal moment. Another chapter, which establishes the significance of the bride as protagonist of the white wedding narrative is entitled "Chapter Four: The Bride" (Image 3). Each chapter documents the relevant goods and services for weddings, appropriate bridal traditions and the various steps required throughout the planning of the wedding until the honeymoon. The division of this planner into chapters is reminiscent of a romance novel, placing the bride-to-be within the pages of her own romantic imaginings. This placement can be considered to be literal and metaphorical: the bride-to-be is literally located within the text through the invitation to practise traditions through journal writing, and metaphorically, as the princess bride of her own romantic fairytale. Not

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only is the reader invited to read about the possibilities of her wedding journey, but she is also constructed as having agency through her creative ability to choose what kind of wedding she wants to create.

In considering the literacy of the white wedding narrative, I will argue that this narrative relies upon other discursive formations about romantic love and fairytales—such as

Cinderella, who is magically transformed from obscurity into a princess by her fairy godmother. This fairytale narrative is evoked by employing descriptors such as

‘Cinderella’s slippers’ (Adelaide Bridal Guide 2001:34) in reference to bridal footwear.

Through the deployment of Cinderella slippers, this bridal text reiterates the importance and significance of bridal shoes to the ‘bridal moment’. Not only does this text evoke fairytale discourses to dilute and/or disguise the consumerist aspect of the wedding, but bridal texts also rely upon this discourse to construct a white wedding narrative. The white wedding narrative infused with fantastical narrative elements, drawn from other discursive formations, not only evokes the sentimentality of fairytales but also functions to substantiate the importance of bridal publications in the wedding planning.

One of the similarities between women’s and bridal magazines is the boundary-blurring between the reader and magazine produced by the presence of letters pages, contests and lists. However, the specific focus of the bridal magazine, and the greater specificity of their presumed audience, distinguish the bridal planner and magazine from women’s magazines. Also, unlike bridal planners, women’s magazines do not provide the reader with the space to interact with the text. Hence, the most distinguishing feature of bridal planners is that they are formatted, structured and designed for the bride-to-be to practise assumed bridal traditions and rituals. They are complexly interactive, providing

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the reader with the space to detail available goods and services, and to practise designated bridal traditions. More specifically, bridal planners include pages that are reminiscent of workbooks and instructional learning manuals (Image 2). The bride-to-be is able to utilise checklists, as well as insert quotes, seating arrangements, dates, ideas, budgets, contact details, personal notes and memorabilia. This is clearly in contrast with bridal and women’s magazines, which often only allow interaction with the publication itself through letters and competitions.

Although the Bride’s Diary (Adelaide 1999; Adelaide 2001; Adelaide 2002; Sydney

2002; Sydney 2008) are formatted more like a magazine, with elaborate advertising features interspersed with small sections of written information, this planner still provides the reader with the space to record their own research on the availability of cultural goods for weddings. The Bride’s Diary generically includes pages that can be used by the bride to organise a wedding budget and lists the various places where desirable products can be purchased, which are also clearly located relative to the bride

(Image 4, Image 5, Image 6, Image 7). All written information on assumed wedding traditions, the honeymoon and setting up a house is juxtaposed with the appropriate advertising on where these goods and services may be purchased, but the text is only a frame for advertisements. For example, in the "Wedding Fashion" section, there is a brief written introduction, followed by 23 pages of advertising, interspersed with two more pages of written information, as well as a couple of pages available for bridal interaction (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 1999). The advertising in this planner is always articulated as endorsing a narrative about the bride’s significance and her agency. As such, the Bride’s Diary: Adelaide (1999:42) states that it

features the best bridal fashion available and you need go no further than to select a bridal fashion expert from these pages. This will be one dress you’ll

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never forget, take your time to decide and don’t be afraid to go where your fantasies take you.

Another significant difference between bridal magazines and planners is their size.

Unlike bridal magazines, planners tend to be smaller in size, resembling personal journals. The Modern Wedding Planner (2005:4) states: “Yes, the first thing you need is a small diary in which to write down any phone calls you need to make and appointments you need to attend. Make this dairy your new best friend and never let it out of your sight!” Bridal planners are clearly produced for brides-to-be to be utilised as a source of information as well as a place to record relevant organisational details of weddings. Their compact size means that their preferred use is to be easily transported in handbags, and as a consequence, to be accessible to brides-to-be at all times, with the potential to become the ultimate accessory, as well as functioning as a marker of the girl’s "special" status. This marking not only functions to elevate the reader’s public status but also makes her identifiable as a bride-to-be at wedding expos, and bridal salons. In other words, these planners ensure that no other woman accompanying the bride-to-be is mistaken as such. The Adelaide Bridal Guide (2001:4) states that:

You should take your Adelaide Bridal Guide with you to all meetings with retailers and designers, so that you have the pertinent details at hand to discuss with them. You may wish to consider attaching swatches from your bridal gown and the bridesmaids’ dresses to the cover of the Guide with paper clips, so that they are always available for the designers to see and to colour match. A sketch or photograph of the gowns would also be handy.

Boden’s (2003:60–61) observation that bridal magazine “writers become substitute motherly figures, or stretching the point, textual fairy godmothers" is an insightful comment about the way in which these planners are positioned at the intersection of cultural interactivity.

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The only bridal planner which does not conform to the aforementioned size conventions is the Bride’s Diary (Adelaide 1999; Adelaide 2001; Adelaide 2002; Sydney 2002;

Sydney 2008). Interestingly, this bridal planner series tends to emulate many of the principles of wedding magazines rather than planners. This planner is the same size as wedding magazines, which means that it is not as easily transportable. The size suggests that this planner is produced so that the reader may use it as a coffee table book. In this format, the planner marks the bride-to-be as such while also potentially increasing the circulation. Not only does the durability and size ensure that circulation numbers are increased, as there is an expectation that friends and family will read the planner, but it also has the effect of circulating ideas about what constitutes "traditional" wedding practices.

As I have demonstrated, there are considerable differences between bridal planners and magazines, including but not limited to the front covers, size, structure, content and the availability of space for interaction. Despite this, however, there are important similarities between the two genres beyond the presumed consistency of the audience

(heterosexual engaged girls). Both present an idea of the ideal white wedding through shared assumptions about what is "traditionally" associated with weddings. And both bridal planners and magazines are mass-produced for an audience of girls from diverse backgrounds and across different cultural locations.

To conclude, this chapter has considered how women’s and gossip publications provide a context for the more specialised genre of bridal publications. In delineating bridal traditions, these publications construct the bride as central to the white wedding narrative. Women’s magazine covers function to construct the ideal white wedding

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through reference to royal and celebrity weddings. The centrality of the bride to this narrative is indicated by the reproduction of bridal images on the covers of special souvenir editions. Bridal magazines covers also feature images of the bride and white bridal gown, coding these magazines as tools for “girls” to plan and execute the wedding. Although bridal magazines feature content on bridal gowns and accompanying accoutrements, bridal planners are designed to assist the bride with the planning aspects of the wedding. As such, bridal planner covers tend to feature a range of bridal traditions, not inclusive of the gown, such as the “wedding” cake and bridal rings. Women’s and bridal publications function to construct a white wedding narrative which idealises the bridal role and validates hetero-normativity. However, as apparent from women’s and gossip magazines, the dominant meaning of the white wedding can never be finally fixed, and as such is disrupted by narratives about marital discord and infidelity as well as same-sex weddings.

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Chapter Five Australian Bridal Planners

Women’s and gossip magazines participate in the circulation of ideas about what constitutes a traditional white wedding, thereby providing a context for the more specific genre of bridal publications. As such, the centrality of the bride to the white wedding is a defining feature of bridal planners. Bridal planners, including the only published groom’s guide, are directed toward an assumed audience of heterosexual engaged “girls”. Bridal planners are complexly interactive, and invite the bride to practice bridal traditions. The preferred reading of these bridal texts codes the bridal role as a rite of passage, whilst the labour required for this transformation is rewarded by the role of “star” for the day. These bridal publications rely on fairytale narratives to

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engage with the dreams and desires of brides in the planning and execution of the wedding.

A reading of bridal planners provides important commentary about how popular discourses construct gender identities and normative sexualities via the figures of the bride and groom. This chapter considers the contradictory construction of the bridal role and how the bride is invited to plan and perform a set of “invented” bridal traditions in the orchestration of the ideal wedding.

Bridal Planners

Women’s and gossip magazines construct a preferred reading of the bridal role as a transitory rite of passage for "girls". In the representation of Mary Donaldson’s royal wedding, for instance, Donaldson was coded as an “unassuming commoner” who was transformed into a princess through her role as the ideal bride. Such transformations, according to popular discourses, are only made possible through learning appropriate etiquette and traditions. The labour required for the transformation is rewarded by the public appearance as bride and hence "star", "celebrity" and/or "princess" for the day.

Popular discourses of women’s publications thereby provide a context for bridal planners making these instructional manuals literate to their assumed audience. "Girls" are invited by these planners to aspire to the idea of the ideal bride through the construction of their personal centrality in the planning and performance of the white wedding.

This section therefore considers how the bridal role is coded as a rite of passage by women’s and gossip magazines; how the labour required for this transformation is

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rewarded by the promise of being the "star" of the day; how bridal planners engage with the dreams and fantasies of the bride in organising the wedding; and finally, how the agency and empowerment of the bride is recognised but also standardised and exploited in these genres.

In using the term "girls", I refer to how the bride is constructed in popular and public discourses. Catherine Driscoll (1998:139) states that “not all brides are young, but participants in bridal culture are predominantly constructed as immature and/or incomplete and the bride crucially functions as a mode of feminine development”. In other words, these discourses represent the wedding ritual as a public rite of passage for girls, from girlhood to womanhood. Popular and public discourses—which intersect via a multitude of cultural forms, practices and rituals—invite girls to aspire to discourses of both power and femininity through the ideal of the bride. This is seen as far more relevant to "girls" than the ideal roles of wife or mother, although these seem to be, in an important sense, logical extensions of the bride. This chapter therefore presumes that, regardless of the age or social position of actual readers or audience members, these texts, and bridal culture as a whole, position "girls" as a cultural group central to the construction of the wedding.

According to Catherine Bell (1997:1), rites of passage are ceremonial and tend to

“dramatize such major events as birth, coming-of-age initiations for boys and girls, marriage, and death”. The social transitioning of an individual from one stage in life to another is thus culturally marked. These rites are considered to be loosely linked to as well as a dramatisation of important biological changes, such as birth or puberty.

However, rites of passages are a signification of a “socio-cultural order that overlays the

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natural biological order without being identical to it” (Bell 1997:1). For example, initiation rites do not necessarily correspond with changes in hormones or fertility whilst marriage ceremonies (weddings) “may precede or follow adulthood or even first intercourse” (Bell 1997:1). These rituals or “life cycles”, transform biological events into a collective social experience which in turn functions to naturalise the cultural order. Life cycle rituals sometimes recognise and at other times disguise the tension between the "natural" (biology) and the "cultural". Despite this, rituals such as the wedding and bridal "moment" are “integral to the values and ideas that shape personal identity, social organisation, and cultural tradition” (Bell 1997:1).

I want to consider how the image of the ideal wedding, as apparent in popular women’s and gossip magazines, is represented as a rite of passage available to girls. In delineating how bridal planners construct bridal roles as transitionary, I will examine the wedding as a rite of passage which culturally marks "girls’" transition to womanhood. Women’s and gossip magazines participate in the circulation of ideas about the transformative capacity of the bridal role. For example, The Australian

Women’s Weekly: Royal Souvenir Edition (June 2004) and the Woman’s Day: Royal

Wedding Special Issue (May 24, 2004) narrate Mary Donaldson’s fairytale journey, and in doing so, represent Donaldson as a “girl” prior to her transformative role as bride.

Not only do popular women’s texts construct the bride as “immature and/or incomplete”

(Driscoll 1998: 139), but in constructing the bridal role as a rite of passage, these texts also code Donaldson as an “unassuming commoner”. Donaldson’s bridal role was therefore coded as a rite of passage from "girl" and “unassuming commoner” to princess. As delineated previously, this narrative of Donaldson’s life was replicated in several of the highest-circulated women’s and gossip magazines.

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As Mary waited to take her vows, you sensed that Denmark’s immortal teller of fairytales would have enjoyed this girl’s story—an unassuming commoner, raised in an ordinary suburb half a world away, who through the sheer power of love, became a princess (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir, June 2004:20; emphases added).

If ever a girl deserved to grow up to enjoy an enchanted existence in a prince’s palace, that woman is the unassuming and delightful Mary... Mary’s transformation from Aussie commoner to poised Danish royal bride has been seamless (Woman’s Day: Royal Wedding Special Issue, May 24, 2004: 19; emphases added).

In constructing a preferred reading of Donaldson as an "unassuming commoner" prior to her marriage, these texts formulate a narrative about her bridal role as a rite of passage.

It has already been established that women’s and gossip magazines represented

Donaldson’s wedding as a "real" fairytale. In doing so, these texts relied upon popular understandings of fairytale narratives. In other words, the coding of Donaldson as an unassuming commoner is reminiscent of female protagonists of popular fairytales such as Cinderella. Similarly to Cinderella, Donaldson is represented as living an “ordinary” and “unassuming” life prior to her royal wedding, and is therefore coded as being a modest, humble, inconspicuous, ordinary and unpretentious girl.

The emphasis on Donaldson’s socio-economic status as a “commoner” prior to her marriage further establishes this preferred reading. These texts, in coding Donaldson as an “Aussie commoner”, function to evoke popular discourses about what constitutes

Australian-ness. The colloquial term “Aussie” is a part of general vernacular used to refer to an Australian, but it also symbolically represents the "everyday" Australian: unpretentious and easy-going. Although "commoner" ordinarily signifies a person who does not have royal heritage, it is also often used to establish class distinctions between the working and upper classes in Australia. The representation of this royal wedding as a "real" fairytale, in conjunction with the construction of Donaldson as ordinary, constructs a bridal role ideal which is relevant to "girls". In other words, the possibility

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of girls achieving this bridal role ideal and a "real" fairytale royal wedding becomes relatable and/or achievable through the coding of Donaldson as ordinary.

However, the preferred reading of Donaldson as an unassuming commoner is temporarily disrupted by The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir

(June 2004) by way of reference to her life prior to meeting Crown Prince Frederik.

Through reference to her father’s career, as a mathematics professor, and his Scottish heritage, this text establishes Donaldson’s family as being located in the middle to upper middle classes, and as white and educated. This positioning of Donaldson’s socio- economic and cultural background disrupts the preferred reading of Donaldson as a commoner, or more specifically, as from a working-class background.

Mary Elizabeth Donaldson was born in Hobart on February 5, 1972, the youngest of three daughters of John Donaldson, a Scottish-born mathematics professor. She studied law at university, moved first to Melbourne, then Sydney, where she worked as a real estate agent and in PR. She was smart, pretty and popular, and during the 2000 Olympic Games scored an invitation to Sydney’s Slip Inn, where she met a man who introduced himself as “Fred”.

After a year of cautious contact, mostly by email, telephone and the exchange of favourite CDs, Mary moved to Europe, first to Paris, then in 2002, taking a job with a computer company in Copenhagen.

We learned more on October 8 last year, when the couple’s engagement was announced and Mary—displaying a regal air and confident Danish—paid tribute to the Prince’s qualities and spoke affectingly of her “long journey” to his side (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir, June 2004:23).

This text makes reference to Donaldson’s law degree, as well as her career in real estate and public relations, and her move from Hobart to Melbourne, Sydney and Europe. In other words, prior to her marriage, Donaldson is represented as educated/intelligent, career- oriented and socially mobile. As such, there is a temporal coding of Donaldson as intelligent, independent, competitive and driven, dislocating the preferred reading of

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Donaldson as an “unassuming commoner”. This text therefore contradictorily constructs

Donaldson as inconspicuous, ordinary and unpretentious, but also independent, competitive and focused. Although this text attributes contradictory characteristics to

Donaldson, it also functions to establish the preferred reading of Donaldson as the ideal

"bride" and the quintessential expression of femininity. Through reference to her engagement speech which establishes Donaldson’s “long journey” to Crown Prince

Frederik’s side, this text functions to code "girls'" lives (including a career, financial independence and travel) as a part of the journey to the ultimate transformative goal, the bridal "moment".

According to The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (June 2004), the transformation into a princess requires learning the appropriate forms of etiquette, and can only succeed through the promise and commitment of heterosexual love, no matter how transient that may be. This transformative process is only made possible through commitment to a male partner. In this instance, love becomes transformative: it has the potential to transform “girls” and an "unassuming commoner" into a princess.

However, the transformative aspect of this love can only be realised, according to this discourse, when it is expressed through the form of a white wedding, and in the figure of the bride. This text focuses upon Donaldson’s ability to love, to be loved and to embody love, becoming a force for her transformation as well as a sign of her capacity to nurture. The representations of white weddings in this texts figure girls as being especially validated by this special day and this public appearance, an appearance which ties them to dominant discourses on love. The bridal role constructs girls as not only loving but as images of love. They are thus constructed as nurturers and representative of a human ideal.

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It was a short word at the end of a long journey, but Mary Donaldson’s precise “Ja”, spoken before the great altar of Copenhagen Cathedral on a day full of unforgettable pageantry and emotion meant much more than simply “I do”... To the man at her side, Crown Prince Frederik, the handsome 35-year-old heir to the Danish throne, whom she met one fateful night in a Sydney pub, it meant, “Absolutely. I love you” (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir, June 2004:18).

“The joy and strength you give me is like the sun in the daytime, which with its radiance, melts all doubts and darkness on earth.” (Frederik’s speech to Mary, The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir, June 2004:19).

...when the choir sang Now Thank We All Our God—a favourite hymn of Mary’s mother—and the bride reached for her lace hankerchief and dabbed her eyes, everyone understood (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir, June 2004:20).

