Bachelors, Bachelorettes, and Bachelor Pads

I'm not gonna lie. I get excited every Monday to watch the seasons of The Bachelor, The Bachelorette and The Bachelor Pad. I know, don't judge me.

I first got into The Bachelor couple years ago, then I stopped watching it. Then I began watching it again on Season 14 with Jake Pavelka as the bachelor with my housemates. We would gather in front of the TV on Monday's and watch it together as we talk about how much we hate and make fun of some of the contestants. At first I liked Michelle, but then she got crazy. It wasn't her fault though. Gia was my favourite as she is always so sweet and nice. I didn't like Tenley because she was always in your face and always talking about her ex-husband. Then Vienna, I didn't like her either because she is very dramatic. No wonder why Jake an Vienna split shortly after the season finale! They both loved media attention too much and competed against each other to see who gets more media attention.

After that I told myself I was not gonna watch The bachelorette with Ali, because I didn't like her in the Bachelor because she also created unnecesary drama in the house. Maybe producers did it to get more rating. I don't know. But I ended up watching the bachelorette anyway because I watched the first episode and then I just wanted to know what was gonna happen. I actually gained more respect for Ali because when she found out that Justin had a girlfriend back home, she confronted him in the best way possible. She was a strong woman and she wouldn't let a jerk get away with lies. Way to go, girl! I actually liked that she ended up with Roberto. Since their date doing the Lion King dance, it was noticeable they they have a strong chemistry for each other. I also liked how the runner-up, Chris, was okay with Ali's final decision and, it was kinda cheesy, but i liked the final part when Ali told him that she was in love with someone else, he saw a rainbow on the sky, and that's when he knew that his mom was telling him that everything was all right. I am happy they are still together. I wish them happiness in their relationship. Seems like one of the most realistic relationships created on reality TV.

After that was the Bachelor Pad. Don't remember much about it, except that I liked that Natalie and Dave won the quater of a million dollars in the end. Natalie seems like a cool girl and someone I would be friends with. Although that show always seem to focus more on certain people than others, the ones that create drama in the house. For a while I stopped watching it because it was so ridicuous that the house was divided into the popular ones and the underdogs. Certainly the popular ones, the couples, stay strong and they influence on others to win. I hated that, it was like high school. I also remember there were no hot guys there.

Then there was a new season of the bachelor, season 15 with Brad Womack, or how I saw it once on internet: Picky Bastard, Take 2 (since he was on the bachelor before, but didn't propose to any woman). I thought Chantal was great for Brad. She was really in love with him and was able to give it all for him. Unfortunetely, Brad's family- mainly the women- thought that they would have more in common with Emily just because she is a mom already. Personally, I think Emily was too much for Brad. She has lived a married life, has a daughter, and been through a lot. Brad, not so much. He couldn't even pick a girl in the first time. Emily is still also holding on to Ricki. It's a sad story, true, but I think it's the story that makes everyone pitty for her and makes everybody think that she deserves this more than anybody else. I am not saying that she doesn't deserve it, I'm just saying that every woman there deserved it as much as she did. Most women there had no strings attached and were able to give it all for Brad. I just don't think Emily was ready yet.

Unluckily for Ashley, the bachelor didn't turn out well for her. But she got a second shot at the Bachelorette. In my opinion, it was kind of a boring season of the Bachelorette, like not many exciting things happened, except for the Bentley thing. Bentley was the symbol of everything a girl hates in a man. He's a liar, two-faced, and didn't care about her feelings. I can't believe he would say all those things he said on national television. Like, does he ever think that women watch this and any that will encounter him will think he's a jerk?? With such an attitude like this, he will never find a woman. But I guess we all women have met a 'Bentley' at some point in our lives. We just need to get smart and not let this type of guy get away with it. On the other hand, I am really glad she ended up with JP. You can see that everytime JP and Ashley were together, his face glows and he never stops smiling. Genuine smile. He's so sweet and understanding about the Bentely thing - like when he was in Hong Kong, most guys freaked out. But JP, he was understanding and was glad that at least she told him about it and was honest about it. In that season, I really liked William, the one she had a first date. Too bad that the comedy roast roasted him and banished any chance he had in the finale. It happens to all of us, saying the wrong things at the wrong time, which ends up costing us a lot. Too bad for William.

