A few thoughts before the finale of ‘The Bachelor’

As someone who has spent a significant amount of brain power writing about The Bachelor over the past three months, I have a few overarching thoughts about the series as a whole. Especially since, over the weekend, Jennifer Weiner wrote in The New York Times that she was boycotting it altogether because it helped “prime America for its current leader.”

Wow. I just ... the hotness of that take literally melted the keys off my computer. I had to spend 30 minutes gluing them back on.

Listen, sure, The Bachelor is garbage. It’s a manufactured and limited reality in which people are reportedly searching for love (they actually may be!) but are mostly searching for fame. And, since the advent of social media, more Instagram followers. But to argue that this show is the reason we have our current Moron In Chief is just staggering in its simplicity.

Donald Trump did benefit from reality TV. But if you’re going to say that one piece of programming contributed to his election (which I still think is a pretty thin argument), The Apprentice is probably the one you should blame. Trump was actually on it, and its grand lighting and decisive production put him in a presidential light.

There’s so much in American society that contributed to Trump’s rise. To isolate it to one show and then write about how you aren’t watching that one show as a form of protest only serves to make people who do watch that show wonder if they should feel guilty about it.

Jesus Christ, can’t we have anything, anymore? You by no means have to watch The Bachelor, but boy, it can be fun. It’s a fascinating anthropological study. And, I know I joke about this, but it truly is a sport: It’s an unpredictable, exciting competition that’s a source of connection. Enough Americans watch it and it’s become ubiquitous enough that we bond over which contestants we love and which we hate. Are you Team Vanessa or Team Raven?

It is, however, important to hold a mirror up to this cultural behemoth. If we don’t call out the inherent ridiculousness of the situations and make merciless fun of the people in them, we run the risk of believing it’s all real. And then maybe Nick Viall will get elected president. No one wants that.

So let’s let it be fun while remaining skeptical. Let us make fun of Nick’s hair, his questionable decisions, and the weird rompers some of the women decided to wear on dates. Let us revel in Corinne’s villainy and rejoice when we see the human side of her peek through, if only for a minute. Let us recoil in horror at the awkward moments. Let us understand that humans are complicated and that even in the most manufactured of situations, some emotions can be organic. Let us root for Rachel when she starts her journey as the next Bachelorette.

But most importantly, let us make jokes, drink wine, and savor a little bit of hedonism on a Monday night. And let us not feel bad about that.