The Evolving Bride in Godey's Lady's Book

Abstract

Today the figure of the bride in media feels ubiquitous, but this article examined the bride in a time long before The Knot. com, Bridezillas, or Brides magazine, a time when women were expected to marry, the nineteenth century. The top-circulating magazine of the nineteenth century was the women's magazine Godey's Lady's Book, a publication that offered women a place in the public culture when they were supposed to be confined to the domestic sphere. The magazine was published from 1830 through 1898, and it offers interesting and sometimes surprising insights about the societal importance and value of being a bride during the 1800s. In a study drawing upon feminist media studies, the entire run of Godey's Lady's Book was analyzed in order to understand how media, especially media targeted at women, have historically portrayed the figure of the bride.