Bootcamp,Brides,and BMI

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which conceptions of hegemonic femininity are exploited and reinforced on Canadian weight-loss makeover programs The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp (2007–) and Bulging Brides (2008–). These shows feature predominantly female participants whose prescribed diet and exercise regimes promote physical ideals that are bound up with notions of discipline, desirability, and belonging, while claiming the vicarious authority of contemporary health discourses on obesity. This article argues that despite Canada’s reputation as a “socially healthy” nation, the gendered depiction of body weight and size on The Last 10 Pounds Bootcamp and Bulging Brides provides a contradictory picture of the treatment of women’s bodies in Canadian society. The article then considers the implications of possible alternative readings of these transformation narratives, which suggest that multiculturalism may be a lens through which more traditional views of gendered national identity can be subverted.