The past couple of weeks in my pop culture class (Yes mom. It's a real class), we've been watching and discussing various types of "reality" TV. Today we were fortunate enough to witness a partial episode of "Bridezillas" which airs on the Women's Entertainment (WE) network. The premise of the show is that a bride-to-be is preparing for her "big day" and in the process, becomes an irrational lunatic and takes out every little frustration on the closest living, breathing soul. I'm thoroughly convinced as I watch shows like this that while we're supposed to believe that the individuals on the show are "real people" like us, they're truly professionally-trained and ultra-skilled actors and actresses. Honestly. Who would seriously behave in such a way? And if these really are people just like you and I, why would they shamelessly sign up for a show that would portray them in that light? I guess we're desperate enough to do whatever it takes for our 15 minutes of fame. The grooms on the show are living punching bags in essence. They are gutless weasels who stand there and take whatever crap their fiancee can dish out. I can't think of any man in their right mind that would take that kind of abuse from anybody.
So why do we watch these kinds of shows? One might make the claim that they're entertaining because they're unpredictable, but most of these shows that have a basic premise such as "Bridezillas" end up being like another Home Improvement episode: once you've seen one, you've essentially seen them all. During our class discussion, a female classmate spoke up and seemed to justify the actions of these brides: "Well, as little girls we played with Barbies and planned our Barbies weddings which were really our own weddings so we've basically been planning our wedding day since we were tiny so of course it has to be perfect because we have these high expectations of our perfect day." Ok, so does that give a bride the right to invite her neighbors to her wedding at the last minute because she needs help with decorations and they're free labor? Does that give the bride the right to harrass her hair/makeup person? Or call her family members names and pummel them out of rage? I don't think so. Why do we find entertainment in seeing people at their worst? Maybe it makes us feel better about our hum-drum lives. Or we think to ourselves, "at least I'm not THAT bad."
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