I’m at the gym and I forgot my headphones. So I’m pumping my legs on the bike and have the TV in front of me set to Closed Captioning for The Bachelor. I’ll admit I’ve never watched a full season. I’ve only caught bits and pieces, usually when I’m at the gym and there isn’t a good game on to keep me entertained. But watching the TV and reading the captions, has made me hate this show. It feels like I’m watching one giant step backward for women and the feminist movement.
How so? Well, let’s take a few female stereotypes that we tend to be pigeon holed into and take a look at the Bachelor and Feminism…
Girls aren’t smart. In the first thirty minutes of the show, no less than three women literally said they aren’t smart and that they don’t understand science. They laughed about it, rolled their eyes and patted their hair in the process, as if to prove smarts was bad, looks were better. And don’t even get me started on the number of times the word ‘like’ is thrown around. Barely a sentence is spoken without like thrown in at least once, sometimes more.
Girls are petty; we tear each other down instead of build one another up. The entire show is one big cat fight. This girl talks smack about that one, another roles her eyes. One throws around hateful words and derogatory names. One talks to the bachelor to warn him away or complain there isn’t equity in his treatment. It’s pathetic and it hurts to think this is what we women are watching and loving and begging for more of.
Girls are vain. The bachelor is dressed in a plain-colored hoodie sweatshirt. The girls are decked out like its New Years Eve. Each looks stunning but the disparity between what he got to wear and what they were trussed into was more than noticeable. The number of times they touch their hair, adjust their outfits is outrageous.
I’m sure these women are smart, some may even be highly intelligent. I’m not naive to the fact that the show producers edits the conversations and scenes to make it look like this. But maybe that’s the point. They edit for what we want to see, what we tune in for week after week. They edit for what sells. And apparently dumbing down a group of women, making them appear to be only vain and petty is what sells. Is what keeps us tuning in week after week. But why are we running in to watch women tear each other a part? Why do we tune in to what appears to be a bunch of vain, brainless, catty women out to win the ultimate prize. A prize, I have to point out, the girl rarely ever actually keeps her hands on much past the end of the season. By tuning in week after week, by talking about it with our girl friends and on work coffee breaks, we are helping to keep this image of women that we want to break. We talk a big feminism talk and fail when it comes to the action component of behaving in a way that makes us different but equal to men.
So as I wrap up the 30 minutes I spent on the bike, simultaneously writing this post and watching the show, I’ve made the resolution not to be part of this. I’ll opt for college football or sports commentary over a show that takes my sex and literally turns it into something to degrade and sell.
I love this post so much. Girls competing for the attention of a man they barely know. Shouldn’t we have enough confidence that we think we are the prize?
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I used to watch the Bachelor because it was mindless entertainment. But it’s just the same stuff every season, and not good stuff either like you mentioned. And for what it’s worth, the Bachelorette is almost as bad - portraying all guys as these macho idiots fighting over a girl. Ridiculous.
This is so interesting. I do watch the Bachelor but I hadn’t thought of this at all.
Wow, that show is still on TV? I wholeheartedly agree that watching women tear each other down while being portrayed as dramatic idiots sets both genders back several decades. I shudder to think of what future generations will say when looking back on these types of shows (hopefully, “How obsolete!”).
Agreed! I hope it’s obsolete in a few years. It’s pretty sad the way both men and women are portrayed on the show.
I’ve never seen this show, I don’t even need to watch it to know it’s sexist and really bad for feminists.
It’s an interesting time we’re living in for sure and it’s crazy how what we see on TV, on our phones, in magazines, etc. impacts us as a society and not necessarily for the better. Sometimes I feel like it’s all negative noise, so I try to do my part to bring a little positivity to those around me. Some days I’m better at it than others, but I always try.
Oh my gosh. Well done! I love it….though male professional sports, are you kidding? Have you seen the commercials that do a pretty bang up job of degrading women! Ha ha. I get it though. Well stated. It is funny that WOMEN are the biggest fans of that show!
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LOL. The commercials of professional sports are pretty degrading too, but at least the show itself isn’t. Plus watching all these people run around, makes me run faster or further on the treadmill.
I definitely agree with your negative analysis of the Bachelor, however I think the same can be said about a lot of reality tv. Going into the show you have to recognize these women aren’t role models. First and foremost they’re willing to give up their careers for like three months to compete against other women for one man (and fifteen minutes of fame), they’re hardly what ambitious women aspire to. I can watch the show to roll my eyes and laugh at these women (and men) and I don’t think it is bad for feminism because I don’t look for reality tv shows to serve a social justice cause.
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Interesting take, Jordyn! Agreed, I’m sure most don’t look to those women as role models. But I do think it sends a message to a lot of young women that this is how they have to act and be in order to get a handsome guy. - Katy
I love this perspective, Jordyn. I watched the premiere the other night feeling like a dinosaur- the contestants, and The Bachelor seem so young. Looks like their maturity is in line with their age, and I totally agree that the producers edit the show to what the audience wants to see: cattiness, making out, and cleavage. It’s ridiculous, but not surprising, considering the popularity of the Kardashian sisters. Oy vey!
I was actually surprised that some of them were 30, because i just assumed they would all be in their early 20’s. But they do seem like a younger crowd with the way they are portrayed.
Vehemently agree! I have to wonder who likes this kind of entertainment?