Brides + Plastic Surgery = New reality TV show


What the fuck?

The network is set to announce “Bridalplasty,” where brides-to-be compete in wedding-themed challenges to win extensive surgical procedures.

Each week, a group of women competes head-to-head in such challenges as writing wedding vows and planning honeymoons. The winner receives the chance to choose a plastic surgery procedure from her “wish list.” She’s given the procedure immediately, and results are shown at the start of the following week’s episode.

One by one, the women are voted out by their competitors and, according to the show’s description, “possibly walking away with nothing and losing [their] chance to be the perfect bride.”

The last bride standing will receive a “dream wedding,” where she will reveal her new appearance to friends, family and the groom. “Viewers will witness his emotional and possibly shocked reaction as they stand at the altar and he lifts her veil to see her for the first time following her extreme plastic surgery,” E! said.

Just when you thought American television couldn’t sink any lower. My addiction with America’s Next Top Model seems positively cerebral in comparison.

This is so stupid I’m not even going to grace it with serious feminist commentary. Feel free to have a real discussion in the comments – I’m going to be over in the corner weeping.

Comments

  1. Sarah_Elisa says

    that is a bit grotesque. “to be the perfect bride”? so many women are so obsessed with being the perfect bride and having the “perfect wedding.” The whole concept of a wedding is unappealing to me. It is just a day, people!

  2. LS says

    It’s funny. A picture is worth a thousand words. Apparently four paragraphs is capable of instantaneously spawning about a textbook’s worth of rage-fueled rhetoric in my brain.

  3. Kaleberg says

    This is going to be interesting. It takes weeks to recover from plastic surgery. If you have anything on your face done, you’ll look like someone clobbered you, and you’ll have to breathe through your mouth because you’ve got cotton up your nose so things heal properly. That sounds so romantic. I suppose they can get around this by having the winner hole up at some spa somewhere until the bruises disappear and the swelling dies down, but I can just imagine the wedding with the groom removing his new bride’s veil and recoiling in shock: “Who the heck are you?” That will make great television!

  4. says

    I dunno if it’s just me, but that sort of a premise doesn’t sound at all far-fetched or surprising to me. Sure, it’s stupid, ridiculous and has an obvious undercurrent of sexism – “You can’t have a perfect wedding unless you go under the knife!” – but frankly, it doesn’t sound any better or worse than most of the garbage that’s so unfittingly classified as “reality TV” these days.“Reality TV” really needs to cease to exist. For humanity’s sake.

  5. WingedBeast says

    I want to remind the world that Fox has already given us “The Swan”. This is really just another version of that.I won’t be watching this TV show, but the fact that it exists makes me sad. The only thing sadder is that I’m not surprised.

  6. Pratchettgaiman says

    ewwwwww. Does the phrase “love your body” mean anything to these women? Our imperfections are what makes us interesting, in my opinion

  7. says

    Reality TV started with COPS (still a great show to watch) and started to go downhill with Survivor. Now TV is full of “reality” shows, because they are so cheap to make and don’t require much talent. It’s a perfect example of how Americans are making themselves worthless.

  8. Tash says

    Just when I thought television couldn’t sink any lower. I hope they scrap it because I would hate to think that anyone would even volunteer for this.It is SO depressing….

  9. says

    Why’d you have to blog about this. I was happy in my world where I probably never would have heard of this show and I would think the worst thing American TV could come up with was The Amazing Race…. What’s this top model show you speak of? I’m going to have to google that.

  10. says

    I believe these things should be a personal choice. Just as I hate to see people ridiculed and denigrated for being too fat, I hate to see reactions as yours to people who make different choices about their own bodies than you would. It is the same body fascism, essentially — *you* are telling *me* how I should treat my own body…You know what the phrase “love your body” means to me? I love what I *made* of it. I didn’t naturally grow to be strong, fit, healthy and beautiful! But I am now, because I *work* for it. I work out, eat healthy, and yes (gasp!) — I had a nose job! I also try to improve other things about myself — I work to make myself smarter, for example — does that mean I don’t “love my mind” or whatever? Working to improve our mind and character is okay, but working to improve our body is not? Some of us prefer to treat our shortcomings as challenges. Is that really something to “ewwww” about?

  11. Speffles says

    Congratulations ! You’ve found the love of your life – but don’t think for a second that you are good enough now because you’re not. Some of us still have money to make. I hated the pressure to have the most perfect day of our lives. Everything must be just so! You must be thin! With perfect hair! Handmade invitations with a theme that expresses your personalities exactly! You must not break the ceremonial cake knife on a homemade cake too much royal icing (that last one might just be us…)! It’s horrible, insiduous and so difficult to shake off. I hate the idea of this show not just because it’s another cruel way of exposing vunerable people for entertainemnt but I know that so many women will watch it just to feel wretched about themselves.

