Abstract
I identify key tropes in the television franchise The Bachelor/ette (2002–), mapping the reality TV dating narrative onto Barbie Land and examining the ways in which Barbie (2023) parallels and/or subverts these constructs. Ryan Gosling's remarks that The Bachelorette informed his portrayal of Beach Ken provide a starting point for analysing the ways in which a lack of heteronormative temporality in Barbie Land renders the Barbies free from the burden of patriarchal domesticity. I also consider Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) as reflective of a traditional Bachelorette series lead, and the shortcomings of the TV franchise in terms of platforming people of colour and casting racially diverse leads in the series. I juxtapose these two texts to highlight the ways in which Barbie offers an antithetical microcosm that challenges the heteronormative reality TV dating format and conservative conceits perpetuated by the Bachelor/ette franchise.
Shortly after Barbie's cinematic release in July 2023, an episode of the comedy interview podcast SmartLess featured an interview with the film's director, Greta Gerwig. Gerwig recalled a conversation she had had with Ryan Gosling while they were shooting, in which he compared the Kens to the men on reality TV dating show The Bachelorette. ‘I probably would love The Bachelor and The Bachelorette’, Gerwig said, ‘but I’ve never seen it’ (Gerwig, 2023). In a 2024 interview with Variety, Gosling expanded on how the contestants on The Bachelorette had provided inspiration for his portrayal of Ken. ‘One's the guy that wears glasses. One guy has the one earring. If you were to challenge and do the same thing as that person, you’d be infringing on their identity, and so [my] Ken's identity became the mink’. Gosling drew a compelling comparison between Barbie Land and the Bachelorette mansion: ‘It's not dissimilar, in the sense that they sit around idly waiting for the Bachelorette to acknowledge them. And, yes, they have no attention outside of the attention she gives them’ (Setoodeh, 2024). While Gerwig may not have had The Bachelorette in mind when writing and filming Barbie, the show's influence on Gosling's Beach Ken provides a foundation for examining the connections between Barbie Land and the microcosm of Bachelor Nation. 1 Moreover, part of the Barbie marketing campaign in 2023 involved an explicit crossover with an episode of The Bachelorette, Simu Liu (who played Rival Ken) featuring as both a spokesperson for the movie and a fan of The Bachelor/ette franchise. I argue that the Kens offer an uncanny parallel to the men of The Bachelorette, rendered purposeless in the absence of a heteronormative TV narrative arc. I also consider that while Gerwig's Barbie Land aimed to showcase a racially diverse cast of Barbies, The Bachelor/ette has often fallen short in terms of casting diversity, traditionally favouring leads who fit a more Stereotypical Barbie-shaped mould.
The Bachelor debuted on US network ABC in 2002, with spin-off show The Bachelorette launching the following year. The premise entails the series lead – the Bachelor/Bachelorette – ‘dating’ a mansion full of twenty to thirty people for a number of weeks of filming, eliminating contestants each week with a view to a proposal and engagement in the series finale. In the earlier seasons, the casts were full of earnest dental hygienists and semi-pro athletes who largely fell out of the public eye once eliminated from the show. Over the last decade, however, the evolution of social media and influencer culture has transformed reality TV into a tool that its participants may use to gain public capital and monetise their online following. In How to Win the Bachelor, hosts of the Game of Roses podcast Chad Kultgen and Lizzy Pace referred to the show as ‘a professional sport’ with established rules and strategies for success (2022: x). Yet despite the fact that each new batch of The Bachelor/ette contestants is now populated by fledgling content creators, aspiring podcasters and the Instagram skincare ambassadors of the future, the show's tone and narrative insist that the process is in aid of the most noble goals: love, marriage and family.
