“I think ‘The Bachelor’ pretty much proves it’s not the gays who are making a mockery of marriage.”
AIN’T. IT. THE. TRUTH.
The reality “game show” TV series “The Bachelor” is infamous for the sheer ridiculousness of its concept, that one can find love on a TV series. To explain in more detail, that one very handsome man needs the help of a show to even find that love. Or that over a dozen women can all feel a connection to this, albeit quite handsome and successful, man. And said very handsome man can even find “true love” out of such a homogenous group of women (“Bachelor” drinking game number one: take a shot every time one of the bachelorettes is revealed to be white; take another if she has that horrid dialect that forces her to pronounce “man” as “mee-yan”).
That’s because, most likely, none of this does happen, given the fact that this show has come under fire for its “alleged” authenticity (what a crock, right?). But, of course, the show will never for a second allow viewers to believe that, with promos having boasted this season as the most controversial season of “The Bachelor” yet.
And, assuming you can suspend your disbelief regarding the authenticity of everything on this show, it was.
This season (the 17th in the show’s history) follows former “Bachelorette” contestant and entrepreneur Sean Lowe on his journey to find love and, inevitably, the show says, marriage. So of course the best way to get that picture-perfect life is through a reality show where one of 20 something women is BOUND to be your soulmate. C’mon, let’s be real – these women aren’t all falling for this one guy. They just want a trip to Thailand (“Bachelor” drinking game number two: take a shot every time a woman says she is “falling for Sean”).
It’s now a tradition for the show to throw in a few crazies as contestants (at least that’s how the editing characterizes them), and, boy, were there some crazies. Tierra (affectionately called “Tierrable” by fans of the show) was one of the biggest nuts of the bunch. Catfights aplenty revolved around her and her attention-grabbing antics. Annoying as she was, there was another kook in that of AshLee, who I found to be just as obnoxious with her passive-aggressive behavior depicted onscreen. How ironic that she and Tierrable hated each other’s guts.
The season finale aired March 11. In the end, Sean proposed to quirky Catherine, a pairing that, had I any feeling that this show was not completely scripted, I would actually be rooting for, as she seemed to play against the generic contestant type. Time will tell whether they actually end up getting hitched, seeing as how only one couple has actually stayed married after “The Bachelor.”
Getting back to the quote at the beginning, how humorous is it that people talk about gay marriage compromising the “sanctity of marriage?” Getting into gay rights aside, when you have a reality show whose premise is so ridiculously idealistic and exploitative – THAT is a true mockery of marriage. Reality shows in general are more often than not a mockery of life in general.
“Shows like that are dumbing down America,” Principal Jay Pickering so accurately stated. “I can grow a beard and go around shooting things and get my own reality TV show.”
