Rules of Engagement: The Rhetorics of Marriage Proposal

Here's the 250 word abstract I submitted to Feminisms & Rhetorics 2009 at Michigan State. I embrace deadlines - they force my best ideas into existence.

"Though gender and family roles have become less traditional over the last fifty years, the rhetoric surrounding engagement and marriage in contemporary American culture resonates with the imperative of adhering to tradition. The cultural impetus to ‘snag’ a man is holding steady in contemporary culture, and I’ll demonstrate how this moré has been carefully cultivated over more than a century of unscrupulous marketing initiatives in order to create and maintain a lucrative bridal market. 

In contemporary consumer representations of marriage proposals, the ability of a woman’s mate to adhere to a script of romantic declarations and symbols of love bestowed is a direct reflection of her feminine capital. As such, even savvy women still subscribe, to some degree, to the mandates of a patriarchally driven, gender normative society. This project examines engagement narratives in order to historicize and analyze the cultural rhetorics of the marriage proposal and the subsequent implications for feminism and gender equality. I argue that the bridal industry has always undermined efforts at egalitarianism and has succeeded in embedding a rhetoric of monogamous, heterosexual courtship and marital practices into the American psyche. As I will demonstrate, this impetus has been fueled largely by consumer capitalism, which has historically been and continues to be inextricably tied to patriotism. 

This is an interactive session in which attendees will have the opportunity to reflect on their own ideals surrounding engagement and to put them in concert with the voices I have collected through my own research."

Hopefully I will find something to blog about before next month. Blogworthy things have been happening, but so have many other things which have prevented my blogging indulgence. Recent news: our furnace was broken for 2 days this week, which may or may not have resulted in me feeling under the weather today. I did go outside last night with wet hair. I know my mother would be appalled - glad she doesn't read my blog ;)