As this is my final Lifting the Veil column, I thought a bit of summing up might be in order. While the mission statement of this column was to impart information about wedding traditions and their feminist implications, you may have noticed that much of these entries consisted of a somewhat confused woman, caught between ...
After you get engaged, it’s easy to become bogged down with planning the wedding, if you choose to have one. But while being bombarded with emails about chair covers (seriously, never give your email address to anyone in this industry), occasionally it dawns on one that hey, one is going to be married after all ...
The term “bridezilla” was, unsurprisingly, coined by wedding consultants, who started referring to particularly difficult clients as such in the 90s. Since then, a hit US TV show has globalized the concept by filming these women in the process of planning their weddings, presenting the strongest argument in favor of eugenics that I’ve seen to ...
Once again, I have lost faith in humanity. Admittedly, I lose faith in humanity fairly easily and often (just last week, a clip from Jackass: The Movie nearly reduced me to tears over the futility of existence). But nothing – nothing! – has compromised my faith in humankind as much as researching this article about ...
A big debate around modern weddings is the question of whether anyone changes their last name after marriage and if so, who should do so and to what. The origins of this tradition lie in the designation of wealth distribution — marriage was the conduit of wealth to spouses and women changed their names as ...
So after you’ve finally settled on a venue and chosen a dress (of the appropriate colour) and made a guest list and undergone the inevitable guilt for failing to make every female friend of yours a bridesmaid (sorry again, Lacey, it’s just that I don’t like you that much), you come to the realization that ...
Contrary to popular belief, the tradition of a bride in white does not originate in any cringe-y symbolism about her virginity. This has made me wonder (in a pensive, sitting-on-my-bed-à-la-Carrie-Bradshaw kind of way), do brides, then, simply take part in this tradition for tradition’s sake? I got to thinking about this recently when I was ...
I am of the school of feminists who feel very strongly that the concept of being “given away” at one’s wedding is ridiculous. Not only does it imply that upon getting married, I will be the property of my husband, but equally disturbing is the indication that I am currently the property of my family ...
Wedding veils have been a point of contention for progressive brides since the birth of feminism. “I didn’t want to walk into this life-changing event looking like I didn’t have my eyes open,” my mother, married in 1970, told me. “It didn’t make sense to me that I should want to hide myself or imply ...
It would be misleading of me to start this entry with anything other than the following confession: I am a feminist and I have an engagement ring. I love my engagement ring. Sometimes, at work, I pretend to be deep in thought, appearing to stare at my keyboard, when actually I’m considering how the diamond ...
So, we’re having this baby. It’s due in a few weeks and we’re trying to get organized with all...
I recently heard about what is claimed to be the rising phenomenon of Japanese men remaining virgins for longer...
Ladders. Patriarchal conspiracy. I’ll explain… This week I climbed a ladder. I was trying to reach a loft space,...
Dear Madame X, My boyfriend needs to look at porn while we have sex. It bothers me because I...
Mrs. Dalloway is yet another feminist classic that I had to grow into. Wrapped up in Woolf’s instantly recognizable...
Last week saw a Big Thing come to our soggy little island. Well, it was a Big Thing for...
Last weekend I was entertaining a guest, you know, the sort I was planning to have lots and lots...
All little girls want to be princesses… right?! It’s bad enough that toy aisles are separated out by what...
