by Rachel Lu
My worst fear came true in this episode: our king Thomas N. was eliminated. To say I didn’t see this coming would be a lie, especially given how little our only Asian Jenn-tleman was featured in the show.
“Let’s put the past in the past,” Jenn said after sending Thomas off, and reluctantly, this column must do so too. If this is all very unsatisfying to you, I recommend watching the Wang Fu production parody of the show, the Asian Bachelorette, from seven years ago that features Simu Liu.
Seven years later, the show’s representation of a diverse cast remains stagnant, with only a slim pick of Asian men. However, this is not in line with promises made by the Bachelor franchise in the summer of 2020.
Amidst racial reckoning around the country, the executive producers of the show from ABC promised “to expand diversity in our cast, in our staff, and most importantly, in the relationships that we show on television” in an effort to reflect the true love stories in the world, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
After the statement, the show cast its first ever Black bachelor, Matt James, however the surface level diversity in the cast did not directly translate to visibility on screen. These insights arose through the Instagram account, @bachelorData, run by an amateur data analyst and fan of the show, who concluded that the BIPOC members of the cast had less screen time than their White counterparts.
@BachelorData also collects and visualizes data from the contestants’ Instagram followings to gauge viewer interest in the men. Suzana, the mastermind behind the account, told the Hollywood Reporter that the contestants’ social media following is a direct response to their presence on the show.
“If somebody is on all the way to week six and hardly shown, of course America is not going to show up to follow the contestant. Because they don’t know who the person is,” Suzana said.
Yet, the same unfortunate trend continues in Jenn’s season with BIPOC men having far less screen time and Instagram growth. For our only Asian contestant, the data looks leaked, and the show’s producers are the ones to blame.
Within the first 24 hours of the first episode, Thomas actually ranked number 6 amongst the 25 members of the cast in Instagram growth, showing that there was originally hype from viewers around his presence on the show. Yet, as the episodes proceeded, Thomas had less and less screen time; by episode 3, Thomas ranked bottom in screen time and second to last for Instagram growth. By episode 4, Thomas ranked last. He was also one of three men that had not gotten a kiss from Jenn, another being Sam N. who Jenn had to send home early.
This data shows that simply casting a diverse cast is far from enough while giving them screen time and chances for viewers to get to know them are the bare minimum of representation. While the casting decisions are heading in the right direction, the show is lacking in fulfilling its promise of portraying what love looks like in the world.
In this episode, Jonathan and Jenn had a steamy hot tub one-on-one and the two kissed out in the rain, a moment described by Jonathan as truly “rom com.” Later, on Jenn’s date with Grant, she opened up about past experiences of racism and Grant professed that he has her back in fighting for racial justice and equality. The two sealed the evening with a kiss and Grant admitted that he may be falling in love.
Yes, big gestures, fortuitous moments, and caught-in-the-rain make outs are “rom com”, but perhaps it is also time to redefine the genre and the endless possibilities for romance. Connecting on a deeper level about your identity and dreams, the way Jenn and Grant did, feels truly meaningful and romantic to me. Recognizing that romance comes in many different shapes and forms is the first step towards a diverse representation of love on screen.
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