{"id":345,"date":"2025-05-29T01:28:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T01:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/?p=345"},"modified":"2025-05-29T01:28:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T01:28:22","slug":"the-bachelor-franchise-and-heteronormativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/?p=345","title":{"rendered":"The Bachelor Franchise and Heteronormativity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Bachelor<\/em> franchise consists of multiple shows including The Bachelor<\/em>, The Bachelorette<\/em>, Bachelor in Paradise<\/em>, The Golden Bachelor<\/em>, and The Golden Bachelorette<\/em>. In these shows, contestants vie for the love of the bachelor\/bachelorette\/golden bachelor\/golden bachelorette. During 2024, Season 28 of The Bachelor<\/em> debuted on national television. Joey Graziadei was the bachelor of the season. The final two contestants were Kelsey and Daisy. The season ended with a shocking finale in which Daisy realized that Joey had been distant during the final date as a way to let her down gently because he was not going to choose her at the end. This was difficult for Daisy to hear since she had just opened herself up to Joey, and proclaimed her love for him during the finale. Daisy visited Kelsey\u2019s room during the finale, and reassured her that she was the one for Joey. She gave Kelsey the relief of knowing that when she walked down the aisle to see Joey for the last time of the season, he would get down on one knee to propose to her. This snapshot of The Bachelor<\/em>\u2019s finale gives a taste of the core themes explored in the show: love, heartbreak, and friendship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The franchise has become more inclusive over the years by introducing The Bachelorette<\/em>, The Golden Bachelor<\/em>, and The Golden Bachelorette<\/em> to give women and older adults the opportunity to find love. Furthermore, it has tried to increase the racial diversity of contestants. However, it has yet to create a dating show for queer individuals. The Bachelor<\/em> franchise exemplifies heteronormativity by centering its storylines around the heterosexual couple model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, it reproduces stereotypes about gender by having the women and men contestants participate in gender typed activities. For example, one of the games that the women of The Bachelor <\/em>participated in was a mock wedding in which they adorned themselves in white dresses, pretended to be Joey\u2019s bride, and vied for his attention. The men of the Season 21 of The Bachelorette<\/em> did not engage in activities of this sort. Their season was full of helicopter rides, race car driving, and comedy club visits. By having the women and men engage in stereotypical activities associated with their gender, they are reproducing age old discourse that suggests that women engage in feminine activities and men in masculine ones.\u00a0In addition, The Bachelor<\/em> franchise is problematic for its lack of body diversity. They are known to cast only slim, conventionally attractive people. Season 21 of The Bachelorette<\/em> featured one plus size contestant; however, he was eliminated in the first episode. This casting decision of mostly slim, conventionally attractive people, similar to most other Hollywood productions, conveys the message that only slim, conventionally attractive people are deserving of having their love stories broadcast to the world. The Bachelor<\/em> franchise has grown a lot in its representation of age and racial diversity, but it still has a long way to go to create positive representation of queer and plus size individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Bachelor franchise consists of multiple shows including The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Bachelor in Paradise, The Golden Bachelor, and The Golden Bachelorette. In these shows, contestants vie for the love of the bachelor\/bachelorette\/golden bachelor\/golden bachelorette. During 2024, Season 28 of The Bachelor debuted on national television. Joey Graziadei was the bachelor of the season. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rgsinpop.2025.cmoore.sites.carleton.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}