Bridezillas

If you've ever seen Bridezillas, you know what I'm talking about when I refer to the narcissistic, spoiled, and self-entitled behaviors exemplified by the women on this show. Specifically the women. This sheer and disgusting display is yet somehow an attractive and addictive show and stays popular on TV. But, the question I constantly ask myself if I decide to let myself indulge and watch the show, is how do people get like this? Are these women enabled by their parents to act like this? Yes. Are they a product of the marketing of princess culture? This question may need some analysis before I am able to answer that question fully. I will start by specifying, the women who are on Bridezillas are on the show by their own choice. If you have seen the show you may ask yourself why anyone would submit themselves to such embarrassment and want to be seen acting like they do. Most of the time, I watch this show to make myself feel better about my life. These women are so selfish that in every episode the big "surprise" and "suspense" of the show is that they almost don't make it to the altar. But, as most stories go, of course these women get everything they ever wanted and live "happily ever after." Often, the Bridezillas are so blind to anything but their "royalty" that they don't even care that they are often way overspending. The point is, these girls are so consumed that they don't even see that. These girls are a product of being spoiled and told that they deserve to be spoiled and beautiful all the time, especially for their weddings. Their parents told them they were special and deserved everything they ever want, and in turn these parents created a monster. Not a princess, a Bridezilla. Every episode that I have seen, the Bridezilla makes sure to fully explain exactly what she deserves and makes sure her family knows that they are at her disposal to dote on her every whim. At the expense of everyone around her, including her future spouse, these women will do anything to get everything they feel that they deserve. What is this abomination?! Bridezillas are the definition of princess culture gone wrong. Firstly, I do not believe that every girl is negatively affected by princess culture and I do not believe that a girl wanting to wear pink and play like a princess is inherently wrong. I do, however, believe that this princess culture, compared with bad parenting, combined with an overall bad person make a Bridezilla. Joanne Laucius (1/11) discusses a similar show Princesses in his article. This show depicts women who are "princesses" but are in fact bankrupt or in bad monetary situations because of their excessive spending and investment into the princess culture. The princess culture has so negative an effect on these women on Bridezillas that they actually feel proud of this behavior. So proud, in fact, that they want to be on TV for this! We cannot allow this to continue. I believe that the princess culture is not bad, in itself, like I stated before, but when combined with the media telling girls they can and must be pretty all the time, they deserve to get everything they ever wanted and they should be in control of their lives, this turns into a snowball effect. The girls begin as young princesses and turn into capitalistic, overspending, self-entitled maniacs. If you have not watched the show, I would recommend it. This is something that I believe people should watch to get an idea of what you should NOT do. I believe although watching these shows seems to enable these bad attitudes, I think it does i fact benefit us to watch this show because we can see what we should not be. If we have the right lens when watching this show, it can benefit us and help us to raise our girls without this princess culture and the negative influence on their future personalities.