To all the people who don't understand the need to think about these things, I would offer that the sexist traditions of marriage ceremonies are actually quite pervasive when taken together:
(Note: I am not saying everyone does these things. But they are all traditional.)
- The man asks permission/approval/for the blessing of the father.
- The man asks the woman to get married. She can range between hopeful of the proposal, or surprised, but it is his decision.
- Women receive an engagement ring. It starts on day one. Why is the tradition that you wear a ring that marks you as taken, while he wears nothing?
- The woman has a shower to "set up her new home."
- Men have a stag, because they have to have a last night out before they chain themselves to a woman. (Yes, stagettes/hens nights are more common now.)
- Women plan the wedding. It is a pivotal day in their lives, taking months or years to plan. They have dreamed about it and imagined it. Most men just show up.
- Women have rituals associated with preparing to wed. They wear something borrowed, etc. to bring the marriage luck. In many cultures there is a cleansing ritual to purify the woman. Men get dressed.
- The tradition that the brides parents pay for the wedding, while the grooms parents skate by relatively unscathed, has troubling roots in dowries.
- Women are given away/escorted/presented. Men stand on their own.
- The veil is lifted, a tradition rife with symbolism.
- In some ceremonies women promise to obey.
- "You many now kiss the bride." The man initiates the marriage.
- Women change their title from Miss to Mrs. Because their status has changed. Men, however, remain the same. Their marital status is not disclosed through their title.
- Woman change their last name, sometimes becoming Mrs. HisFristName HisLastName. In surveys many men would outright refuse to take a woman's last name. Some men refuse to marry if the woman doesn't change her name. It's important to them. Yet if a man feels it makes him less somehow to change his name, logically it follows that a woman is less for changing hers.
- The woman tosses her bouquet so that one unfortunate, single women can hopefully be married soon, too.
I am not saying any of these things is wrong, or that the symbolism hasn't or can't change. But the traditions of marriage are very sexist and patriarchal. To dismiss those who think about these things as "over thinking" is, in my opinion, just wrong. Traditions and history should be thought about. I might take the opposite view and say that those who follow tradition simply for traditions sake do so unthinkingly and blindly, not knowing what they participate in or why.
Again, just to be clear, I don't think the modern versions if some of these traditions are bad. I just also don't think that considering them, thinking about them, is bad either.