According to women’s and gossip magazines, for the bridal role to be transformative, a labour process is also required. In order for the transformative process from "girl" to princess bride to be effective, the bride is required to learn and practise appropriate etiquette, protocol and traditions. Such texts established the process that Donaldson was required to undertake in order to fulfil the bridal role. The Australian Women’s Weekly:

Royal Wedding Souvenir (2004) outlined the steps required for Donaldson to transform from unassuming commoner to fairytale princess bride. She was required to learn appropriate forms of etiquette which included learning Danish, how to conduct an official dinner conversation, appropriate alcohol consumption as well as how to curtsy.

Not only did this transformation require the learning of appropriate etiquette, but

Donaldson’s physical transformation was also underscored by this text, which highlighted her weight loss of 5 kilos from being on a yogurt and yoga diet. The physical transformation required as a part of the bridal role performance was coded as significant through reference to the “gasps of admiration from the 800-strong congregation and roars of delight from the huge crowd outside” (The Australian

Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir, June 2004:23). As the ideal bride of popular discourses, it was noted that not only did Donaldson learn bridal etiquette and

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traditions, but that her transformation from “unassuming commoner” to bridal role was

“seamless”.

Donaldson is being tutored in the necessary protocol—from whom to curtsy to and when, to what to talk about at official dinners and how much to drink at parties—by Per Thornit, head of the Crown Prince’s staff… Donaldson has also earned points for learning Danish (Who 2003:41). Mary...arrived at the cathedral to gasps of admiration from the 800-strong congregation and roars of delight from the huge crowd outside (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir, June 2004:23).

The labour required by the bride for the planning and performance of this role is always rewarded by the public appearance as star of the day by this popular discourse. In the case of Donaldson’s wedding, The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding

Souvenir (2004:20) highlighted the social status of the guests who attended the royal wedding by delineating their royal and aristocratic titles, lineage and heritage. This text, in coding a preferred reading of Donaldson as a commoner in conjunction with delineating the lineage of the royal guests, established the centrality of the bridal role by stating that “every eye was fixed on Mary” (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal

Wedding Souvenir 2004:20). In doing so, this texts illuminate the momentous importance of the bridal role, coding it as more significant than other more socially or culturally elevated titles and positions.

The grandest names of the European aristocracy were seated under the arched roof of the cathedral. There were the Windsors, Bourbons, Hanoverians and Grimaldis. Tiaras, insignia, swords, spurs and medals blazed from all angles, but every eye was fixed on Mary [emphases added]. Especially the soft, blue pair [of eyes] belonging to Crown Prince Frederik, a descendant of King Gorm the Old, Denmark’s 10th century Viking ruler (The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir 2004:20).

Women’s and gossip magazines construct an image of the ideal bride through the representation of royal weddings as "real" fairytales. Bridal magazines, with the inclusion of "real/ordinary" weddings, function to invite the bride to emulate the ideal white wedding of popular discourses. These texts function as a context for bridal

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planners, which are produced for the more specific assumed audience of heterosexual engaged "girls". These bridal planners, positioned at the nexus of cultural interactivity, are in effect guidance manuals on how to fulfil the transformative act of the bridal role.

Bridal planners provide the reader with the space to practise bridal traditions and to organise the ideal white wedding of popular discourses. In other words, these texts invite "girls" to aspire to be the ideal bride of women’s magazines and bridal publications.

Bridal planners are meaningful to their readers, as they are guidance manuals on the planning and performance of the bridal moment, and are contextually located within the women’s magazine genre. In other words, women’s and gossip magazines, in delineating the labour that was required by Donaldson in her performance of the bridal role, provide a context for the labour that brides are invited by bridal planners to undertake. The labour required by Donaldson was rewarded by the fulfilment of being

"star" for the day. Bridal planners, drawing from this popular discourse, also establish the centrality of the bride to the white wedding narrative, and engage with the agency of the bride by rewarding the labour required for the planning of the wedding. This is achieved via highlighting the bride’s centrality to the "wedding" moment. As such, bridal planners also suggest that in order to achieve the performance of the ideal princess bride, readers must follow bridal planner instructions. The bride is instructed, amongst other things, on how to announce her engagement, how to send thank you notes for gifts, the appropriate etiquette for the wedding reception (Image 8), organising the gift registry (Image 9) and how to conduct conversation in the receiving line.

Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999:137) states: “Try to keep all conversation in the receiving line short but sweet”.

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Although weddings are popularly coded as representative of the domestic or private sphere, they are themselves generally a public performance. The labour that is required by the bride-to-be, as articulated by bridal planners in order to fulfil the bridal role is considered a necessary requirement, but is always rewarded by the promise of the only possible public appearance for girls as a "star": “On the one day of your life when you take centre stage…” (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:24).

all about THE BRIDE It’s your special day, your chance to shine as the cameras capture your every angle and emotion. Best you start on your bridal regime now with our step-by-step beauty programme, hot hair and make-up looks and guide to sourcing the most glamorous, sexy gown... oh, and don’t forget the accessories! (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:29).

Bridal planners rely upon fairytales in their construction of what constitutes the ideal white wedding. These fairytale narratives are employed to code bridal traditions (such as the bridal gown) as magical, mythical and transformative. In other words, bridal planner texts elaborately engage with the "dreams" and "fantasies" of the bride in outlining the necessary process of becoming a bride. Ordinarily, the bride is constructed by these planners as feminine dreamers of childhood fantasies about princesses, fairytales and weddings:

The wedding dress… that gorgeous creation that magically transforms you into the most regal of princesses… [is] the object of your childhood fantasies. The bridal gown today has become an almost mythical creation surrounded by the highest hopes and expectations. So is it really possible to find a gown that fulfils all these dreams and expectations? It certainly is! (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:38)

...[picture] your wedding (if you haven’t been doing so for years!) (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:5).

Many brides have dreamed about their weddings since they were children, and have mapped the entire event out in their head (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:18).

While providing a fantastic narrative on white wedding culture and becoming a bride, bridal planners also establish the importance of this process and elaborately engage with

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the agency of the bride in constructing the bridal moment. These texts present potential organisational problems in orchestrating the white wedding, but always provide the bride with suitable solutions. In many instances, the reader is invited to utilise the various checklists or budget pages to aid in solving planning concerns. These interactive pages are not only provided as a solution to some of the organisational problems brides may encounter, but also function to acknowledge the bride’s agency. In other words, the bride’s skills are recognised and validated by this discourse through the construction of the bride as a "smart", fiscally capable person who is able to negotiate difficult personalities and budgets. For example, Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner (2002:19-20) states that:

Some brides and grooms have sticky inter-family tensions to juggle… The best way to juggle difficult personalities is to be smart with your seating chart (2002:19).

If you fall in love with a dress or any other item that costs more than you have allocated in your budget, see whether can you [sic] cut back in another area to make your figures balance (2002:20).

Use the list below to estimate the likely expense of your entire wedding. From this you will see how you can adjust expenses to suit your needs (2002:20).

Located within the women’s magazine genre, bridal publications invite the bride to practise bridal traditions by engaging with their childhood "dreams" and "fantasies" of magical fairytales. However, these texts also acknowledge the bride’s skills as project manager by likening the wedding planning to a business project. Thus, these texts deploy fantastical fairytale narratives mystifying the wedding and bridal moment, whilst simultaneously recognising the bride’s creative imaginings, skills and resources. In other words, brides are contradictorily constructed as being the feminine dreamer of childhood fantasies as well as rational, calm and business-like project managers (Boden

2003). Boden (2003) argues that bridal magazines, in order to unite their preferred female readership within the identity of wedding consumer, construct these

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characteristics as being universal to all brides. In offering practical steps to execute the wedding and by recognising the bride’s skills, these planners construct the bride as empowered to have “the wedding of your dreams” (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:11).

Just like a business project, a successful wedding is the outcome of lots of forethought, planning, creativity and, most importantly, excellent organisational skills. If planning a wedding is such a time-consuming, all-absorbing project, how are you meant to fit it in amongst the commitments of your career? There’s no denying that keeping on top of everything requires some skilful juggling but there are ways to make your life easier, keep your career on track and have the wedding of your dreams (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:11).

This bridal text also highlights possible tensions that may exist for the reader in occupying the contradictory identities of feminine dreamer and career woman. In posing this problem, this text reassures the reader that it can provide the appropriate guidance and advice on how to execute the ideal wedding whilst remaining career-oriented. In other words, this text engages with the agency of the bride through the validation of careers as central to the bridal identity. However, in constructing the wedding as “a time-consuming, all-absorbing project” this text codes the wedding as the most significant.

Although the agency and empowerment of the bride is identified by this genre through the recognition of the bride’s capacity to dream as well as her organisational skills, the image of the bride is also standardised and exploited through its characterisation as feminine dreamer and project manager. These planners, in posing potential obstacles, and providing appropriate practical solutions, acknowledge the agency and empowerment of the bride. However, these texts also participate in the standardisation of the white wedding, bridal traditions and the bridal moment. These genres standardise and exploit the bride’s agency and empowerment by coding the bridal role and white wedding as the only publicly available rite of passage for girls. The white wedding

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fairytale is a tightly constrained narrative about bridal traditions which brides are invited to practise. Although the bride is invited to modify these traditions, dispensing with them entirely is considered a significant deviation from the ideal wedding of popular discourses.

Groom’s Guide

Wedding magazines and planners are a part of the more generalist field of women’s publications, and are geared toward an assumed audience of heterosexual engaged

"girls". This gendering of "wedding" magazines, as publications for brides, can be further substantiated through the existence of groom’s guides. This section argues that

Australian publications oriented toward the groom function within the bridal publication genre to further establish the significance and centrality of the bride to the planning and performance of the bridal moment. In considering how the bride is posited as central to the white wedding, I will explore how these groom’s guides construct masculinity in opposition to as well as in relation to an idealised femininity, referred to here as emphasised femininity.

The glittering displays of bridal publications at newsagents, major supermarkets, bookstores and most importantly at bridal expos, ensure the accessibility of these publications while emphasisng and limiting the availability of publicly circulated roles for girls. Through the placement of bridal planners and magazines in the aforementioned public spaces, girls are firmly and popularly consigned centrality to, and grounding within, the private space of the home, by this discourse. Located between fashion and gossip, as well as house and garden magazines, bridal publications are

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positioned within the patriarchal imaginings of the magazine section nominated as

"women’s special interest". Hence, "wedding" publications are produced specifically for an audience of brides-to-be, and as such, in Australia, there is currently only one published wedding guide which is directed toward grooms. Besides this groom’s guide, the only other instance when groom’s guides are published, are as a magazine supplement to wedding magazines.

Although there are numerous bridal planners for brides, for the planning and performance of the white wedding there is only one groom’s guide: The Groom’s Guide

& Wedding Planner. This guide is published by Worsthorne and Pedersen Pty Ltd, the same boutique publication house that produces the Bride’s Diary series. It has already been detailed that the Bride’s Diary is distinguishable from other bridal planners by the use of the term diary rather than planner. However, as it is a part of the bridal planner genre, it has been referred to as planner. Here, there will be a consideration of the use, by these bridal publications, of the terms diary and planner, and also guide. It is argued that the use of diary and planner to describe bridal publications, in conjunction with the employment of guide in reference to the groom’s publication, further functions to gender these cultural texts. In other words, the deployment of the aforementioned titles

(diary, planner and guide) demarcate a difference between the roles the bride and groom are invited to aspire to in the planning and performance of the white wedding. These wedding roles, in their construction, nominate what constitutes the ideal performance of femininity and masculinity in the performance of the bride and groom.

To begin, I will discuss how the use of the term diary by the Bride’s Diary (Adelaide

1999; Adelaide 2001; Adelaide 2002; Sydney 2002; Sydney 2008) planner series

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functions to construct the text as both a journal and personal organiser. Ordinarily, a diary can signify (and is popularly recognisable as) a memoir, a place to record intimate feelings, thoughts and experiences. Diary-writing is also socially and culturally considered a feminine activity. In considering the practice of journal writing within the context of academic teaching and learning, Gannett (1992) has noted that this form of writing is in fact gendered. For example, she identified that female students were more likely to keep a personal reflective journal than male students. There were two male students who did some form of reflective writing, but they nominated these journals as writer’s journals. The cultural practice of diary writing is ordinarily associated with the feminine, as it is considered an emotive process—reflecting upon and recording personal details, experiences and dreams. The deployment of the term diary, in this instance, signifies this bridal planner as a space to record intimate details. However, this planner also functions to construct itself as a memento of the planning and performance of the wedding day, which in turn establishes the significance of this cultural ritual to the lives of women.

The employment of the term diary also functions to code this publication as a space to record intimate details of the wedding experience. In other words, a diary can also signify planning and organisational tools such as a daily planner, personal organiser, year planner, appointment book and even a calendar. In this sense, the use of the term diary is interchangeable with the deployment of planner by the bridal publication genre.

Directed toward an assumed audience of heterosexual engaged girls, these publications are coded as bridal planning and organisational tools. The presence of a groom’s guide on the bridal publication landscape highlights the gendered nature of these publications.

Although The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner (2006) is identified as being a

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groom’s guide, suggesting that the assumed audience is in fact heterosexual engaged men, I argue that it is in fact marketed to an assumed audience of heterosexual engaged girls. In other words, The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner (2006) invites the bride to "guide" the groom through the bridal moment.

It has already been established that bridal publications are distributed via supermarkets, newsagents, bridal businesses and expos. In contrast to bridal publications, The

Groom’s Guide is distributed via mail-order purchases. Unlike bridal publications, which are publicly displayed, the visibility of The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner

(2006) is literally lost within the pages of the bridal planner. In other words, advertisements for the procurement of this guide are replicated across the Bride’s Diary series (Adelaide 1999:19 Adelaide 2001: 88; Adelaide 2002:44; Sydney 2002:90) and instruct the bride-to-be on how “to obtain this extremely useful book” through a mail- order purchase (Image 10). The advertisement for The Groom’s Guide & Wedding

Planner as apparent in the Bride’s Diary is as follows:

After 10 years of providing Australian brides with the ultimate assistant to help organise their wedding, the publishers of the Bride’s Diary have responded to hundreds of requests from grooms wanting assistance to help with their wedding responsibilities. At last, a publication specifically designed for the Australian Groom! The Groom’s Diary is a pocket-sized, notebook style little book designed to be the ultimate assistant for any man getting married (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 1999:19 Adelaide 2001:88; Adelaide 2002:44; Sydney 2002:90 editor’s emphasis).

This text claims that it is responsive “to hundreds of requests from grooms wanting assistance to help with their wedding responsibilities” (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide

1999:19). The 2008 edition of the Bride’s Diary: Sydney (pp. 150−157) refreshed this advertisement by placing it as a full page at the end of the seven-page section of the bridal planner entitled "for the groom". Although the groom’s guide advertisements have recently been afforded a more prominent position in this bridal planner series, it

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remains that The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner (2006) is only advertised through the bridal planner series, and can only be purchased through mail order. This unique distribution pattern not only reflects the limited availability and accessibility of these publications for grooms, but also highlights the bride’s responsibility in the wedding planning. In other words, the groom’s guide’s availability is advertised in the Bride’s

Diary series as it is directed toward an assumed audience of heterosexual, engaged

"girls".

In nominating this wedding publication as a groom’s guide but distributing it through the Bride’s Diary, this text functions as a guide for brides on the roles and responsibilities of the groom. The title of this publication, guide rather than planner, further codes the groom as secondary and/or peripheral to the planning and performance of the white wedding. In other words, the groom is not, according to this popular discourse considered to be an active participant in orchestrating the bridal moment, but is constructed as passive. The groom is guided, escorted, led by the bride through the bridal process: “Although it is the perfect complement to the Bride’s Diary it is purposely designed for a different role” (The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner

2006:3). The absence of the groom in the planning of the wedding, according to this popular discourse, reflects his role in the wedding; he is necessary in appearance but completely secondary to the bride. In fact, the groom’s planning role in the wedding is instigated, organised and undertaken by the bride-to-be, as outlined by the Bride’s

Diary:

While the bride and her family usually have the most to do, the groom also has a few duties he’s responsible for. Most of these you’ll end up doing together, such as visiting reception venues, caterers, checking out bands or Djs and finally—if you’re not already living together—making decisions about your new home. You’ll find that nearly every aspect of the wedding and reception will be discussed together, even if it is you as the bride who will have to finalise most of the arrangements. (We hope this makes you feel

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better as, following, the groom’s schedule is considerably shorter than the bride’s!) (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 1999:25).

Bridal planners are produced to assist brides-to-be in planning the ideal white wedding and convey specific details on the role of the bride. Although these cultural forms outline the groom’s role in the wedding planning, a juxtaposition of these roles reveals how this discourse functions to construct the bride-to-be as central in orchestrating the white wedding. These cultural texts position the bride as pivotal to the planning of the white wedding, validating her as star of this public ritual. This can be particularly noted through the disparities between the Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner (2006) and the

Bride’s Diary in terms of size and structure. For example, the aforementioned advertisement for Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner underscores the difference in the size of this publication in relation to the Bride’s Diary: “The Groom’s Diary is a pocket-sized, notebook style little book designed to be the ultimate assistant for any man getting married” (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 1999:19; emphasis added), and “It’s short, but within it you will find everything you really need to know” (Groom’s Guide

& Wedding Planner 2006:7).

This “pocket-sized little notebook” (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 1999:19) is considerably smaller than the Bride’s Diary, which generally has a hard cover, a larger page size than women’s and gossip magazines and also contains, on average, 400 pages detailing bridal goods, services and products. The Bride’s Diary series, as mentioned previously, also includes the production of bridal websites and expos and other publications such as

WeddingStar and Wedding Toasts & Speeches. It is interesting to note that the wedding speeches publication further functions to delineate what constitutes bridal and groom’s roles. In other words, the cover of Wedding Toasts & Speeches demarcates this

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responsibility as men’s work. For example, the cover has an image of a man in a tuxedo in front of a microphone, coding wedding speeches as the groom’s responsibility. The delineation of what constitutes bridal and groom’s roles, by bridal publications, will be examined in more detail shortly. I will now further outline the differences between bridal and groom’s publications and how they are structured.

