Wedding Industry Gender Bias
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The women and men of Newcastle who are challenging the wedding industry gender biases.
International Women’s Day Theme “Break the Bias”
I’m proud to support this year’s International Women’s Day Theme “Break the Bias” which urges everyone to actively call out gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping. Holy moly….Wedding Industry Gender Bias is RIFE!
The sexism, gender roles and heteronormativity that generally come with the wedding industry are problematic for me. Society spoon-feeds females practically from birth with notions of unrealistic perfect story-book weddings and happily ever afters.
Until recently, the whole thing has been geared specifically towards the bride, which only furthers the notion that getting married is the best and most important part of any woman’s life. The implication is that the wedding is just another event in the groom’s life whereas it’s the biggest day of a bride’s life and everything else should pale in comparison. Don’t even start me on the bridal awards and bridal magazines that don’t target both people getting married.
Traditions and gender norms are changing
I don’t use the term bridezilla (even though strangers always ask me to spill the beans on difficult brides!) or talk about wedding weight loss. I don’t presume that either party will be changing their name after they get married or that the bride’s parents are paying for everything. Thankfully traditions are changing. Lots of my grooms are very invested in the ceremony planning and I am hearing less and less the phrase ‘it’s the bride’s day’.
Now, I’m going to call myself out. I’ve realised I probably talk about how beautiful or stunning a bride is, in my social media posts too often, instead of talking about how kind, oragnised, funny, or smart they are. I must do better not to fall into the old topes of wedding industry gender bias myself!
A shout out to @chloee__clark who I’m marrying next month who proposed to her partner Josh. If you find this statement shocking, you might need to think about your own gender bias.
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