Susanne Eman Bride

Susanne Eman Bride, “Inside Edition” recently reported on bride-to-be Susanne Eman and the custom wedding dress that is being created for her Big Day. The outlet chose to highlight Eman because, at 800 pounds, she is not just getting married this summer, she’s also on a quest to become the world’s biggest woman.

What troubles me about this story is not Eman’s chosen quest, though that is concerning as far her health and longevity is concerned. What worries me is how “Inside Edition,” and other outlets that have since picked up the story, are talking about her.

As “Inside Edition” quipped: “Susanne Eman isn’t the blushing bride — she’s the bulging bride.”

The coverage of Eman’s wedding preparations — and the creation of what’s being called “the world’s biggest wedding gown” for her upcoming nuptials — reminds us that women who are antithetical to society’s typical picture of a “bride” are treated like freaks who deserve to be gawked at.

If Eman was going scuba-diving and needed the “world’s biggest wetsuit” or was getting her Master’s degree and needed the “world’s biggest graduation gown,” I doubt that her story would receive this kind of attention — if any.

Certainly, if Eman were a man, her upcoming wedding would be treated far differently. When Manual Uribe, who was the world’s heaviest man in 2006, got married in 2008, BBC News reported that Uribe wore, “a white silk shirt and a sheet wrapped around his legs,” and that the groom did not dine on cake, as he had been attempting to lose weight. The article about his nuptials was straight-forward, without judgment.

Eman, however, was described as if she were not a person but a circus sideshow. “Inside Edition” recounts her “squeezing” into the car with her sister to pick out her wedding dress — a garment that would require, lest we forget her size, “yards, and yards, and yards of fabric.” In fact, before the article divulged details about Eman’s body, readers are ominously warned: “Brace yourself for her waist size.” When discussing her diet, the article references “mountains of food soaked in butter.” You know, in case we didn’t already understand how disgusting we should think Eman is.