I’m very torn about the term “girly” and identifying as it. I will say that I definitely want to be considered “feminine”, and it’s been a concerted effort on my part to make that true. Until high school, I absolutely hated traditionally “girly” things – stuff like make up, nail polish, WEDDING STUFF, and skirts. Oh, and boys and romance!! None of that stuff made sense to me when I was younger, and sometimes I think if Old Me met the Present Me, she would not understand how I came about. How did things go from Point A (Old Me) to Point B? So many “never will I evers” have been overturned. None of which I regret, and I fully embrace. At least I still play video games and read comic books, haha! And I still feel like the guy in the video, “It’s Not About the Nail“, and pretty much never the girl. Hehe. Perhaps this is all fodder for another post. ;) On the otherhand, and I feel I really need to say this, I find it weird when people say things like “You’re not girly, you’re one of the guys” or treat me seperate from girly girls. Well. I’m not a girly girl, they are right, and I know it’s meant to be a compliment. But I take issue with how the person is INSULTING “girls”. It’s not a bad thing to be a girl…there’s idiots in both genders, not just those who are female. Being a girl, being “girly” is not inherently a bad thing, and I wish people (guys and I’m-a-special-snowflake-tomboy-gurlz) would quit it with the negativity. Whenever guys say that, I wonder how they’re gonna deal with things if they ever have a daughter. I really hope they don’t teach her that being a “girl” is, generally speaking, the equivalent to being an idiot.
One of the things I’ve just started watching is a new show called “Marriage Boot Camp: Bridezillas” !!! The main show, Bridezillas, is ending in it’s 10th season, and Marriage Boot Camp is overlapping it.
There are a couple things great about it:
1. Validation.
Alright, this needs a bit of explanation. If you’ve ever watched an episode of Bridezillas, there’s a common theme to every couple. The woman is absolutely awful, shrill, and stomps all over the man during the wedding process. They show their ugliest side and you, the viewer, always wonder – why the hell is this guy marrying her? Like any abuse victim, the husband-to-be always makes excuses for her. She didn’t meant it. She’s under a lot of stress. She’s not usually like this. Or he tries to laugh it off as something temporary, while acknowledging that maybe she is kind of a brat, but he loves her regardless. Then they get married, and suddenly it’s the best day of their entire, petty, superficial lives. The bride and groom are all smiles and everyone is happy and so in love. So what happens to this couple?
Fast forward to Marriage Boot Camp. If you thought they were a bad match and would be a terrible married couple….YOU WERE RIGHT. It’s really one of those “No shit, Sherlock!” moments. But the fun part, the validating part for me, is seeing how the two finally acknowledge that they are NOT getting along.
2. How Do You Keep Love Alive?
Movies, television shows, they always focus on the “exciting” part. The part where boy meets girl; the part where sparks fly and love is in the air. Movies and TV shows end when the “will they, won’t they” saga ends and two single people are now one couple. Rarely do you ever see the two interact together, not as simply boyfriend and girlfriend, but husband and wife. How do they get along? What do they do to stick together? How do you keep love alive, through the years? And remain loyal? And most of all, how do you deal with someone with baggage…someone whose baggage came from YOU?
So I’m incredibly interested in seeing how things go with these Bridezilla couples. They’re somewhere between 1-4 years in to their marriages, I believe, and approaching divorce. Counseling is their last resort, it seems, and so far everything does indeed feel genuine. There’s one girl who feels a bit fake, but hell, everyone in the house calls her out on it :D It’s awesome. I feel pretty bad for most of the guys, but the one person I dislike the most, so far, is the skinny blonde girl, Melissa. She’s not in to being there at all, she’s truly a bitch, very cold, makes her husband cry, is snippy with him for no reason, and worst of all….
…She’s a shady bitch.
She kept saying in the prequel episode that she’s 26 and ought to be out partying. Which she does. The husband stays home and watches the kids, and she goes out drinking and partying with guy friends. She changes their names on her cellphone to GIRL names so that her husband won’t realize she’s hanging out with guys and getting drunk, but he totally knows. These guys also call her up at 2am, and the way one of them was talking when the camera was on him…..I dunno. Sounds like she cheated with him, or he witnessed her cheating (and was very smug about it). Maybe they “just” made out. Maybe it’s “just” an emotional affair. Maybe she didn’t do anything that can be considered cheating at all. But the husband clearly does not approve of this, he clearly is torn up with worry and anxiety about what she’s doing hanging out with these guys past 2am, and I think that’s just downright awful. How can you put someone you love through that kind of torture? She does nothing to try and assuage his fears. To the core, that’s just DISRESPECTFUL!
Oh, one more thing that makes this a reality show worth watching – there are NO ELIMINATIONS!!! That stuff is always so fake and breeds more fakeness, since it means they have to remove people that shouldn’t be removed. Like in the Biggest Loser, if they’re there to help people lose weight, then they shouldn’t be kicking them out every week. Let them all train for all 8 weeks (or however long it is), man. If you want to have a winner then just pick the one who did the most by the end of the season instead of every week. These people gave up a lot to try and change their health, their future, their life, and they get kicked out due to stupid producer-induced meddling.
Four episodes are out so far and I’m eagerly awaiting the next :P In secret.
Jelliefishie 