Every
girl wants her fairytale ending and the Bachelor’s creators hit the jackpot
through creating a reality TV show that gave Americans just that—or so they
thought. After seeing years of success the Bachelor and subsequent spin off,
the bachelorette, has faced major criticism. Not only is it quite obvious that
the show perpetuates a sexist ideology in regards to the roles of woman in
relationships it also is guilty for it’s huge lack of minority representation
in the show. In the beginning of the shows history (2009) there was only one
minority woman as a contestant on the show out of the 25. This trend continued
until after the show faced a class action lawsuit from two black women,
claiming that the show is blatantly racist in its failure to have diversity
among contestants. A judge dismissed the case, but there is reason to believe
that this lawsuit made producers realize their own racist tendencies towards
picking white contestants.
It
seems as though the producers have four pre-requisites: Blonde, skinny, white,
and dumb. Every once and a while there is a minority thrown into the mix almost
as if the producers are under the illusion that they can wipe their brow
knowing that there are ONLY 24 white girls. In the defense of the show,
contestants are picked based on their compatibility for love to the
bachelor/bachelorette, so following that reasoning race shouldn’t be a factor,
however after the civil suit filed in 2012 minority representation went up 6
fold! You can’t tell me that magically more minority men and women decided that
they wanted to try their luck at love on this reality TV show in 2013, than in
years prior. Theories behind this mind-boggling lack of diversity include
trying to appease a very religious and wholesome based image in the eyes of the
average American viewer. From the beginning of the 1900s Americans have always
valued the racially homogenous family that lives in the big house on the corner
of the block with a white picket fence and the greenest grass. This image is
still seen by a majority of Americans as the “ideal”, thus causing casting
directors of the show wanting to find the perfect American sweetheart, but
minorities don’t fit this image.
Sadly,
this trend doesn’t seem to end in just the United States. Following behind the
popularity of the show New Zealand producers decided to try their luck at
finding Kiwis eternal love. While, I can’t speak about the first season, from
what I’ve watched of season 2 there is still a huge discrepancy in the race of
the contestants. On top of the fact that there isn’t many Maori or other
minority women, the bachelor gives significantly more attention to women who
are white. This season the single Maori woman, despite being extremely
intelligent and beautiful, left the show after only a few episodes through her
own decision. It makes me ponder WHY she made the decision to leave, and while
there could be an infinite number of scenarios it would be ignorant to neglect
the fact that she was the only minority woman and was severely outnumbered by
white woman. This fact had to have had some affect on her emotionally and her
ability to feel comfortable enough to open up on national television.
Shows like this really do play on the stereotypical white couple, and if the bachelor doesn't pick a black girl or something we just immediately think "oh that's just not his type obviously". Which is only because this image of the white blonde woman and that white man is one we've grown so accustomed to.
ReplyDeleteI think your last comment on emotional security, and how being herself might have been made harder due to the fact she was pretty much 'outnumbered' and the single minority woman on the show is huge. In a show like The Bachelor where you are forced to live with multiple women for an extended period of time being comfortable with yourself and the people around you is extremely important, and so to be placed in an environment where you are the minority, and no one understands your culture, would be an extremely difficult thing to get past, and then to be expected to also open up to someone you could potentially marry, on national TV, whilst being portrayed obviously as almost an 'outcast' is a terrible. And I think points like this are important to raise because it shows the true nature of reality TV shows like this. It shows that reality TV is still prejudice and extremely biased, and that shows like this have strong connotations of white privilege within them, as the white women are still portrayed as being more desirable than the women of colour and mixed-race women.
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