In Uganda, the ‘traditional’ wedding, wherein a groom brings money and gifts to his father‐in‐law's home, has long been understood as the ultimate demonstration of a man's social maturity. Yet masculine adulthood is becoming increasingly elusive as weddings become more difficult to afford. Widespread unemployment has rendered most young men unable to fund the rituals while weddings themselves have become exceptionally lavish: brideprice payments now include ‘cows’, or millions of Ugandan shillings, as well as furniture sets, refrigerators, televisions, and even cars. With wedding expenses surging and their fiancés out of work, women have begun ‘paying their own brideprice’, as Ugandans say, by contributing substantially to wedding costs. In this article, we explore this oft‐debated phenomenon. We propose that the emergence of women who pay their own brideprice has invited a broad reimagining of the gendered economic ideologies that tether men to money under the rubric of provider masculinity. That celebratory, seemingly innocuous events such as weddings occasion the questioning of hegemonic forms of masculinity is particularly notable in Uganda, where gender conservatism dominates public discourse. Beyond Uganda, our case suggests revisiting the normative as a potent site for observing gendered social change.

中文翻译：

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自己支付彩礼的女性：通过乌干达蓬勃发展的婚礼行业重新构想提供男子气概


在乌干达，新郎将金钱和礼物带到岳父家的“传统”婚礼长期以来一直被视为男性社会成熟的最终证明。然而，随着婚礼变得越来越难以负担，男性的成年生活变得越来越难以捉摸。普遍的失业使大多数年轻男性无法为仪式提供资金，而婚礼本身也变得异常奢华：彩礼金现在包括“奶牛”或数百万乌干达先令，以及家具套装、冰箱、电视机，甚至汽车。随着婚礼费用的飙升和未婚夫的失业，正如乌干达人所说，女性已经开始“支付自己的彩礼”，为婚礼费用做出大量贡献。在本文中，我们将探讨这个经常争论的现象。我们认为，支付自己彩礼的女性的出现引发了对性别经济意识形态的广泛重新构想，这些意识形态在提供者的男子气概的名义下将男性与金钱捆绑在一起。婚礼等看似无害的庆祝活动引发了对霸权形式的男子气概的质疑，这在乌干达尤为明显，因为性别保守主义主导着公共话语。在乌干达之外，我们的案例建议重新审视规范作为观察性别社会变化的有效场所。