First off I want to make it clear I am not judging you if you happen to watch the Bachelor or the Bachelorette. I have several friends and family who watch the show. I also understand we all have our guilty pleasures. The show draws in its viewers with the everlasting drama and the unrealistic fairytale-like romance. I will admit I gave the show one chance before I finalized my opinions. I recorded an entire season but I only managed to get through two episodes before deleting it from my DVR because I couldn’t do it anymore.
Even though I only have a basic understanding of the show, I still believe the entire premise is warped. I cannot wrap my mind around the idea of one single person finding their one true love among 20 plus people. There are literally over seven billion people on this planet and the participants on this show are limiting themselves to maybe 25 potential forever partners. The competition aspect of the show is inevitable because all the contestants are vying for the love of the same person. You should never have to compete for love. Competition comes natural to humans and is ingrained in our society, but not with regards to love. When you do fall in love it should bring you joy, not jealousy.
The show has been known to lack diversity and is largely composed of white people. But I will give the show credit for having their first black bachelorette this season. Another negative component the show features is how the men and the women on the show lack diversity with their body types. Yes, the women are beautiful and the men are handsome, but not all women fit in a size two and not all men have chiseled bodies. The fact that almost all the men in the show are tall, muscular, tan, and handsome paints the idea in our minds that this is the ideal man. When in reality, this is so not true. Same goes for the women. The majority of the women have perfect smiles, slim figures, and their hair and makeup is always on point. This again paints the picture of the ideal woman, which is totally not the case. Yes, we all like to feel beautiful and handsome, but these shows only present the contestants at their very best. Your significant other should love you whether you are all dolled up in a ball gown or wearing your retainers on a Sunday night. There is no such thing as perfect, yet this show seems to revolve around seemingly “perfect” men and women.
The show is filmed for a short period of time, about seven to ten weeks. Some people fall in love overnight, others fall in love over a span of a few years. This is under the illusion you are dating just one person. Both the Bachelor and the Bachelorette participants are dating well over 20 people in only a few months. It is promising for a single couple to find love in the time span of under three months, but when you are dating 24 contestants trying to win you over, finding true love is hard to believe. How can you devote your time to getting to know more about this person you seem to be falling for while you are dating 24 others at the same time? These contestants really falling in love is unlikely. Love is meant to be a mutual feeling, but this show makes it seem normal for men and women to wear their heart on their sleeve only to have it criticized by the bachelor/bachelorette.
I understand the show is about finding your true love, so the dates are bound to be clichéd and highly romanticized. But the show takes it to a level that is extremely unrealistic. Taking ridiculously expensive trips to exotic destinations around the world is not only impractical, but completely fake. The show is all about fantasy and not reality. Going on helicopter rides, picking out expensive jewelry and clothes, and taking surprise trips to a tropical paradise all sound wonderful, but this is not real life. Dating would be immensely easier when all the expenses are not only paid for, but the adventures and planning is all completed for you. If you cannot buy happiness, then you certainly cannot buy love.
Shocking, the statistics of the show are highly unsuccessful. For a show that is focused around the idea of finding your forever true love, the success rate is horrible. The entertainment aspect of the show is basically what keeps it alive and why it has lasted for so long. The Bachelor and the Bachelorette has also become a socially accepted form of cheating. If one man and one woman dating dozens of individuals at the same time isn’t weird enough, the absurd idea of group dates incorporated in the show is even worse.
The Bachelor and the Bachelorette are composed solely of fantasy and not reality. Traveling to beautiful locations across the world, not spending a penny in your wallet, all while believing you can be fought over by dozens of beautiful men and women is ridiculously fake. To reiterate, I am not judging you if you happen to watch the Bachelor and/or the Bachelorette. I just believe there are more logical ways to finding your Mr. or Mrs. Right.
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