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.”
“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:
Top Comments
So, wait... what? Everyone's sitting around glued to this show that based on the premise of random strangers getting it on, and this bloke isn't allowed to be titillated by the thought of two attractive women together? Would the same rule apply if it was another woman commenting about two women together? Would it be okay if someone said they wanted to be a fly on the wall if it was two blokes? Seriously. The bloke is allowed to be turned on by whatever the hell turns him on. All this outrage over two women dating not being for others' entertainment. THE WHOLE SHOW IS ABOUT PEOPLE SHAGGING FOR OTHERS' ENTERTAINMENT. You watch trash TV, you're gonna get... trash.
Dont say that there are some who love this shit
At the heart of it, I think he should be allowed to find the idea of any two people together attractive, without society lecturing him on what does and doesn't turn him on. Is he meant to suppress those feelings? Or maybe we all expected him to flat out lie at the question of "what are your thoughts".
That a show that appeals to the lowest common denominator would give him a platform is almost irrelevant - they are not there to be moral or "not air anything that could be offensive", they are there for ratings and exposure, and airing comments that they know for a fact will have the outrage brigade giving them free publicity is exactly how any successful reality TV producer would go about it.
What if a lesbian said she found the idea of those two women dating "hot" and would love to be a fly on the wall, would it be ok to paint her as some kind of twisted, inconsiderate, sexual deviant who just sees them as props? Maybe she'd be painted as some kind of #Hero for the LGBTIQ community, being so #brave with her inner most sexual feelings in such a public sphere. Who knows.
Difference being, lesbian relationships are widely fetishised by men, to the point of it being regarded in some sections of society as primarily a thing that exists to turn men on (rather than it being about the two women in the relationship, quite apart from what men think and feel). That's hugely different to one person stating what they personally find a turn-on.