Customer Reviews

White Weddings: Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Culture

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book reads like "The American Way of Death" for the bouquet-tossing set. Media manipulation, gender expectations, and the pursuit of money above all else -- this book has it all.

This book blows the lid off of marriage. What is suppose to be the most important day in couples life has turn into a frenzy of consumer glutteny. I was astonshed at how diamonds an american symbol of love is a an oppresive force for the people who mine them. This book will make you cry.

Chrys Ingraham, in her book, White Weddings, shows a behind-the-scenes look on the wedding industry. She effectively presents to the reader the ugly truths about the diamond industry, racism in wedding catalogs, homosexuality, and what happens after marriage. This excellent book opened up my eyes to what goes on behind such a supposedly "beautiful" occurrence in females' lives. This book not only opened up my eyes to the wedding industry, but to other matters as well, such as child labor, animal abuse, and sex trafficking. White Weddings was an inspiration to me to go out and see what I can do to help change the world in order to make it a better place. Fortunately, there are people like Chrys Ingraham, who want to make the world a peaceful and just place for everyone to live in. I also highly recommend her other books as well!

From: a very inspired student

This is a fantastic book! I bought it for a sociology class in college, but it's one of the few I didn't try to sell back. I recommend this for....every member of society because the subject matter of this book is both perpetuated by us and affects us deeply. It was extremely relevant to my sociology course, but more importantly it forced me to take a closer look at something I previously took for granted: the perfect image of a white wedding. After reading this book, I have become much more aware of the oppression, exploitation, and mindless consumption that is involved in the seemingly precious event of a 'classic' white wedding. Please read this book. And if you are thinking about a wedding of your own someday, please remember what you have read when planning the details of your nuptial!

In writing this book Chrys takes great risk in exposing "Weddings", especially "White Weddings" as an unneccessary rite of passage -- She brings to light in vivid raw detail why our society 'views' them as normal.

This is not a 'nice' book, a 'feel good' book, one that at the end you say 'oh how wonderful' -- instead it is an important piece that everyone needs to read.

"Writing this book has been a wrenching experience." In having the privilege of being one of Chrys's students, I've had the opportunity to see first hand -- what a process writing 'white weddings' was. There is heart in this book, sometimes one of steal, but nevertheless one with enduring spirit. In Ingraham's epilogue she writes, "What allows us to imagine possibilities? To continue to live shrouded in romance is to participate in and benefit from such atrocities. Confronting the reasons for which we need romance is to see what it conceals. Critiquing the heterosexual imaginary is one step in that direction."

I've never looked at the wedding industry the same since reading this monumentally significant text. Never before has Ingraham's work been as important as now.

on the critique of the ideology of "white weddings." Keep up the good work!

This book made some very good points and was a necessary exploration of the ingrained "normalcy" of marriage. I do feel, however, that the book lacked substance and repeated the same thing in a different way. This topic definitely deserves much greater attention and perhaps with more attention, we will get better and more thoughtful writers.

I also was driven insane by the shape of the book. Besides making it physically difficult to read, it turned a supposed academic study into a novelty book

It took a little while to arrive, but the item was in good condition and there were no complications.

Chrys, I cannot tell you how happy I was to read this book. You've so eloquently vocalized what I've felt for years but have never been properly able to express: my distaste for the "white wedding mill", women's societally created lust for weddings, as well as points that I had never considered - especially the racial aspects. Your book has made me feel like I am not the only person (or woman, at least) who feels this way, and has helped me reinforce my long-held opinion that I will buck tradition and have NO WEDDING at all, in spite of my family's gasps of disbelief. I only wish it had been longer!

The issues the author, Ingraham, has with homosexuality and society come permeate the book to such an extent that any potentially valid points are tainted by her bias. Her bent also drives her to make poorly reasoned arguments, causing one to question the validity of her better cases.

For example, at one point she attempts to link blame on average Americans that buy wedding dresses to the economic slavery of East Indian islanders. While I agree that the purchasing choices we make have a greater impact on the world around us that we would like to admit, her argument suffers from gross oversimplification and deceptively focuses on this one issue of traditional Western wedding practices, when in reality it applies to many, if not all, purchasing decisions.

I could not bring myself to finish this book as the irrationality of the arguments and obvious hating and blaming towards heterosexuals and traditional culture took precedence over genuine exploration of issues.