So, as it turns out, Ten released a cheeky sneak peek of the new Bachelor season a few weeks ago, and somehow there’s been barely any commentary on who the mystery lass in the preview is??? C’mon reality TV nerds, you have ONE job.
The sneaky preview shows this year’s Bachelor, Jimmy Nicholson, meeting an unnamed contestant who plays some airline role-play with him, and hello yes this is already a steamy Wattpad fic and I love it.
The mystery woman seems to be doing a great job at piquing Jimmy’s interest, and I don’t blame him?? I need to find out who she is ASAP.
“Welcome aboard Bachelor Airways, flight 2021,” she says in the preview while smiling at a grinning Jimmy, and wow I’m already rooting for her.
Aside from the fact that this mystery lass is drop-dead gorgeous, has a smile with the warmth of a thousand suns, and is clearly doing a great job besotting Jimmy, I’m also loving the fact that she isn’t the usual white, blonde Barbie type that we typically see on this show.
Not that there’s anything wrong with being a gorgeous, blonde bombshell – but when 9/10 women on a show about finding love look like that, it sends the message that women who deviate from those European beauty standards aren’t as attractive or worthy of love. Add in villain and white innocence tropes, and we usually see women of colour as unloveable or unworthy partners.
Anyway, this preview has me hoping we are getting the diversity we’ve been asking, nay, begging for these recent years.
Considering the treatment of women of colour on this show previously, from fellow contestants and viewers alike, I’ve become super sceptical of diverse casting and the impacts that actually has on women that have to deal with racist drama for the sake of diversity.
But since this year our Bachelor Jimmy Nicholson is a person of colour (and so is this year’s Bachelorette Brooke Blurton), I’m hoping the show is way more diverse and kinder to its POC contestants.
Whoever the mystery women in this preview is, I am SO excited to get to know her on the show.
