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Kristin Blakely, Busy Brides and the Business of Family Life: The Wedding-Planning Industry and the Commodity Frontier. Journal of Family Issues, May 2008; vol. 29, 5: pp. 639-662., first published on November 7, 2007

Abstract:

As work traditionally located in the private sphere, wedding planning, like other domestic functions, has become commodified. Building upon Hochschild's work on the commercialization of intimate life, this article explores the relationship of feminism to the commercial spirit of intimate life to understand wedding planning as a commodified domestic service designed to meet the competing demands of work and home for women. In its marketing, the industry makes use of feminism, harnessing liberal feminist ideals of “having it all”: The solution for busy, engaged career women is to outsource their wedding planning. Thus, both the problem and the answer are rooted in a capitalist version of liberal feminism. Based on interviews with six wedding planners, an analysis of the online advertising of 280 planning businesses, and an examination of the industry, this case study of wedding planning illuminates the connections between liberal feminism and the commodification of family life.

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George Gmelch & Patricia Mary San Antonio, Baseball Wives: Gender and the Work of Baseball. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 30, No. 3, 335-356 (2001)

Abstract:

This article focuses on how the structure and constraints of the occupation of professional baseball shapes the lives of the players' wives. The major constraints on the role of baseball wives include high geographical mobility, the husband's frequent absence, lack of a social support network, and the precariousness of baseball careers. Baseball wives are expected to fulfill a traditional role of support for their husbands and families. Baseball wives play a backstage supporting role but in so doing become far more independent and resourceful than many American women, managing families and households on their own.

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Roberta L Coles, Black Single Fathers: Choosing to Parent Full-Time. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 31, No. 4, 411-439 (2002)

Abstract:

This ethnographic study uses the narratives of African American, single, full-time fathers to explore the motivations precipitating their choice to parent. While the fathers had in common a number of demographic characteristics, such as full employment, residence, and support systems, which factored into their timing of and ability to take full custody, none of these are salient in their own narratives expressing why they wanted to be full-time fathers. Instead, their main motives centered on fulfilling a sense of duty and responsibility, reworking the effects of having had weak or absent fathers themselves, wanting to provide a role model for their children, and fulfilling an already established parent-child bond.

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Christine S. Davis & Kathleen A. Salkin, Sisters and Friends: Dialogue and Multivocality in a Relational Model of Sibling Disability. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 34, No. 2, 206-234 (2005)

Abstract:

This article takes the reader into a journey of family dynamics, as sisters— one with a physical impairment and the other the sibling of a woman with a physical impairment—try to sort out their feelings and experiences through in-depth interviewing, interactive interviewing, co-constructed narrative, and dialogic conversation. There is little research that looks at the relationship between the sibling with a disability and his or her nondisabled sibling as it is experienced by the two of them. This article engages the siblings, and, perhaps, the readers, into a dialogic conversation that is multivocal, inclusive, and accepting of differences.

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R.W. Connell et al., A Bastard of a Life: Homosexual Desire and Practice among Men in Working-class Milieux. Journal of Sociology, Vol. 29, 112 – 135 (1993)

Abstract:

HIV/AIDS prevention work has been mainly designed by professionals and has reached mainly educationally and economically advantaged groups. This study involved men who have sex with men in working-class milieux, using life- history and action-research methods in two cities. Material drawn from twenty-one case studies is presented. The economic, domestic and educational relationships of working-class life shape sexual identity and practice. A muted and undifferentiated erotic milieu in childhood is the common starting point for very different trajectories into adult homosexual relationships, though 'beats' are generally important in making connections. A stronger network and sense of community appears in the provincial city than in the metropolis. Economic vulnerability and cultural constraint shape homosexual experience. Sex in long-term relationships is the most valued (though not the most common) and is more likely to involve anal intercourse; significant risks arise here. A complex political and cultural process shapes sexual practice as reciprocal or one-way and as more or less skilled. 'Gay identity' is not sought by most of these men, whose personal style more often draws on conventional working-class masculinities. But contradictions about desire and femininity are simultaneously present and sometimes destabilise masculinity. Responses to the HIV epidemic first involved withdrawal from sexual activity, then growth of activism. A 'barefoot educator' community activism has already emerged and should be a focus of HIV/AIDS prevention strategy.

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Nicole D Forry et al., Marital Quality in Interracial Relationships. Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 28, 1538 – 1552 (2007)

Abstract:

African American/White interracial couples are a rapidly growing segment of the population. However, little is known about factors related to marital quality for these couples. The authors examine the relationships between sex role ideology, perception of relationship unfairness, and marital quality among a sample of 76 married African American/White interracial couples from the mid-Atlantic region. The results indicate that interracial couples are similar to same-race couples in some ways. In particular, women, regardless of race, report their marriages to be more unfair to them than do men. Unique experiences in interracial marriages based on one's race or race/gender combination are also identified. African Americans experience more ambivalence about their relationship than their White partners. Furthermore, sex role ideology has a moderating effect on perceived unfairness and marital quality for African American men. Similarities and differences among interracial and same-race marriages are discussed, with recommendations for future research.

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Avishai, Orit, Heath, Melanie, Randles, Jennifer, Marriage Goes to School. Contexts, Aug 2012; vol. 11: pp. 34-38

Abstract:

In recent years, policy efforts to alleviate poverty have focused on marriage and relationship education. Orit Avishai's, Melanie Heath's,and Jennifer Randles's research finds that efforts to address poverty via relationship skills training are misguided because this approach does not address the structural causes of poverty.

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Bates, Nancy, DeMaio, Theresa J., Measuring Same-Sex Relationships. Contexts, Feb 2013; vol. 12: pp. 66-69

Abstract:

The last decade has seen dramatic changes in how U.S. society views and recognizes same-sex couples. U.S. Census Bureau employees, Nancy Bates and Theresa J. DeMaio, chronicle recent efforts taken by the Census Bureau to update and improve the measurement and counting of same-sex couples.