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In case you missed it, last night’s episode of The Bachelor was very dramatic.
At the cocktail party the Honey Badger pulled Tenille aside to discuss the fact that she tried to leave the mansion at the cocktail party the week before.
While at first, she was reluctant the throw the mean girl trio (Cat, Romy, and Alisha) under the bus, he eventually built a game involving candles, in which he asked her to push the three candles into the “nice side of the table” or the “mean side of the table” to which she confidently pushed them to the mean side.
It was all very kind, but that’s not the main lesson we can learn from last night’s episode.
What was so deeply important was the way Nick Cummins continued to handle the situation.
He pulled Cat aside and informed her that her name kept coming up when bitchiness was involved, and swiftly informed her that it was time to go. Once the cocktail party began, he eliminated Alisha, a move he probably assumed would weed out Romy too.
And with that, the trio of mean girls were gone.
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He did not indulge the tears or excuses of these bullies, but trusted the word of the victims who were being gaslighted and attacked on national television.
While the Honey Badger dealt with the blatant bullying on the show in a textbook perfect way, the same can't be said for many real-life situations of bullying.
For many girls and women being bullied at school or at work, they are still encouraged to 'take responsibility' for their actions. They are often asked what they did to encourage the behaviour, or given strategies to prevent being more bullied.
When I was bullied as a 16-year-old at school I was told by teachers to stop talking to a male friend of mine.
Following in the footsteps of other girls and women being bullied, I was told to change my behaviour.
To see such a lack of tolerance of bullying alongside a deep care for the victim on national television is a huge step, and one that should be celebrated.
In so many real life situations, groups of mean girls operate without consequence, forcing the victim of their terrorism to move schools, quit their jobs, delete their social media or in many cases just fade into the background without speaking a word, because they have been told to keep a low profile.
Last night's episode of The Bachelor taught an important lesson about victim blaming when it comes to the bullying of women, and if we as a society approached bullying like the Honey Badger did last night, we would be living in a more peaceful world.
Women being kind to each other should be the norm, and if bullying continues to go untolerated, one day it will be.
And if that's not enough to convince you to be kind, we also learnt that being nasty does not get you a Wallaby boyfriend.