It has already been established that the front covers of women’s, gossip and bridal magazines posit the bride as the star of the wedding. Although bridal planners do not tend to deploy images of the bride on their front covers, except in the case of the Bride’s

Diary, they do contain images of a general field of bridal traditions. One of the distinguishing features of all of these covers, however, is that they function to code the bride as a central figure of the white wedding narrative. In contrast, The Groom’s Guide

& Wedding Planner, which is published to complement the Bride’s Diary, does not have an image of the groom on the front cover, but rather a plain large silver wedding ring with the silhouette of a symbol of a man engraved inside the ring. This ring is the focal point of the cover and sits inside another silver ring. At the right-hand side of the cover there are three smaller replicas of the large ring leaning against it. The title of the publication is in white bold letters with a small blue border, whilst the rings are set upon a black background. Anchoring the title is the subtitle, in smaller white font, delineating the groom’s responsibilities in the wedding planning:

groom’s duties the speeches the best man buck’s night honeymoon and more... (The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner 2006: cover)

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This cover is also anchored by the text “everything you need to know!” in white font and highlighted by a blue background (The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner

2006:cover; editor’s emphasis). Unlike bridal publication covers and content, which tend to be colourful, the groom’s guide is produced in black and white with only a hint of blue on the cover. Although this choice of colour minimises publication costs, it can also function to signify masculinity and rationality. This little notebook is reminiscent of official documents (Image 11) and as such is designed to be camouflaged amongst business papers within briefcases.

It is the right size to fit in your brief-case, your glove box, or even your jacket pocket, so it can go everywhere with you… It is simple and unobtrusive, so you’ll always feel comfortable referring to it (The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner 2006:3).

This is in remarkable contrast to the design of bridal planners, which highlights the visibility of the publications themselves and the bride-to-be.

The size and structure of the groom’s guide, viewed in juxtaposition with bridal planners, codes the groom as peripheral, whilst establishing the centrality of the bride to the planning and performance of the white wedding. The groom’s guide further reiterates this point to the reader: “YOUR BRIDE WILL INEVITABLY BE THE

‘STAR’ ACCEPT THE FACT AND BASK IN HER GLORY” (The Groom’s Guide &

Wedding Planner 2006:34). Moreover, this discourse functions as a part of other popular and public discourses that circulate images of what constitutes ideal masculinity.

In considering the politics of gender, Howson (2005) deconstructs the oppositional categories of masculinity and femininity, and argues that in its practice, gender embodies multiplicity. In other words, that there are a range of gender identities and

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hence various forms of masculinities and femininities which are practised. Howson, following Connell (2000), argues that to ensure the continuation of patriarchy and the current gender order, hegemonic masculinity is constructed as an ideal and therefore dominates other forms of masculinities and femininities. The defining characteristics of hegemonic masculinity, according to Howson (2000: 61) include

...whiteness, location in the middle class, heterosexuality, independence, rationality and educated, a competitive spirit, the desire and the ability to achieve, controlled and directed aggression, as well as mental and physical toughness are all highly honoured and desired in the community and must be protected.

The distinguishing characteristic of dominative hegemonic masculinity is that it is represented as an ideal. Howson (2000) therefore argues that hegemonic masculinity, although a point of reference for gender identity, does not contain characteristics that are common to, nor comfortable for men and women in the practice of the everyday. It is for this reason that he argues that in order to maintain social order and inequities, these idealised characteristics of masculinity must continually be legitimatised and desired.

In other words, traditionally accepted practices such as heterosexual marriage, men as public paid workers, men as family providers, and the cultural acceptance of men’s non- emotive and often aggressive positions within cathectic relations, must be continually upheld as key defining principles within the hegemonic masculine characteristics, which are organised so as to ensure the continuation of the dominative masculine hegemony (Howson 2005:61−62).

In considering how masculinity is constructed by this groom’s guide, we may note that the aforementioned idealised form of masculinity is symbolically disseminated through this text. In other words, this text is coded with a preferred reading of masculinity which neatly aligns with Howson’s (2005) characteristics of hegemonic masculinity. For example, it has already been noted that the groom’s guide is designed to be “...the right size to fit in your brief-case, your glove box, or even your jacket pocket” (The Groom’s

Guide & Wedding Planner 2006:3). In offering these options for readers, this guide

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constructs a particular notion of what constitutes masculinity. Briefcases, similar to wallets, ordinarily signify a type of carry bag, as do handbags and purses. However, these forms of carry bags are gendered, and as such, briefcases are generally a signification of masculinity. Handbags signify femininity. Not only are briefcases popularly coded as masculine, but they also signify men’s white-collar professionalised work, as well as tertiary education, and hence location in the middle to upper classes. In delineating the carrying places of the groom’s guide, this text functions to exclude other representations of masculinity. Further, the reference to the glove box links masculinity to the ownership of an automobile, which is often coded as an economic and social status symbol.

In considering the dominant meanings of the groom’s guide, it follows that these texts construct a hegemonic ideal of masculinity through the figure of the groom. In other words, the groom’s guide codes masculinity as rational, focused, methodological, decisive and direct.

Often the strengths that men can contribute to a long period of planning may include a clarity of thinking, a strong focus on essentials, and a structured and methodological approach to all the decisions that are needed. You can bring a masculine directness… (The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner 2006:8–9).

Mirroring other dominant discourses on what constitutes masculinity, this guide participates in the circulation of the hegemonic ideal of masculinity as rational. Ticknell et al. (2003) note, through an analysis of teenage and men’s magazines, that:

… both the problem pages and the features rehearse the common-sense assumption also found in the men’s title that males neither have the “emotional capital” to express themselves nor can be expected to perform much emotional labour (Ticknell et al. 2003:60).

Complementing this hegemonic ideal of masculinity is the oppositional coding of the bride, by this groom’s guide, as creative, stylish, an object of beauty, and emotive. This

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groom’s guide functions, similarly to bridal planners, to code femininity as emotive and masculinity as rational:

… the female partner has particular strengths in designing the perfect occasion. Many women are better at creating a consistent theme for the day, putting together colours that go well, setting a style for the Bridal Party that will enhance her appearance without diminishing theirs, ensuring the flowers are just right, and so on... women can be more comfortable talking about things. They can be more in touch with their feelings, and more articulate about them… It may be hard, but it pays to be open and honest about any such problems with communication. You may have to work at it, but your efforts will be repaid (The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner 2006:8–9).

Because speeches by the bride are a relatively new addition to the reception procedure they are less rigid in content (than the groom’s) and give her the opportunity to speak from the heart (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:74).

The preferred reading of the ideal bride embodies characteristics associated with

Howson’s (2005) emphasised femininity. Characteristics of emphasised femininity include an interest in homemaking as both wife and mother. According to Connell (as quoted by Howson 2005:67):

Emphasised femininity, like hegemonic masculinity, is a cultural construction with a very public face, even though its content is specifically grounded in the private realms of the house and the bedroom.

In other words, emphasised femininity embodies the following characteristics: sexual objectification; soft, docile personality; sociability rather than technical competence; compliance with men’s desires for titillation and ego-stroking; acceptance of marriage and childcare (Howson 2005:67).

Bridal planners and the groom’s guide disseminate ideas about what constitutes bridal and groom’s roles and responsibilities. The gendering of these publications becomes more apparent when the roles and responsibilities defined in these texts are contrasted.

These publications construct a preferred reading of the bridal role as the quintessential example of emphasised femininity. For example, one of the responsibilities of the bride in the planning of the wedding, according to bridal planners, is setting up the gift

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registry. Engaging with the bride’s desires and dreams, the Bride-to-Be: Wedding

Planning Guide (2006/2007:101) states that:

sitting down to design a wishlist is probably one of the most exciting aspects of your wedding. Don’t get blown away by the rush of adrenaline as you realise now it’s time to ask for everything you’ve always wanted!

In delineating the types of gifts that should be included on a gift registry, which is used by guests to buy wedding gifts for the marrying couple, the Bride-to-Be: Wedding

Planning Guide (2006/2007:74) states: “Look over this list to decide what you have and don’t have, and what you think you would realistically use”. Addressing the bride, this text constructs a list of appropriate "wedding" gifts and in doing so, symbolically fixes the preferred reading of the bride as an image of domesticity and the wedding as a

"bridal" moment. The labour of the planning of the white wedding is not only rewarded by being star for the day but also bridal gifts, sit “down to design a wishlist” (Bride-to-

Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:101).

Appropriate bridal gifts, symbolically coding the ideal bride as housewife and mother, are classified by this text under the following headings: crockery, cutlery/utensils, glassware, cookware, white goods, bedroom/bathroom, home entertainment equipment, outdoor furniture, travel gear. These categories include more specific goods and products. For example, included in the crockery category is a dinner setting, serving platters and bowls, tea cups/mugs, tea pot, sugar bowl, salt and pepper grinders. The groom’s guide, however, which describes the roles and responsibilities of the groom, does not include a section on how to set up a gift registry. This lack of reference functions to fix the preferred meaning of the bridal role and gifts as symbolic of the feminine role of wife and mother. In fixing this preferred meaning, this planner codes

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femininity as domestic, whilst inviting the bride to invest in the emotional labour required to engage her fiancé’s interest, and guide him in the wedding planning.

It’s really important that you both choose wedding gifts together. If he’s pulling an ‘I don’t mind honey, whatever you want’ routine so he can slink off and watch the football, remind him that he might be stuck with pink floral bedspreads for years. He should accompany you when visiting stores and writing up lists (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:101).

Although the preferred reading of the bridal role embodies characteristics exemplary of emphasised femininity, these bridal planners, in engaging with the bride’s agency, also construct the bride as an organised project manager. The bride, as project manager, functions to disrupt the image of the bridal role as an example of emphasised femininity. In other words, the bride is not only coded as a domesticated sex goddess but also as rational, career-oriented and with managerial capabilities. The bridal role, as represented by these popular texts, although embodying characteristics of emphasised femininity, is also contradictorily constructed as career-oriented. In engaging with the bride’s agency in the planning and performance of the ideal wedding, this planner constructs a paradoxical bridal identity.

This identity functions to disrupt the dominant reading of the bridal role as exemplary of emphasised femininity, whilst also functioning to engage with the bride’s agency.

Further, in disrupting the preferred reading of the ideal bride as the quintessential example of emphasised femininity, this bridal planner also states: “gifts should not be gender biased, but useful to both partners” (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide

2006/2007:74). In other words, this text temporarily disrupts the coding of gifts such as cookware (which includes saucepans, a frying pan, a roasting and casserole dish as well as a stock pot and mixing bowls) as gendered. More specifically, the preferred reading

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of the wedding gifts as bridal gifts and reward, symbolically fixed as a representation of feminine domesticity, is temporarily dislocated.

The roles and responsibilities set out for the groom by the groom’s guide have already been outlined through reference to the front cover. Here, there is a consideration of how these wedding roles and responsibilities are gendered. As mentioned previously, the white wedding narrative, the preferred reading of popular cultural texts, is identifiable by what is nominated as tradition. It has already been established that bridal and groom’s publications code the bridal role as symbolic of motherhood and domesticity in relation to the gift registry. Further, in coding masculinity and femininity within the parameters of traditional gender roles, the groom’s guide delineates the wedding speeches as the groom’s responsibility. As such, according the groom’s guide, the traditional order in which speeches are given is by the father of the bride, by the groom and then by the best man. In brackets, as if an afterthought, this text states that the bride’s mother, the bride and bridesmaids "may" also want to speak. However, toasting the married couple is exclusively reserved as a man’s duty.

TRADITIONAL ORDER OF SPEECHES...

The customary order is:

◊ The Father of the Bride Proposes the toast to the Bride and Groom

◊ (Increasingly, the Bride’s Mother may choose to say a few words; but her husband will usually propose the Toast)

◊The Groom – that’s you! – thanks the proposer of the toast, and goes on to thank a long list of people who have helped. (You have to be real about this, or it sounds like a boring duty list). He then proposes a toast to the Bridesmaids – being as flowery and flattering as he likes.

◊The Bride may well want to speak at this point. She may join her husband at the podium or the microphone, so that they will be seen together as a couple. She’ll probably want to add her own thanks, speak warmly of her new in-laws, and make

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special reference to the Bridesmaids. She may also want to comment on life with her new husband; maybe how she plans to manage their lives now that she is in charge! (The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner 2006: 45−46)

It has already been argued that the preferred reading of the groom’s role in the planning and performance of the wedding is secondary and peripheral to that of the bride.

However, this text maintains the image of the groom as embodying ideals associated with hegemonic masculinity through the designation of the wedding speeches as men’s work. In this instance, the bridal role is fixed as secondary and complementary to that of the groom. The bride is invited to participate in the speeches conjointly with the groom, whilst the groom’s speech, which is traditionally delivered alone, symbolically codes the groom as independent. In other words, the groom’s identity is not transformed through the performance of the wedding, whilst the bride’s identity becomes subsumed within the status of the couple; the bridal role becomes representative of a rite of passage. The preferred reading of the wedding is that it is the public arena for the appearance of the bride-to-be and also a sign of a woman’s centrality in the home and the centrality she assumes within this space as wife, mother and nurturer.

One of the most obvious disparities between the groom's guide and bridal planners is the space provided for reader interaction. Although The Groom’s Guide & Wedding

Planner (2006) has page layouts for interaction, the space provided for the reader is limited (Image 12). In other words, these pages do not provide the reader with sufficient space to record wedding details. This guide, unlike bridal planners, provides the reader with checklists (Image 13):

It is clearly and concisely laid out, using bullets and lists where possible, so you can follow it in a structured manner… It has summaries and check-lists throughout to help you complete everything — and on time (The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner 2006:3).

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Further, the groom’s guide, unlike bridal planners, does not contain any advertisements for wedding goods and services. As such, this guide functions in the context of the bridal planner genre to construct the bride as consumer of "wedding"-related goods, products and services.

Although the groom’s guide denotes a wedding planner for heterosexual, engaged men, this guide is coded as a bridal planner. This guide is directed toward the bride-to-be through its advertisement in the Bride’s Diary, and exclusive purchase via mail order.

The groom’s guide, as the name suggests, aids the bride in "guiding" the groom through the bridal "moment". According to this genre, the groom is secondary and peripheral to the planning and performance of the white wedding, further validating the bridal role as central to the wedding. In delineating the roles and responsibilities of groom, such as delivering the speeches, this groom’s guide participates in the circulation of hegemonic ideals of masculinity. Complementing this hegemonic ideal is the cultural construction of the bride as a quintessential example of emphasised femininity by the bridal planner discourse. However, the bride is also contradictorily constructed, by bridal planners, as career-oriented and a project manager. These characteristics create contradictions and tension within the dominant reading of the bridal role as a rite of passage—an expression of emphasised femininity. In other words, the representation of the bridal identity as project manager functions to disrupt cultural constructions of emphasised femininity, and as a consequence, challenges hegemonic ideals of masculinity.

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Knowing Bridal Traditions

Bridal planners construct a set of bridal traditions that the bride is invited to perform in the execution of the ideal white wedding. This section outlines how bridal publications validate “invented” bridal traditions of the white wedding of popular discourses. Bridal texts tend to code bridal traditions as significations of romance, joy, and eternal love to establish their centrality the bridal ‘moment’. However, these planners also provide the bride various options to modify these traditions. Although bridal traditions can be modified they tend to standardise the image of the bride and the white wedding.

Nevertheless, “girls” from distinct cultural backgrounds are invited to practice a relation to these traditions.

Bridal planners assume that the reader/user of these manuals (the bride) identifies with a generic group of heterosexual, engaged girls. This girl-bride genre encompasses girls from diverse cultural, social and economic backgrounds, even when they take up specific subsets within this genre. Italian Bride is an example of a bridal magazine produced for brides-to-be from a specific cultural, social and economic background.

Bride Again is a bridal planner marketed toward brides having a second wedding. While there are variations between the audiences specifically addressed by these and other mainstream bridal planners, they are structured in the same way and reproduce the same general field of traditions, within which specific variations have apparently limited effect. They are all produced to be interactive and are structured in such a way as to invite readers, brides-to-be, to practise bridal traditions that vary less than might be expected by the marketing of specialised planners for "different" brides. In fact, these

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specialised planners reinforce the neutrality and centrality of the generic bride for whom all "mainstream" planners are designed.

Nevertheless, these bridal planners acknowledge the variations between their audience or readers. Bride Again has photos of mature brides, Italian Bride has photos of

"Mediterranean" brides and so forth. The brides are visualised differently and include different details (different specificities about services, receptions and so on), but many of the traditions which they are asked to practise remain structurally the same. Despite the fact that the ideal bride and wedding conveyed in mainstream bridal culture—in bridal wear displays, bridal magazines and web sites, for example—does not reflect the social and cultural diversity of girls who get married in Australia, nor their customs and rituals, all girls are invited to identify with these ideals and to practise a relation of it.

This popular discourse, in its formulation of what constitutes bridal traditions, defers to statements which appeal to constructed historical "truths". In order to legitimise these historical "truths", these texts rely upon disseminating manufactured knowledge about bridal traditions. I will now explore how this discourse draws upon what is constructed as historical and objective knowledge in order to substantiate the importance of various bridal traditions. More specifically, some of the bridal traditions outlined by these planners, in their formulation, are legitimised by "truth statements" about their historical origins. The historical knowledge deployed to validate these traditions is not necessarily grounded by any information that could be described as factual, but rather appears to be manufactured information legitimised by its reproduction in most bridal planners. For example, the constructed tradition of bonbonnière as an Australian bridal tradition

(which will be discussed in more detail shortly) is not only validated through reference

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to a manufactured historical past but also by the reappearance of this information in several planners.

How bridal planners manufacture bridal traditions can be considered with reference to the concept of "invented tradition", coined by Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983:1).

