It's about that time of the year when once again my Twitter feed is full of enthusiasm for "The Bachelorette." People I have been friends with for years and acquaintances alike will reserve time in their schedules to watch a group of bad actors who all look the same try to vie for the "love" of the bachelorette.
Last year, I decided to give The Bachelor franchise a chance in more of a social effort than anything else. I was astounded and disturbed by what seemed to me to be the end of romance as we know it.
While every contestant is young and conventionally attractive, they will talk about how this is their only opportunity to find love, as if it is practical to think you will find the love of your life on a reality TV show.
The eager contestants will enter the show already singing the bachelorette's praises, and even though she is someone they do not even know, and they will talk about how they will be perfect for each other -- making everyone, including the bachelorette herself, uncomfortable.
Then enter a disaster of cheesy and insincere romantic advances that these men employ in order to earn the praises of the bachelorette, the manufactured rivalries and extreme immaturity of the contestants. It is hard to believe that the people on this show are grown adults and not high schoolers, or worse, children fighting over a shiny toy.
It is very clear from the beginning of the show that no one is actually there to fall in love, they are there to get famous. The Bachelor's Corinne Olympios is one example of someone who was there to get her name on the map, not to fall violently in love, hence her ridiculous outbursts.
There is nothing real about the bachelor franchise.
The dates are not organic (many of them are "group dates" which end up being a testosterone-fest more than anything else). Even the more intimate dates with one-on-one time are jam-packed with activities instead of meaningful conversation which begs the question of whether these people are even capable of that.
The Bachelor franchise tells a false narrative that love is the product of competition, that it is a mating game in which a lucky man or woman must choose between the most viable options.
Love should be a two-way street, and it is impossible to successfully pursue a monogamous relationship when your relationship's inception was built on one-sidedness and indecision.
There is a reason why most of the Bachelor and Bachelorette relationships do not last longer than a year. Once the cameras are turned off and the couples have no one to act for, they are forced to be a normal couple, a feat more difficult than getting through the relentless cat-fight the franchise forces contestants through.
