According to spoilers, a few women have already been chosen for the next season ofThe Bachelor. Yet despite the new bachelor himself, Nick Viall being 35, the ages listed for his contestants range from 23-25 years old. I think if the show wanted Nick to have a real chance at love they would cast the women in his age group or a little bit older. We have not seen Nick successfully find love with the age groups he has chosen so far on the various Bachelor shows, so it might be time to try something new.
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When I looked back to see the ages of the three women he pursued on previous shows, there was Andi Dorfman (29) Kaitlyn Bristowe (31) and Bachelor in Paradise contestant Jen Saviano (26). So, if you look at the age differences they are four to nine years apart, and Nick is older than all three women. If Nick did not succeed with women who did not have as large of an age gap with him, it seems strange the show runners would choose women with a 10 to 12 year age difference. It seems clear that the show is not honoring his age at all. Now of course when the season begins, there might be a few age appropriate women in their thirties or closer to Nick’s age, but we will all have to wait to see. However in The Bachelorette, we do not see this same trend, as we usually see men older than the bachelorette or around the same age.
Of course love can happen with people who are in different age groups, but in the case of the new bachelor, it seems like it might benefit him if he can date within a few years of his own age group. I’m still baffled why the TV show believes that men have to date younger women, as we constantly see in the Bachelor franchise. The show normalizes the old stereotypes that men should date younger women, when in reality men might have better relationships if they focused on other qualities than just finding someone younger than themselves. Age is just a number, but life experiences and compatibility might help people grow together who are in similar stages of their life. The question also arises that men can date younger women, but women cannot date younger men which is a stereotype I feel the TV show normalizes. When we look at celebrities this is far from the case. Plenty of Hollywood women break the stereotype of the older man/younger women trend.
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It seems like The Bachelor’s new season might make the mistake of casting a much younger group of contestants for Nick to date. The TV show has a huge audience and platform to start to show more balance and diversity in moving away from the old female and male stereotypes, and the falsity of what love needs to look like (romance and ball gowns). Hopefully, the façade of stereotypical love and courtship can be more relatable to everyone who watches. I hope in the upcoming season this becomes as important as the entertainment factor, and balance is made a priority in order to showcase much more than just fancy dates and drama.
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