The Bachelor is wrapping up another season of “love” on television.
After 17 seasons, not a single guy has made it to the altar with his true love.
The Bachelorette has fared slightly better with two weddings out of eight seasons. That gives the franchise an eight per cent success rate.
And that may be too high.
This season’s single guy is Sean Lowe, a 29-year-old insurance agent and entrepreneur from Texas.
He seems like a nice fellow with strong Christian values who has vowed to keep his pants zipped until marriage.
That promise, alone, could push this Bachelor to close the deal with a cross-eyed “I do!”
But what seemed so sweet in the beginning has started to wear thin. This season, either the show has run out of ideas or Sean asked the team from Fear Factor to arrange his romantic interludes.
One lucky gal had to eat bugs on her date – after already telling Sean it was the one thing she would never do.
Now, I have two problems with this scenario. First, if I already have to share a guy with 24 other women, he should be chowing down on insects for ME.
Second, this behaviour leans just a little toward the term “abusive.”
If you love me, you’ll do this even though you don’t want to and I have no reason to ask you to except that it makes me feel like I have power over you.
Another date had to rappel off the face of a cliff to reach a picnic lunch below.
OK, to be honest, the rappelling thing does sound like fun. But I’d do it for me, not some guy and certainly not for egg salad and a few grapes.
An entire group had to prove their love … for fun and games and life, itself.
Apparently, the only way to do so was to risk hypothermia with a Polar Bear Plunge into freezing Lake Louise. Yes, people do this every year. If it’s your thing, enjoy. But to jump into a frozen lake for a guy who’s staying on shore? To quote Ms. Janet Jackson, what has he done for you lately?
However, if a lady said no to any of these stunts, they feared being sent home. Which means participating proved nothing except that someone at The Bachelor has a sadistic streak.
If this is dating in 2013, it certainly explains the divorce rate.
Didn’t our parents tell us that marriage was a partnership? Relationships are built on respect, support and equality, not dog tricks performed on command.
Of course, all those deep, meaningful conversations that Sean and his dates had were edited out for privacy. And because they were just too boring for viewers.
But they happened. So perhaps, there’s hope.
But I still worry for Sean’s future. And the girl’s. Because regardless of who receives the final rose, this limited-time, only-on-TV union is going to leave someone extremely …uh, frustrated.
