The Ideologies of ‘I Do’: Commodification, Consumption, and Identity in the Wedding Industry
Date
2020-08-21
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Abstract
This dissertation investigated the relationship between identity, commodification, and conspicuous consumption in the wedding industry; as well as how these ideologies are promulgated through the media. The broad aim was to contribute to the analysis of the wedding industry within the larger context of how bridal media both informs and reflects its cultural context. Weddingbells was used as a proxy for the wedding industry in Canada; to examine how it engaged cultural ideologies as it advised, and how it exemplified a commodified amalgamation of performance and identity. Wedding magazines function as curators of wedding trends and therefore serve as an example of the voice of the wedding industry. At its core, this project is a historical look at how magazines portrayed the performance and communication elements of a wedding and how that was indicative of a broader societal context, as well as the sheer tenacity of the commodified white wedding. It also offers a historical background of the modern conception of the wedding and outlines the establishment of the wedding industrial complex to allow a good understanding of the power encompassed by the wedding industry in manufacturing, retail, and publishing to better understand the analysis. The development of the editorial curation over a 10-year period (2003-2012) in Weddingbells was analyzed using a critical textual analysis — primarily a content analysis with a look at the rhetorical appeals presented in some of the data — industry-centric rather than the psychology of the reader. The theoretical framework used the theory of conspicuous consumption, spectacle, and theory of identity. The findings offer a unique perspective from a researcher that spent more than a decade in the industry, as well as a theoretical construct in the elevation of the term “white wedding” to encapsulate many of the most important concepts in this dissertation. This research offers valuable insight into the wedding industry at large, as well as indicators of its impact on Canadian culture. As a result, this study generates a new perspective on weddings as communication, what it means to commodify our identity, and weddings as an enactment of identity.
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conspicuous consumption, commodification, identity, wedding industry, bridal identity, ideology, magazine analysis, wedding industrial complex, white wedding, bridal magazines, cultural ritual, communication and culture
Citation
Hanslip, L. M. (2020). The Ideologies of ‘I Do’: Commodification, Consumption, and Identity in the Wedding Industry (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.