Saturday 11 April 2015

The Bachelorette Premieres May 18, 2015: Will it be Kaitlyn or Britt?

Hello Bachelor Nation. The promos are starting for the Bachelorette starring Kaitlyn and/or Britt! Anyone else find these dresses to be completely unflattering? They both have great style, which leads me to believe they were forced to wear Baby Blue Cake Frosting and Mama's Got Carpal Tunnel from Bedazzling.



Those smiles don't seem real either! Call me a cynic, but the "winner" of the Bachelorette title is probably pre-determined. The producers just have to ask potential contestants who they prefer, and they can stack the deck any way they please. Either way, the cocktail party should be interesting to watch.

Still being debated: Is having two Bachelorettes misogynistic or not? It's a tough one. The show pulled a similar move many seasons ago with The Bachelor, so it's not like they didn't do this with men. For some reason, this move feels more distasteful for the Bachelorette. Perhaps this is because, in our current society, women are more prone to being compared based on their outward appearance, and this situation reinforces this practice. There are no pageants for men (at least not any popular ones, like Miss America), and pitting Britt and Kaitlyn against each other, even in the above picture, is reminiscent of pageantry at its worst. Full disclosure: I think pageants are totally degrading to women and in 50 to 100 years, they will hopefully disappear completely. Chris Harrison is a host for Miss America - not too surprising that the Bachelor would espouse similar values.

Former Bachelor Sean Lowe thinks the idea sucks, and you can read about his reasoning here. He makes the point that it's degrading to transfer the power to men, since The Bachelorette is supposed to be a show where the woman holds the power. He also rightly points out that it will be difficult to choose contestants that would be compatible for these two very different women. He calls the whole thing a ratings ploy.

Sharleen Joynt (the opera singer from Juan Pablo's season) is disgusted that they are allowing the men to decide, at a cocktail party, who would make "the best wife" (in Chris Harrison's words). See her insightful commentary here.

The Bachelor is not a feminist show. This past season, we saw women racing tractors in bikinis, tent building in bikinis, and racing through mud in wedding dresses. No one uses the word "woman" on this show, but they are all "girls." I'm still fascinated by the relationship dynamics, contestant motivations, and this ridiculous dating method. Hence, this blog. But I know and accept that Gloria Steinem would not be impressed.

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