reality tv

We need to talk about Paddy's deeply problematic comments about Brooke and Alex on Paradise.

Bachelor in Paradise just took a giant step forward for LBGTI representation on mainstream television.

…But in a matter of seconds, it took a huge leap back.

When Alex Nation chose Brooke Blurton for her single date, the first same-sex date in Bachelor history, it should have been cause for celebration. While only a segment of the LBGTI community – it should have provided a shred of hope for the future of the community’s representation on not only The Bachelor, but the rest of prime time reality TV. Perhaps, even, paving the way for a same-sex version of the program.

Instead, it merely gave fuel to the tired, and downright offensive, straight male trope of festishising bisexual women, disparaging those who identify so as though they exist purely for male entertainment.

Thanks to the problematic comments of Paddy Colliar, who leapt to the opportunity to sexualise the romance blossoming between the Brooke and Alex, a moment that should have been monumental for Australian television was tainted.

It leads us to question why this man was given a soapbox by the network.

“I hope there’s oil and like massages and that and that we get to watch it back,” Paddy said to the group following Alex’s decision.

“That’s hot. That’s actually hot.”

But he wasn’t done there with the “locker room” rhetoric of so many men before him.

Speaking directly to the camera, he later added: “I’d love to be a fly on the wall for those two. You know… you can pause live TV now. I’d love to pause it on that.”

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“Mate I’m just telling it how it is,” he laughed.

“I’m just telling it how it is…we’re all thinking it.”

Precisely no one was thinking it, but Twitter did share one thought following his slimy outburst.

That Paddy should be voted off the island. Stat.

Here’s how viewers reacted:

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