Everyone knows what The Bachelor is. The dates, the drama, and the ‘love’ pull people into the show where contestants try and find their future spouse. It sure is an odd way to find the one for you, but at what cost? Many contestants admit that being on the show takes a large toll on their physical and emotional wellbeing. To prep for the show, many contestants follow rigorous diets and exercise plans to slim down because they believe that is what the bachelor will want. During the show, the contestants are constantly drinking, acting, and fighting with one another to win the love of the one bachelor. Sure, you chose to participate on the show, but many people do not realize until afterwards how tough it actually is.
In an interview with an old contestant, Kaitlyn, she tells about how when you’re a contestant, many people go into debt and lose their jobs just for the chance to date the bachelor. Contestants do not get paid a penny and are buying fancy dresses, jewelry, and shoes in order to impress the bachelor. Also, Kaitlyn talks about how many people lose their jobs after being on the Bachelor because they need to take so much time off of work in order to film the show. There are many drawbacks to this seemingly glamorous life.
In Truth, Lies, and Bullshit, American philosopher Harry Frankfurt describes lies as a way to damage our grasp of reality. Is The Bachelor designed to do the same thing? The life shown on the show is not even close to reality. A lot of television is meant to help people escape reality, and they are ironically called reality shows. It does not harm the audience because it was made for entertainment, but it could harm the way the contestants perceive reality.
In addition to going into debt, being constantly exposed to drama, and taking a physical toll on your health, your life must become an open book. You tell the bachelor, on national television, some of the deepest things about your life because he has to get to know you in an absurdly short amount of time. Although most people do know what they're getting themselves into when they go on The Bachelor, when you're on the show, you have almost no privacy of any kind. The Bachelor and producers frequently encourage the contestants to talk about things that most people consider extremely private. They say that exposing these instances is the best way for the bachelor to get to know the contestants. However, these are being said on national television, so millions of people know the most personal stories of these contestants. Contestants who share these stories are exposed to the world, and contestants who do not are said to have lived a sheltered life and frequently booted from the show. In addition to the lack of privacy, contestants are also quite frequently humiliated. For example, during this season, a contestant exploded a bottle of champagne on herself as she was trying to take a stressful chug. The poor, sad girl has now become a meme.
It’s hard to think of all the negatives of actually being on the show because many contestants become social media influencers afterwards. They appear so put together and beautiful, but no one really knows what they have been through and how it affected them. Past contestants say they found and married their true love from meeting each other on the show, but more frequently, the couples stay together for the publicity. The fact that this is a common occurrence from Bachelor couples, highlights the lies and lack of reality on the show and afterwards. The entirety of the show is a very strange phenomenon. Imagine meeting your spouse on a national television show that humiliates you and highlights your flaws.
Anything related to this seasons' Bachelor is going to get my attention, so you did a good job in my opinion of picking a topic that will grab people and bring them in.
ReplyDeleteHowever I did struggle a little bit with understanding how this relates to class concepts. You mentioned Frankfurt's article but did not entirely connect his message to your points about how the bachelor damages our grasp on reality. Is the Bachelor actually harmful to society as a whole? I think further analysis here would have helped you develop your argument a lot further.
While you did a great job of describing your opinion of the Bachelor and providing evidence, I think more mention of class concepts would have been useful. Good job picking an interesting topic!
The title of this blog post definitely grabbed my attention. Comparing this post to your original draft, I think it's good that you have incorporated one of the readings into your commentary on the Bachelor. That said, I think you could've gone into a little more depth discussing the Frankfurt reading and maybe focused on one specific moment or season from the Bachelor to give yourself more room to analyze and relate it to the class. For example, you could look at online Twitter reactions to the Bachelor or how the contestants tend to become instagram influencers after the show and related either of those to the reading. I appreciate that your topic was a creative choice and it was interesting to hear your thoughts on the show!
ReplyDeleteI read and commented on your first round of this post, so it is nice to see how it has improved since then! I like the new formatting and I like how you brought up Frankfurt and bullshit this time. I do think that you could add some more tie-ins to that throughout the article, like in the end when you talk about the relationships only being for publicity or also I'm not sure if you heard about the one contestant who claimed to have been bullied in high school and cried to Peter but it came out that she was actually homecoming queen and clearly super popular so that was definitely some bullshitting by her. Overall I think the revision did definitely highlight a lot more ethical flaws of the show though, and it was interesting to read as a fellow Bachelor fan!
ReplyDeleteOne of my guilty pleasures is casually following what is going on in the Bachelor so this article drew my eye for that reason (I also commented on your last post). I'm not sure whether I enjoy it for the drama or because I think it's funny but that's unrelated. It's very clear that since your last article you expanded your argument even further and I do like the formatting of this version of your article better. I think using Frankfurt's article here is spot on as people create new versions of themselves to go onto the show and convince someone to propose to them. It really is a strange process that certainly has many ethical issues. I think though, that the usage of the article itself to support your argument is a little sudden and confusing. It did not have a lot of context before it so while this article does make sense in the scope of your article and argument I think you can definitely find other ways to introduce Frankfurt's work. Having the reading this time certainly is an improvement but it is also important to make sure the reading makes sense where it is inserted into your argument. Also, elaborate more on the negative effects of being a candidate on the show. I think that could be a huge supporting argument for you.
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