Invented traditions are: “invented, constructed and formally instituted and those emerging in a less easily traceable manner within a brief and dateable period... and establishing themselves with great rapidity”. Not only are bridal traditions of popular cultural texts constructed and disseminated via a social institution, pointing to their

"invention", but they also function to instill a set of culturally and socially normative practices and behaviours. Accordingly, an invented tradition is a set of ritualised and symbolic practices that “normally attempt to establish continuity with a suitable historic past” (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983:1). In considering how bridal traditions are manufactured, the following analysis draws from the aforementioned definition of an invented tradition. However, it will be argued in the following chapter that the contradictory construction of bridal traditions by these cultural texts actually disrupts the preferred meaning of these traditions.

Hence, I consider how bridal planner discourses function to construct a historical "past" in the validation of manufactured bridal traditions. I explore how the Bride-to-Be

(2002;2006/2007) bridal planner series participates in the "invention" of bridal traditions. This bridal planner series, as mentioned previously, is produced annually as an instructional manual. As such, these planners are published each year as a different volume. In other words, this planner is "refreshed". The pictorials, bridal images, colour, font, and page layout are changed annually but the text remains the same. As

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such, the Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner (2002:92) and Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning

Guide (2006/2007:87) not only code bonbonnière as a bridal tradition by constructing a

"past" history for this tradition, but also fix the meaning of this tradition. This bridal planner series constructs and refers to an origin for this bridal tradition in order to validate its centrality to the white wedding narrative.

The Bomboniere [sic] tradition began in Renaissance Italy where wedding guests were presented with sugared almonds representing everlasting happiness. Today, wedding guests are presented with sugared almonds in lucky odd numbers, or five almonds to represent health, wealth, fertility, happiness and long life. Most brides match the colours of their sugared almonds to the wedding decoration theme (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:92; Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:87).

As mentioned previously, the Modern Wedding Planner (2002; 2005; 2006; 2007) is also produced as an annual "issue", and as such, the structure remains the same with little or no variation. This bridal planner series also replicates in each issue the idea that bonbonnière is central to Australian bridal traditions. This replication, coupled with similarities between how the Modern Wedding Planner series and the Bride-to-Be planner series construct the meaning of the bonbonnière, functions to establish the importance of this bridal tradition to the white wedding. Similarly to the Bride-to-Be planner series, the Modern Wedding Planner also codes bonbonnière as a tradition originating in Italy, but further delineates its relevance to Greek weddings. Both of the aforementioned planner series fix the meaning of this bridal tradition as representative of health, wealth, happiness, good luck, fertility and a long life.

Bomboniere [sic] is an Italian expression meaning ‘sweet favours’. Traditionally these were five sugared almonds, usually enclosed in a lace doily, and given to guests at Italian and Greek weddings. The almonds represented health, wealth, happiness, good luck and fertility (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:72; 2008:72; 2009:71).

Today bomboniere [sic] refers to any gift that the bride and groom give to their wedding guests by way of thanking them for their warm wishes and attendance at the celebrations. Sugared almonds are still a good idea, particularly if packaged beautifully, but you can also consider chocolates, biscuits… small bottles of wines or spirits

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(perhaps with personalised labels), Champagne flutes, photo frames... (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:86; 2008:72; 2009:72).

The reference to the historical relevance of these bridal traditions not only codes them as important, but also functions to underscore the longevity of their practice. This is achieved through the deployment of descriptors such as "Renaissance Italy", "Classical

Times" and "Ancient India" (amongst others). These descriptors function, within these texts, to conjure images of romanticism engaging with the bride’s creative imaginings in the planning and performance of the bridal moment.

Most importantly, these bridal texts ensure the accessibility and relevance of these bridal traditions, despite the fact they are constructed as "ancient", by relating them to a contemporary context. In other words, these bridal traditions are always manufactured to be made relevant to an audience of Australian brides through more contemporary options as outlined by the Modern Wedding Planner series: “Sugared almonds are still a good idea... but you can also consider chocolates, biscuits… small bottles of wines or spirits... Champagne flutes, photo frames...” (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:72;

2008:72; 2009:71). In offering these options, this text engages with the agency of the bride in orchestrating and executing the ideal white wedding of popular discourses. As such, these planners not only delineate what constitutes a bridal tradition, but in offering contemporary options, they function to participate in the re-invention of these traditions.

These planners, in reworking nominated bridal traditions, such as the sugared almonds, and offering endless possibilities and options for the bonbonnière, engage with the agency of the bride in the practice of bridal planner traditions. In other words, the bride is invited by these planners to rework bridal traditions instead of dispense with them altogether.

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The bridal veil is constructed as a central tradition of the white wedding of popular discourses, and is another example of how this discourse constructs a relevant historical past to validate itself. The Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner (2002) explains the symbolism of the veil by referring to its use in different historical and cultural contexts.

Interestingly, this planner appears to be sourcing knowledge about bridal traditions, in particular the bridal veil, from Chesser (1980), who draws extensively from Lacey

(1969). Chesser (1980:207) states that:

Lacey (1969) found that Christian, Jewish, Moslem, and Hindu brides have used it. Historically, the veil protected the bride against malicious spirits, from the “evil eye”... Ancient Romans required a red veil because the people thought red was more effective in warding off evil influences. The bridal veil Christians used may reflect Roman influences, but the veil is mentioned in the Bible in Genesis.

The Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner (2002:42) similarly states that:

Believe it or not, veils have been used in weddings since Classical times. Ancient Greek legend states that Penelope wore a veil when eloping with Odysseus. In Roman times, Christian girls wore red veils throughout their entire engagements. Veils are even mentioned in the Bible. Eastern brides used veils as protection from the ‘evil eye’, while in Ancient India and Morocco, veils were worn to protect others from the bride! The veil re-emerged in nineteenth-century Britain as a symbol of the bride’s chastity. Today, bridal veils are commonly worn in Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Hindu, and Eastern cultures.

In referring to the various historical and cultural meanings of the veil, its symbolic meaning is contradictorily constructed, as well as being characterised by fluidity of meaning. For example, the reference to Penelope wearing a veil whilst eloping, according to ancient Greek legend, disrupts the reading of the veil as a symbol of the bride’s chastity. In referring to ancient Greece, Rome, ancient India, and Morocco, this bridal text constructs a historical past that is relevant to Eastern brides as well as to

Christian, Moslem, Jewish, and Hindu brides.

Significantly, the veil is also coded as a symbol of patriarchy and male dominance by this bridal planner. In fixing the centrality of the bridal veil to the white wedding

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narrative, this text invites the bride to practice this bridal tradition, “Everyone loves the moment when the groom lifts the bride’ [sic] veil at the end of the ceremony in order to

‘kiss the bride’” (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:42). However, by offering a

“more modern alternative... for the bride to remove her own veil, thus demonstrating her independence” (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:42), this text also engages the bride’s agency by disrupting the meaning of the veil as a symbol of patriarchy. In other words, this bridal text contradictorily constructs the symbolism of the veil as both a symbol of patriarchy and of independence. Although the bridal veil, according to this discourse, has multiple meanings in different cultural contexts, the preferred reading of the bridal veil is that its practice is central to the traditions of the white wedding.

Not all bridal traditions have a constructed historical past to substantiate their centrality to the ideal wedding. In many instances, bridal traditions, in their manufacture, are substantiated through the deployment of the terms "tradition" and "traditionally". In other words, bridal traditions are established solely by evoking the idea of tradition. By manufacturing a historical past for some bridal traditions, these texts establish credibility about their knowledge of bridal traditions. As such, these planners can invent a bridal tradition without the need to validate it through the inclusion of a suitable historic past.

A great hen’s night tradition is for the bridesmaids to make the bride a special veil. This can range from tasteful (a simple diamante tiara or length of white tulle) to outrageous (florescent pink net decorated with flashing lights and blown up condoms!) (Bride-to- Be: Wedding Planner 2002:32).

Traditionally, bridal bouquets consisted of all white flowers with some green foliage and this is still a very popular choice of bouquet (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:98).

These bridal planners, in constructing what constitutes a white wedding, evoke the discourse of tradition to substantiate their claims. The idea of practising traditional

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wedding rituals can signify to readers that they are participating in rituals which, although they can be modified, are a part of a larger historical context. Symbolically and ordinarily, tradition can be associated with signifiers such as continuity, stability and historical importance, amongst others. However, within the context of these planners, bridal traditions are also associated with signifiers such as change, modification, innovation and originality. Despite this, these planners construct a set of bridal traditions which are considered to be an integral part of the white wedding narrative.

Bridal planners standardise wedding rituals and invite girls to practise a relation to these ideals. For example, the Modern Wedding Planner (2005), as other bridal planners, informs brides how to plan the wedding ceremony. This text delineates the differences between a church service and civil ceremony. This text constructs the verbal exchange of vows as central to both ceremonies. Reminiscent of other Western popular cultural forms, this text assumes that the wedding is consummated by this speech act: “A personal ceremony is in the details: the music, the readings, the wording of the vows…”

(Modern Wedding Planner 2002:55). More specifically, these planners preclude the many different ethnic and religious ceremonies which do not include an exchange of vows during the wedding ceremony. For example, a wedding consecrated in the Greek

Orthodox Church, does not involve a verbal exchange between the marrying couple.

Rather, a marriage is consecrated when “rings are exchanged three times, the cup is drunk from three times, crowns are crossed three times, and the dance moves three times around the table representing the altar” (Chryssavgis 1998:29). Despite the standardisation of bridal traditions, Australian brides of different ethnic, class and religious backgrounds are invited to practise a relation of the marriage service.

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By recognising the transitory nature of relationships, Universal’s Complete Wedding

Planner (1999) disrupts the preferred meaning of the white wedding as a sign of monogamy and longevity. But this text also invites girls to continue to aspire to these ideals through the practice of white wedding traditions. Further to this, this popular discourse engages with the bride’s agency in replicating the ideal white wedding despite the fact that they may have been married previously. In other words, these planners recognise the transitory nature of romantic relationships, as well as marriages.

Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999:41) states that:

What happens when you’re not the young blushing bride or dashing groom but rather one or both of you have been married before and there are children involved? Second marriages were once low key affairs, but now, even if you are a bride marrying for a second time, you can still have the traditional white wedding — the only difference being that your chief bridesmaid or flower girl may be your daughter and/or the groom’s best man may be his son.

This section has considered how bridal planners validate “invented” bridal traditions as central to the white wedding. Bridal planners construct a suitable historic past in the formulation of these traditions, and often employ the terms “traditional” and

“traditionally” to substantiate their importance. Bridal traditions, according to these planners, can be modified in their practice but not dispensed with entirely. The bride is invited to practise these bridal traditions, which maintain their symbolic effect, but they can also be (re)-appropriated in complex and contradictory ways. The following chapter explains in more detail some understandings of bridal traditions that have been introduced here.

To conclude, through an analysis of bridal publications (inclusive of the groom’s guide), this chapter has established that bridal texts are geared toward an assumed audience of heterosexual engaged "girls". One of the reasons that bridal planners have been chosen

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as the main object of study in this analysis of bridal texts is because they are complexly interactive, inviting the bride to emulate the ideal white wedding. This chapter contends that bridal publications are a part of, and function within, popular discourses that circulate ideas about what constitutes a white wedding. Although this discourse constructs and positions the bride and groom in contradictory ways, these texts also invite readers to engage with a preferred reading of the bride as star and planner of the white wedding. These bridal texts simultaneously evoke and recognise the agency of the bride but also standardise the image of the white wedding.

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Chapter Six Bridal Planner Traditions

This chapter undertakes a semiotic reading of bridal texts and their traditions. The bridal traditions chosen for analysis include the diamond engagement ring, the proposal, bridal invitations, the “wedding” cake and the white bridal gown. Although bridal planners do not always delineate the history and meaning of bridal traditions, these traditions are mass disseminated across a range of bridal texts validating their centrality to the white wedding narrative. In some instances, bridal planners construct a preferred reading of these bridal traditions and etiquette as symbolic of eternal love and devotion. As such, these traditions function to naturalise prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality as normative. However, this chapter argues that the paradoxical nature of bridal texts and bridal traditions disrupt the preferred reading of the white wedding as a signification of a bridal rite of passage and heterosexual love.

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Bridal Traditions

One of the central features of the white wedding narrative of popular discourses is the proposal. Bridal planners, which are designed to guide the bride through the bridal experience, generally commence with information and advice on the etiquette and traditions of the marriage proposal. Bridal planners construct a story about the white wedding, narrating a bridal journey which begins with a proposal, has a fairytale wedding as the highlight, and concludes with the bridal couple setting up a house after a romantic honeymoon. This bridal planner discourse draws upon popular fairytale narratives in constructing what constitutes a traditional proposal. Most significantly, and mirroring other popular discourses, the marriage proposal and engagement is signified by a diamond engagement ring.

Bridal planners construct a preferred narrative of the diamond engagement ring as a symbolic gift of eternal love and commitment. However, this section reveals that the dominant meaning of the diamond engagement ring is complicated by this bridal planner discourse. This section also explores how “wedding” invitations are coded as an invitation to a bridal rite of passage and how they construct an ideal image of the

Australian family by providing information on bridal invitation etiquette

The wearing of rings is a popular cultural tradition associated with weddings and marriage. Tradition indicates that a bride receives a ring from her groom. In the Western twentieth century, this was even articulated specifically as a diamond stone set in gold, to signify that she is engaged to be married (Ogletree 2010). The popularity of the diamond engagement ring was instigated by the American jewellery industry during the early 1920s. The industry promoted the diamond engagement ring through national

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advertising and trade campaigns which also encompassed advertising in Hollywood films (Howard 2003). Their success in coding diamonds as an engagement ring stone for the bride was apparent when the industry attempted to also market diamond rings for grooms. This marketing attempt failed, because the diamond engagement ring was so clearly associated with femininity. The marketing of an engagement ring for the groom, according to Howard (2003; 2006), failed because it contradicted the existing and established narrative of this bridal tradition:

… unlike women who proudly and publicly announced their upcoming marriage through this symbol, men were expected not to want to declare their engaged status with a ring… The diamond ring, moreover, showed others a woman was “out of circulation”. It was a sign of the man’s ability to pay, as well as a symbol of his love. A male engagement ring did not fit this story (2003:840, 843).

This narrative of the bridal engagement ring is also replicated in many bridal planners, which posit the diamond ring as central to the bridal transformation. Although the diamond ring is coded as a bridal engagement ring, this popular discourse posits jewellery more generally as central to the traditions of the white wedding. This centrality is coded as such through its replication across the Modern Wedding Planner

(2008; 2009; 2010) series. This bridal planner series offers the reader various options in the purchase of “jewels” for the groom and bridal party. Not only is the centrality of jewellery to the tradition of the white wedding underscored by this discourse, but this text also functions to code jewellery, specifically the engagement and wedding rings, as a bridal tradition. Wedding jewellery (as a bridal tradition) symbolises commitment, romance, elegance and eternal love:

From the potent promise of commitment symbolised by the engagement ring, through the romance of bridal jewellery, to the exchange of wedding bands during the marriage ceremony, jewellery is bound to play a central role in your wedding. You may even decide to surprise your groom with jewels in the form of elegant cufflinks or a gorgeous watch. And jewellery makes a fabulous gift for your bridal party, and one that they will cherish forever (Modern Wedding Planner 2008:29; 2009:29; 2010:29; my emphasis).

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In many instances, in delineating a bridal tradition, bridal planners will offer alternatives. For example, it has already been noted that bridal planners offer many modifications to the tradition of sugared almonds for the bonbonniere. However, the bridal planner discourse does not suggest alternatives to the bridal ring tradition.

Although the design and choice of precious metals and gems can be modified, the tradition of bridal rings cannot be dispensed with. In offering these deviations, these bridal texts engage with the bride’s agency in reworking this bridal ring tradition. The

Bride’s Diary (Adelaide 2002:20; Sydney 2002:20) states that:

Precious and semi-precious stones, blood red garnets, rare green sapphires, South Sea pearls or even your Birthstone can become the symbol of your union. A jewel, passed down through your family, can also be redesigned to suit.

Many bridal planners posit the centrality of diamonds to the white wedding narrative by showcasing detailed and intricate information about the cut, clarity, carat and colour of diamonds. In many instances, these planners do not provide the reader with alternatives or deviations from the diamond and gold engagement ring (Bride-to-Be: Wedding

Planning Guide 2006/2007; Modern Wedding Planner 2008, 2009, 2010; Adelaide

Bridal Guide 2001). In other words, bridal planners disseminate information, which is replicated and reproduced across similar publications, about gold rings with diamond settings as bridal engagement rings. Although the design, cut and colour of the diamond ring varies across these texts, the image of the diamond ring is symbolically coded as the engagement ring of the white wedding narrative.

The coding of the diamond ring as an engagement ring functions to standardise this bridal tradition. Despite the cultural diversity of Australian brides, these bridal planners, which include interactive bridal planning workbooks, invite the bride to practise this

Western tradition, or a relation to the tradition. The established narrative of the diamond

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engagement ring is that it is a signification of quintessential femininity. As such, the bridal planner discourse draws from other dominant discourses which code diamonds as a symbol of femininity. For example, the Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide

(2002:8) and the Adelaide Bridal Guide (2001:12) provide information on diamonds which is identically entitled “diamonds are a girl’s best friend”.

The diamond engagement ring is symbolically fixed as a sign of eternal love. The

Bride’s Diary (Adelaide 2001:18; Adelaide 2002:16; Sydney 2002:20) codes diamonds as a signification of love by referring to the Greek origin of the word. This editorial introduces further information on engagement and wedding rings which is replicated across the aforementioned bridal planner editions:

The diamond has been the traditional symbol of love since the middle ages. The very word ‘diamond’ comes from the Greek word ‘adamas’ meaning unconquerable, suggesting that the fire in a diamond reflects the constant flame of love (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 2001;18; Adelaide 2002;16; Sydney 2002:20).

