Say Yes to the Dress on TLC

There's a show on The Learning Channel (TLC) that's into it's fourth season called Say Yes to the Dress. It takes place at a huge bridal shop in Manhattan that employs 250 salespeople, has 35000 square feet of space (I may have lost a zero in there, but think; this is *Manhattan*!) and tons of dresses.

The one episode that sticks with me like a cold virus is the one where a woman-child in her early twenties comes into the store. She's designed a dress that their seamstresses have made for her. What does it look like? She wants her dress to be transparent, with no seams showing on the bodice. The dress is pure ballroom, and all she wants is lace. Just lace, no other material to help hold it together. She tries the dress on and her father, who is on his cell phone, takes a look. His twenty-something daughter looks like a fancy prostitute in the dress she designed. He looks over, nods, says "Whatever you want, love" (in so many words) and goes back to his conversation. The cost of this dress?  $24,000. The bride doesn't want it because it doesn't conform to her vision of near-nekkid lace. The sales people try to convince her to take another dress (that is WAY more tasteful) that is still expensive, but can be altered to suit her vision. They've already explained why her vision of a totally form-fitting lace dress can't happen the way she wants--it needs seams for the construction. And Daddy is happy to pay for it all. He's rich, he's on his cell, and all he wants is for his little girl to be happy leave him alone to conduct business on the phone.

I keep going back to this sequence on the show. Was it the fact the bride looked like a ho in her chosen design? Well, okay, that was surprising enough, but honestly, she's spoiled and has probably never been told No when it comes to the THINGS she wants. Daddy is happy to give it to her. As long as he can conduct business.

And so I guess that's why my mind keeps going back. Her father didn't care enough to tell his daughter she'd look like a bridal fetish doll going into myriad bachelor parties the night before by wearing the dress she'd designed. No. She ended up rejecting it--on the surface, because it didn't fit with her perfect "vision" of a bride's dress. Thinking back on it (with no evidence to support my theory, mind you), it's as if she'd designed that outrageous, in appropriate dress to get Daddy's attention. It barely registered on him.

She ended up buying an expensive designer rack-dress modified just for her. Thankfully the bridal store employees kept it much classier, much more beautiful than her original designed dress. It was still a hard sell. That rich girl is going to have a hard row to hoe to get any of dad'sgenuine attention. I *might* feel sorry for her, but with all with all that money she has access to, it's hard to feel too sympathetic. She's never going to get her father to really *care* about her, though. Oh, I'm sure he loves her in the way a father is supposed to love his daughter. But he'll never care enough to set his own limits or give her a steady portion of his attention.

(no subject)

Must. See. Clash. Of the. Titans.