I missed the entire season, and now I'm glad I did. I have never watched the ABC series "The Bachelor" in the past, perhaps just as a filler for a few minutes here and there while I was waiting for other programming. It may have been an odd choice to watch the last episode without everything that led up to it, but in reality tv, is that ever really necessary?
Last night when I went over to Stephanie's for our usual girls-tv-night Mondays, there was nothing new on our usual choice of the CW, so we decided to strap in for the 2-hour season finale of "The Bachelor". It was probably the biggest waste of time I've had in a long time, but it did provide some food for thought.
First of all, this guy is a pansy. I mean, seriously, he cried like every five minutes throughout the episode. At first, it was a little bit endearing. But then it got to a point that I'm sure many women called out, just as my friend Maria did, for Jason to "grow a pair."
Also, his little flip-flop thing was definitely not cool. We're talking within 6 weeks of the filming of the finale Jason fell "out-of-love" with Melissa, the woman he proposed to. (She was the right choice by the way. Adorable and she adored him and actually wanted a family life.) The whole dumping her on national tv and then asking out the other woman right there is a douche-bag move in my book. But the whole situation of this is what really got me thinking.
What is it that our culture values in relationships anymore? The entire dating process is entirely warped in such circumstances, and it is really almost unbelievable that these young, talented, beautiful young men and women are willing to put themselves at the mercy of the producers and casting agents for a show to find out if they can "fall in love" with this individual.
Some of what the women were saying last night was deeply troubling too. I mean, you're 24, 25 years old, how do you NOT know that love is more than infatuation? Physical attraction and the whole butterflies in the stomach thing are definitely components of being in love with someone, especially in the beginning stages, but do you truly believe that within the span of filming (with all of it's red tape and arranged meetings in front of a camera and so forth) is a sufficient amount of time to determine whether you would like to spend the rest of your life with this person?
It just seems really sad that this is the state of our dating culture today. That we are willing to basically put our lives, particularly our hearts, up for sale in front of the whole world and hope to win in the end. There is something so selfish in the whole idea of it that it seems rather contrary to falling in love.
I realize that there have been a few couples (three in fact, as I read this morning) that are still together after the end of this show. But the reality of it is that this is not exactly a formula for happiness. Melissa, I'm glad your parents realized that before you did (apparently, they chose not to meet Melissa's potential suitor during the course of the show, though they did cave in and talk to him on the phone in the last episode). Maybe in the future you could actually take advice from the people who love you and value yourself enough to give real love a chance.
And thank God you didn't even think about going on the disgusting and seriously wrong "A Double Shot at Love". I can't even begin to talk about everything wrong going on there.
No comments:
Post a Comment