Performative Diversity in The Bachelor is Detrimental

The Bachelor and The Bachelorette‘s continued performative diversity is causing issues beyond just “bad ratings” – it’s detrimental to representation.

We’ve taken a break from covering both franchises for a bit but we’re wading back in to address the latest “news” to rock Bachelor Nation. Former Bachelor, Colton Underwood, has just come out as gay. Normally we celebrate things like this, but not in Colton’s case.

We firmly believe no one should be afraid to live their true expression. However coming out of the closet doesn’t blanket excuse away being an asshole. Everything about how the news broke feels icky and performative. 

Underwood appeared on Good Morning America, the flagship morning show of the ABC network – which is also home to The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. The move reeked of producer puppeting and damage control. 

In the GMA interview he cites some darker moments in grappling with his sexuality. Again we don’t want to undermine the challenges of coming out for anyone and excellent resources can be found at a variety of organizations like It Gets Better or The Trevor Project. If you watched Colton’s season his revelation might not come as a surprise. The season spent the copious amounts of time focusing on his “born again virgin” narrative in an effort to cater to conservative audiences. 

The season ended with Underwood picking Cassie Randolph, but not proposing. The couple later broke up, and recently Randolph filed a restraining order against Underwood citing allegations of stalking and harassment.

Hurt People Shouldn’t Get a Pass to Hurt People

There is no excuse for someone’s personal unhappiness manifesting in hurting others. People’s desire for fame is not a valid excuse for burying their true self in order to “get ahead” and then causing others to pay a price as part of the consequence.

This leads us back to the announcement: if Underwood (and The Bachelor franchise) weren’t making a play at damage control and controlling a greater narrative, Underwood could easily have released his own quiet statement on the subject. There were days of previews leading up to the big interview intentionally skewing the “reveal.”

We can just imagine the conversations that happened as soon as Underwood approached the franchise about his announcement. “Okay we’ve got a gay former contestant now! How do we spin it so it doesn’t hurt us? How do we get the most out of this? Can we use this to undo some of the bad PR recently?!”

Underwood has a reality show in production documenting his journey post coming out. There are many many many other people out there who would be more deserving of the limelight. As well as even more out there who would serve as better role models to the LGBTQ+ community and those still on their coming out journeys. 

We see the value in showing the journey of someone who was presented as a “hyper-masculine athlete”, conventionally religious, and in the public eye, living a successful and openly queer life. But where are the shows for the people who don’t have problematic pasts? For the ones who are doing good work in not only queer spaces but other spaces as well?

Let’s Talk About Race

Race is absolutely part of the answer. If you look at the pioneers in the NFL, NBA, MLB, they’re mostly people of color. This doesn’t even begin to get into the issue of the general lack of coverage for women’s sports, let alone queer women in sports. See recent inequality in the training facilities provided to men vs women in the 2021 NCAA March Madness tournament. 

This also brings us to a bigger issue with The Bachelor and The Bachelorette franchises. The one dimensional way in which they’re trying to inject diversity into the show has been catastrophic. The latest seasons of the show have featured Black hero contestants for the first time since 2017. Actually the first time EVER for The Bachelor.

We don’t blame having Black contestants themselves for the ratings drop. We blame the show and their handling of them. To be fair we should acknowledge COVID-19 as a probable factor in some of this drop as well. Both Matt James and Tayshia Adams had their seasons filmed in quarantine. This meant no extravagant dates, no international trips, no escapism for the audience. 

The Bachelorette did Tayshia Adams particularly dirty. She wasn’t announced as the lead for the season. Instead she had to inherit secondhand suitors from Clare Crawley. If the show wanted to set Tayshia up for “success” they wouldn’t have asked the second ever Black bachelorette to take the dregs of a white woman. 

It’s important to acknowledge the shows are selling a fantasy and a business. A few years ago we wrote about how the ecosystem they’ve built is a self fulfilling trash machine of content. They don’t care about actual “true love” – they care about ratings and money.

Selling the Fantasy

In half-ass committing to performative diversity they’re shooting themselves in the foot. We get that there will be a transition period in ratings as they bring in new diverse leads. Ones that their core audience might not be as receptive to. If they do it right they’ll bring in a whole new audience who AREN’T familiar and tired of their formula. 

Instead both James and Adams’ seasons did uncomfortable engineered talks about Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, and racial discrimination that stuck out like sore thumbs. James’ “heartfelt discussion” of being the first Black bachelor was further diminished by the conversation taking place with franchise host Chris Harrison.

Later during James’ season, Harrison stepped down as host due to…. You guessed it! Racist comments surfacing. There have been multiple issues over the year about the inequity in the way people of color are treated by show.

Every season we’re betting on how far certain contestants of color will be dragged along. We assume in order to present some semblance of performative diversity. Chances are if you’re of Asian descent you’re going to be lucky to make it through the first night. Let alone making it to the halfway point. If someone does get that far, it’s only ONE person. They end up serving as a sounding board for the other contestants. They’re rarely a true contender. 

Where Do We Go From Here?

Instead of doing the work to try to address and combat the systemic racism The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have inherited from the society they stem from, they’d rather double down on their existing problematic contestants. By rewarding someone like Underwood with a huge morning feature they continue to show where their loyalties lie. We also wouldn’t be surprised if Harrison makes a return sooner rather than later. 

While we truly want to support the diverse seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette we find ourselves in the quandary of having to either sit through at best boring and at worst undermining the severity of the plight of being a person of color in America OR not watch and contribute to the potential narrative that “people don’t want to watch Black / BIPOC leads.”

The best thing both franchises could do would be to do what returning contestants often do. Take time, go away for a bit, and come back with a whole new personality / face. But continuing these performative attempts at diversity without truly understanding them is detrimental to all.