Media worlds and their contemporary impacts

¶ … Unraveling the Knot: Political economy and cultural hegemony in wedding media," cultural theorist Erika Engstrom suggests that the bridal industry perpetuates itself by creating an ideal of femininity that women feel pressured to fulfill. By presenting images of weddings as 'the happiest day of a woman's life,' and showing how women are the centers of their special day in elaborately coiffured dresses, websites and television programs convince ordinary women that it is normal and desirable to spend $20,000 on a wedding. Meanwhile, websites such as The Knot profit handsomely off of the cultural anxiety they generate about female perfection.

This sense of cultural anxiety can also be seen in the modern diet industry. Perhaps the concept of insecurity generating revenue is most obvious in television shows like The Biggest Loser, where the contestants are seen eating foods and using other products that sponsor the show as part of their weight loss regimes. Even products that are not specifically featured on The Biggest Loser likely benefit from the show to some degree. The show depicts overweight, miserable individuals whose lives are being destroyed by their excess weight. Through extreme diet and exercise they are transformed before the viewer's eyes, not just physically, but also spiritually. By using specific products and using the cookbooks and workout DVDs that tie into the show, the show's subtext suggests, the viewer is capable of a similar type of transformation.

Just like at no point on any of the wedding 'reality TV shows' chronicled by Engstrom is it suggested that weddings are unimportant in the grand scheme of a marriage, it is never suggested on The Biggest Loser that diet and exercise alone might not be the problem, and the contestants might have psychological problems that cannot be 'cured' through extreme low-calorie regimes alone. The focus is on transforming one's interior by transforming one's exterior. The contestants are shown during weigh-ins in unflattering spandex to accentuate their bulk and grotesque appearance. A failure to lose weight is presented as a failure of the will, rather than a failure of the body.

Although the contestants are all obese on The Biggest Loser, on most diet and weight loss websites there is no hint that it is acceptable to 'love yourself as you are' even if you are a medically normal weight. Weight loss is promoted as a universal 'good.' Weight loss reinforces notions of cultural self-discipline and beauty. Because of the difficulty of losing weight, it also makes people desperate to find a solution. For example, on the popular diet website Weight Watchers, multiple 'plans' and schemas are offered for people to lose weight. All promote the same basic concept -- eat less unhealthy, caloric food, and burn more calories than you eat. However, the promotion of weight loss as a 'commodity' requires people to believe that by subscribing to a specific program -- effectively paying 'not to eat' -- they can engage in the types of positive self-transformations depicted on the website.