Gender Socialization and Consumer Culture

An phrase A Real Mans Ring Gender and the Invention Tradition by Vicki Howard (2003) published in the Journal of loving History defined the role of gender stereotypes, their development and changes in forming consumer culture through describing the invention and credence of double echo ceremony in twentieth century America.Howard tells the history of coifs wedding bands and double name ceremony, explaining the bonds between economical, cultural and social aspects of the first sixty years of the twentieth century.The author explained that the double ring ceremony emerged because of the cultural tendency in family life Howard called masculine domesticity, when, in the middle of twentieth century, outlay time with wife and kids, performing household chores became synonymous with prosperity, capitalism, and national stability. In fiftieth the fresh type of family became widespread, a so called companionate marriage, where both spouses shared responsibility for psychological and s tirred well-being of their family, and a double ring ceremony reflected these current type of relationship.Howard adds that World War deuce made double rings wedding custom even more popular, as than it had to do with wartime sentiments. marriage ceremony ring symbolizationized ties a soldier had with his wife, with his family and kids it was a sign for him that someone was waiting for him at home, a symbol of everything he defended. And, according to Howards writing, while in 1940 two rings wedding hadnt been a custom, in yet in late fortieth-early fiftieth it appeared in the wedding ceremonies held by Catholic, Unitarian, Baptist, and Methodist churches, the most(prenominal) influential ones.Getting man used to the thought that grooms wedding ring was a good composition took split of time and efforts from the sellers. Howard described some of the techniques that were used by U.S jewelry stores, like establishing a separate groom room for men not to feel embarrassed when shopp ing for wedding rings the other idea was to hide grooms rings in slide drawers beneath the feminine rings, and showing them only by and by brides rings had been already purchased. Meantime, years passed, and social apprehension of man wedding rings changed ascribable to numerous advertising campaigns, Hollywood productions, marriages of public persons etc.Of course there were other factors that played their role in popularization of double ring ceremony. One of the crucial ones was the teenage marriage boom, which began in fortieth, when the medium age of marrying has lowered dramatically.Howard supposed that having a double ring ceremony was important for young couples to single out them from their parents. Wearing a ring helped young girl to feel herself protected, not being afraid to change by reversal an old maid, while for man wedding ring was the proof of maturity, masculinity, ability to support his wife, and, what was also important, heterosexuality.Howard illustrious that one more factor to conduce the popularity of double ring ceremony was emergence of middle chassis in the U.S. People moved to suburbs, where they could allow purchasing a house. As economy grew more, more pile earned enough money to provide their families with all the middle-class attributes.This period was characterized by physical and psychological separation of public and private, of work and family, and double ring ceremony became a symbol of the new family, built in that environment. The situation was different for working class. Men often were dissatisfied with the idea to vesture a ring, as it symbolized the obligations they took, while for women grooms ring was a sign of claim bride has for her husband.