The earliest documented occurrence of a formal ceremony marking the unity between a man and woman was in 2350 B.C, in Mesopotamia (Peterson). Since then, the concept of a wedding has evolved greatly and is now something celebrated in almost every society around the world, with different traditions found in each culture. In this essay I will be focusing on the traditional practices of the modern western wedding such as the bride’s white dress, the rings the couple wears to symbolize their marriage, the bride’s father giving her away, and, of course, the dreaded name-change. Many contemporary feminists argue that weddings and marriages in general are outdated and archaic because of the female-ownership connotations associated with these celebrations,
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Our culture sometimes likens them to glorified shackles by many, something a man can put his on his woman to show ownership. However I fail to see how a ring could be seen as a mark of ownership of a woman, when both members of the relationship—yes, that means the man, too!—wear a ring. For centuries, rings have been used to symbolize long term commitment between two people. Mummies from 2800 BC Egypt have been found with gold or silver wire rings around the third finger from the thumb, which was thought to connect directly to the heart via the vena amoris (literally, vein of love), which was later found not to exist. Pliny the Elder has written about women getting a gold ring to wear at their wedding ceremony, and an iron one to wear around the house (Bare). Getting your lover a diamond ring, however, wasn’t commonplace until the late 1800s and early 1900s when De Beers, a jewelry company, figured out a way to turn the failing diamond market around. You see, ever since huge diamond mines were found in South Africa in the 1870s, diamonds were not considered rare at all, De Beers had to figure out how to sell this relatively cheap stone to the masses at an expensive price. What they did was find a way to connect emotion to these stones, as well as a way to make sure people don’t resell them and find out their true value – so what pulls at your heartstrings and lasts forever? …show more content…
Stone became the first married woman in the United States to carry her maiden name from birth to death (Blackwell). However, even though there was no law forbidding her refusal to change, government officials still insisted that she sign her name with her husband’s last name on any legal public document. One reason this practice is so commonplace is because way back when, before paternity testing existed, the only way to tell if a child truly belonged to a man was if they shared the same surname – otherwise the child was considered a bastard and was prohibited from obtaining any of their inheritance or their father’s property (Smith). But we do have paternity tests now! Women can choose whether they want to change their last name or not or even have both their and their spouse’s surname changed! We have options. No longer will our children be exiled from the family if their last name differs from their father’s. My own parents both decided to keep their own last names, and in an extra act of defiance, gave their first born (a son) my mother’s last name, and their second born (me, a daughter) my father’s last name. Once again, this
Our culture sometimes likens them to glorified shackles by many, something a man can put his on his woman to show ownership. However I fail to see how a ring could be seen as a mark of ownership of a woman, when both members of the relationship—yes, that means the man, too!—wear a ring. For centuries, rings have been used to symbolize long term commitment between two people. Mummies from 2800 BC Egypt have been found with gold or silver wire rings around the third finger from the thumb, which was thought to connect directly to the heart via the vena amoris (literally, vein of love), which was later found not to exist. Pliny the Elder has written about women getting a gold ring to wear at their wedding ceremony, and an iron one to wear around the house (Bare). Getting your lover a diamond ring, however, wasn’t commonplace until the late 1800s and early 1900s when De Beers, a jewelry company, figured out a way to turn the failing diamond market around. You see, ever since huge diamond mines were found in South Africa in the 1870s, diamonds were not considered rare at all, De Beers had to figure out how to sell this relatively cheap stone to the masses at an expensive price. What they did was find a way to connect emotion to these stones, as well as a way to make sure people don’t resell them and find out their true value – so what pulls at your heartstrings and lasts forever? …show more content…
Stone became the first married woman in the United States to carry her maiden name from birth to death (Blackwell). However, even though there was no law forbidding her refusal to change, government officials still insisted that she sign her name with her husband’s last name on any legal public document. One reason this practice is so commonplace is because way back when, before paternity testing existed, the only way to tell if a child truly belonged to a man was if they shared the same surname – otherwise the child was considered a bastard and was prohibited from obtaining any of their inheritance or their father’s property (Smith). But we do have paternity tests now! Women can choose whether they want to change their last name or not or even have both their and their spouse’s surname changed! We have options. No longer will our children be exiled from the family if their last name differs from their father’s. My own parents both decided to keep their own last names, and in an extra act of defiance, gave their first born (a son) my mother’s last name, and their second born (me, a daughter) my father’s last name. Once again, this