Ah, ABC’s “The Bachelor.”
It is the talk of the female population at SMU as Dallas native Jake has narrowed his selection down to the final two women. In fact, both “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” have always drawn a lot of attention since their premiers in 2002 and 2003, respectively.
The two shows draw a steady average of 10 million views per episode, making them two of the most watched shows in prime time.
Currently on the 14th “Bachelor season,” with five seasons of “The Bachelorette” completed, the shows have an astounding track record of one marriage. Despite their incapability to produce true love, the shows live on and continue to strangely captivate their hopeful viewers. But the one thing even more disturbing than their pathetic attempts at matchmaking is the shows’ shocking social agenda filled with racism, gender norm stagnation, and corrupted portrayals of relationships.
With a combined total of 19 seasons under their belts, neither “The Bachelor” nor “The Bachelorette” have featured a minority lead star. Nor have there ever been socially proportionate amounts of minorities featured as “contestants.” Not only does it appear that ABC does not promote interracial dating, it definitely seems to have a severe racial bias in casting.
Further, “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” seem to perpetuate gender stereotypes in the workplace. For example, the men chosen always hold high-profile, high-earning occupations such as entrepreneurs, doctors, vice presidents/managers, athletes, global financers, etc. The women have equally stereotypical jobs: models, dance teachers, fitness this-or-thats, make-up artists, interior designers, etc.
Perhaps Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, refuses to recognize or cast other equally successful women.
However, most shocking of all are the mixed signals presented to society both through the premise of the shows and the fascination of their viewers. Both series clearly support and eagerly endorse the juggling of multiple relationships simultaneously. I find this very odd.
Why are 10 million viewers (mostly women) so engrossed by this perverted reality? When has it ever been okay for a man to choose his wife by dating 25 attractive women concurrently? The simple act of watching the show must demand some form of acceptance of this type of behavior, which has extremely frightening social implications.
Obviously, our culture’s obsession with these shows sends mixed signals to the dating norms of society. Cheaters and “players” are scorned by society in every facet of social life except when it comes to our television, where they are praised. The cultural acceptance of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” definitely threatens our society’s respect and reverence towards monogamy. Clearly the situations are extremely different, but why is there so much controversy surrounding Tiger Woods when Jake has been dating even more women? It just seems contradictory.
Regardless, I am a female between 18 and 34, and therefore I am willing to subscribe to the uncomforting realities of the show–but with a sense of awareness.
Logan Masters is a junior sociology major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].