An earlier edition of the Bride’s Diary: Adelaide (1999:16) not only constructs the engagement ring as a symbol of eternal love, but also as a signification of a woman’s status—her lack of availability to other men for courtship and marriage:

Engagement rings date back to the 15th century when Archduke Maximillian of Austria gave Mary of Burgundy a diamond ring to mark their betrothal and ward off any would-be suitors. They choose a ring as they felt the continuous circle symbolised the endless nature of their love. For obvious reasons, this is one tradition few women are willing to ignore and most are more than happy to devote plenty of time to finding the perfect ring.

Bridal rings are a sign of eternal love, devotion and monogamy: “your engagement and wedding rings” are “the symbol of your endless love for each other” (Universal’s

Complete Wedding Planner 1999:10). This bridal planner discourse codes precious metals and gems as significations of style, wealth, celebration, joy, romantic love, beauty and tradition. These texts construct an elaborate narrative about the white

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wedding in which bridal rings feature centrally. Bridal rings are symbols of the romantic fairytale story of eternal love and devotion. The Modern Wedding Planner (2008:28;

2009:28; 2010:28) series reproduces the same bridal ring title page in each issue

(although the design of the rings and page layout are refreshed). This page has images of three diamond rings which are anchored by the title, “ENGAGEMENT RINGS and

WEDDING DAY JEWELLERY” and the following statement:

Fine jewellery has long been associated with style, wealth and special occasions. Gold, diamond, rubies... each conjures up delicious sensations of joy, romance and love. Perhaps this is the reason that beautiful jewellery remains an intrinsic part of wedding tradition.

In many instances, the coding of bridal jewellery as significations of celebration, wealth, romantic love and beauty are used to justify the expense of this bridal tradition:

You’ll wear it every day for the rest of your life… On average, a diamond engagement ring is the third most expensive item a person will buy in their lifetime (other than a home and a car) (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:8).

According to this popular discourse, the ring is also a signification of the groom’s wealth and a financial symbol of his love:

The engagement ring is undoubtedly the most powerful image of love and devotion in modern times, stemming from many different traditions. Nowadays, the engagement ring means a man loves his lady enough to pay her the ultimate tribute of spending his hard-earned cash on a gift to symbolise his loving commitment (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:26).

Your engagement ring (and later) your wedding band makes one thing clear. You are loved (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 2001:18; Adelaide 2002:16; Sydney 2002:20).

The expense of bridal rings is not only justified by the symbolic coding of the engagement ring as a signifier of love, but also by its signification of familial heritage and lineage. By inextricably linking the bride with the diamond engagement ring— which is fixed as a symbol of eternal love, as well as reproductive life—bridal texts function to situate the textual bride within the nexus of the transmission of prescribed gender roles and normative sexuality. For example, the Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner

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(2002:8) claims that: “Your rings can become a beautiful family heirloom for your daughters and granddaughters if you learn how to properly clean and look after them”.

In this instance, this bridal text constructs the bridal role and white wedding as precursors to the roles of wife and mother. The bride is invited by this text to participate in the continuation and maintenance of cultural norms via the transmission of white bridal traditions (such as bridal rings) from one generation to the next.

The dominant reading of the bridal engagement ring is that it is symbolic of eternal love, devotion and monogamy. As established in Chapter Two, Ingraham (1999:104) argues that wedding rings have historically signified the bride’s “monogamous bond to the husband”. As tradition dictates, the bride is required to wear wedding rings, whilst for the groom it is optional. As such, Ingraham argues that wedding rings retain the symbolic effect of linking the bride to monogamy (Ingraham 1999). In other words, the bride is marked differently from the groom, by the wearing of the engagement, wedding and eternity rings. The diamond engagement ring, a symbol of devotion, eternal love and monogamy, marks the bride’s commitment to these ideals. The bride is constructed as the embodiment of fidelity, whilst the groom, who is only marked by the wedding ring (which is also optional), is not linked to these ideals in the same way.

The Contradictions of Engagement

The proposal is a central feature of the white wedding and is generally understood to be accompanied by a diamond engagement ring. Women’s and gossip magazines, as established earlier, represented Mary Donaldson’s wedding as a "real" fairytale. This ideal wedding was a romantic fairytale story about a dashing prince who proposed to an

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“unassuming commoner”. Bridal planners, situated within the women’s publication genre, draw upon this narrative to construct a fairytale story about the marriage proposal. The Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide (2006/2007) and Bride’s Diary:

Sydney (2008) construct a narrative about the proposal which mirrors popular romantic fairytales—the prince dazzles the "girl" with a proposal replete with diamonds.

Momentarily, the groom is positioned by this discourse as a knight in shining armour, actively pursuing the princess bride:

CONGRATULATIONS He’s dazzled you with diamonds and you’ve said ‘Yes!’ (Bride-to-be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:14).

Becoming Engaged YOU WILL REMEMBER THIS MOMENT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIVES... Were you strolling on a beach, or dining at a favourite restaurant? Perhaps you were at a movie, or enjoying a simple night at home. The question might have been asked during a tender, quiet interlude, or was it so unexpected that it took your breath away? No matter where you were, or what the circumstances, of one thing you can be sure: you will remember that moment for the rest of your lives. Because, in those heart-stopping seconds when you said “yes”, both your lives were changed forever (Bride’s Diary: Sydney 2008:36).

For the Bride MOST GIRLS DREAM ABOUT THEIR WEDDING DAY Most girls dream about their wedding day... When you were younger, you probably thought of Cinderella and pictured yourself being whisked away, white steed and all, by a handsome Prince Charming. As a teenager, your hero was more likely to have resembled a rock star than a blond, perfectly featured fairytale prince!

But now you’re all grown up – you have found the man you love, and you are about to be married. Suddenly your dreams are becoming reality. A fairytale of your own is about to unfold. The preparation for your wedding will be one of the most exciting, emotional and special times of your life, and you should savour every moment. And your wedding day? That will be pure magic. So let the story begin... (Bride’s Diary: Sydney 2008:54)

Bridal planner discourses construct a fairytale narrative about the tradition of bridal rings. As established, these texts symbolically code bridal rings as central to the white wedding narrative and as significations of devotion, love, fidelity and eternity.

However, the engagement ring, according to this popular discourse, has contradictory

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significations. The engagement ring, as constructed by these bridal texts, does not only signify the ideal romance and wedding, but can also signify heartbreak and unrequited love. The Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner (2002) momentarily constructs the engagement ring as the sign of a broken engagement and the cancellation of an impeding wedding. According to this discourse, an engagement is terminated when the bride returns the ring to her fiancé.

If an engagement is broken, the bride should immediately return the ring and any other recent gifts her fiancé has bestowed upon her. Any engagement party or bridal shower gifts should also be returned to guests. An announcement can be placed in the newspaper stating, “The engagement of Ms Jennifer Alcott and Mr Peter McKew has been ended by mutual consent” (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:7).

More specifically, the diamond engagement ring is contradictorily understood by this bridal planner genre to simultaneously signify eternal and unrequited love. This paradoxical construction of bridal rings lends itself to negotiated and oppositional reading positions of the dominant meaning.

Moreover, the Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide (2006/2007) complicates the tradition of the proposal and diamond engagement ring of the white wedding by engaging the bride’s agency in the orchestration of her dream wedding: “your

ENGAGEMENT RING How to choose a design that’s perfect for you —one you’ll love forever” (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:16). In engaging with the bride’s agency, this planner series (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:134; Bride- to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:118) provides a space in the interactive workbook for the bride to practise this tradition (Image 14). This discourse highlights the groom’s passivity, which is always made apparent in relation to organisational aspects of the wedding, including the choice of a diamond engagement ring. In other words, this text contradictorily constructs the groom as both an active protagonist and

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passive participant in the fairytale of white weddings. Therefore, the idea that a diamond ring is presented to a lady from a man as a sign of engagement is complicated.

The complexity of this discourse is further highlighted by how these planners construct the bride of the white wedding narrative. Although the bride is constructed as passively waiting for a diamond proposal, these planners evoke her agency in the purchase of the engagement ring. A diamond engagement ring, according to these popular texts, can be given from a man to a lady, even if it is the bride who purchases it.

Bridal planners participate in the dissemination and circulation of the bridal role as a public rite of passage for "girls". This genre constructs a set of bridal traditions that the bride is invited to practise in the planning and performance of this transformative role.

As such, the bride is provided with information on the appropriate wording of

"wedding" invitations, the etiquette and tradition. I argue here that these wedding invitations are in effect bridal invitations: they are invitations to a bridal rite of passage.

A reading of bridal invitations reveals how this discourse participates in the circulation of images of brides as quintessential examples of emphasised femininity. Moreover, bridal invitations of the bridal planner genre mirror other dominant discourses which code heterosexuality as normative. This bridal planner discourse also offers many different familial arrangements which complicate the image of the ideal nuclear family.

Bridal planners provide the bride with detailed information on how to word bridal invitations. The traditional etiquette for the wording of these invitations is delineated by these texts, but they offer alternatives by providing more contemporary wording options. All of these planners reproduce an image of the ideal family through the

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replication of what is considered to be the traditional or normal wording for bridal invitations.

A normal wedding invitation Mr and Mrs Craig Baldwin request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter Lyndall Baldwin to John Ford, Jr (Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner 1999:92).

WORDING Traditionally, a formal invitation is written in the third person and should read as follows: Mr & Mrs James Scott Request the pleasure of your company At the marriage of their daughter Katherine To Mr Robert Morrow (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:77).

This is the traditional wording for a formal wedding Mr & Mrs William Green request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of their daughter Jane Emma and Adam Paul McCormick (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:82; 2008:70; 2009:70; 2010:70).

BRIDE’S PARENTS HOSTING THE WEDDING Traditionally, a formal invitation is written in the third person and the hosts are whoever is paying for the wedding, but many couples wish to be more exclusive as per examples below (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:79)

This bridal planner genre participates in the circulation of images of the ideal family and of the bridal role as an expression of emphasised femininity. This bridal planner discourse, in providing "traditional" and "normal" examples of bridal invitations and their approved modifications, constructs an ideal nuclear familial arrangement—a married, heterosexual couple with children. In other words, this discourse codes the wording of the aforementioned bridal invitations as traditional in order to validate the heterosexual, nuclear family as ideal. The ideal marriage of the white wedding narrative, according to the bridal invitation tradition, is marked by fidelity and longevity but also by a strict adherence to hegemonic ideals of masculinity and emphasised femininity. Heterosexuality is thus constructed as central to the white wedding narrative

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and is culturally validated, through bridal traditions, as a normative expression of sexuality.

According to the bridal planner discourse, the etiquette of bridal invitations is traditionally dictated by who is hosting the wedding. As the above quotations indicate, the hosts’ names (the bride’s heterosexual, married parents) traditionally appear first on the bridal invitation. This bridal invitation tradition constructs the bride and her parents as central to the white wedding. The wedding, hosted by the bride’s parents, is in effect a celebration of “the marriage of their daughter” (Universal’s Complete Wedding

Planner 1999:92; Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:77; Modern Wedding Planner

2005:82; 2008:70; 2009:70; 2010:70). In other words, through the bridal invitation tradition, the wedding is coded as a bridal rite of passage. The invitation tradition nominates the bride’s parents as hosts of the "wedding" and the "wedding" as a celebration of the bride’s marriage.

Once married, according to this popular discourse, the wife’s identity is transformed and she is invited to appropriate her husband’s name. Bridal invitation tradition dictates that the mother of the bride’s identity is defined in relation to her marital status. The above- quoted invitations refer to the brides' mothers as "Mrs Craig Baldwin", "Mrs James

Scott", and "Mrs William Green" (Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner 1999:92;

Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:77; Modern Wedding Planner 2005:82; 2008:70;

2009:70; 2010:70). This mirrors other patriarchal discourses which construct a hegemonic ideal of masculinity and its complementary gender identity, emphasised femininity (Howson 2005). The traditional wording of bridal invitations functions to construct an image of the ideal family structure, validating heterosexuality and

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reflecting other public and popular discourses on what constitutes masculinity and femininity.

The Contradictions of Bridal Invitation Etiquette

Although modifications to the etiquette of the wording of bridal invitations do not move beyond hetero-normative ideas of what constitutes a family, these variations do disrupt the preferred reading of white wedding traditions. As established, bridal planners construct the diamond engagement ring as central to the bridal "moment", symbolic of joy, fidelity, and most importantly, eternal love. However, the discourse also recognises that familial arrangements can be more complicated than this ideal. As such, these texts acknowledge that families can be transformed and re-arranged by death, divorce and remarriage. In providing various wording options, bridal planners recognise the diversity of familial arrangements such as single-headed female households, divorced parents and step-parents.

IF THE BRIDE’S PARENTS ARE DIVORCED BUT HOSTING THE WEDDING TOGETHER: Mrs Susanna Green and Mr William Green... (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:82; 2008:70; 2009:70; 2010:70)

IF BOTH OF THE BRIDE’S PARENTS ARE REMARRIED AND HOSTING THE WEDDING TOGETHER: Mr & Mrs Tony Brenner and Mr and Mrs William Green request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of Jane Emma... (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:82; 2008:70; 2009:70; 2010:70)

If the bride’s mother is hosting the wedding alone: Mrs Susanna Green requests the pleasure of your company

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at the marriage of her daughter... (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:82)

If the bride’s mother and stepfather are hosting the wedding: Mr & Mrs Tony Brenner request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of her [sic] daughter... (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:82)

If the bride’s remarried mother and real father are hosting the wedding: Mrs Tony Brenner and Mr William Green... (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:82)

A wedding invitation where either the bride’s mother or father has remarried: MR AND MRS DAVID THOMAS REQUEST THE HONOUR OF YOUR PRESENCE AT THE MARRIAGE OF HER DAUGHTER LYNDALL BALDWIN (Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner 1999:92)

The recognition of the complicated nature of families functions to create tension and contradiction within the dominant meaning of the white wedding of popular discourses.

In other words, the recognition of divorce and remarriages (un)-fixes the cultural meaning of the white wedding, and associated bridal traditions such as bridal rings, as representative of fidelity and eternal love. The inclusion of an example of the mother of the bride as host of the wedding by the Modern Wedding Planner (2005) also disrupts the preferred reading of femininity as a quintessential expression of emphasised femininity. The mother of the bride, according to bridal planner tradition, is required to use her (previous) husband’s surname on the invitation: Mrs Susanna Green (Modern

Wedding Planner 2005:82). However, through the recognition of the bride’s mother as host of the wedding, in this instance, this text constructs a feminine identity which complicates the idealised form of emphasised femininity.

This feminine identity, marked as financially independent, is also recognised by bridal planners when they engage with the bride’s agency in the orchestration of her dream

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wedding. These texts provide an invitation wording option if the bridal couple is hosting the wedding (Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner 1999:92; Bride-to-Be: Wedding

Planner 2002:77; Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:119; Modern

Wedding Planner 2005:82; 2008:70; 2009:70; 2010:70). These bridal texts engage with the bride’s agency through the recognition that she has the financial independence to host her wedding. The bridal image is therefore not only a representation of emphasised femininity but also of fiscal stability and independence. This contradictory construction of the bridal role disrupts the preferred reading of the bride as a financially dependent wife.

The Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide (2006/2007), in the interactive section, invites the bride to practise bridal invitation etiquette (Image 16). This bridal planner includes a template which can be used by the bride to formulate invitations. This template is meant to be used in conjunction with the information provided by this planner about the traditional wording for invitations. However, this planner cannot necessarily determine how this template would be used, if at all. The recognition by this discourse of divorce and re-marriages functions to disrupt the dominant image of the ideal nuclear family, creating a textual tension within the dominant reading of these texts. Even though bridal planners outline traditions to be practised, and their modifications, these texts can not guarantee that they will be decoded from within a dominant hegemonic position. Nor can these bridal texts ensure that the traditional etiquette of bridal invitations will be practised in a customary way.

To conclude, bridal planners invite the bride to perform and execute bridal traditions such as bridal rings and invitations. Generally, these customs are coded as significations

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of joy, happiness, and eternal love. Bridal planner texts complicate these bridal traditions by engaging with the bride’s agency in the purchase of bridal rings, but also by including modifications to these traditions. Most importantly, the inclusion of modifications to bridal traditions functions to disrupt the cultural reproduction of dominant norms.

Bridal Cake

The white wedding narrative of bridal planner texts codes the wedding as a signification of fidelity, happiness and eternal love. Bridal rings, bridal invitations and the "wedding" cake are constructed as central to the white wedding by most bridal publications. These bridal traditions, as a part of the white wedding narrative, are also coded as significations of joy and love. The "wedding" cake, as delineated by bridal planners, has a set of associated traditions and practices such as the cake-cutting ceremony, the groom’s cake, the gift of cake to guests to "dream" upon, and the preservation of the top tier of the "wedding" cake for future celebrations. These wedding cake traditions function to establish and validate the centrality of the cake to the bridal "moment". In engaging with the dreams and desires of brides, the planner discourse invites the bride to plan and execute such bridal traditions. The bride is able to modify the tradition of the wedding cake, and is offered an infinite choice of possibilities in the practise of the associated traditions. I argue that these modifications and choices do not necessarily challenge the patriarchal meanings attached to these traditions, but do not directly transmit them either.

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Bridal planners construct a set of bridal traditions that the bride is invited to practise in the orchestration of her dream wedding. The Modern Wedding Planner (2005) constructs the wedding cake as central to the white wedding by suggesting that it originates from Ancient Greece and Rome. Although the narrative of the origin of this bridal tradition is not delineated by other planner texts, these publications replicate the idea that the cake is a symbol of happiness, prosperity, fertility and love. The symbolic coding of the wedding cake as such mirrors dominant significations of the white wedding narrative. In highlighting the importance of practices such as the cake-cutting ceremony, these bridal planners validate the centrality of the wedding cake to the white wedding:

The wedding cake is one of the oldest traditions in modern culture, dating back to the Ancient Greeks and Romans who made an offering of fruits, nuts and honey cake to the household Gods to get them to approve the marriage and bestow their blessings on the couple. Symbolising happiness, prosperity and fertility, the cutting of the wedding cake has today become one of the highlights of the wedding and the cake itself a focal point at the reception (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:126).

