1. Idealized Romantic Love, Legal Issues, and Patriarchic Exploitation: An Introduction to Historical and Literary Marriage Discourses

Abstract

The latest ... dilemma I’ve encountered is a big one. Until I told my friends I was getting married, I didn’t know marriage and feminism could be considered mutually exclusive. I mean, just because a bride’s engagement ring is a symbol of ownership, and just because changing her name erases her identity as a separate individual, and just because the whole thing is ludicrously assumed to be the woman’s domain...1