Starting after the Great War, this book charts the rise of the ritualistic engagement, the modern white wedding and the more widely available honeymoon holiday, to show changes and continuities in English masculinity by considering power relations between men and women. Through a close reading of a range of sources (including first-person testimonies, newspapers and etiquette manuals), power relations between bride and groom, and between different generations, are revealed in the context of social class and the rise of consumerism.

Charts the rise of the ritualistic engagement, the modern white wedding, and the honeymoon holiday Shows changes and continuities in English masculinity by considering power relations between men and women Reveals the power relations between bride and groom, and between different generations

Autorentext
Neil Penlington is an independent scholar who received his PhD from Birkbeck, University of London, UK.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Men and Marriage in England.- 2. Consent and Capacity: Which Men Could Marry?.- 3. Engagement: The Experience and Expectations of Engaged Men.- 4. Celebration: Men and the Wedding.- 5. Consummation: The Sexually 'Normal' Man.- 6. Honeymoon: Masculinity and the Newly-Married Man.- 7. Conclusion: Masculinity and Marriage in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.