This week’s episode of the The Bachelor = so many crying girls. The Bachelor is overflowing with sexist themes, racial tension, framing, and plentiful examples of poor race and gender representations in the media; it isn’t a surprise that this week’s episode gave me the perfect material on which to write a blog. In sum, the girls were getting really desperate this week. More and more of them were being kicked off and the remaining girls were panicking. One of the things that stood out to me most this episode was how much the girls fought with each other. They lied and purposely sabotaged one another ruthlessly. The episode brought this quote by Chimamanda Nigozi Adichie to mind “But why do we teach to aspire to marriage, and we don't teach boys the same? We raise girls to each other as competitors, not for jobs or for accomplishments. Which I think can be a good thing, But for the attention of men.”

One of the women, Leah, was the only girl left to have not been asked on a one on one date. Her anger and desperation caused her to purposely undermine the woman who seemed closest to Ben. It’s pretty obvious that this whole show encourages these types of interactions, feeding off the drama. It almost seems as though the whole point of the show is to orchestrate the ultimate cat fight and then broadcast the breakdown. After Leah sabotaged her competitor she was kicked off by Ben. Chaos ensues and the producers get their money shot: Leah’s major breakdown. The episode revolved around the devolution of Leah. It isn’t surprising but it is depressing. This episode of The Bachelor (or any episode really) is an excellent example of Reality TV capturing that perfect money shot.