Our civilisation is insatiable in its desire for ceremony births, deaths, Xmas, Halloween ...I could go on about other rites of passage. Yet ceremony seems
to be a very necessary ingredient in our lives; perhaps it serves a cathartic function, who knows.
As to Marriage itself, it is historically a social norm or ideal rather than a description of reality, except insofar as in some systems it forces all women into formal marriage as virgins and makes (heterosexual) sex virtually impossible for them outside it.
Then we come to the ideal for any young woman the white wedding with all the trimmings. But here the ideal is married to consumer capitalism, the ideal implies liberal emancipation, namely, the satisfaction of individual desires.
Of course broad ideological currents, such as feminism (although singularly ango-saxon) has been behind determined forays into the fortress of patriarchy’.
However feminism rather pales in the light of the 'white wedding'.
For Patriarchy rests on the overwhelming prevalence of marriage, where 'white weddings' are a central rite of passage.
to be a very necessary ingredient in our lives; perhaps it serves a cathartic function, who knows.
As to Marriage itself, it is historically a social norm or ideal rather than a description of reality, except insofar as in some systems it forces all women into formal marriage as virgins and makes (heterosexual) sex virtually impossible for them outside it.
Then we come to the ideal for any young woman the white wedding with all the trimmings. But here the ideal is married to consumer capitalism, the ideal implies liberal emancipation, namely, the satisfaction of individual desires.
Of course broad ideological currents, such as feminism (although singularly ango-saxon) has been behind determined forays into the fortress of patriarchy’.
However feminism rather pales in the light of the 'white wedding'.
For Patriarchy rests on the overwhelming prevalence of marriage, where 'white weddings' are a central rite of passage.
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