The conversation about faith and sex that The Bachelorette sparked

When I started watching The Bachelorette, I didn’t expect anything more than a guilty pleasure. The show’s premise is ridiculous: select one man or woman to weed through 30 potential suitors and then pick who they want to marry. Baked into that premise are assumptions around gender roles; heteronormative relationships; and the toned, tanned, wrinkle- and wobble-free bodies that represent a very narrow template of beauty.

Generally, the conversations between contestants that viewers see are stripped down to the most predictable, repetitive subjects: At what stage on the road to “falling in love” are they? And how open to love and marriage do they consider themselves to be? If political debates or discussions of world events take place, they don’t make the broadcast. Nobody talks about the great books they have read, the music in which they hear life’s deepest truths, or the people whose ideas have caused them to see the world in a whole new light. 

I was surprised to learn that a large proportion of the show’s audience identifies as Christian. Despite the show’s titillating premise, its traditional understanding of marriage has been a major point of appeal. Recent years have seen more and more of the contestants speak about their Christian faith (and ABC cater more and more to this audience).