I get a lot of grief for watching The Bachelor. In fairness, this year is the first time I’ve watched it for maybe fifteen years. It’s crazy to think it’s been on that long. I’ve always thought it’s sort of ridiculous and I find myself apologizing for watching it. Or trying to offset my viewing of it by reading some super-literary tome. I spend so much time apologizing for watching this show, but I also realize that no one ever apologizes for watching things like, I don’t know…sports. My apologies to you sports fans. It’s not something I have ever gotten into.
I find that keeping in touch with pop culture helps me as a therapist. Not because these things are real life, but because million of people watch shows, read books, or listen to podcasts. And chances are, sometimes the content of them strikes a chord with people and it might come up in session.
While The Bachelor is completely manufactured, it conjures up fantasies we often have about falling in love or finding “The One” or meeting our “Soul Mate”. Inevitably, when I talk to my friends or colleagues about the show, little things might pop up about our own relationships, past or present. How we found our partner, what we first fought about, or how we left someone who wasn’t right for us.
Last night, during “The Most Dramatic Bachelor Finale Ever!”, The Bachelor gave out his final rose. Groan…I cannot believe I am even typing this cheese-ball stuff on my professional website! Apparently, whatever happened has never happened before and there are one or more episodes now tacked on to the end of the season. But alas, the show is coming to an end and I’ve suffered through (well, secretly, don’t we all sort of love it?) the confessional commentary of all the girls in the house tittering about each other and about how perfect they are for The Bachelor. I realized last week that even though we all know it’s just a show, it can distort what we think or expect from relationships. So here are a few thoughts I’ve had based on what I’ve seen:
- You are enough. It’s sometimes heartbreaking to watch the girl who is rejected by The Bachelor as she’s weeping in the back seat of a limousine, being chauffeured back to her regular life. There are almost always tears, but quite frequently, a girl may sob and exclaim, “I wasn’t enough for him!” or “What’s wrong with me?” I realize that these comments are made during a particularly sensitive moment, but a lot of people express that when a relationships ends. No matter whether it’s a TV one or a real life one. On some level, many people invest so much into falling in love or being swept away that they lose a sense of themselves. For some, the end of a relationship is an attack on who they are and what they stand for. Many people think that it’s impossible to love another without loving yourself first. If you think that you as a human being are not enough, maybe that requires some investigation on your part. Getting more in touch with who you are and what you truly need and desire may prevent you from repeating patterns in relationships. And if you find that you’re happy being you and you thrive in many areas of your life and relationships, then perhaps this relationship was not the right one for you.
- It’s just a TV show, not real life. Some viewers mistakenly believe that the people on the show have a whirlwind romance, get a marriage proposal, and live happily ever after. I can’t definitively say how these relationships work out because I don’t really watch this show with any regularity. There are a handful of people who got married and stayed together, but most of these relationships fail to continue. Recently I heard a contestant on an interview and she said that over the course of several weeks, even if you had been on several dates with the bachelor, you don’t spend more than a total of four hours with The Bachelor. So that’s what I mean about this being not real life. Making a decision about proposing or accepting a marriage proposal – or even saying “I love you” – based on spending a few hours with someone and sharing your most beautiful moments with millions of television views is not real. A healthy relationship is about connecting in many ways, not only when you’re traveling to Paris or Lake Tahoe or Tuscany.
- Even beautiful people get rejected. Many people say, “If only I were more attractive/in better shape/thinner/had longer hair/had nicer clothes, I would find someone.” Appearance is only part of the puzzle and no matter how attractive you are, you will likely experience rejection. Attractiveness is not an armor that shields people from pain. No matter what people look like, most everyone will suffer some form of adversity in their lives. What can be attractive is not necessarily your appearance, but how you’ve managed to weather various storms in your life.
So now that the final rose has been given, it’s off to find the next little escape from reality. Something tells me the next season of The Bachelor will be more of the same: thirty attractive women looking for a marriage proposal after about four hours of dates!
If you are dealing with an infidelity issue and would like to explore the possibility of us working together, please email me at christine@snyderlcsw.com. My practice is located in Livingston, New Jersey.