As an avid fan of The Bachelor, I'd be the first to tell you how much I love the show, but Monday night's Bachelorette announcement may have converted me to a non-believer.
My friends and I gathered around the TV waiting to hear the announcement for the next bachelorette, bantering back and forth about who Chris Harrison (and ultimately ABC) would choose for the next season of the show.
We shook our legs in anticipation while we stared at the screen, and Chris Harrison finally geared up for the announcement. With giant smile on his face, he finally made his big announcement: "For the first time in Bachelorette history, we're going to have two bachelorettes." You're probably thinking that any normal Bachelorette fan would be stoked about this. Wrong. I was so aggravated. In fact, I was almost offended.
In case you're not a fan of the TV series, I'll give you a quick breakdown: The Bachelor consists of 25 women competing for one man, and The Bachelorette consists of 25 men competing for one women. Yes, the whole concept of the series is already a little messed up, but when you throw in this recent curveball, everything becomes even more skewed.
After making the announcement, Chris Harrison then elaborated on the process, explaining how it would work. "The 25 men, on night one, are going to have the ultimate say about who they think will make the best wife." Last time I checked, The Bachelorette is meant to leave the decision and the power in the hands of the woman. When did ABC decide that it was fair to take this power away from them and hand it over to the male candidates? Not cool. I wasn't the only one who was aggravated. Not only did ABC receive backlash from their viewers and number one fans, but they also received backlash from news channels around the world.
If you ask me, this is terrible timing. We're living in a society where the media is clearly experiencing backlash for promoting what is considered to be unhealthy ideals for woman. In a world where we, as women, are all already comparing ourselves to one another, the last thing we need is an emphasis on this unfair comparison, and that's exactly what this Bachelorette announcement did.
Women all around the world are feeling the pressure to be perfect, and when a popular television show takes two beautiful women and makes 25 men decide who would "make a better wife" (after one day of meeting), that doesn't exactly send a positive message.
So what can we do about it? Well, for one, I'm thinking about boycotting The Bachelorette and skipping out on watching it next season. As women in today's society, it's important that we don't compare ourselves to one another, but rather we support each other and lift each other up.
When you find that you're comparing yourself to someone, take a second to realize how different we all are. Clearly ABC didn't take this universal love into consideration when they decided to put two women up against each other in a competition for something that they've decided to call "love."
What's your opinion on the decision to have two bachelorettes next season?