Former bachelorette Andi Dorfman has penned an insightful guest column for The Hollywood Reporter about the sexist double-standards of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. The season 10 star says she came face-to-face with the sexism surrounding the franchise after she experienced a ferocious, slut-shaming backlash from the media. During the live After The Final Rose special, runner-up Nick questioned why she brought two men — him and the ultimate winner, Josh — to the fantasy suite. The scandalous implication is that Dorfman had sex with two men (who have professed their love for her and brought her home to their families, by the way). Gasp!
"After that aired, I saw clips of national news anchors on TV calling me a slut. Verbatim. On live national television, calling me a slut," Dorfman writes. "You never see them say that about the Bachelor, [even though] almost every Bachelor has sex with everyone he goes into the fantasy suites with." She continues, "The male lead is never called a manwhore. But when a woman who is in the same exact situation does it, she gets labeled a slut and it's all of a sudden newsworthy."
Dorfman notes that this treatment from the media stems from the backwards notion that "sex has to happen on a deeper level when it comes to women, but not when it comes to men." She adds, "The fact that we accept these actions from a Bachelor but not a Bachelorette is sexism at its finest." Precisely. And after 20 seasons, it's getting a little old, isn't it?