Can Bachelor nation let go of stereotypes?
AFTER 33 seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, viewers will finally see a bit more diversity.
Yes, as viewers know, Rachel Lindsay, a 32-year-old attorney from Dallas, is the first African-American lead. But what many might not realise is that she’s also the oldest Bachelorette the series has ever cast.
Of the 13 seasons of the show, the median age of the Bachelorette has been 27 years old. This tracks closely with the median age of first marriages in the US, which is 27.4 for women and 29.5 for men.
Usually the franchise gives Bachelors pools of younger women, while the Bachelorettes typically choose from men who are older than them.
For example, last season’s Bachelor, 36-year-old Nick Viall, had a pool of mostly 20-something women and ended up with 29-year-old Vanessa Grimaldi.
So in another break from tradition this season, Lindsay’s men are on the whole younger than she is.
The median age of the 31 men vying for Lindsay’s heart this season is 30 years old. That’s a mere two years, not an Emmanuel Macron-size gap, but small changes can have larger effects on a show that’s so formulaic and entrenched in its old-fashioned rules of engagement. Just as it’s refreshing to see that race barrier (finally) start to break down – giving the cast the potential to join the 17% of US newlyweds who have a spouse of a different race or ethnicity – it’s also refreshing to see ABC decided that 32 isn’t too late for a woman to find love. And that she’s not limited to men who are older than she is.
But don’t expect Bachelor nation to suddenly be enlightened and present a season free of racially insensitive or ageist comments. Remember during the finale for Viall’s season when Lindsay got to meet a few of her future suitors and one of them, Dean, who’s white, introduced himself by saying: “I’m ready to go black and I’m never gonna go back”? Yikes. Awkward.
Lindsay reacted gracefully on live television, but some on Twitter viewed the comment as fetishising the first African-American Bachelorette.
And that was before the season even started. As others have pointed out, Chris Harrison’s Facebook Live introduction of the contestants this season wasn’t without innuendo.
He introduced DeMario by saying the 30-year-old African-American contestant might be “too smooth”.
On Ravishly last week, Jagger Blaec wrote that she “will be watching and hoping that this season of The Bachelorette isn’t going to be the micro-aggressive, messy train wreck we all know it has the potential to be”.
The season has the potential to cast Lindsay, whom Harrison described last week as “a little bit older… and obviously very accomplished”, as an old maid, and her contestants as similarly over the hill.
For example, in Harrison’s introduction of the contestants last week, he referred to Bryan, a 37-year-old chiropractor, as “ancient in Bachelor-speak”. While introducing a few more 30-something men, Harrison said, “I like this! Everybody’s getting closer and closer to me.” (Harrison is a 45-year-old divorced father of two.)
But when this long-running franchise rarely casts women over 30, it is reinforcing the idea that single 30-somethings will remain that way.
Here’s hoping this season won’t treat its 32-year-old star and her handful of “ancient” contestants, as if they’ve aged out of the chance to find love. – Washington Post