THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE NORTH-AMERICAN HONEYMOON, 1880-1995

This article examines the social narratives of the American honeymoon from 1880 to 1995. Using a constructionist perspective, the cultural a nd historical development of the honeymoon is presented, with particul ar attention given to the ways in which the development of shared cult ural narratives has influenced contemporary honeymoon expectations. Da ta were obtained from popular press magazine articles, and content ana lysis was conducted on these articles using Ethnograph, a computer-bas ed content analysis program. The honeymoon ''narrative'' over time is explored through examining the setting, activities, actors, and script s as depicted in popular press literature. The feminization of the hon eymoon over time is discussed, and the sociological implications regar ding the routinization and standardization of romance in the contempor ary honeymoon are presented.