The Bachelor

I wrote this little blurb for a Human Sexuality assignment and thought I'd share it on here :) 

One of my guilty pleasures is watching the Bachelor.  For anyone not familiar with the show, it's basically about one guy dating a group of girls over the span of about two months and eventually narrowing them down to one he proposes to at the end of the show.  There's just something about the drama and romantic dates that draws me in, but the show is a far cry from being a model for healthy sexual behavior and the relationships formed in it are usually dysfunctional.

The bachelor and the girls on the show waste no time being physical with each other, many of them kissing on the first episode when they talk for the first time.  I feel like that totally downplays any significant of a kiss and makes it more of a greeting than something to share with someone you care about.  As the show progresses, the bachelor kisses more and more girls, makes out with them in hot tubs, and even is shown skinny dipping with one of them. 

All the girls are in hysterics because he is kissing other girls while at the same time kissing them and that's 90% of the shows dramatic material.  On the last episode of the show when he's trying to decide which of the last two girls he is going to propose to, he has overnight dates with both of them.  This really bothers me because it makes sex so meaningless.  Sleeping with a girl the night before you propose to a different girl is not normal or healthy and makes the proposal seem fake. 

Most of the relationships formed by the bachelor and bachelorette don't last and I'm not surprised.  During reunions, the couples often talk about how their relationship struggled while the show was being aired because they were forced to watch their significant other have physical and emotional relationships with a group of girls before finally choosing them. 

I think the whole scenerio and premise of this show is using sexuality and relationships in the opposite way God intended them to be used and that's proven by the weak success rate of the show's relationships.  At the same time, the show itself has gone on for many seasons and myself and many others aren't really fazed by the content.  At least not fazed enough to stop watching it.