Dear We Network,
I want to let you know how I feel about Bridezillas, your show about bitchy brides on their way to the altar.
My wife and I’ve been married for just over a year, and she’s recently gotten interested in your show. She has a Masters degree in English Literature, and her thesis was on reality television and its impacts on society and culture. For what it’s worth, we both agree on the following about your show, and this email won’t even begin to plumb the rhetorical, philosophical depths of our collective (reasonably informed and educated) opinions of Bridezilla.
I understand that your bottom line is what counts, and making money is pretty much the only thing of concern in the board meetings where these shows are conceived and planned. The fact that these shows are popular, and your advertisers pay top dollar (maybe) for spots during this show are key to your decision making process, is very much understood and (for lack of a better term) appreciated.
However, the message you send to America is that shallow, obsessive, asshole women are worthy of attention, the spotlight, and your camera’s focus. Following them, encouraging them with attention, cameras and lights, does nothing but perpetuate what is undoubtedly the media’s influence on such horrific statistics as the divorce rate in America, and not remotely what the rest of the world thinks of Americans. Y’know what, with programming like this, and the messages that it sends, the rest of the world is right: Americans, as you promote them, are shallow, shitty, financially irresponsible, pathetic, prickish idiots that deserve the short, statistically unstable and miserably short marriages that they get.
I think it’s abhorable that for the sake of a buck, We Network has succumbed to the status quo, surrendered to the almighty buck and wantonly perpetuates promotion of people being absurdly self-centered, impatient and frankly disgusting individuals. Thanks for fucking up America even more than it already is.
It is, however, rather entertaining.
on Oct 12th, 2006 at 7:55 am
I certainly wouldn’t want to defend this show in a debate of its relative social value, but there may be a few who find that these kinds of programs are… therapeutic. By seeing someone or a group of someones on screen with egregious character flaws that are much more fucked up than your own, you get a sense of peace and contentment. “Hey,” you think to yourself, “maybe I’m not so bad after all and shoving that old lady away from my car so her walker wouldn’t scratch my bumber wasn’t so terrible in the big scheme of things.”
Of course, I tend to think that sort of therapy is self-defeating and only makes superficial sense, but I feel better about myself for knowing that.
There’s a book that relates very well to the modern state of marriage called Lies at the Alter. The more you know… and all.
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