Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Why can't The Bachelor....

be Black? Or Asian or Hispanic? Anything but another white dude?

No offense to Brad Womack, the current Bachelor who is cute, and funny and seems less of a tool than some of the previous dubious titleholders, but I was thinking last night as I watching the show that it just seems like the same old, same old with this show.

You know, girls with more cleaveage than sense who spend however many weeks either throwing themselves at the Bachelor or playing coy. And then being catty about each other.

At one point, they were at the race track and a player for the San Diego Chargers came in named Shaun. Really attractive black guy and the girls were all atwitter, and I thought why have they never had a Bachelor of another race? Is the audience for this show too conservative? Considering that the lone minority contestant for this show was gone after the first episode it makes you wonder (Seriously does ABC even asks these guys whether or not they've ever dated outside their race? Or are they too busy being politically correct?).

No minority has ever made it to the final four or the final two. I'm not counting Tessa from last season's Bachelor because she's Eurasian. But seriously, this show might be more interesting if they mixed it up a bit. There has to be some hot, rich, Asian or Hispanic entrepreneur looking for love.

Perhaps the reason there hasn't been an African-American bachelor is ABC doesn't want to get the hate mail from black women who are pissed that he's on a show with white women! Too OJ or Tiger Woods for them. But then again, on VH-1, Flavor of Love was very mixed bunch of racially diverse hoochies as was Rock of Love and I Love New York. It is easier for cable with its smaller audience to be more diverse?

Still, it's time that this show started reflecting more the cultural diversity of this country. Heck, Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy are more culturally diverse than this show. Even Dancing with the Stars. If ABC can put on a show based on the GEICO cavemen, why not a Bachelor who isn't white?

EKM

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"You know, girls with more cleavage than sense who spend however many weeks either throwing themselves at the Bachelor or playing coy. And then being catty about each other."

That's EXACTLY why I have never watched this show.

You raise a good point though about the absense of black bachelors. Judging by the female fan base for black actors like Denzel Washington and Jamie Foxx a good looking black bachelor would have just as many women of all races fighting over him as a white bachelor.

But racial relationships are still viewed as taboo for whatever reason. Although I always thought the best way for black women to get over their constant annoyance at the thought of white women stealing black men is for black women to start dating us white guys :)

Paging Janet Jackson...

Elizabeth Kerri Mahon said...

I've already jumped on that bandwagon!

Angela said...

I tune into the Bachelor during the first week to see if that lone black woman they always choose will remain beyond week one. So far, no go. I laugh about it, but it is a bit sad. The thing is, it isn't only black women getting mad at black men running around with white women--white women get angry too.

When Evangeline on One Life to Live was embroiled in a love triangle with two of the show's most beloved male characters (Christian and Todd), so many white female viewers sent in hate mail that they axed the storyline and the actress too.

When Julian Mcmahon's very promiscuous character on Nip/Tuck got more serious with Sanaa Lathan's character than he'd ever gotten with any other (white) woman (he wanted to marry her), fans sent in hate mail for that too and Sanaa's character was turned evil and was axed from the show.

I'd love to see a black Bachelor. A Hispanic Bachelor. An Asian one. Just switch it up. The way this show only uses white men follows the same harming trend of Disney fairy tales: that being swept off your feet and love and romance and roses belong only to white people.

TerriM said...

The little I saw of the show has made me wonder what is wrong the bachelor?
The only way to find a woman is to go on tv?
Then I wonder what is up with these women? They are beautiful, accomplished and successful in their own right and they are chasing after a guy who is ????

I am cynical enough to know that if the show does put use a man of color, he won't be worth 2 bits.

Terri