  12. Trinity says

    I heard about this today on my drive in to work. I didn’t think American reality TV could shock me anymore.I was wrong.We’re doomed.

  13. Guest says

    Yeah, talk to people after they have been married for a few years. They don’t remember much about their wedding. All that time spent planning and money spent is a waste.

  14. says

    And once again, I feel fully justified in having my cable disconnected. THis kind of makes me want to go one step further and put a sledgehammer through my tv set though, once and for all.The sad irony is that I’m willing to bet that for 99% of these women, their marriages will crash and burn. I mean, talk about your messed up priorities.

  15. Kitsune Rei says

    Yes, but on the bright side, they’ll get to have MORE weddings where they can have an even better “most perfect day of their lives!” :D

  16. says

    The problem with this kind of mentality is that it eventually leads to the normalization of physical ideals that literally are NOT attainable without major surgery. It also encourages people to subject themselves to invasive surgeries and pressure to conform to these ideals ‘because we can’ instead of really looking at the WHY’s of feeling like our natural bodies are not good enough.

  17. says

    Sorry, I should clarify – the problem with this mentality in the context of plastic surgery. There’s nothing inherently wrong with trying to improve your body, but sometimes I think it’s worth it to stand back and say ‘Is this something I’m doing for my health or for some kind of acceptance?’

  18. says

    I saw a commercial for Survivor with a girl with a prosthetic leg. If she tests well with key audience demographics, it’s coming. I doubt all network execs appreciate the fine line between “not discriminating by disability” and “CRIPPLE FIGHT!!!”

  19. says

    If advances in prosthetic enhancement bring about America’s Next Top Cyborg, the Reality genre will be redeemed.Every week one loser leaves and one winner gets a physical upgrade. Last one standing gets neural interfaced 4G….I might be missing the main point here.

  20. Noelle Freehugs says

    Hey, I’m getting married next year. I wonder if I could get that breast reduction I’ve been wanting. Hello clothes that fit, goodbye backpain and $50 minimum bra price!

  21. says

    You’re right, it’s complicated! On the one hand, I want to be free to have my own standards of what is beautiful and what isn’t, without having to apologize for them if they deviate too much from the norm or conform too much to the norm! It wasn’t just the health issue for me — it was very much about beauty, too. I value physical beauty and it is important for me, among many other things. But: what formed my standards of beauty? Was it the beauty industry, which is known to set literally impossible standards? Perhaps… And on the one hand, it’s fucked up. But on the other hand… my standards are mine, and I cannot change them. I can either live by them or by somebody else’s. My body, my choice.And, by the way, about acceptance — I think acceptance matters to everyone, the crucial thing is to strive to be accepted by the circle of people whom you respect, whose opinions you care about. No matter what I do, it won’t win *everyone’s* acceptance. Exactly what happened here: while many people in my life respect me for my choice of having the nose job, some people despise me for it (e.g. Pratchettgaiman). But it’s okay. Her acceptance does not worry me in the slightest.

  22. Rollingforest says

    If I was a woman, I don’t think I would trust plastic surgery. To look beautiful, you have to get everything exactly right. If they mess up even a little, you are going to just look wierd.

  23. Rollingforest says

    Is this another example of male privilege? ;) A man gets to sit back and let his future wife, her mom, and his mom plan everything. But this is a male privilege where the women force it on each other by making each other buy into the “everything has to be exactly perfect or else you fail at life” meme.

  24. LS says

    The traditional western marriage ceremony is fraught with all manner of sexism. As my first philosophy prof said:”It’s called “her day,” which implies two things. First, it implies that he’s somehow disassociated from what’s going on, that it doesn’t matter to him. Second, it implies that the rest of the days won’t be hers.”

  25. Der Cat says

    Swan is probably a fitting Title. Have you ever been around swans they are more evil than geese…

  26. Der Cat says

    No, the way you do it is nothing to Ew about. Your body your buisness as they say. It just seems…creepy…people are watching this for entertainment and that it is a game.

  27. Der Cat says

    …..This may only be slightly more demeaning for me than having to deal with the Insurance Company and the disabilty people at college…

  28. Der Cat says

    Wait….if I humilate my self on national TV I can get rid of my back pain and some of the health risks that come with obesity?  And maybe some of the stuff I wanted to do any way. For free? Wait…fuck…that’s only if you win…Probably not worth it.

Leave a Reply