"The Bachelorette" is one of those shows that people either love or hate. I'll admit that it's one of my guilty pleasures, and I think this goes for a lot of people out there (Heck, even my 17-year-old brother will occasionally watch it with me). It's 2 hours full of drama and suspense, and all in all, it's just something fun to watch.
And as Becca's season comes to a close, I am reminded once again of just how much of a cultural phenomenon this show is. It can have thousands of people talking and it's something that many people can watch for laughs or for entertainment.
I'll say it again: I love watching "The Bachelorette" and its counterpart "The Bachelor"; however, I am very aware of how everything the show encompasses and what it stands for is absolutely insane, and for lack of a better word, just plain dumb.
The premise of the show is to find a husband or wife--true love if you will--by dating multiple people at the same time. The show starts with upwards of 30 contestants and it eventually comes down to the final two. An engagement typically ensues during the final episode and the happy couple is expected to get married.
But do they ever?
Shockingly (or maybe not so), only one couple from "The Bachelor" are still together and only six from "The Bachelorette" since the show aired back in 2002. And must we be reminded about the terrible news following the most recent airing of "The Bachelor" with Arie proposing to Becca, only to realize a few weeks later that he made the wrong choice and wished to be with Lauren instead?
The show claims that it can and will help contestants find true love, but for obvious reasons, this fails in multiple departments. For starters, to film an entire season it takes producers less than two months. This means that the contestants have an insanely short amount of time to "fall in love", so it's really no wonder why none of the relationships end up lasting.
You hardly know the person you're engaged to, and in two months of dating, you're definitely still in "The Honeymoon Phase" and you haven't had time to really process if this is the right person for you.
I understand that time, in some cases, can mean nothing when it comes to love. You can feel more for a person that you've known only for a few weeks than for someone who you've known for years, but then I urge everyone to look a few paragraphs above and be reminded of just how many of these relationships end up panning out in marriage.
A lot of times, time means everything. And in the case of "The Bachelorette/Bachelor" contestants, they need more time.
It's also unrealistic to find love when, you know, your boyfriend/girlfriend is kind of dating 20 other people. Like, seriously? It is so easy for emotions to be manipulated and toyed that way. How many times have we seen a contestant on either show feel as though they were blindsided when they were sent home? Many contestants feel as though they were establishing a great connection with their counterpart, only to find out that there were stronger connections made in the mansion and they were an outlier.
Dating in the real world doesn't work like that. I'm no dating expert, but it all just seems messed up. Dating should not be about constantly having to feel like you're not a priority and that you have to keep looking over your shoulder to beat out other competitors.
And that's just it. This show treats dating like a competition. And it shouldn't be that way.
"The Bachelorette" is a fun show--it's entertainment and sometimes I would prefer if it was strictly just a work of fiction and not a reality show. It wouldn't seem nearly as terrible if the contestants were just characters and not real people with very real feelings.
