I've been inspired by NBC's show "The Biggest Loser" (and its training/diet tips) to lose 27 pounds and become much more healthy and fit.

Maybe, just maybe, some women who watch "Bulging Brides" - whether they have upcoming nuptials or not - might also be inspired to reduce their body fat and become healthier.

Virtually every diet/exercise/nutrition study ever done shows that overweight people who begin to exercise and make better food choices end up living longer lives, with fewer health issues etc.

If you're truly a feminist, Lynn, surely you must admit that it is a GOOD thing for overweight women to get in better shape?

I thought I was going to have to go all day without seeing any negative messages in the media about my body image. Thankfully, there's this gem, to remind me of what a loser I am if I have trouble squeezing into those size 2 jeans.

Another banner TV day for women...

There is something about ritual humiliation that is like, er, candy to a large chunk (apologies) of the population, so much so that people keep eagerly volunteering to the be the uh, butt of the joke as it were.

But back to the earlier story about women and schadenfreud, the percentage of men watching this will be in single digits (and the percentage of heterosexual men a fraction of that).

(Hilarious post by the way Lynn.)

Not too long ago, it was believed that the only people a bride had to look good for were her groom and families, and THEY should be more concerned with her "inner beauty" that would radiate to the world on this special day.

Now, apparently it's more important that she look good for the photographer than for the people who really count.

Chill out and lighten up, ladies! He didn't fall in love with you for your burnished tan and perfect manicure...and if he did you should seriously consider cancelling the whole thing.

we tv wouldn't put all that brainless carp on TV unless folks watched it. The way to get them to stop assuming women's tv is stupid tv is to stop watching.

No, there's nothing wrong with losing weight and being healthy. But that's not the message here, is it? The prevalent message on tv, due to all the makeover shows like this one, is that you're not good enough the way you are and you could be a lot better with enough intervention.

Now, I have no idea how overweight the "bulging bride" in question is, but if she hasn't seen fit to lose the weight by 6 weeks before the wedding, maybe it's not that important to her. Maybe her bridesmaids should get over it. Maybe not being a perfect size 6 on your wedding day won't ruin your life. Maybe squeezing into a sausage casing of a dress just isn't for you. Isn't that ok? How about finding a dress that flatters you and just enjoying yourself?

The other message here is that your wedding day must be some super-human non-reality based event. So obviously, being an imperfect specimen won't do. And if you're not living up to the idealized Bride's magainze dream (which apparently is a strapless dress that is flattering on very few real women), you aren't worthy of getting married.

With a looong writers' strike finally over, perhaps we'll have something to watch by the fall. In the meantime, I'm reading more books. (The characters can look as pretty as I want in my head).

For being the kid that dares to say that the strapless-clad empress...er,bride...has no "clothing sense." In some future decade lots of women are going to show their wedding albums to their kids and be told, "But Mommy, your arms are so fat!" or something to that effect. Every so often, a fashion fad comes along that EVERYBODY feels the need to wear, whether or not it is truly figure-flattering. (And I'm not talking about simply silly stuff like leg-warmers or Crocs.) In the 60's lots of leg-challenged ladies insisted on wearing miniskirts. In the New Millennium lots of upper-torso-challenged brides (not necessarily fat, just not well-proportioned) are insisting on showing bare arms and necklines above "sausage casing" bodices.

Perhaps their older sisters got married in the 90's and got talked into sweatband-style headpieces that crushed their foreheads.

Where, or where, are the bridal consultants who can put their presumed fashion expertise to work and guide a girl towards a "look" that looks good on HER, regardless of what the editors of Modern Bride say?

Look if there's a way to show engaged women as under/over medicated psychopathic whiny narcissist nutcases, we will watch them implode on TV. I recommend they develop a follow-on show called:

"How does that meatcleaver in your fucking head feel now, asshole? Still wanna divorce?"

My friend recently got married, while wedding dress shopping, guess what, there are very very very slim offerings for a non-strapless dress.

My friend tried on over 500 dresses, she did not want a strapless gown, she ended up with a strapless gown because the perhaps 10 to 20 gowns she found with straps or sleeves were really hideous, too much lace and ruffles. When I went wedding dress shopping about 4 years ago, I encountered near the same issue. Almost every dress was strapless and the few that weren't were very unflattering and just had too many beads, lack and things that I don't like.

So sometimes it's not just choosing what the bridal magazines offer, it's that all the wedding dresses that are currently being made, don't have straps, some have a little bolero jacket, but most of them do not come with sleeves and we can't all afford to have a dress made for us.

Kind of like Ugg not being able to stop raping a woman because it feels good.

I did realize women chastise men for the same behaviors they themselves refuse to abide by, but this is getting too obvious.

Lestat, I'm sure you're right about the choices available. When I was getting married way back when it was all giant poofy skirts and even bigger poofy sleeves. It was an effort to find something that didn't look like an exploded meringue. But as soon as I ditched the traditional bridal shops and the bridal mags, I did and at a fraction of the price (and it was still a bridal gown).

But that's why the bridal industry and shows like this offend - they feed into this cookie-cutter notion of what a woman should look like. Unfortunately, too many women don't think for themselves and are sucked in by it all.