Bridezillas
I watched an episode of Bridezillas on the WE network (Women’s Entertainment). I chose to view this show because the commercials for it have always bothered me. There is always a woman incredibly mad, rude, usually screaming, and the show portrays her as mentally ill or insane. The show’s website also makes comments about these women being monsters and insane and there is an interactive game where you can “whack� people who give the bride trouble such as the mother-in-law or the chef.
This show is based on the stereotypical bride. She is presented as a control freak and someone who is mentally unhinged, perfectionist, self-centered, bossy, violent, and rude. Except for a few minutes at the beginning of the episode, the only time we see the husband to be is when the bride is yelling at him to do something. The show follows the bride around and we see her yelling at her friends and family, crying, and even throwing temper tantrums. The obsession for everything to be perfect also pertains to how the bride looks. In the episode I watched, one bride, who appeared to be a thin, healthy woman, is seen going to and from the gym and eating low calorie food so that she “looks perfect� on her big day. The other bride featured in the episode had lost 80 pounds for her wedding. Laura Sloan Patterson discusses the exclusion of plus sized brides from the “mainstream American bridal fantasy� in advertisements that portray plus sized brides in distinctively different images than slimmer brides. “Unlike her slim sister’s ads, which are free to show Bridezilla levels of contempt for the audience, the PSB’s image indicates an obligation to show happiness, even gratitude, in the face of marriage,� (Patterson, Why Are All the Fat Brides Smiling?). If this bride had not lost 80 pounds, would she have been featured in the show or would she be expected to just be grateful? Should Bridezilla-like behavior be acceptable for anyone?
As much as I don’t like this show however, I did notice a few positive aspects of the show, at least in comparison to other wedding-related reality television shows. As Judith Halberstam points out in her article Pimp My Bride, “All the shows have refused to test the waters of interracial dating.� However, the episode of Bridezillas that I viewed did feature an interracial couple. The show also appears to feature brides from different socioeconomic statuses. Unfortunately, whatever economic background the bride is from, it appears that they all go into debt to pay for the wedding. So while the show may feature slightly more diverse characters, it still does not present many positive images of brides or women in general.