Commenting on the latest episode of The Bachelor, host Chris Harrison made a giant leap in logic in comparing Madison Prewett to Luke Parker. One stayed true to herself the entire time, while the other sex-shamed a woman
For all the missteps The Bachelor has taken portraying their contestants as one-dimensional figures, the producers took a hard left turn with Madison, avoiding the easy narrative of focusing on her virginity from the start. Unlike past contestants like Ashley Iaconetti and Colton Underwood, the audience wasn’t aware that Madison was saving sex for marriage until hometowns. It allowed us to gather a fuller picture of her without focusing on a personal choice that isn’t as outlandish as the show has made it out to be in past seasons. That part has been refreshing. But in the last episode, the subject of sex could not take a back seat. Producers leaned all the way into it, dumping all the women into the same hotel room, forcing them to bring up the uncomfortable conversations of intimacy. Madison’s virginity was the dominant storyline from start to finish during Monday’s episode, and, unfortunately for her, Luke P. was one of the trending topics on Twitter.
On the Bachelor Happy Hour podcast (via People), Harrison asked former Bachelorette and podcast host Rachel Lindsay, “Is Madison going to be villianized the same way Luke P. was? It’s not completely dissimilar.” Harrison tries to draw a line between Madison and misogynist Luke Parker from Hannah Brown’s season, and then goes on to claim that he doesn’t have a problem with Parker. It follows a troubling trend of Harrison not sticking up for Brown, who was set up for failure with the amount of ill-intentioned men who were cast on her season. Harrison sticks his foot further in his mouth, adding, “Say what you will about Luke P. last season, at least he was who he was from day one.”
Harrison is clearly against bashing his most despised villains because he knows that doing so prevents them from returning to the franchise to stir up further drama. It’s dangerous and wrong, however, to put Luke P. and Madison in the same sentence, since one set a terrible example for men and the other a strong example for women. Madison warned Peter beforehand that she would be uncomfortable if he was intimate with other women because it goes against what she stood for. She didn’t shame him for the decisions he made, which, given the format of the show, are acceptable. Luke P., on the other hand, waited until Hannah went on fantasy suite dates with other men to voice his concerns, and then insinuated that she had acted reprehensibly by sleeping with other men.
The other obvious difference is that Luke P. had already had sex before. Madison had not. Neither choice is wrong. But it came off as hypocritical when Luke P. was calling Hannah out for having pre-marital sex when he himself had done so. Madison didn’t point a finger at Peter. Harrison’s comments linking the two situations are the latest example that the long-time host feels comfortable saying whatever he wants about his contestants, even if he is completely out of line, because he knows people are going to watch his show no matter what.
Next: Bachelor Fans Think Peter Gets Engaged to [SPOILER] in After the Final Rose
The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8pm on ABC.
Source: People
