American Gurls #3: Normative Strangeness in Bachelor Nation
On fake eyelashes, queer subtext, and the unexpected subversion of America's most loved (and hated) reality TV dating show.
Welcome to She Was an American Gurl, a 5.5-part culture series for paid subscribers to Burbank Industries. Thank you for supporting my work! Wanna join us? You can do that here:
In this installment, we’re discussing the queer undertones and unexpected subversion of America’s straightest TV franchise, The Bachelor. But first, some updates from Burbank Industries:
What I’ve been up to: I’ve had a lot of public appearances recently! I got to talk to kindred spirit of the newsletter Sarah Marshall about the true origins of the pro-life movement on her podcast You’re Wrong About. Sarah and I also recorded a bonus episode on May December, Todd Haynes’ take on the Mary Kay Letourneau case. (I’m so mad Charles Melton didn’t get an Oscar nomination ☹️.) A big welcome to everyone who subscribed to Burbank Industries after listening to me on these pods! There are way more of you than I could have anticipated and I’m so glad you’re here! Thank you for supporting independent journalism! If you just can’t get enough YWA/Burbank Industries crossover content, you might enjoy this discussion of And Just Like That — Sarah helps me solve the mystery of why we watch this show even though we know it’s bad.
I was also interviewed for this Study Hall report on the fate of feminist media, and in a TV segment for our local PBS affiliate. Click here to see my Serious Journalist Listening face.
At my other newsletter — Gilmore Women, which I cowrite with my good friend Maggie Mertens — we got to interrogate Atlantic film critic David Sims on the television landscape of the early 2000s w/r/t Gilmore Girls.
For the South Seattle Emerald, I reported on the Senate Democrats’ hearing on the current state of abortion access and bills introduced in the Washington and Idaho state legislatures that would target abortion providers and trans kids, evidence of the ongoing nexus between anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ sentiment and policies — as I told Sarah on YWA, this kind of thing is a desperate grab from a group losing power, but no less harmful for being one.
And for Crosscut, I wrote about Washington State University’s new-ish medical school, which is working to train and place physicians in Eastern Washington in an effort to lighten the urban/rural health care access divide — a dynamic that, as a person who covers abortion policy, is close to my heart.
Thanks for being part of Burbank Industries! Now let’s get to the real reason we’re all here: to watch Jesse Palmer announce, with performative sorrow in his voice, that Joey, ladies, this is the final rose tonight.
Gender is Queer for Everyone, Even in Bachelor Nation
The Bachelor Franchise is for me what the NFL is for people who care about football: Engaging with it is largely indefensible, its conservatism is next-level, it objectively causes harm to the people involved, and it’s so broadly popular it will never die, not even when its own sizable missteps suggest that it deserves to. And I’m so caught up in the spectacle that even though I know I should, I just can’t look away.
The Bachelor Franchise sells a myth of straight romance and self-actualization through love. It’s a specter of reality TV chaos marketed in a fairy tale package. It features ballgowns as daywear, more fake eyelashes than you’ve ever seen in your entire life, strong evangelical vibes, and, to borrow a perfect phrase from Emma Cline’s novel The Guest, “girls in drag as girls.”