“I'm so ready to fall in love again and have a life!”
“…And I know a life without love is a life without happiness.”
Let's play a little game and find what's wrong with these sentences.
Ok game over, that was a trick. There is nothing right about these sentences!
These are both quotes from the new season of the bachelorette, and lead me to ponder the following: Are you fucking kidding me?
Blonde bubbly and pretty regular Ally, is looking for love in a sea of men, well white men. Not only do I have a bone to pick with the already fairy tale ideals of the show and our new bachelorette, but I have major issues with almost all of the singles being Caucasian. Come to think of it has there ever been a non-white bachelor or bachelorette? As I think of the answer to this question I feel my blood’s temperature raising to a medium boil. This will have to be discussed further, later.
Now I know that some of you are going to read this and think a couple things, “the author of this blog must be black.” If that’s your first thought, then you are dangerously off track and completely missing the point. If this show, and this woman, are truly here for “love” then am I, you, or anyone else supposed to expect love to come packaged as a suited up white man?
Is this Greenland, or Sweden? No, this is America- a mother effin melting pot of European, African American, Middle Eastern, Asian, Latinos, and Hispanics to name a few.
The next thing you may be thinking: Charlotte, you’re not the bachelorette, maybe these men aren’t you’re type and that’s the issue. My response… horse shit! It should be the responsibility of any match maker to mix it up! Love can come in any color, size, shape, form or race. So GET WITH IT ABC, you have 25 men for this woman to choose from and the most that we get is one Hispanic man?
That’s right folks, ABC has included a Hispanic man this season; lucky him, lucky us. America… we can now continue. Our country has been properly represented. Even I feel better, 24 men all white, and one Hispanic. Now I approve, this is almost like real life! Congratulations ABC, you’ve made the masses happy, thank you for the ‘token.’ In a tribute to the 80’s, I offer one word: PSYCH!
As I look at my surroundings, I think that I’m still in America. Warp Zones haven’t been invented yet, so I know that I’m living in the United States.
With this observation, I ask myself this: “why in the hell is it that I can turn on my television, in 2010, not 1962, and see a show with 99% whites?” It’s ridiculous and it pisses me off. If you are someone that dates, and has dated all types, personalities, shades, and races, then this should piss you off too.
I truly find this show shameful. Truth be told, I turned the show on this season out of complete curiosity. But as I started watching, I remembered just what it is that has enraged me about this show since its inception. Its lack of diversity and old fashioned ideals are like a bad TV episode from the 50s.
Before I bring this blog/bitch session to a close I’d like to address what our new bachelorette said in the beginning of the show.
“I'm so ready to fall in love again and have a life!”
“…And I know a life without love is a life without happiness.”
First of all, I have so many problems with the first quote. I’m so flooded with commentary that I don’t even know where to begin! If we, women, were to wait for “love” or a man before we had a “life” (which many sadly still do) can you imagine what a sad, useless existence that would be? I cannot believe that this woman said that she can’t wait to fall in love and have a life!
Having a life is such a multilayered thing. To have a life is to have purpose, to have inspiration, to have dreams, to have vision, to know your talent, to know and love YOURSELF. I hope that these old fashioned, fairy tale ideals about finding a prince charming and living happily ever after aren’t still what women expect. Love should be a big part of your life if that’s what you want, but not your reason for living, or the best and only thing in your life. Besides, can you imagine falling in love at a time where you already love your life? What an amazing feeling that would be.
Ally also says that a life without love is a life without happiness. I’d be lying if I didn’t have a guttural, nauseating reaction to the site/sound of this. Let me first say this, Love IS important. LOVE of your family, your friends, your pets, your purpose, career, YOUR life. So yes, a life without love is a life without happiness.
But Ally clearly wasn’t talking about different kinds of love. She is talking about the love of a relationship, the love of a man. To have a life without the love of a man is to have a life without happiness. Chew on that for a while folks. (Thank you ABC/Bachelorette for setting women back 40 years.)
Until next time, it’s over and out.
Charlotte.
(For those of you that are still curious, Charlotte is half black and half white, and loves and dates men of all colors.)
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