Honeymoon

Abstract

This chapter assesses the rise in popularity of the honeymoon holiday and what this reveals about masculinity and social class. The masculinity of newly married men, especially in relation to social class, is shown through a close reading of first-person testimonies, etiquette manuals, newspaper reports and railway posters. Men transformed into the subject position of ‘husband’ surrounded on holiday by their own social class, and masculine independence was in tension with dependence on others in order to make the honeymoon happen.