B u ff B rides:
Disciplining the Female Body
In 2003, a new reality program premiered on the Discovery Health Channel.
Buff Brides combined the long-established fitness television genre with the video
verite, “fly on the wall” (Calvert) approach of reality TV. It followed women
planning their weddings while trying to lose weight. Still offered as reruns as of
2008 on Discovery’s fitness and exercise cable outlet, FitTV, as Buff Brides:
The Bridal Challenge, this unique program gives its viewers a glimpse of what
Erving Goffman called the “back region” where women prepare for their
wedding day. From the vantage point of backstage voyeur, viewers follow the
buff brides’ progress as they transform their bodies, often in order to fit into an
already-purchased bridal gown.
Like other popular reality-based, fitness-oriented programming of the early
2151century, such as NBC’s The Biggest Loser (2004-) and VH1’s Celebrity Fit
Club (2005- ), Buff Brides follows its participants’ progress toward weightbased goals. The program’s title itself offers a new way of idealizing the role of
bride within contemporary American culture. “Buff’ holds numerous
connotations in the online Urban Dictionary,' including “very strong and well
built,” “having well-defined muscles,” and “good looking” (“Buff’). These
contemporary meanings denote that Buff Brides intends to transform formerly
out-of-shape women into toned, physically fit brides. While the term “buff
bride” seems oxymoronic, taking into consideration the contradiction between
the definitely feminine aspect of bridal appearance and the almost-masculine
implications of a strong, well-built body, it provides at least a semantic space
where women can be strong as well as feminine.
While seemingly innocuous and even trivial, this program offers a text with
which to examine the status of women in U.S. society. More than just
entertainment, this program serves as an example of how the mass media
provide women and girls a “script of ideal femininity” (Ussher 74). As a cultural
artifact, Buff Brides serves as an example of the popularity of bridal media and
how they provide both entertainment and instruction about what it means to be a
modem woman in today’s society—a society in which women receive
conflicting messages regarding their expected aspirations, such as pursuing
careers while attending to domestic duties (Wood).
The Disciplined Bridal Body
As a metaphor for culture, the body serves as the text of culture. As
such, it becomes a practical and direct locus of social control, with the docile
body upon which control is exerted regulated by the norms of cultural life
(Bordo). Thus, the female body can be considered “docile,” as it is subjected to
social norms and habituated to self-improvement and transformation to meet