A Coming-Out Party for Women: Empowerment Through Bridal Photography

Abstract

A wedding is a part of a series of ceremonies and image construction events designed to create the ideal. Bridal photographs no longer show newlyweds and their families in rigid poses. Diverse wedding costumes, modeling, and visual consumption aesthetics can overwhelm the newlyweds as they become the critical focal point in a strategy of product differentiation. Instead, personalized and entertaining visual consumption has become very popular. In this study the consumers of bridal photography and bridal salons are the target population; we probe the aesthetic values on which are based the evolution of traditional female stereotypes and male-female power structures. Results indicate that female role portrayal is based not only on standard social and cultural perspectives, but also on self-image. Women take the leading role in bridal photographs, signalling their independence in playing the bride role, but also showing the value of self-reward as a marketing tool. Consumption in modern bridal photography is based on self-image realization and the collectively shared culture of the new bride.

Liminal consumption within Nigerian wedding rituals: The interplay between bridal identity and liminal gatekeepers

“…All participants had multiple experiences of dishonest and incompetent vendors, further inflexing the power that family and church wield. This contradicts Otnes and Pleck (2003) and Lin et al’s (2012) assertions that market actors increase the autonomy of brides. Moreover, it also refutes Ingraham (2008) and Nash’s (2013) conclusions on vendors having near, complete control of wedding rituals.…”

“…Extant literature on wedding rituals already provides in-depth analysis of the ‘happily ever after’ associated with weddings (see, for example, Lin et al, 2012; Otnes and Pleck, 2003). Thus, we focus less on this theme and identify two main themes from the transcribed data.…”

“…Thus, suggesting that there is a significant opportunity for investigating conflict surrounding what wedding vendors offer and what brides prefer. Otnes and Pleck (2003) and Lin et al (2012) argue instead that markets increase the autonomy of the bride in the form of consumer choice, fantasy and fairy tales. Others have positioned market actors as ‘consumption experts’ who help consumers consume the ‘right’ way (Lurry, 1996; Slater, 1997; Zukin and Maguire, 2004).…”

The promise of happiness: desire, attachment and freedom in post/apartheid South Africa

“…Some scholars emphasise that it is the bride who plays celebrity. Calling it a 'comingout party for women', they contend that through entertaining visual consumption, weddings then become processes of image construction (see Lin, Yeh and Lan 2012). Through these photographs the bride is able to consume her wedding fantasy as they document the process of transformation through which the wedding is staged and through which these socially constructed events come to feel 'authentic and romantic' (Boden 2003: 113).…”