The eighth season of the Bachelorette has come to a
thrilling conclusion as Emily chose Jef (with one f) as her knight in shining
armor. Jef (with one f) proposed to her when he found out he was the winner
and, of course, she said YES! Tears started flowing down my face at this truly
remarkable and beautiful moment. I mean, they’re going to get married and live
happily ever after and never ever find themselves on the front of a tabloid
with their breakup story. That never happens to the winners of these shows!
The
bachelor and bachelorette preach love and marriage throughout each season and
yet very few of the “winners” have lived happily ever after. I think this has
to do with the expectations of marriage that the contestants on the show have
and how the media plays into them. These expectations on marriage and how a
relationship works might also be transcended down to the viewing audience who
actually believes that these relationships will last.
A show like the bachelorette falls
in line with Segrin & Nabi’s (2002) findings that, “Viewing television
programming that focuses on marriage and close relationships is associated with
[idealistic expectations of marriage]” (p. 250). The bachelorette builds up an
idealistic relationship that is to perfect and to good to be true. First of
all, all of the contestants go into the show expecting to come out with a
marriage partner at the end. I’m sorry, but any relationship where you have to
propose at the 6-week mark (approximate filming length of the show) is one that
is probably not going to last. Throw in that you’re always on camera and never
get actual time to talk in a real-life setting and these relationships are as
far from realistic as you can get.
I think the Bachelor and
Bachelorette can be problematic for people who watch them and create ideas
about the dating and marriage process. The contestants on the show never have
to resolve conflicts with each other. Instead, if there’s ever something major,
they just don’t give them a rose at the next ceremony. It also doesn’t present
a relationship that takes work and isn’t always fun and games. Every date that
they go on is extravagant and in exotic locations. The idea is that a
relationship should be a constant vacation with no worries. This becomes a
problem when people view this as how a relationship should be, and if their
relationship in real life fails to be a vacation at all times, then they’ll
leave t without putting any work in. Plus, there’s always someone else waiting
at the next rose ceremony…
No comments:
Post a Comment