Deconstructing the Arranged/Love Marriage Dichotomy: Reexamining Resistance on a Continuum

• In Event: Ruptures, Fusions, and Silences

Abstract

I argue against distinctions between arranged/forced marriage and love/choice marriage discourses. In a Western context such practices are constrained by existing power structures that in turn limit the extent to which choices can be autonomous. I move away from discourses that problematically “save” women in arranged marriages all the while normalizing women who practice love/choice marriages. In looking at all marriages on an arranged marriage continuum, I hope to better situate the various ways in which communities of varying race, classes, and sexualities in the United States resist the debilitating and consumptive power of the institution of marriage.

Presenter

• Hina Shaikh, University of Florida