Anyone who knows me knows that I watch THE BACHELOR (and THE BACHELORETTE).  Unfortunately, I am not ashamed of this at all.  I get most of my enjoyment out of restating the comments of both the contestants and the “object of affection” while I’m watching.  It pains me to say that my game is much more fun on THE BACHELOR than on THE BACHELORETTE, but it continues to be true time and time again.  This show is giving my sex a very bad rap (as though it isn’t bad enough).  Whoever casts this show either does a great job or has the easiest job on the planet.  In this moment, I truly believe it is the latter.  If I had written about this 4 or 5 years ago, I may not have said that.  The ugly truth is that it really is not hard to find women who act and behave like the women on this show.

The new season just startedand tonight I am watching the second episode.  The girls this season are SO BAD that it inspired me to start venting immediately.  I have to say, if you are not watching, do yourself a favor.  This season is hilarious.  Usually there is the token bitchy girl and maybe a couple others who compete with her.  This season, there are at least two clinically psychotic women, 3 bitchy “mean girls”, and the rest of the girls are displaying enough naivete and desperation to give the entire female race a bad name.  I can’t believe that not one girl has displayed any confident or head-strong behavior so far.  Perhaps it is my own fault for expecting an over-exposed, successful, network reality show to attract any women who possess self-confidence or tact.

That being said, the commentary alone is providing me with enough comic relief to go on watching.  Am I justifying my viewership? Yes I am.  I am not going to start going into a long conversation about why there are so many women out there who need a man to validate their lives.  Despite the fact that this has been a recent point of contention for me as of late on a very personal level, I am not prepared to make comparisons between any of my friends and the “eligible bachelorettes” featured on this show.  

In a general sense, I have always believed that reality TV is an interesting study on the human psyche.  I can’t imagine that most people who have appeared on reality shows can look back and say there were proud of everything they did and everything they said.  On the same token, I know many people who have been on reality shows and not one of them has displayed any regret.  Maybe there is just a large enough percentage of the population who cares more about being on television (for any reason at all) than about their own integrity to cast most of the reality shows in existence.  I have not crunched the numbers but, if that is the case, it does not say much about us as a race (not man or woman specific).

Back to the present moment: The quote that I just heard on the show was “For a 1st date, i already feel like he is my boyfriend.”  That is the least pathetic and/or nasty statement that has been made by any of the girls in the entire episode and I am an hour and 30 minutes along.  I will say that this season’s Bachelor is the first non-deuschbag (seemingly) since I have started watching the show (about 4 years ago).  This doesn’t bode well for men in my opinion but I may be the sole person that feels this way.  Somehow, enough women apply for this show every season that ABC is beating them away with sticks while still managing cast a group of 25 women who create the right blend of desperation, bitchiness, insecurity, mental instability, and camera-obsession.  

If you are not watching this show, then you are either missing out on a great opportunity to laugh or you are avoiding looking in the mirror.  If you are the former, you are probably thinking that you do not have 2 hours a week to waste on this.  Worry not!  While watching this show, I managed to write this entire blog, edit another writing project, laugh a lot, walk my dog, and make my to do list for tomorrow morning.  I am not defending the show. There is little to defend. However, I will not apologize for adding to its viewership.  It feeds my creative brain and keeps me from forgetting that being a skeptic is a strength and not a weakness.