Symbolising happiness, prosperity and fertility, the cutting of the wedding cake has today become one of the highlights of the wedding (Modern Wedding Planner 2008:107; 2009:104; 2010:106).

The act of communion, in any culture, is a profound event. Your wedding cake is the first active symbol of your shared love with each other and then with your loved ones and special guests (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 2001:172).

Your wedding cake is the first active symbol of your shared love with each other and with your loved ones and special guests (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 2001:172; Adelaide 2002:164; Sydney 2002: 118).

The Romans began the tradition of wedding cakes when the bride and groom shared a humble cake made of flour and water (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 1999:140).

Bridal planners provide detailed information on planning a traditional wedding and alternatives on how to plan a modern wedding—which is always conceived as relative to the traditional. They outline both traditions to be practised and how these traditions can be modified: “we will give you the ‘traditional’ steps and practices, remember that

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nowadays nothing is set in stone and traditions were made to be broken and re-created in another form—your own” (Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner 1999:8). Bridal planner publications provide detailed information on how the traditional wedding cake can be modified and tailored to suit the bride as an individual. These texts engage with the bride’s agency and her sense of individuality by providing the information and creative space to modify the size, shape and flavour of wedding cakes. For example, the discourse codes fruitcake as the traditional recipe for wedding cakes (“the traditional favourite remains the multi-tiered fruitcake” [Bride’s Diary Adelaide 2001: 172;

Adelaide 2002: 164; Sydney 2002: 118]), but also provides other "wedding” cake options:

Fruitcake, although an old favourite, is fast losing popularity as dozens of new, experimental flavours take precedence (Bride-to-be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007).

Your wedding cake is no longer limited to varying recipes of fruitcake. Cake decorators now offer flavours such as chocolate mud cake, caramel mud cake, coffee walnut mud cake, orange and poppy seed, almond praline torte, blackforest, butter cake, banana cake, carrot cake and more (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:126–127; 2008: 108; 2009: 107; 2010:106).

In spite of these modifications, to dispense with the wedding cake altogether would be considered a dramatic deviation from the traditions of the white wedding. According to the Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner (2002:84), for example, “tradition-breakers” do not deviate from the inclusion of the wedding cake at the reception. In other words,

“tradition-breakers” continue to participate in the cultural practice of the wedding cake, with the deviation from tradition being the modification of the size and quantity of cakes:

Some tradition-breakers bypass a wedding cake in favour of table cakes. These round cakes usually only have one tier and are placed on each of the guest tables. The bride and groom also share a table cake—theirs may have additional decorative icing or a figurine to mark the ownership (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:84).

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Bridal planner publications construct a set of cultural practices which are coded as wedding cake traditions. Amongst these traditions and customs is the practice of displaying the wedding cake prominently at the reception. The centrality of the wedding cake to the bridal moment and the wedding reception is validated as such through the deployment of the concept of tradition. These bridal planners also construct the

"wedding" cake as central to the tradition of the white wedding by highlighting the importance of the use of a special and visible cake table and the cake-cutting ceremony:

Traditionally, the wedding cake is prominently displayed as the centrepiece of the bridal table or set aside on a table of its own where all guests can see it (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 1999:140; Adelaide 2001:172).

The wedding cake should be prominently positioned at the reception (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 1999:140).

In the excitement of choosing your cake and the myriad of other wedding preparations, it’s easy to forget about your cake table (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:126–127).

While you and your groom are the highlights of your reception, so too is the cutting of the cake ceremony and the cake itself a focal point at the reception (Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner 1999:109).

After the final toast to you and your groom, take the knife in your right hand, underneath your new husband’s hand and together cut the first wedge of cake. Once, you’ve eaten the first slice, the bottom tier is cut and served (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 1999:140; Adelaide 2001:172; Adelaide 2002:164; Sydney 2002:118).

The wedding cake should be cut together by the couple, with their right hands overlapping. The couple basically plunges the knife right into the heart of the bottom layer (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:84; Bride-to-be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:90).

The cake knife is usually only used for the token cut by the bride and groom… At this point, many couples like to link arms and sip champagne from one another’s glass, followed by a crowd pleasing kiss (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:84; Bride-to- Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:90).

The wedding cake is constructed as a central tradition of the white wedding, but in a modification of this tradition, the Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner (2002) also includes the groom’s cake. This bridal planner does not provide historical knowledge to substantiate claims that the groom’s cake is a "wedding" tradition. Rather, it relies upon

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the already familiar symbolism of the wedding cake to validate the groom’s cake: “there are a lot of stories surrounding the origin of the groom’s cake... Symbolising the couple’s sweet life ahead of them” (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:84). The groom’s cake, similar to other bridal traditions of the bridal planner genre, is coded as a symbol of love, joy, life and "sweetness". This symbolic coding of the groom’s cake, which neatly aligns with the preferred symbolism of the white wedding narrative, functions to establish the groom’s cake as a "wedding" tradition.

The presence of the groom’s cake as a "wedding" tradition codes the "wedding" cake, despite the cake-cutting ceremony which includes the groom, as a bridal tradition. That is to say, the "wedding" cake is gendered through the presence of the groom’s cake. The groom’s cake, as suggested by this bridal text, is not central to the wedding, but tangential, as “groom’s cakes are a thoughtful gesture from the bride to her boy to allow him his own special moment of attention... its design and presence should not compete with the wedding cake” (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:84). The bridal role as

"star" of the wedding is symbolically reflected in the centrality of the "wedding cake" whilst the groom’s cake reflects the groom’s peripheral role. The presence of the groom is a necessity for bridal moments, but he is always clearly positioned as secondary to the bride by this discourse. Unlike the "wedding" cake, which is served to guests at the wedding, the groom’s cake is only served to parents of the bridal couple, the bride and the groom and the bridal party at the wedding reception, or as a dessert at the rehearsal dinner or buck’s night (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:84). It is only in specialised moments such as the buck’s party, wedding speeches and the cutting of the groom’s cake (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002) that the groom is central to the white

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wedding narrative: “Who should cut and serve it? The groom of course!” (Bride-to-Be:

Wedding Planner 2002:84).

Through the inclusion of the groom’s cake, this text momentarily fixes the white wedding tradition of the wedding cake as a bridal tradition, whilst simultaneously underscoring the social and cultural importance of the bride to the tradition of white weddings. More specifically, the groom—unlike the bride, who is constructed as planner and star of the wedding—is not discursively linked to these traditions and not directly invited to practise them. Although the groom is expected to “cut and serve” the groom’s cake, it is the bride who is invited to organise the groom’s cake and associated traditions. The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner (2006) does not detail information about the "wedding" or the groom’s cake.

Other bridal cake traditions that the bride is invited to practise include the gift of a piece of "wedding" cake to "guests". If popular discourse dictates that it is tradition for

"guests" to take a piece of the "wedding" cake home, brides-to-be generally know about these traditions through their mass dissemination and reproduction in most bridal planners:

A popular tradition is to give your guests a bag with a tiny slice of cake in it… It is considered lucky for guests to take home a piece of the cake and sleep with it under their pillows that night (Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner 1999:109).

There are lots of stories surrounding the origin of the groom’s cake. Symbolising the couple’s sweet life ahead of them, the cake was traditionally taken home by guests in boxes "to dream upon" (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:84).

Although these texts propose that guests should sleep with a piece of cake under their pillow to dream upon, these texts are inherently contradictory about the practice of this

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tradition. Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (2002) refers to this practice in relation to the "wedding" cake, whilst Bride-to-be: Wedding Planner (2002) refers to it in relation to the groom’s cake. The Bride-to-be: Wedding Planner (2002) further suggests that "guests" should "dream" upon the groom’s cake. However, this bridal text also contradictorily includes at the bottom right-hand corner, within a coloured frame, entitled in bold font:

DID YOU KNOW… Single girls should sleep with a slice of groom’s cake under their pillow to dream of their future husband! (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:84).

The visibility of this quotation has the effect, despite the aforementioned contradiction, of anchoring a preferred reading of the practice of this tradition. In this instance, this text fixes the preferred meaning of "guests" as "single girls", while "dreaming" is coded as fantasies about future husbands. The dominant meaning of this tradition, situated within patriarchal discourses, functions to circulate normative ideals about femininity and heterosexuality. This text temporarily functions to fix patriarchal meanings to this tradition by inviting girls to participate in the continuation of dominant cultural norms.

However, in other instances, the cultural meaning of the "wedding" cake tradition is

(un)-fixed from its patriarchal origins. For example, Universal’s Complete Wedding

Planner (1999:109) and the Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner (2002:84) employ the gender-neutral language "guests" and the unspecified idea of "dreaming" to refer to the

"wedding" cake tradition. In this instance, these texts temporarily (un)-fix this bridal tradition from patriarchal discourses, whilst also creating contradiction.

The Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide (2006/2007) and the Bride’s Diary

(Adelaide 1999; Adelaide 2001; Adelaide 2002; Sydney 2002; Sydney 2002) planner series include the gift of "wedding" cakes to guests as a bridal tradition, but do not

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specifically explain how it is practised. However, the Bride’s Diary (Adelaide 1999:

140; Adelaide 2001: 172; Adelaide 2002: 164; Sydney 2002: 118) states that “some of your guests may ask for a piece to be wrapped so they can take it home. It’s a good idea to have specially prepared cake boxes for this”. The Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning

Guide (2006/2007:146) similarly assumes that there is bridal awareness of this tradition and invites the bride to participate in the interactive bridal planning workbook section:

“Will they provide individual guest boxing for taking cake home?” (Image 17).

This bridal cake tradition is not fore-grounded by these planners, as these texts rely upon other bridal publications and cultural forms which explain its practice. Amongst many other cultural forms, the Australian film, Muriel’s Wedding, which will be discussed in more detail shortly, includes a scene which explains this bridal tradition.

Muriel, the protagonist of the film, is given a piece of "wedding" cake from a more mature woman, who states: “Now if you put this under your pillow you will dream of your future husband”. The "wedding" cake is displayed on a decorative table, a convention also articulated by bridal planners. This kind of scene transmits knowledge about bridal traditions and the certainty that these traditions validate the social and cultural importance of weddings to girls' lives. In this instance, this bridal cake tradition is fixed within patriarchal discourses which code "girls" as symbols of emphasised femininity.

The Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide (2006/2007) is the only text to offer the bride the opportunity to consider this tradition in the workbook section, designed for bridal practice and interaction. In the workbook section, this bridal planner has a page

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for the bride to organise the purchase of a wedding cake, including a section for recording wedding cake quotes. It allows the bride to record details such as the “number of guests to feed, cake size, style and shape” (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide

2006/2007:146). As mentioned, the Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide

(2006/2007:146) invites the bride to participate in the practice of the gift of cake to guests: “Will they provide individual guest boxing for taking cake home?” (Image 17).

The Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide (2006/2007), in its generality about the bridal cake gift, temporarily (un)-fixes the meaning of this tradition from patriarchal discourses. This tradition is ordinarily understood (through its replication, reproduction and mass circulation by bridal publications and other popular discourses) as a custom for single girls. In other words, the dominant reading of this tradition is that the bride offers a gift of bridal cake to single girls so they may sleep with it under their pillows and dream about their future husbands. In this instance, the bride is coded as the bearer of cultural norms such as prescribed gender identities and heterosexuality. However, the

Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide (2006/2007:146) disrupts this preferred reading through the use of the gender-neutral term guests. This planner does not provide an explanation of how the bridal cake gift is practised; and proposes that all guests, rather than just single girls, should receive a piece of bridal cake. This bridal planner discourse therefore functions to complicate the symbolism of the gift of the bridal cake as a sign of the centrality of weddings to the lives of girls and prescribed roles of wife and mother. Temporarily, this text functions to (un)-fix the patriarchal meanings attached to the gift of the bridal cake.

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Another tradition associated with the bridal cake, according to bridal planner discourses, is the saving of the top tier of the cake. Bridal planners suggest that the tier should be kept to either celebrate the first wedding anniversary, the christening of the first child, or a special occasion. The centrality of keeping the top tier of the bridal cake as a white wedding tradition is validated by detailed information and practical advice on how to preserve the cake. Fruitcake is coded as the traditional choice for the top tier because of its capacity to be preserved:

The tier that you save for your first anniversary or baby’s christening needs to be made of fruitcake, otherwise it won’t keep. One method is put the cake in the box, then in a plastic container and freeze it. The plastic container stops the icing from absorbing other odours in the freezer. Another method is to wrap the cake in layers of unwaxed paper, then foil, then place in a plastic container before freezing. When the event arrives, take the cake out of the freezer a week before the event, allowing it to thaw slowly (Bride-to- Be: Wedding Planner 2002:84).

The tier that you save for your first anniversary or baby’s christening needs to be made of fruitcake, otherwise it won’t keep. One method is to put the cake in a box, then in a plastic container and freeze. Another method is to wrap the cake in unwaxed paper and foil, then place in a plastic container and freeze. Allow the cake to thaw out slowly in the week before eating (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:90).

If you would like to keep some of the wedding cake for your first wedding anniversary or the christening of your first child, then you will need to order at least one fruitcake tier. Store it well wrapped in acid free tissue paper in an airtight container. If the icing fades, it can be re-iced when required (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:126; 2008:108; 2009:107; 2010:106 & 108).

Fruitcake can last in excellent condition for years, provided it is stored in a cool place and well sealed (Bride’s Diary Adelaide 2001:172; Adelaide 2002:164; Sydney 2002:118).

The aforementioned bridal planners construct the bridal cake tradition of preserving the top tier of the cake as central to the white wedding. However, in delineating the practice of this tradition, these bridal planners provide different celebratory options for the use of the top tier of the bridal cake. The Modern Wedding Planner (2005:126; 2008:108;

2009:107; 2010:106 & 108) and Bride-to-Be (2002:84; 2006/2007:84) planner series suggest that the top tier of the "wedding" cake should be saved for the first wedding anniversary or the christening of the first child. The replication of this bridal tradition

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practice across these bridal texts functions to validate these cultural practices as tradition.

These bridal planners code this bridal cake tradition as central to the tradition of the white wedding, and as a celebration of the bridal "moment"—the “first anniversary” of the wedding. This bridal planner discourse functions to memorialise the wedding day, the bridal rite of passage, with this bridal cake tradition. This memorialisation of the bridal moment constructs a preferred reading of the white wedding as pivotal to the lives of girls. These bridal planner texts also function to code this bridal cake tradition as a signification of fertility and procreation, highlighting the importance of saving the top tier for a child’s christening. This discourse therefore functions to construct an ideal image of the bride as a heterosexual Anglo-Christian wife and mother. This ideal does not mirror the distinct cultural, social and religious identities of Australian brides, but brides are invited to practise a relation to this custom.

The Bride-to-Be (2002; 2006/2007) (Image 17) bridal planner series are the only planners to include an interactive section for the preservation of the top tier of the bridal cake. However, these bridal planners only refer to the importance of this ritual in relation to the first anniversary: "Saving top tier for anniversary: Y/N" (Bride-to-Be:

Wedding Planner 2002:160; Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:146).

The importance of retaining the cake as a bridal tradition is underscored by these planners through inclusion in the workbook section. However, these texts also function to (un)-fix the meaning of this tradition from Christian practices. Although these planners outline how the bridal cake can be preserved to celebrate the baby’s christening, they do not include this information in the wedding planning workbook.

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The interactive section of these planners does not directly invite the bride to practise this tradition. The cultural meaning of the top tier as a symbol of procreation and fertility is temporarily (un)-fixed from dominant patriarchal discourses.

Although all the bridal planners analysed refer to the tradition of keeping a tier of the

"wedding" cake for the first wedding anniversary, Universal’s Complete Wedding

Planner (1999) does not refer to the cake being used to celebrate christenings. Instead, this planner states that the wedding cake “can be kept either for your first anniversary or your first baby” (Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner 1999:109). This bridal planner text functions to code the tradition of keeping the cake to celebrate the first wedding anniversary as symbolic of a celebration of the bridal moment. In suggesting that the cake can also be preserved for the celebration of the first baby, this text functions as a part of patriarchal discourses to construct the bridal role as a rite of passage from girlhood to motherhood. Reminiscent of the Modern Wedding Planner (2005; 2008;

2009; 2010) and Bride-to-Be (2002; 2006/2007) planner series, Universal’s Complete

Wedding Planner (1999) constructs the "bridal cake" as symbolic, as a result of the marital union, of procreation and fertility. Rather than coding this bridal cake tradition as symbolic of a baby’s first christening, Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999)

(un)-fixes this tradition from Christian practices.

The Adelaide Bridal Guide (2001:93) also participates in the circulation of the idea that the preservation of the top tier of the bridal cake is a bridal tradition: “the top tier of a fruit cake can be reserved for cutting on the first anniversary, or any other important occasion you may wish”. This text, similar to other bridal planners, codes this bridal cake tradition as central to the tradition of the white wedding, and as a celebration of the

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bridal "moment". The Adelaide Bridal Guide (2001:93), however, also suggests that the bridal cake can be preserved for “any other important occasion”. In providing this option, this bridal planner engages with the bride’s agency in reworking this cultural tradition. In doing so, this bridal planner discourse complicates the meaning of the bridal cake tradition, as delineated by other bridal planner texts, of keeping the top tier for the celebration of a baby’s christening. This text disrupts the idea that the bridal cake is symbolic of fertility and procreation and (un)-fixes the cultural meaning of this tradition from Christian practices such as the christening.

White Bridal Gown

The centrality of the bridal gown to the narrative of the white wedding is evidenced by the proliferation of images of white wedding dresses. Disseminated en-masse through a multitude of cultural sites, including film, television, bridal planners, bridal and women’s magazines, bridal fairs, fashion parades and so forth, the white bridal gown marks the bride within popular discourses. Bridal planners provide brides with advice on bridal gown colours and fabrics, how to choose a flattering style, where to purchase a gown and the expense. Popularly constructed images of the bridal gown are generally white or different shades of white such as cream and ivory, marking the exclusivity of the gown from everyday clothing. Bridal planners, similar to other popular discourses, code white as the traditional colour for bridal wear.

