Popular Culture Review Vol. 20, No. 1, Winter 2009 | Page 42

38 Popular Culture Review occupations are given nevertheless. Brides came mostly from business-related or professional fields; one could surmise based on the brief job descriptions that they held desk jobs. None of the women appeared obese or seriously overweight; their weight loss goals range from 10 to 30 pounds. In that height and weight determine ideal weight ranges (Body Mass Index Table), the program bypasses the notion of healthy weight and uses the bride’s own assessment of how much weight she would like to lose, rather than how much she needs to lose in order to be considered medically healthy. The program does not provide blood pressure readings or other indicators of health other than body fat percentage, calculated by the brides’ personal trainers using caliper measurements of their excess fat. Enforcement of the Beauty Ideal Brides’ body image and unhappiness with their current shape and weight serves as the most prominent theme of Buff Brides. While the issue of unacceptable current weight is unsurprising, the degree to which the women in this program express their dissatisfaction becomes troublesome when the visual elements of the program add to an even more negative impression of aging for women, which apparently begins in one’s late 20s or early 30s). Both the narrator and some of the brides mention that metabolism starts to slow when a woman hits her mid-20s. The combination of age and desk work results in the less-than-perfect body. For example, Madhu, who is Indian and “works for a New York-based women’s organization,” comments, “Somewhere around my mid to late 20s, my metabolism fell.” She wants to lose 10 to 15 pounds and “fit into the size 4 red suit that I love.” In addition to wanting to return to one’s former size, the issue of dissatisfaction with specific body parts is common among all the brides. Target “problem” areas are explained and accompanied by brides on camera pinching their fat. Colleen, a public affairs manager, wants to lose 20 pounds. She identifies her arms and back as target areas: “Nobody likes flabby arms for a wedding gown.” Greta, a cosmetics company public relations executive, weighs 141 pounds and wants to lose 20 pounds for her wedding. On camera, she points to areas she dislikes: “I hate this extra butt that I have here,” pinching her hip. “This nice little ‘grandma’ arm,” she says, pinching the skin on the underside of her (rather unchubby) arm. “I have my little tummy I have here,” she continues. For this bride, however, the issue of being overweight is coupled with her work as a beauty industry insider: “There is in today’s world an intense pressure on women and I’m in that world: size 0, size 2 if you’re heavy. And if you’re a size 12 or 14, you just don’t feel good in the company that you keep.” In addition, Greta has a history of anorexia, further underscoring her concerns about losing weight. Bodily disapproval becomes even more reified as brides undergo weigh-ins and measurements. Fear of their own weight is illustrated by comments such as, “I’m a little nervous” (Justine, being weighed at the midpoint of her program); “I’m too nervous to face the scale,” and, “It sucks” (Nadege);