It is, yet again, that time of the year. No, not Christmas…no, not Halloween…and no, most definitely not Thanksgiving. It’s Bachelor season! I know it’s hard to believe, but with the constant carousel of Bachelor Nation shows, it never seems to end. Right when you find yourself thinking about who the new, upcoming, and good-looking bachelor will be, ads for the drama-filled 27th season start showing up. The Bachelor has been on longer than most people in college have been alive. However, despite its longevity, the show has seen minimal changes or alterations to the competition for love. Coming into the fifth week of the 27th season, and my third time watching the show all the way through, I finally feel that I have enough experience to comment on the aspects of the show that drive me insane. Here are five reasons why this popular dating and relationship show is overrated.
- Repetitive
-
It’s the same thing every season. 30 women enter the same magnificent house in California and fight for the chance to win over a dashingly handsome young man. There are group dates, “one-on-ones,” and international trips. And it all ends with the honeymoon suites, where the bachelor and the three remaining ladies get to spend a night alone together. Since I started watching the show it’s been advertised as “the most drama-filled season yet.” However, whenever there is drama it’s never anything new. Either some girl said something mean to another, or some form of sabotage took place, or there’s that one pot stirrer the producers love to keep around even though there’s no chemistry between her and the bachelor. There’s never an unpredictable plot twist. You can see almost everything that’s coming from a mile away.
- Sexist
-
This one’s a given. There’s a reason why The Bachelor is on its 27th season and The Bachelorette is only on season 19. For the longest time, the show solely focused on a group of women fighting for the chance to win over a singular man. The show pits women against one another, creating a damaging and toxic environment for the contestants to live in.
- Non-INclusive
-
This one is ALSO a given. Every time I watch a new episode I can never keep track of who is who. Every woman is typically young, white, and blond. There is little representation of other races, body types, or socioeconomic statuses. With each season that passes by comes more and more disappointment. On top of this, almost every contestant ranges from the ages of 22 to 30, which pushes an agenda of having to get married young. The contestants rarely vary in age, ethnicity, or class making it difficult for most viewers to relate to these “love stories.” In fact, it wasn’t until season 25 that the show had its first Black bachelor.
- Unrealistic
-
The show takes place in a closed-off set. The women are isolated from the outside opinions and facts making it hard for the right decisions to be made, and are often clouded by the idea of finding love and doing it while on a nationally televised show. The Bachelor creates a false sense of reality where these women get to spend brief periods of time with the man they want to marry. Usually, marriage is preceded by years of dating, meeting family, moving in together, AND THEN getting married. This is why almost every Bachelor relationship fails when it enters into the real world.
- Body Negative
-
This issue has been a big drawback to the show for years. Every woman on the show has a physique that is unrepresentative of most women. They are usually skinny with Hollywood-like features. Very few contestants in the past have classified themselves as “plus-sized” and despite attempts at including more average body types, the contestants never make it past the first couple of rounds. There have been no real attempts to broaden body inclusivity, with the show continuing to promote an unrealistic body type to hundreds of thousands of viewers, many of which are young and easily influenced girls.
Don’t get me wrong, The Bachelor is an entertaining show, and I always find myself coming back to watch it every time there’s a new season. However, it is severely lacking in a number of different ways that shows today shouldn’t be. In my opinion, The Bachelor is only good for some laughs and background noise when you want to get work done without silence.
Can’t get enough of HC UMass Amherst? Be sure to follow us on Instagram, listen to us on Spotify, like us on Facebook, and read our latest Tweets!