Other bridal traditions such as the diamond engagement ring are generally authenticated as such by bridal planner texts via the inclusion of a "history" and an explanation of the

"meaning". Bridal planner texts do not, however, provide a story to validate the white

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bridal gown as traditional. Rather, in establishing the centrality of the white bridal gown to the traditions of the white wedding, bridal planner texts provide detailed information on the different shades of white available for bridal gowns. The Bride’s Diary (Adelaide

2001; Adelaide 2002; Sydney 2002) planner series details how various tones of white can, for example, complement different-coloured eyes, hair and skin complexions.

Most brides choose white or ivory for their bridal gown and even these come in many shades. Try on stark whites, off whites and varying hues of cream. The colour that is right for you will be the one that makes you glow (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:39).

What about Colour? Whites and ivories are still the most popular colours for wedding gowns. Try on stark whites, off whites and varying hues of cream. The colour that is right for you will be the one that makes you glow (Modern Wedding Planner 2008:39; 2009:39; 2010:40).

If you are following the traditional path, remember that whites and ivories come in several shades (Adelaide Bridal Guide 2001:30).

FULL FIGURE The traditional white wedding dress is a good start because a long silhouette in one colour is a great minimiser (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:38; Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:32).

Any colour is acceptable for your wedding dress. Of course, white is the traditional favourite. However white comes in many different tones. Choosing the right tone will enhance the radiance of your complexion. As a general guide, dark complexions will suit any colour in a very pale shade. Red hair and freckled skin can wear any shade of white, yet they glow in ivories and gold. Sallow skin shimmers in soft creamy tones. Pale skin with dark hair and eyes suit warm tones, while blond hair and blue eyes are lifted with bluish tones (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 2001:30; Adelaide 2002:26; Sydney 2002:30).

The Modern Wedding Planner (2005; 2008; 2009; 2010) and the Adelaide Bridal Guide

(2001:30) are the only bridal planners that offer suggestions for other bridal gown colours. The Modern Wedding Planner (2005:39; 2008:38; 2009:38; 2010:40), for example, suggests that brides who deviate from the tradition of the white bridal gown are “daring” and “outrageous”:

In terms of the colour of your bridal gown, you certainly need not stick to white. Designers these days are producing beautiful gowns in pastel pink, baby blue and soft mint green (Adelaide Bridal Guide 2001:30).

You can also consider wearing a gown in any other colour of the rainbow. Pastels are always popular or simply add accents of colour in mint green, ice blue or even a rich red… Soft shades of palest pink, blue and green are also popular... If you are a daring

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bride you could choose a bolder colour such as gold, aubergine or even black. It’s up to you. Be as traditional or as outrageous as you wish (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:39; 2008:38; 2009:38; 2010:40).

Although these bridal planners offer alternative colours for the bridal gown, none of them contain images of bridal gowns in colours other than white. These planners thereby validate the white bridal gown as traditional bridal wear. While the bridal gown colour can be modified, according to these planners, it must remain expensive in order for it to be transformative. Even though bridal planners construct the white bridal gown as traditional, none of them either explicitly foreground the history or meaning of wearing white. White has not always been a traditional colour for bridal wear. Up until the seventeenth century in England, the bridal gown was not any particular colour, but rather was identifiable by its expense. Women would wear their hair loose with a wreath of flowers on their heads to signify their bridal status. The suppression of religious ceremonies under the Puritans during the late seventeenth century and eighteenth century meant that weddings were quiet and inconspicuous (Cox 2002).

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, it had become customary for women to wear white at formal social occasions (including presentations at court) and as bridal wear (Cox 2002). However, according to Cox (2002:15), “the wedding of Queen

Victoria to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha at St. James’s Palace, London on

February 10, 1840 firmly set the fashion for white”. White was fashionable amongst the elite during Queen Victoria’s era, as it signified cleanliness, which was also a sign of privilege and wealth. It is generally more difficult for a white dress to appear clean, so the white bridal gown required laundering prior to the wedding day, an expense only affordable by the wealthy (Cox 2002). As white was a signification of cleanliness it also became associated with purity. The white bridal gown was therefore coded as a

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signification of the bride’s innocence, virginity and chastity (Cox 2002; Ingraham 1999;

Otnes and Pleck 2003).

Ordinarily, the white bridal gown has been understood as a signification of the bride’s virtue. However, the white bridal gown tradition of popular discourses does not necessarily associate the wearing of white with virginity. As established, bridal planner discourses construct a preferred reading of the bridal role as a rite of passage from

"girlhood" to "womanhood", the latter encompassing the roles of wife and mother.

However, this preferred reading of the bridal role is complicated by bridal planner texts which (un)-fix the meaning of the white bridal gown, as a symbol of the bride’s chastity, from its patriarchal and historical origins. Bridal planner texts construct bridal traditions as symbols of commitment and eternal love. However, according to

Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999), second-time brides can also have the traditional white wedding of popular discourses.

HIS, HERS AND OURS – SECOND WEDDINGS What happens when you’re not the young blushing bride or dashing groom but rather one or both of you have been married before and there are children involved?... you can still have the traditional white wedding... Bridal attire may still entail a fully fledged wedding gown, though tradition dictates that a long veil with a train (a symbol of virginity) is unsuitable and not ‘the done thing’ for a second wedding (Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner 1999:41).

Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999) notes that it is the bridal veil rather than the wearing of white which is a signification of the bride’s virtue. Other mainstream bridal planners do not provide advice for brides marrying for a second time.

Nevertheless, bridal planner texts invite all brides, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, and marriage history to aspire to the ideal white wedding of popular discourses.

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Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999) complicates the dominant meaning of the white wedding as a symbol of eternal love by inviting second-time brides to plan and execute a "traditional" white wedding by wearing a “fully fledged wedding gown”.

This text does not explicitly suggest that the second-time bride can wear white, but this information is accompanied by a photo of a bride, in a "traditional" white bridal gown with a groom, flower girl and page boy. This image therefore codes the “fully fledged wedding gown” as white. The dominant reading of the bridal role is that it is rite of passage from "girlhood" to "womanhood". However, bridal planner discourses complicate the meaning of the bridal gown as a symbol of purity, innocence and virginity. The bridal role as a rite of passage for "girls" is therefore disrupted by this discourse through the recognition of second- time brides. As such, the bridal role as a transition from "girlhood" to "womanhood" (encompassing the prescribed gender roles of wife and mother) is challenged.

Nevertheless, the transformative capacity of the bridal role and the white bridal dress is relevant to all brides. This is because the white bridal dress is a signification of the transformation from “ordinary” to “extraordinary”, “commoner” to “princess” and the

“everyday” to “star/celebrity”. The Bride’s Diary (Sydney 2000:29; Adelaide 2002:25) and Modern Wedding Planner (2005:38) delineate the centrality of the bridal gown to the bridal moment and as a part of the white wedding narrative. These bridal texts engage with the bride’s agency in the orchestration of her transformation from "girl" to

"princess" and "star".

The storybook tells it best. There is Magic when a princess enters the room. All eyes, all heads, all hearts turn and at that moment — everyone falls in love with her. Your wedding dress is a creation of the heart. It transcends the strict confines of fashion, yet captures the essence of beauty itself.

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Your wedding party heightens the drama, clothed in costumes that complement your every move. You now have permission to create a dream.

It’s time to make magic (Bride’s Diary: Sydney 2000:29; Adelaide 2002:25).

The wedding dress... that gorgeous creation that magically transforms you into the most regal of princesses... the object of your childhood fantasies. The bridal gown today has become an almost mythical creation surrounded by the highest of hopes and expectations.

So is it really possible to find a gown that fulfils all these dreams and expectations? It certainly is! (Modern Wedding Planner 2005:38)

The white wedding dress, according to popular discourses, must also be crucially distinguishable and identifiable from bridesmaids’ dresses and everyday clothing through its style, fabric, and price. One of the features of bridal planners is the lack of information on bridesmaids’ dresses, accompanying accessories and beauty regime. In relation to the bridesmaids, these planners are mostly concerned with providing the bride with information on how to achieve a look of uniformity amongst them. This conformity is meant to enhance the performative aspect of the bridal role and is reminiscent of a stage production, but more specifically, a ballet performance, where the principal ballerina is accompanied and complemented by the coryphées:

In a perfect world all bridesmaids would be the same size and have exactly the same tastes in clothes (Bride’s Diary:Adelaide 1999:50).

Your wedding party heightens the drama, clothed in costumes that complement your every move (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 2002:29).

They will become your “ladies in waiting” on the day. So, it’s important that what they wear complements your look in every way (Bride’s Diary: Adelaide 2001:64; Adelaide 2002:56; Sydney 2002:42).

Your wedding day is your day to dazzle, and your bridesmaids’ outfits should complement yours in every way (Bride’s Diary: Sydney 2008:124).

It’s certainly preferable for the look of the total party to have some cohesion. While bridesmaids don’t need to look like identical triplets, finishing details such as headpieces, jewellery, shoes and hosiery are important and should be purchased together as a group to ensure they co-ordinate. Hairstyles, too, should have continuity if

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you’re dressing to suit an era or a theme (Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner 1999:153).

If your bridesmaids are all different shapes and sizes, finding a gown that suits everyone can be difficult (Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner 2002:62; Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide 2006/2007:63).

This section has demonstrated that the white bridal gown has historically signified a bride’s virtue and innocence. However this bridal planner discourse (un)-fixes the signification of the white bridal gown from these patriarchal origins. Hence, the white bridal gown as a symbol of a rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood is complicated by these bridal planners. Nevertheless, bridal planners construct the white bridal gown as central to the transformative aspect of the bridal role; from an everyday girl to a star.

To conclude, this chapter has established that the bride, more than anyone else involved in the wedding, is invited to practise bridal traditions of bridal texts. These traditions, as apparent through a reading of bridal publications, can be considered (and should be nominated as) bridal traditions. The textual bride is positioned and constructed by this discourse within the nexus of cultural transmission and as the bearer of culturally and socially normative behaviour, such as heterosexuality and prescribed gender roles.

Although this may be the case, this chapter has also established that the bridal traditions of bridal planners encompass contradictory and complicated meanings. In some instances, these meanings are fixed and in other instances they are (un)-fixed from patriarchal discourses.

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Conclusion: Extending tradition

As we saw in the last chapter, the textual bride is positioned by Australian bridal planners at the nexus of cultural interactivity in the invitation to practise bridal traditions. These invented bridal traditions function to construct and standardise an ideal

Australian wedding. Through the invitation to practise these customs, Australian brides, despite their respective ethnicity and socio-economic backgrounds, can become a vehicle through which cultural norms are reproduced. More specifically, the Australian bride, who is a member of a multi-cultural society, can participate in traditions, as delineated by bridal planners, to plan and perform a popularly constructed ideal of an

Australian wedding. Even though bridal planners tend to construct a monolithic and standardised version of what constitutes an Australian wedding, through the circulation

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of bridal traditions, these bridal planner texts can not finally fix the meanings, nor enforce the execution of these customs.

This concluding chapter employs the case established so far in this thesis to reflect on two Australian films which can be read as complex elaborations of the bridal tradition discourse.

Indeed, bridal traditions are not solely transmitted by women’s and bridal publications but also via familial relations, religious allegiances and other popular cultural forms.

Hence, bridal planner traditions can be (re)-worked and (re)-appropriated in their practice. For example, The Brides of Khan (Uberoi 2000), an Australian documentary, is about the working life of Sydney based wedding photographer Alan Khan. Khan, an immigrant from Bangladesh, generally photographs the weddings of first and second generation Australians from the outer suburbs of Western Sydney (which is characterised by an eclectic assortment of immigrant cultures). Khan photographs

Australian brides with Macedonian, Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Croatian, Chinese, Sri

Lankan and Indian cultural backgrounds, amongst many others. The Brides of Khan therefore explores how first and second generation Australian bridal couples negotiate their cultural identities in the planning and performance of the wedding. More specifically, this documentary highlights the multiplicity of cultural customs transmitted via familial relations and how bridal couples (re)-work these traditions in the planning of an Australian wedding.

The Brides of Khan (Uberoi 2000) predictably opens with a bride in a white bridal gown posing for photos prior to the wedding ceremony. Mirroring other popular discourses,

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this scene positions the bride and bridal gown as central to the white wedding. In this instance, the white bridal gown appears to participate in the homogenisation and standardisation of the bridal image. Only one of the brides featured in this documentary deviates from this bridal gown tradition. An Indian–Australian bride, appropriating bridal traditions from her parent’s country of origin, wears a red bridal lengha with elaborate jewellery, her hands and feet painted in paisley patterns with henna. In keeping with family tradition, the bride’s mother and sister travelled to India to purchase the appropriate bridal wear and accompanying jewellery. The lengha, jewellery and henna clearly mark this bride as a Hindu bride. This traditional Indian bridal wear was a custom transmitted through familial cultural practices.

Even though the white bridal gown in the Brides of Khan (Uberoi 2000) appears to facilitate in the homogenisation of the bridal image other cultural customs are also practised by Australian brides. These diverse customs distinctively mark the bride’s cultural heritage and identity. The Macedonian–Australian bride, for example, participates in a ritual where the best man arrives at the house and places bridal shoes on her feet filled with money in order to signify prosperity. The Lebanese–Australian bride is welcomed at her home on her wedding day by singing female relatives and friends bestowing her with good fortune. The Greek–Australian bride, although also wearing white, is clearly distinguished as being of Greek heritage as her wedding ceremony is performed at a Greek Orthodox Church.

As such, The Brides of Khan (Uberoi 2000) highlights how first and second generation

Australians incorporate a pastiche of cultural traditions in the performance of the wedding. These brides not only appropriated popular bridal traditions such as the white

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bridal gown but also familial customs. These first and second generation Australians

(re)-invented bridal traditions in the execution of customs from their parents’ birthplace of origin whilst also incorporating Australian bridal traditions of bridal texts. Even though these bridal planner texts function to standardise the image of the white wedding, and associated traditions these texts can not guarantee the way in which bridal traditions will be practised. In fact, the various options and modifications to bridal traditions, and the inclusion of generic planning tools, offered by bridal planners, functions to make these planners relevant to brides of diverse cultural backgrounds. The

Australian–Greek bride, for example is able to utilise bridal planners for the organisational aspects of the wedding ceremony. Even though these planners do not include traditions relevant to the Greek Orthodox wedding service, these planners are designed for the bride to practise this wedding tradition. In other words, the bride is invited by these texts to (re)-work this tradition.

The textual bride is positioned by Australian bridal planners at the nexus of cultural interactivity in the invitation to practise bridal traditions such as the gifting of a piece of bridal cake to guests and the throwing of the bridal bouquet. The bride is educated about how to execute the bridal bouquet tradition, and other such customs, by bridal planners.

However, the only planner to outline how the tradition of throwing the bouquet is practised is Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999:141), which states that:

The bridal tossing of the bouquet can be done in one of two ways. The first (which is t he fair way) is to toss it backwards over her shoulder at the single women. The second way (well it’s cheating but it’s allowed), if she’s a good shot she can aim at her best single friend or single sister. As with the garter catching, the woman who catches the bouquet — according to tradition — will be the next among her friends and family to wed. If you’re all having a laugh during these proceedings, the fun can continue by having whoever caught the garter place it on the leg of the woman who caught the bouquet.

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Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999) in effect momentarily fixes the meaning of throwing the bridal bouquet within patriarchal discourses. The underlying assumption of the aforementioned quotation is that the bride’s sister and best friend are single, temporarily validating the centrality of the bride on her wedding day, and the ritual of the wedding as the ideal event in a girl’s life. In this instance, this text, through the deployment of single, conflates being unmarried with being single and heterosexual.

The dominant meaning of this discourse therefore functions to devalue other forms of relationships, such as de facto ones, boyfriend–girlfriend ones and, most importantly, queer relationships.

The white wedding narrative of these texts privileges heterosexuality through the cultural ritual and constructed tradition of throwing the bridal bouquet—an act clearly represented as the passing on of good fortune. Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner

(1999) constructs heterosexuality as a "natural" progression in the lives of girls whilst validating weddings as a site for articulating such traditions. This bridal planner provides information on how the throwing of the bouquet should be practised, and also provides the bride the opportunity to practise this tradition in the interactive planning section (Image 8). The Bride-to-Be (2002; 2006/2007) planner series does not provide information on throwing the bouquet, but includes this tradition in the interactive section. Bride-to-Be (2002; 2006/2007) planners include in the workbook’s interactive guide, under florist’s quotes, a section to organise the throwing of the bouquet. The

Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner (2002:163) has space to record details on the "THROW

BOUQUET", as well as the "description" and "cost". The Bride-to-Be: Wedding

Planning Guide (2006/2007:163) also refers to the tradition of the "Throwing bouquet"

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with the space to record the "description" and "cost" in the workbook section (Image

15).

The Adelaide Bridal Guide (1999) is the only other bridal planner that refers to the tradition of throwing the bridal bouquet at the reception. However, this bridal planner does not outline this tradition as the passing on of good fortune to single "girls" in finding a husband. Rather, the Adelaide Bridal Guide (2001:59) provides practical advice to the reader on what is required to toss the bouquet:

Rather than tossing your bouquet at the reception and then later asking for it back, or simply not tossing the bouquet at all, you may want to have your florist make up a special, smaller bouquet for you to toss.

Unlike Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999) the Adelaide Bridal Guide

(2001) does not have an interactive section inviting brides to practise this tradition. In this instance, the Adelaide Bridal Guide (2001) (un)-fixes the dominant meaning of the bridal bouquet tradition from patriarchal discourses. The generality in which this bridal planner discusses this cultural tradition and its absence from the interaction section functions to (un)-fix the throwing of the bridal bouquet as a signification of good fortune for single girls in finding a husband.

