What is "shotgun wedding"

n. 1 (context idiomatic slang English) A wedding in which the bride is already pregnant. 2 (context idiomatic English) Any similarly reputedly forced partnership, between people or organizations.

A shotgun wedding is a wedding that is arranged to avoid embarrassment due to premarital sex possibly leading to an unplanned pregnancy, rather than out of the desire of the participants. The phrase is an American colloquialism, though it is also used in other parts of the world, based on a supposed scenario (usually hyperbole) that the father of the daughter that had premarital sex, almost by accepted custom, must resort to using coercion (such as threatening with a shotgun) to ensure that the man who possibly impregnated her follows through with the wedding.

The concept of a wedding held to avoid the threat of death dates back millennia; the book of Deuteronomy lays out a law governing premarital sex where, if a man rapes a virgin who is not pledged to be married and is caught doing so, the man must pay the bride price (50 shekels), take her as his wife, and may never divorce her, or else risk being stoned to death.

The use of duress or violent coercion to marry is no longer common in the U.S., although many anecdotal stories and folk songs record instances of such coercion in 18th- and 19th-century America. Often a couple will arrange a shotgun wedding without explicit outside encouragement, and some religious teachings consider it a moral imperative to marry in that situation.

One purpose of such a wedding can be to get recourse from the man for the act of impregnation; another reason is to ensure that the child is raised by both parents. In some cases, as in early America and in the Middle East, a major objective was the restoring of social honor to the mother. The practice is also a loophole method of preventing the birth of legally illegitimate children, or if the marriage occurs early enough, to conceal that conception occurred prior to marriage. 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 (in the Western World at least) as the stigma associated with out-of-wedlock births has declined and the number of such births has increased. Effective birth control and legalized abortion have also resulted in fewer unplanned pregnancies carried to term. Nonetheless a marriage which occurs when the bride is pregnant, even when there is no family or social pressure involved, is still sometimes referred to as a "shotgun wedding".

"Shotgun Wedding" is the fifth episode of season one of the BBC technological thriller, Bugs. The original airdate was 29 April 1995.

Shotgun Wedding is a 1993 Australian film based on the Wally Melish siege.

Shotgun Wedding is the sole collaborative studio album by Lydia Lunch and Rowland S. Howard. It was released in May 1991, through record label Triple X.

Shotgun Wedding is an American black comedy film produced by Fox Studios. It premiered on Netflix on April 1, 2013.

Shotgun wedding, a wedding hastily arranged due to an unplanned pregnancy

Shotgun Wedding can also refer to:

• Shotgun Wedding (1993 film), Australian film based on the Wally Melish siege, directed by Paul Harmon
• Shotgun Wedding (2013 film), American comedy film directed by Danny Roew
• "Shotgun Wedding" (Bugs), the 5th episode of season one of Bugs
• Shotgun Wedding (album), 1991 album by Lydia Lunch and Rowland S. Howard
• Shotgun Wedding, an album by the band Bride
• "Shotgun Wedding", a 1965/66/72 single by Roy C, covered by Rod Stewart in 1993