Shotgun wedding
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A shotgun wedding is a type of wedding which is arranged not because of the desire of the participants, but to avoid embarrassment due to an unintentional pregnancy. The phrase is an American colloquialism based on a supposed scenario (hyperbole) that the father of the pregnant daughter, almost by accepted custom, must resort to using coercive force (the shotgun) to ensure that the man who impregnated her goes through with the wedding.
The "shotgun wedding" has become simply an expression, referring to any hasty marriage arranged due to unplanned pregnancy. The use of violent coercion is no longer common. Often a couple will arrange a shotgun wedding without explicit outside encouragement. Conversely, the term is sometimes used for a forced marriage on discovery of sexual relations, even when the bride has not become pregnant.
The purpose is to get recourse from the male for the act of impregnation, ensuring that the mother and child are taken care of, and that social honor is restored to the mother. The practice is a method of preventing the birth of illegitimate children. In some societies the stigma attached to pregnancy out of wedlock can be enormous, and coercive means (in spite of the legal defense of undue influence) for gaining recourse are often seen as the prospective father-in-law's "right," and an important (albeit unconventional) coming of age event for the young father-to-be.
The phenomenon has become less common as the stigma associated with out-of-wedlock births has declined and the number of these births increased.
Sometimes a woman who marries while pregnant, regardless of the situation, is simply referred to as a shotgun bride.
[edit] Popular culture
- Roy C had a 1965 hit single, "Shotgun Wedding"
- Billy Idol's hit "White Wedding" is about a shotgun wedding.
- The Dixie Chicks song "White Trash Wedding" from the album Home alludes to a shotgun wedding.
- A Panic! at the Disco song, "Time to Dance", makes reference to the phrase.
- The Beck song "Loser" references this phrase.
- In the sitcom The Golden Girls, Dorothy and her now-ex-husband Stan were married after he got her pregnant when they were in high school.
- In the sitcom The Simpsons, Homer and Marge are married after Marge becomes pregnant with Bart. Ironically, the wedding chapel where they marry is named Shotgun Pete's.
- In the sitcom Married with Children, Al Bundy literally had a shotgun wedding, when he was forced to marry Peggy by her shotgun-wielding dad.
- The song 'Twice Daily', by Adge Cutler and the Wurzels, concerns a literal shotgun wedding.
- A song from Relient K's album Five Score and Seven Years Ago, called "Deathbed" mentions a shotgun wedding ("Got married on my twenty-first/eight months before my wife would give birth/it's easier to be sure you love someone/when a father inquires with the barrel of a gun.")