I am currently watching Season 2 of The bachelor pad, and oh my it's intense. It's very dramatic, to say the least. What happens when you put Jake, Vienna, and Vienna's current boyfriend Kasey (from Ali's season - the one who got a tattoo of guarding and protecting her heart-) under one roof? Explosion happens. Jake wanted to make up with Vienna, apologize, and get a closure with her. His actions seem pretty genuine to me. But according to Vienna, that's just an image he wants to portray on TV. He could have talked to her all this time they have been broken up, but no, he had to wait until they were both on the bachelor pad. Media attention again? Of course, Vienna always takes any chance she gets to be over-dramatic on the show, just because Jake was there. And Kasey, well, he's guarding and protecting her heart. But Kasey is very biased. Well, of course, he must be on his gf side, and defend her all the time. But Kasey only has heard Vienna's version of what happened to them. Crazy and annoying couple. Then there is the Blake-Holly-Michael love triangle. I kinda feel related to Holly. She was in love, she got engaged, then call off the engagement because she felt she wasn't ready, wanted to get back with Michael, but he's already too heartbroken, comes to Bachelor pad, finds a cute guy, but ex-fiance is also in the house. Blake seems to be like a Bentely to me in the bachelor pad. He led on to Melissa, making her think that Blake really likes him, but he actually doesn't care for her, and wants to be with Holly, but can't because Michael is always around. Holly feels free as she is in the dating world again. She gets the excitement of flirting with someone for the first time, playing the 'i like you but I don't know if you like me' game, getting to know someone, and simply hanging out with no strings attached. Yeah, that's cool. But you can see that Michael is sooo much into her, and wants to do anything to get her back. Like, you can see his face when you know that that someone wants the other person for the rest of their lives. I feel it too, Michael. Poor guy. I hope they work it out because I would really like them to be together for good.

I know, there's just so much about these shows. Actually, it's just drama and drama. But you know, I lack drama in my life (Not That I'm Complaining!!!) so I need to get some drama from TV. Like I studied in Communications Studies, watching reality TV is exciting and turns us on. We just want more of it and we feed on suspense and drama. There's something that makes you think that drama is real, but at the same time, you know there's no 'real' in reality TV, that most things are scripted and/or planned to get more rating. Of course, you shouldn't judge people solely from watching TV. Oops, that's what I did in this blog. But just so you know, reality TV is made to create opinions from the viewer, and that's what it did to me. However, I also know that reality TV only portrays a small part of reality and that shows are edited, little scripted, and someway planned. The opinions here are only from what i saw on TV, but I know that I must keep certain skepticism when it comes to the people on reality tv and their actions. But they certainly know how to create shows that makes me wanna watch every week.

you are what you wear

This is a very delicate topic I'd like to talk about, and by delicate I mean that there is sooo much to talk about this.

I was watching an episode of What Not To Wear today on TV - because I have an essay to write about the show for my Popular Culture class. Me and my friend were watching it, and we couldn't help but watch the show in a very critical way and we ended up just talking about society structures.

What I am going to be talking in my essay is motly the idea that reality make-over shows like What Not To Wear show how now, that we are found in this post-modern era, the working class is erased into a middle class society; in other words, the working class has been given the opportunity of 'upward mobility', or moving up to the middle class. So this is basically how they work: the 'experts' find this working class men/women who are sooo into their work that they have no time to take care of themselves, and looking physically good for themselves, their families, their friends, or their workers. But that is about to change when these 'experts' who act like the great godmother from fairy tales or the angel of miracles appear to their lives. First, these experts examine the poor quality of their physique and critizise their poor and wrong choices of lifestyle. Then, the working citizen goes through an extensive and intensive transformation. After that, the moment of truth holds when they reveal themselves to their friends and family, and EVERYONE praises their changes and say how Much better they look compared to the old version of themselves. Finally, the contestant say a few words like "you have totally changed my life" or "now i have so much confident about myself" or "this is so much better".

Hmm...let me rewind a little bit. Before these candidates they must go through a phase of 'audition' where they or their families/friends explain WHY they must be on the show. And the worst cases are picked, in order to make a HUGE transformation (but at the same time it also has to be do-able). When the experts meet the contestant for the fist time, at least in this episode of What Not To Wear I watched today, they drown them with phrases like "you look like a geeky teenage boy stuck in their eighties like the New Kids On The Block", "you look like you're going to a funeral", and all these phrases that start with "you look like...". So they draw comparisons of their physiques with the most hiddeous images they can ever think of, humiliating them, dominishing them, putting them in shame, making fun of them, criticizing them. It is a kind of way to say 'sorry, looking like this, you will not be accepted in modern society". But it's okay, that's where the experts are here for, right?

