Image via Paramount Pictures.
Like many people, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette is my not-so-secret guilty pleasure. It wasn’t the contestant’s attempts to win Sam Wood’s heart that I’m fascinated by – it’s the battle of the “low maintenance” versus the “high maintenance” women that intrigues me.
Each week, we’ve saw those who weren’t keen to dip their heads in buckets of freezing cold water or go on national television bare-faced dubbed ‘high maintenance’, as though it’s a terrible, shameful thing.
After one episode, I asked my partner which category he thought I fell under. Without a moment of hesitation, he replied: “High maintenance, for sure”. Immediately, I felt pissed off and hurt.
But after I shrugging off my annoyance I realised that there’s no solid reason to brandish someone who’s “high maintenance” as superficial, or someone less deserving than their “low maintenance” sisters.
Yes, I might use double the beauty products other women use to get ready each day. No, I’m not the biggest fan of beer, sports or going out sans makeup.
But I’m also someone who is smart, speaks my mind, has empathy for others and can – shock horror – associate with those who don’t share the same passion for beauty as me. (Post continues after gallery.)
High-maintenance characters on screen
Why is that something that I should be ashamed of? Or try to play down around others so as to craft the image that I’m a laid back au naturel kind of woman (not that there’s anything wrong with that if it’s your bag).
I’m sick of feeling ashamed because I’m not naturally the “cool girl”, the ‘dream woman’ Gillian Flynn describes in her novel Gone Girl as the “hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes and burping. They never get angry… and let their men do whatever they want.”
