Are you kidding me? A dozen brides-to-be compete for plastic surgery? Have we lost our minds thinking this is entertainment – or even acceptable?
In an article in the LA Times, this latest “reality” show (From E! Entertainment Television) is referred to as “creepy” – and I couldn’t agree more. This is the worst of Bridezillas, Extreme Makeover, and any variation of Mean Girls, Bad Girls, or Gag-Me-Girls I can possibly imagine.
Whether it’s mock-worthy or shock-worthy, is this really what we’ve done to our women?
I’m not talking forty-somethings or fifty-somethings trying to recapture a bit of youth – or compete in the job market or even the post-divorce meat market. This is a dozen young women, in the usual trade-off of dignity for momentary media attention, vying for surgical intervention for whatever ails them.
Grab a syringe and go?
And are they really starting out this series by grabbing syringes and trotting off to an injectables party? Are we starting Botox in the twenties now?
Surely I’m not the only woman who finds this despicable and grotesque? And where are the cosmetic surgeons speaking out against this bastardization of a profession that does in fact have a place in more rational circumstances?
The reveal (before the process)
In the interest of actually giving the show a (cough, choke, gasp) chance, I watched the first episode, mouth agape. I was appalled. Not only at the premise, but when I saw several of these women with beautiful bodies, subjecting themselves to the plastic surgeon’s process of mapping areas to liposuction – on their normal, healthy, shapely abs, butts, bellies, and limbs.
Our “perfection” preoccupation
Were there a few women with legitimate reasons to request surgical procedures? Is that an opinion? Yes, and yes.
But it’s also a sign of our times that a woman who has given birth (and has a belly as a result) is made to feel as though she must cover it up or cut it off. Breasts must come in a perfectly matched set, defy gravity, and apparently, can’t ever be big enough. Must we really slice and dice ourselves in order to feel confident and feminine? Or bride-worthy?
One bright spot
The only bright spot was the surprise reunion of one contestant with her fiancé, who just returned from 8 months in Iraq. It was a sweet moment. But other than that? Dangling a “celebrity wedding” in front of mouthy women with esteem issues – and some, serious financial issues – has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
E! You should be ashamed.
© D A Wolf
Absolutely horrifying. It bothers me to no end what people will put on tv for entertainment value. It bothers me that a group of people would sit around a table and conceptualize this horrid program. The fact that women might actually tune in to watch is depressing. They may think of it as silly entertainment, but what kind of messages are they actually receiving and what kind of questions will they inevitably ask themselves about their own bodies and expectations as a result.
Where are the positive messages out there? So few and far between. Sigh.
“Where are the positive messages out there?”
I couldn’t agree more. And we wonder why our society seems to be growing more and more plastic.
This is why I don’t watch TV.
What passes for entertainment is … well, I just don’t know.
But it doesn’t surprise me that people would do anything — anything! for a chance at fame although honestly, this isn’t what I’d want to be remembered for!
Quite the legacy, as you say, Kat. Remembered for being humiliated on national TV. Now there’s a story to tell your kids.
I couldn’t agree more. As Heidi Montag is making the talk show rounds (Business must be slow…) to talk about how she regrets the obscene number of surgeries she had in one day, we (and our daughters) are faced with this “reality” show. What happened to inner beauty? What happened to acceptance? What happened to small intimate weddings with those family and friends who want to be there sharing your day and don’t give a hoot the wedding cake is shaped in Louis Vuitton luggage and Tiffany boxes? I didn’t watch one moment of it, just like I refuse to watch Sarah Palin’s “Alaska.” There’s only so much reality I can handle.
Like you, I’ll take a slightly less surreal reality myself. (Louis Vuitton luggage cake? Okay…)
“Despicable and grotesque” is the PERFECT response to this. What a horrifying concept (what a horrifying assumption that it suggests we’re coming to…I hope we aren’t).
I won’t even be able to watch that. Sounds horrible.
Thank you for reminding me why our TV is still not hooked up. I just won’t pay to have this stuff piped into my living room. I know there’s plenty of programming out there worth watching, but it’s inevitably bundled with this smut. Good for you, calling this out. Blecch.
I keep hoping that society will mature and accept the fact that everyone and everything does exactly that – mature. Age. Get wrinkles. Sag. I don’t understand the need for perfection – whatever that might be. I will confess that I hate the fact that the area around my mouth is so much more wrinkled than the rest of my face (thanks to years of smoking), but would I do something about it? Not! It’s me. It’s how I am. I am not a spring chicken anymore, so why should I pretend?
I’m with you Carol. But there’s one issue – competing for jobs. And a second – competing for men. We live in a youth-obsessed culture (not new). If the competition is all “doing it” – then what? (Maybe, move to France? :))
I agree BLW, this is horrid and grotesque. I haven’t watched the show, but I am questioning as to what doctor would sign up for this. Where is the professional integrity? Is everything about marketing at whatever cost? Thanks for writing this.
One of my current resolutions is to only watch “good” TV. Something tells me this wouldn’t make the cut, not even as anthropological research hinting at how low we’ve sunk in terms of pop culture.
This does feel like scraping the bottom, Kristen. But worse – I believe it to be damaging to young men and women both.
Say it ain’t so. Say that this was a joke by The Onion. Oh please do. Just lie to us. How much lower is TV going to go before it hits bottom? But of course, we seem to keep on finding new bottoms…
Bridalplasty isn’t much lower than the recent performance of Tom DeLay on DWTS. But at least he was only called to embarrass–not mutilate–himself for our entertainment. Good work on this one, BLW.