Basically the solution to this big ugly problem is, well you guessed it, SHOP! You have an aweful wardrope. Shop. You have a poor collection of shoes. Shop. Your living room looks empty. Shop. Your face needs enhancement. Shop. You need to eat healthier food. Shop. Yeah, consumerism is the answer to all your problems! In What Not To Wear, contestants are given a credit card with $3000 to spend on clothes they would like to wear - considering their expert opinions on what they should be wearing. You see, in order to get where you want, you have to be the perfect consumer, spending lots of money on transforming yourself. Not just cheap accesory, they are usually the high class, label, fancy, expensive kind of accesories you can get similar anywhere else for a cheaper price.

To be brutally honest, I don't even like going shopping anymore. The clothes and stores I used to love, now they sell really poor quality stuff, and really, they are ALL the same in all stores! Take the example of what I call "gladiator shoes". seriously, why would anybody like those kind of shoes? They just look horrible! Yet, they sell those kind of shoes in all shoe store you can possibly find, from like $20 a pair to like $700 a pair. No, thanks. I will not pay a ridiculous amount of money for ugly looking shoes.



The clothes they sell now, are either extra thin you can see your skin pores, or the plaid shirts they really ran out of possible good looking color combinations so they just jumble all the colours in one. Don't forget that shirts are getting smaller and tighter. Jeans, they are made for one type of body. It is extremely hard for me to find clothings that I really like and at the same time they are of considerable pricing. Maybe it's just me, but the clothes they sell now are getting either more boring or more eccentric that I will not wear in a million years, not even if they paid me (well, maybe).

I looked into my closet, and said to myself a couple times "I need to change my wardrope. I need new clothes. Most of this I've had it for couple years." Yet, when I go shopping for clothes, I can hardly find anything that is my taste on clothes.

My worst case was when I went to Hong Kong this past summer. I was given the money to spend on clothes, and got the opportunity to go to explore malls and street stores. Let me give you an approximate figure: out of the 105 shops I walked by, I went into 15 of them, and bought a total of 1 dress. Seriously. There was just nothing I really liked, and clothes are the same everywhere! And that's where I came with my phrase that Hong Kong girls wear pijamas. Almost like 90% of the women wore the same thing: long white shirt with a random print (celebrity, Eiffel Tower, cat, etc), black leggins, loose vest, and boots. I felt tomboyish wearing jeans and vans.
Same clothing style, same hair style, they are pretty much products of cookie cutters. But that's just me and my opinion coming from a girl raised with western ideaologies going to Hong Kong for the first time since a baby, no offect intended.



It is indeed what you wear that matters. You are what you wear. By wearing a certain style, it is almost impossible not getting judged by other people, or getting tagged by other people. It's called branding, when a certain label carries a certain image. For example, if you wear American Eagle you are preppy. If you carry a Louis Vutton bag, uou must be rich. If you are a guy who wears Hollister, you must be gay. But really, these are all stupid stereotypes. I remember when I used to be "emo" or "punk", and I searched for photos of them and kind of assimilated that image of them: black clothes, belts with studs, bracelets, wristbands, fake piercings, black nail polish, etc. I considered myself "one of them". I came across various people, who were dressed like that, but they claimed "not be be emo and don't wanna be tagged as being 'emo'". But seriously, if you don't want to be judged or tagged for that, then why in hell would you dress like one? Individuality is not an excuse. Cookie cutters again.



But the worst is, when people try to be so fasionable. I remember this comic from The Excalibur (campus newspaper) of a 'typical' girl at York (given that York is considered as a fashionable university, where hallways are like catwalks). She is wearing a coat, a shirt, pants, shoes, bag, and they all come with like the Mastercard commercials ("TNA purse: $75 -I am making this up as I have no clue how much they cost but I remember them being expensive). And at the bottom it says: "Paying lots of money to look like everyone else: priceless" I almost cracked laughing when I read that because it is so true. And nothing annoys me more than those HUGE TNA bags or purses everybody carries. They are GINORMOUS!!! What do they carry in there? A corpse? Their whole house? And they annoy me when I am walking behind them and they poke my chest or my face.



It is getting late now, and I am getting kind of tired. So I will wrap up by saying that I need to change my wardrope to different kinds of clothes. Not because I want to, but because I am forced to. Fashion changes so fast. Next year, i will be throwing out my new clothes and exchange them for even uglier ones. Not able to find clothes that are my style and fitting to my budget is so sad it makes me wanna cry. I hope next fashion will be counteractive to this one and changes into something I would actually like, please.