Since the very beginning, I have loved MTV’s reality show, "Are You The One?" I fell in love with the idea that they had formed on how to help people find love. After extensive testing, interviews, personal connections, and personality analyzation, the producers narrow down everyone that applied and find if anyone has a “perfect match”. In the end, they put 10 men and 10 women in a house and give them ten weeks to find their perfect matches and win a million dollars. However, there is always a catch and if they don’t win and get ten perfect matches by the end of the ten weeks, they don’t win anything. It is full of drama and even after four seasons, it still manages to consume my attention and work me up.
I recently managed to get my girlfriend invested in the show and now we analyze the episodes intensely and actively yell at the screen when someone confirms a “perfect match”. Although, as much as I love the entertainment that comes along with a television show that is filled with goofiness influenced by alcohol and hectic love triangles, I have realized that I have a more negative outlook on the show.
During one of our “analyzation sessions”, I came to realize that I would never be represented in this show. As a young transgender male, I am no stranger to knowing that it is hard to come by a trans character in a television show, much less, a romantic reality program. Are You The One? is strictly a show filled with individuals who are heterosexual and cisgender, meaning they are “straight” and their gender matches with their birth sex. This limits the representation of everyone else in the world, which could include anyone in the LGBTQ community. Even though trans individuals can identify as being straight, me included, they would never put a transgender individual on the show.
Physical appearance is another factor. Although I can understand that the producers probably feel like they need to have contestants who are the most “physically appealing”, they aren’t very diverse. They do a wonderful job at including people of different races, from different states, and even from different countries. However, body type is one thing they don’t branch out with. Besides probably two girls, out of four seasons, that could be labeled on the verge of being “curvy”, all the contestant are stereotypically attractive. The women are small, thin, and have all the right…”ass-ets”; the men, all tall, buff, and rugid. If they are a show that is promoting “perfect matches” based off of psychological testing and personality compatibility, why can’t they included a few people that aren’t stuck in society’s view of “hot”? Not everyone in the world is ripped and 110 pounds. I feel like this gives a biased image to viewers because a majority of the world don’t see someone that represents their body type on the tv screen when watching this show.
Lastly, the show allows quite a bit of “slut shaming”. The show emphasizes on the idea that you need to get to know someone before you think you are invested in a relationship. However, they ignore the fact that a sexual influence is important in a relationship. They have the “boom boom room”, dedicated for contestants to venture into when they want some “alone time”. However, anyone that goes in there is automatically introduced to the stigma that comes with fooling around and hooking up with people. We live in a society that views sex and physical intimacy as something that needs to be hidden and condemned, but you put 20 young adults in a house and tell them to find the person that is perfect for them and expect them to do that without exploring the people in the house physically? Sexual chemistry is incredibly important in a relationship and it shouldn’t be condemned, but the show does a great job at making sex seem like a scandalous act that should be locked behind a closed door and kept a secret.
As much as I wish there could be changes to this show, I am absolutely obsessed with it.
The games they play to win dates are ridiculous and entertaining, the fight for the spot for “alpha” keeps everyone on their toes, and I melt when I get to watch a “perfect match” look into each other's’ eyes and fall in love. I adore betting on who is actually suppose to sit together and laughing with my girlfriend as we mock the jerks who break things. However, if MTV decided to be a little more diverse, it wouldn’t hurt at all. They’d have my vote.
