Bachelor in Paradise Tackles Real Drama

In case you missed it, the Bachelor franchise has actually been showing some interesting conversations and discussions between its contestants this summer on Bachelor in Paradise.

[Bachelor in Paradise Season 4 cast]

On its second episode of Season 4, the “fun-in-the-sun” ABC reality TV show took on a more serious tone in order to discuss the allegations of misconduct that stopped production back in June.

If you didn’t follow the scandal as it unfolded here’s what happened: There was an incident between two cast members that resulted in a producer filing an allegation of misconduct against production. The allegation led to production of the show being shut down and Warner Bros. launching an investigation into the show. While production was shut down the media leaked that the cast members involved in the alleged incident were Corinne Olymios and DeMario Jackson. In addition, conflicting reports as to what actually happened were released as well. This led to many online taking different sides such as that Jackson had violated Olympios’ consent, or that Jackson was wrongly accused of sexual assault. The discussion around the show became engulfed with slut-shaming, victim-blaming, and racism. When Warner Bros. concluded their investigation and announced that there was no evidence to support misconduct, production resumed.

On the first day of production following the shutdown, Chris Harrison, the franchise’s host, sat down with the cast in order to have a conversation about the allegations, race, slut-shaming, and consent. For a show where the deepest conversation each season tends to be about a skeptical parent and has historically illustrated dated gender norms and homogeneous casting, the discussion was almost good. While the discussion did bring light to the complicated topics of sexist and racist assumptions, on the topic of consent the show failed.

The discussion gave the cast an unlikely platform to discuss racism and sexism in a way that related to everyday life and not just on reality television. For example, cast member Raven Gates described that being from the South there is a "Stigma that seeing a white woman with a black man is wrong... It is important to get rid of the stigma that interracial couples can't be or blaming African-American men for crimes they didn't commit." This country has a long history of using white womanhood to justify violence against black men and the show brought this problem to light in an unexpected way. Gates and her fellow cast member Jasmine Goode also made sure to say that by defending DeMario they weren't slut-shaming Corinne. The discussion of racism and sexism on the show was not perfect, but it did bring light to an issue that can only be fixed through open discussions like the one shown on Bachelor in Paradise.

[Corinne Olympios (left), and DeMario Jackson (right)]

While the discussion of racism and sexism did add more importance to the show, the discussion on consent seemed too scripted and lacked any outside experts to add to the discussion or resources for viewers who might be victims of sexual assault to take advantage of. On the topic of consent, it seemed that the show very much wanted to use the discussion of what consent is in order to prove their innocence in regards to the allegations. In an interview with the Huffington Post Kristen Houser, Chief Public Affairs Officer for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, observed:

“People were very focused on what was criminal or wasn’t criminal. That’s fine if you want to only focus on rape, but if you want to talk about responsible standards, healthy relationships, how do we look out for one another, that’s about intervening [in situations] that aren’t so egregious that they’re criminal, but you want better for one another. I feel like that’s the part of the conversation that didn’t happen at all.”

The host and cast seemed to have the right things to say regarding the topic of consent and how consent is given, but when it came to the topic of consent when alcohol is involved the cast seemed to struggle more. This conversation very much reflects reality. We are very clear as to what consent means and looks like, however, when alcohol is involved it becomes a different ball game.

While the discussion on Bachelor in Paradise of consent, sexism, and racism in regards to sexual assault probably didn’t make drastic positive changes in preventing sexual assault, it did prove that having these tough conversations doesn’t have to be scary.

D'Zurilla, Christie. “'Bachelor in Paradise' Cast Talks Race, Consent and How Bad They All Feel for DeMario Jackson.”Los Angeles Times, 16 Aug. 2017, 12:21, www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-entertainment-news-updates-august-bachelor-in-paradise-1502893364-htmlstory.html.

Fleiss, Mike. “Bachelor in Paradise .” Bachelor in Paradise , season 4, episode 2, ABC, 15 Aug. 2017.

Gray, Emma. “'Bachelor In Paradise' Tried To Address Racism And Consent With Mixed Results.” The Huffington Post, 16 Aug. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bachelor-in-paradise-tried-to-address-racism-and-consent-with-mixed-results_us_5993acb0e4b0e789a947b9dd?utm_hp_ref=the-bachelor.