Season 28 of ABC’s “The Bachelor,” finally wrapped up on March 25, relieving fans after eagerly awaiting Joey Graziadei’s final rose. The build-up and anticipation put those, like myself, on the edge of their seat every episode. Spoilers, theories and opinions have been posted on a multitude of social media platforms. While most of these have been lighthearted, one topic was boosted on social media that’s more upsetting – putting down the women on the show. TikTok and Instagram comments on women’s accounts, like Daisy Kent, Maria Georgas, and Rachel Nance, have been filled with hateful and racist remarks. While the drama on the show can be exciting, we need to ask ourselves the question of when it crosses a line.
Joey, a 28-year-old tennis pro from Pennsylvania, started the season with 32 girlfriends. Well, not exactly… more like 32 potential partners. By the end of the season, he found “the one,” by spending 10 weeks dating each woman, eliminating a certain amount each week. In week eight’s episode, Joey went on three dates with Kelsey Anderson, Daisy and Rachel. In the episode before, Joey visited these women’s hometowns to meet their families and closest friends. In these episodes, the audience got more screen time with each woman, and got to see their personalities more. This visibility led to a lot of hate about each woman.
After “The Women Tell All” episode that aired on March 18, women who had been eliminated came back to the show to speak their truth. Rachel was one of them, getting chosen to participate in the “hot seat” and talk one-on-one with the show’s host, Jesse Palmer. Here, she told the audience about the hate comments she’d received, even expressing that some comments said they would “throw up” whenever she and Joey would kiss.
Rachel is of Black and Filipino descent, and she said it made her a target for racist comments. These came flooding in when she showed her family to the audience in the hometown episode. Rachel said her culture and language were being attacked.
“I guess I would just want to remind people that, you know, we’re not just faces on a screen,” Rachel said.
Jesse empathized with her, asking those in the audience to raise their hands if they’ve ever been victimized by online bullying. Nearly the whole room had hands up. Joey eventually joined Rachel, comforting her with the experiences she had. While Rachel was eliminated, it’s clear to say the bachelor still cares for all of the women.
“We love your strong opinions. I think it’s so important that we uplift these women, who are brave enough to be vulnerable and to share their stories with Joey and with all of us at home,” Jesse said. “These women, they deserve our praise and not our hate.”
Other women from the show shared the mean comments they’d received as well, like Sydney Gordon, who had to turn off her TikTok comments when an episode of her yelling at Maria came out. Sydney owns a vintage clothing store, and fans were starting to attack her job, which had nothing to do with the drama. The women involved with the drama, Lea Cayanan, Sydney and Maria all made up during the Tell All.
After a very emotional episode on March 25, Joey proposed to Kelsey, leaving Daisy behind.
Though public figures have been bullied online since the beginning of the internet, hate comments for women, especially women of color, seemingly gain more traction than they do for men. This phenomenon shows issues in media and in society that women still face today whether they’re in the public eye or not.