Although the bride is educated by these planners on how to gift the bridal cake and throw the bouquet, these customs can only be meaningful if guests are also aware of, and participate in, these traditions. Bridal traditions, in order to succeed and be realised, need to be literate to a more general audience than the specific groupings of heterosexual engaged girls. Clearly, the elements of this tradition must then be disseminated through other cultural mediums such as, including but not limited to film, television programmes and literature. One such cultural form that circulated ideas about

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white wedding traditions is the Australian film Muriel’s Wedding. This film was received with critical acclaim within Australia and internationally, appealing to audiences by its ability to parody Australian bridal culture and Australian culture more generally. The social and cultural relevance of this film lies in its ironic portrayal of

Australian life, as well as in the centrality of weddings to the lives of the female characters. This relevance makes it noteworthy for consideration here.

The most significant difference between Muriel’s Wedding and bridal planners, however, is the assumed audience. This film departs from bridal texts in that it is produced, distributed and consumed by an audience with less specialised relations to the bride. More specifically, the audience of the film Muriel’s Wedding is not invited to practise bridal traditions in the same way as the bride is invited to practise bridal planner’s traditions. Nevertheless, the film’s narrative functions to circulate cultural meanings about bridal traditions. In fact, Muriel’s Wedding relies upon bridal traditions to construct a meaningful narrative about a bridal rite of passage and the ideal white wedding of popular discourses.

The centrality of bridal traditions to the narrative of Muriel’s Wedding is established in the opening scene. This film is marked by three chapter divisions that are opened by a title card of a white and pink bridal bouquet, amongst a shower of confetti falling from a blue sky, signifying to audiences that this film is indeed about a wedding. Each of these filmic divisions are respectively entitled, The Bouquet, Sydney: City of Brides, and

Mariel’s Wedding, while each title is scripted with handwriting that is reminiscent of a personal journal. The film’s structure can be likened to that of a bridal planner or even a

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bridal album, documenting the ecstasy and disenchantment of a bride, Muriel, through her journey as star of her own white wedding.

The first chapter of this film, The Bouquet, introduces various bridal traditions such as the wedding rings, throwing the bridal bouquet and the gifting of a piece of bridal cake to guests. However, the opening scene of Muriel’s Wedding emphasises the centrality of weddings to the lives of the female characters, and in particular for Muriel. It begins with a bridal bouquet falling from the sky toward the outstretched arms of presumably single heterosexual girls who are hysterically screaming as they fight to catch the bouquet. The camera erratically and quickly cuts from angles of the bouquet falling from the sky to women with outstretched manicured hands creating a sense of apprehension and anxiety. Viewers are left for several moments wondering whom the lucky girl is going to be. And who is Muriel? Is Muriel going to have a wedding? Most importantly, though, the camera angle creates an effect, which interpolates girls within the film’s narrative — female viewers are watching the bridal bouquet fall toward their own hands. The bridal bouquet becomes the desired object for a desiring female public.

Muriel is the lucky recipient of the bridal bouquet but her ‘friends’ - the bride and bridesmaids, deem her unworthy of becoming a bride and having a wedding. This scene constructs girls as desiring of, and competitive in, their quest to have their own ‘white wedding’: “Muriel Hesslop is all too eager to get married” (Morris 1996:390).

Nevertheless, the idea that catching the bridal bouquet bestows good fortune upon single ‘girls’ in finding a husband is temporarily fixed by this scenic convention.

Muriel’s Wedding codes the throwing of the bouquet as symbolic of women’s desire for heterosexual relationships. The bridal bouquet as a symbol of good fortune for

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heterosexual girls in finding a husband is commonly understood as such in Western cultures:

Participants understood catching the bouquet to be a time when unmarried females unite around the possibility of heterosexual marriage for all women, and compete with each other to be next. Where the bouquet ritual symbolized the importance of marriage for women, the garter ritual was understood to symbolize male bonding over the sexual domination of women within marriage… During the bouquet and garter rituals, GLBT guests (even those who were ‘out’ and in committed relationships) perceived heterosexual guests as treating them as if they were single women and men who desired heterosexual marriage… (Oswald 2000:359–360).

However, Muriel’s Wedding is a complex and paradoxical text which not only circulates dominant ideas about the bridal role and bridal traditions but also subverts hegemonic ideals. Clearly, Muriel’s Wedding is a satirical critique of the white wedding and

Australian bridal traditions. The conventions of this film’s genre function within, and are made literate through, patriarchal discourses, but this film simultaneously subverts any patriarchal meanings attached to the wedding and bridal traditions. Mackey (2001) suggests that Muriel’s Wedding attempts to secure ideals of heterosexual romance and marriage but is ultimately unsuccessful. Even though this film posits the white wedding as central to girl’s lives this narrative is disrupted by a counter narrative which can also be read as lesbian love story, according to Mackey (2001: 94).

Muriel’s Wedding’s parodic subtext is one reason that lesbians may appropriate the film for their own pleasure. After all, for all the concern with weddings and heterosexual romance, the film ends with the reuniting of Muriel and Rhonda, not Muriel and a man.

As such, Mackey challenges existing critical studies (inclusive of wedding studies) which tend to understand cultural meaning as being fixed by the producers of texts. She therefore recognises the multiplicity of readings any one text can produce.

Ironically, all of the efforts on the part of the filmmakers to control the message and direct our attention to heterosexual romance and marriage do not contain the possibility of a lesbian appropriation. Lesbian possibilities leak out despite the saturation of heterosexual messages. These possibilities lead me to identify a subversive, oppositional reading that I call the film’s “lesbian countertext.” Indeed, the film itself subverts the standard romantic, heterosexual love story… In rejecting David, Muriel abandons her fantasy life as Mariel

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Van Arkel and comes to terms with Muriel Heslop. In rescuing Rhonda, she recognises a real relationship based on truth and self-acceptance. Lesbians may read this ending as Muriel and Rhonda’s discovery of their love for each other, which superseded meaningless affairs and pretend commitments. Indeed, rather than a different take on the heterosexual marriage plot, lesbians may see a “coming out” film (Mackey 2001:95).

Building upon Mackey’s (2001) observations I argue that the dominant meanings of the bridal traditions which frame Muriel’s Wedding are also challenged. As established, at the outset of the film, Muriel catches the bridal bouquet. The film drew upon the idea that this tradition would bring luck in finding a husband — which it invariably did for

Muriel. In this instance, this text codes the bridal bouquet as symbolic of a girl’s desire for romance, love and a traditional wedding. However, these cultural meanings were disrupted when Muriel ‘eloped’ with Rhonda. The farcical nature of Muriel’s wedding and her consequent separation operates to detach the preferred symbolism of the white wedding as a heterosexual fairytale of love, and devotion. Further, Muriel’s elopement with Rhonda function to (un)-fix the idea that catching the bridal bouquet will result in a successful and enduring heterosexual coupling through marriage.

Muriel’s Wedding participates in the circulation of dominant ideas about bridal traditions. However, this film also contradictorily constructs bridal traditions as symbolic of eternal love and infidelity. For example, the opening scene of this film has

Muriel catching the bridal bouquet. It is at this point that Muriel, in her ecstasy, turns and catches the eye of the groom, Chook. The groom raises his hand, wiggling his ring finger with his wedding band to signify his unavailability. In this context, the groom appropriates the ring as a sign of fidelity and monogamy. Shortly after this exchange,

Muriel is wandering the house where the reception is being held, to find the groom in the bathroom having sex with one of the bridesmaids. Clearly within this context, the ring, although retaining its symbolic effect of signifying marriage, complicates any

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meaning of fidelity, monogamy and eternal love and instead signifies the promiscuity of a cheating husband:

Rhonda: How are you? Tania: Married… Rhonda: I tell the truth, too. Nicole’s having an affair with Chook. Muriel saw them fucking in the laundry on your wedding day (Hogan 1995:31).

These contradictory significations attached to the wedding ring functions to disrupt the preferred reading of the white wedding as symbolic of heterosexual love.

Most importantly, Muriel’s Wedding can be read for the cultural meanings it circulates about bridal traditions. Similar to other bridal texts, this film disseminates dominant ideas about the bridal role and the wedding. In other words, cultural texts such as women’s and gossip magazines; bridal magazines and planners; the groom’s guide; and the film Muriel’s Wedding construct a preferred reading of the white wedding. This dominant reading participates in the validation of cultural ideals such as prescribed gender roles and heterosexuality. However, according to Hall (1998) tradition is central to culture but it does not necessarily signify repetition and continuity. In other words, he argues that tradition has no fixed meaning and that it has no origin of meaning. As the meaning of tradition is dependent upon its cultural and historical context, traditions can

“be re-arranged so that they articulate with different practices and positions and take on a new meaning and relevance” (Hall 1998:451). In considering, how cultural power functions, Hall argues that cultural struggle is the detachment of a “cultural form from its implantation in one tradition... to give it a new cultural resonance or accent” (Hall

1998:451).

Bridal traditions, for example, are appropriated in complex ways and do not always reflect dominant cultural meanings in their practice. Although, bridal publications are

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produced for an assumed audience of heterosexual engaged girls these cultural texts can not guarantee that they will be used as publishers intended. Currently, same-sex couples are excluded from the legal right to marry in Australia. Dominant political and popular discourses function to validate heterosexuality as normative through the image of the bride and white wedding. As established, bridal planners also participate in the circulation of the idea that the fairytale wedding is reserved exclusively for heterosexual couples. However, bridal texts in their complexity and contradiction can be decoded from oppositional or resistant reading positions. For example, Baird (2007) demonstrates how a lesbian couple chose to conduct a commitment ceremony. The ceremony was based around popular understandings of the performative aspects of weddings but was also (re)-worked to incorporate second wave feminist spiritual practices. In other words, the traditional wedding book purchased to aid in the formulation of the ceremony was decoded from a resistant reading position and was

(re)-read and (re)-positioned by the couple:

The ceremony was loosely constructed around the elements of a (European, Christian) traditional wedding as described in a wedding book that Dare had purchased from a Sydney newsagent but also drew from second-wave feminist spiritual practises and included an acknowledgement of the Aboriginal ownership of the land where we gathered (Baird 2007:171–172).

This thesis not only relies upon cultural texts such as film, documentaries, and published accounts of weddings to consider how the wedding is experienced but also draws from participant observation exercises. To demonstrate more clearly how bridal traditions are appropriated, the following anecdote is employed to highlight how a bridal cake was re-invented to celebrate a PhD graduation. This graduation celebration occurred in 2044 when the Liberal Party was in government and John Howard was the

Australian Prime Minister. As mentioned previously, the Australian political climate

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was conservative during this era and Howard was a staunch opponent of gay marriage.

Although the bridal cake, according to popular discourses, is reserved exclusively for heterosexual weddings, the following anecdote demonstrates how bridal traditions can be re-invented in their practice. Hence, challenging the idea that cultural meaning is fixed by bridal texts and re-appropriated in the reproduction of cultural norms.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

A graduating wedding cake

A feminist academic had finally received her well deserved title, Dr. It had been one of those never-ending projects, you know, one of those doctorates’ that mature over many years, one of those doctorates’ that experience several changes of supervision, one of those doctorates’ that is financially supported and consequently distracted by countless hours of undergraduate teaching. However, the graduate plodded and plodded and plodded until it was completed, submitted, examined, and passed. And today, she was centre-stage. Today, was her day. This was an achievement, the youngest child of a family of six children, who had a modest upbringing in a small country town. With an Irish Catholic background, this graduate’s family was relatively traditional. The father was the breadwinner and the mother fulfilled the multiple roles of mothering. The graduate was not so traditional. The graduation party was like any other, there was drinking, laughter, political talk and speeches. And then, there was the cutting of the wedding cake. It was a wedding cake with thick white icing covering a dark and rich fruitcake mixture. The only thing that distinguished this cake from any other wedding cake was the coloured picture of a University graduation cap etched on the icing, in the place where those tacky figurines of a bride and groom usually sit. There was much interest in and a lot of questions about that wedding cake. Who made the cake? How long did it take to make? Why was it made?

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The graduate’s mother intervened. The wedding cake was her piece of artistry. “Five of my six children are married and I have made a wedding cake for each one of their wedding parties. But, this is the only opportunity I will have to make a wedding cake for my youngest.” Australia…the promised promising land, does have Draconian laws, and it is difficult to imagine that there will be a day when homosexual couples have the same rights as heterosexual couples to legal marriages which are consummated through the wedding ritual.

A graduating wedding cake The wedding cake, the centrepiece for the PhD graduation party, remained untouched. There was some laughter, discussion and words of encouragement to take a piece of the cake home. One person enquired “Will it bring me luck in finishing my thesis, if I take a piece home?” Another interjected “Only if you sleep with it under your pillow”. And this is the story of how a wedding cake became the centrepiece for a PhD graduation party. Needless to say, I slept with a piece of wedding cake under my pillow that night!

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

To conclude, this thesis has extensively queried how cultural meanings function at the nexus of cultural interactivity. The main aim of this thesis has been to investigate how popular culture functions to construct an ideal image of the white wedding, the bride and bridal traditions. Challenging the existing wedding literature which posits the wedding of popular discourses as a site for the reproduction of cultural norms, this thesis has highlighted the fluidity and contradictory nature of cultural meanings.

Cultural forms such as women’s and gossip magazines, bridal publications and

Australian films participate in the circulation of bridal traditions. These traditions are mass disseminated and mass produced coding a preferred reading of the white wedding.

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Through the deployment of Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding model this thesis demonstrated how popular texts construct a preferred reading of the white wedding – nominated as a white wedding narrative. The encoding of a preferred meaning of the ideal wedding and bridal traditions however does not necessarily determine all cultural meanings about the wedding. Although, media ownership in Australia is concentrated in the hands of the few and the ideal image of the white wedding is mass disseminated via multiple cultural sites the production process can not determine nor fully fix cultural meanings. Cultural texts are inherently contradictory in their construction of bridal traditions. The contradictory signifiers attached to bridal traditions aid negotiated and oppositional readings of these cultural rituals.

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Magazines

Adelaide Bridal Guide (2001). Williams, T. (ed.) Glenelg: Adelaide Bridal Guide Bride’s Diary: Adelaide (1999). Worsthorne, S. (ed.) Sydney: Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd, 11th Edition.

Bride’s Diary: Adelaide (2001). Worsthorne, S. (ed.) Sydney: Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd, 13th Edition.

Bride’s Diary: Adelaide (2002). Worsthorne, S. (ed.) Sydney: Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd, 14th Edition.

Bride’s Diary: Sydney (2002). Worsthorne, S. (ed.) Sydney: Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd, 13th Edition.

Bride’s Diary: Sydney (2008). Worsthorne, S. (ed.) Sydney: Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd, 19th Edition.

Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planner (2002). Lowrey, R. (ed.) Sydney: IPC Media Australia, Vol.2.

Bride-to-Be: Wedding Planning Guide (2006/2007). Bloomfield, A. (ed.) Sydney: Time Inc. Vol.6.

Bride-to-Be (2003). Hayes, C. (ed.) Sydney: Time Inc. Spring.

Modern Wedding (2002). Black, V. (ed.) Sydney: Wildfire Publishing International. Spring. Vol.16.

Modern Wedding Planner (2005). Black, V. (ed.) Sydney: Wildfire Publishing International. Spring. 1st Edition.

Modern Wedding Planner (2008). Black, V. (ed.) Sydney: Wildfire Publishing International. Spring. 4th Edition.

Modern Wedding Planner (2009). Black, V. (ed.) Sydney: Wildfire Publishing International. Spring. 5th Edition.

Modern Wedding Planner (2010). Black, V. (ed.) Sydney: Wildfire Publishing International. Spring. 6th Edition.

New Idea: Royal Wedding Souvenir (2004). Gilbert, J. (ed.) Sydney: ACP Publishing Pty Ltd. May.

Sydney Bride (2007). Cull, B (ed.) Sydney: Hardie Grant Magazines. Autumn.

The Australian Women’s Weekly: Souvenir Edition (2011). (ed.) McCabe, H. (ed.) Sydney: Bauer Media Group. May.

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The Australian Women’s Weekly: Royal Wedding Souvenir (2004). Thomas, D. (ed.) Sydney: ACP Publishing Pty Ltd. June. 214−30.

The Australian Women’s Weekly (2013). McCabe, H. (ed.) Sydney: Bauer Media Group. October.

The Groom’s Guide & Wedding Planner. (1999). Jenour, M. and Pedersen, A. (ed.) Sydney: Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd.

Universal’s Complete Wedding Planner (1999). Naylor, D (ed.) Sydney: Universal Magazines.

Wedding Toasts & Speeches. (2008). Worsthorne, S. (ed.) Sydney: Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd.

Woman’s Day: Royal Wedding Special Issue (2004). House, A. (ed.) Sydney: ACP Publishing Pty Ltd. May.

Film/documentary

Hogan, P.J. (1995) Muriel’s Wedding. Paddington, Currency Press Ltd.

Uberoi, S. (2000). The Bride’s of Khan. Australian: Australian Film Commission.

Websites

ABC Lateline (2004) Retrieved 26 January 2008. www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1117638.html

Bloomfield, A. (2008). “Bride-to-Be: cost of love” Retrieved 24 June, 2008. http://www.pacificmags.com.au/Info/News/bride-to-be-reveals-cost-of-love.aspx

Chessel, J. (2012) “Nine sells ACP magazines to German media giant” Retrieved 13 November, 2012. http://www.afr.com/p/business/marketing_media/nine_sells_acp_magazines_to_german _ycelv8KM7axhn1waTviW8O

Summers, A. (2004). “Corralled back to the kids and the kitchen” Retrieved 13 November, 2012. www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/23/1085250865914.html

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Bridal Websites

Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd n.d., Retrieved 10th November 2009. www.bridesdiary.com.au Worsthorne Pedersen Publishing Pty Ltd n.d., Retrieved 6th February 2009. www.weddingstar.com.au

Pacific Magazines n.d., Retrieved 26th January 2012. www.bridetobe.com.au

Hardie Grant Magazines n.d., Retrieved 13th November 2010 www.bride.com.au