Throughout each season, the men of The Bachelorette are shown doing talking-head ‘in-the-moment’ interviews, a caption on the TV screen showing their name, age, job and hometown. Speaking about the contestants’ job titles in 2018, a producer on the show told Entertainment Weekly that ‘so many traditional monikers have been replaced with terms like ‘consultant’ and ‘sales director’. What do these even mean, really? So we decided a few years back to make an effort to not just be satisfied with ‘consultants’ and ‘entrepreneurs’.’ Production therefore often swaps out the competitors’ vague and similar-sounding job titles for identifiers with more humour and personality; over the years, these have included ‘Banjoist’, ‘Meatball Enthusiast’, ‘Amateur Sex Coach’ and ‘Canadian’. When asked if the contestants ever complain about their professional rechristening, the producer said, ‘it does happen. It's more common with men, who can be surprised that we don’t just give the OK to every person who would like to be called an ‘entrepreneur’. That occupation seems to be the catchall for ‘I really don’t know what I’m doing with my life but this sure sounds cool’ (Wilkinson, 2018). The long-running Bachelorette contestant cliché of ‘I’m an entrepreneur’ is an amusing parallel to Beach Ken's infamous ‘My job … it's just “beach”’. Among a cast of many others in the beach industry, the Kens must rely on other signifiers to distinguish themselves, whether that be through a hobby or a hat (or indeed, a mink coat).
As highlighted by Gosling, Barbie Land is, for Ken, not unlike the Bachelorette mansion; he is just a hunk who works in ‘beach’ with the same name as all the other hunks who work in ‘beach’ (the Bachelorette cast is overrun with Coltons, Calebs, Claytons, Jaydens, Jasons, Braydens, Brandons and Brads), standing around hoping to gain the attention and approval of a woman who may or may not give them the time of day. ‘Barbie has a great day every day’, the Narrator (Helen Mirren) observes in Barbie's opening scenes, noting that ‘Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him’. Later in the film, Beach Ken laments to Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie): ‘I only exist within the warmth of your gaze!’ (see: Gillis, 2024). The Bachelor/ette franchise established a tradition early on of choosing the next series lead from the pool of contestants from the previous season; if a rejected suitor had been sent home by the Bachelorette but had won the hearts of viewers and showrunners, he might still have the opportunity to become the main character of the next season and have a second chance at TV-produced love. The Kens, however, have no such hope. During Beach Ken's patriarchal coup, he assumes the role of protagonist, offering Stereotypical Barbie the option of staying in his newly christened Mojo Dojo Casa House ‘as [his] bride-wife’; however, when the Barbies seize back power later in the film, Beach Ken despairs at only having been created as an ‘and Ken’ appendix to Barbie: ‘There is no “just Ken”!’.
Moreover, each season of the The Bachelor/ette has an established timeline, taking its participants and viewers from first-night arrivals through group dates and elimination ceremonies, leading up to the milestone moments at the latter end of the season – hometown dates, in which the lead meets the families of their final four hopefuls; Fantasy Suites, in which the chosen final three have the opportunity for an off-camera overnight stay with the lead (Stereotypical Barbie: ‘To do what?’; Beach Ken: ‘I’m actually not sure’); and proposal day, the series finale in which the Bachelor proposes to one of his final two women, or the Bachelorette chooses which of her final two men's proposals she will accept. Chiara Pellegrini has considered examples of ‘overdetermined heteronormative destiny’ in twenty-first-century television, including an examination of the Netflix dating experiment Love Is Blind (2020–), a show that also features an expedited dating to engagement to marriage timeline. Pellegrini argues that ‘[t]hese narratives inadvertently expose, by way of anticipating, emphasising and repeating a known progression and ending, the heteronormative timeline as a compulsory, coercive, exclusionary and limiting structure’ (2023: 394). The Bachelor/ette is an aggressively heteronormative franchise, and the relationships are steered by the compressed timeline between arrival and betrothal. Contestants are often eliminated from the process for reasons linked to the looming prospect of a proposal in the season finale, the leads explaining to their disappointed suitors, ‘I just don’t think we can get there in the time we have left’ – the ‘there’ referring to a nebulous point at which the lead could envisage marrying them. Barbie Land rejects this restrictive timeline; prior to its intersection with the Real World in Barbie, it is a realm of Platonic Forms characterised by permanence. There is no heteronormative temporality in Barbie Land. ‘Barbie has a great day every day’ – unbeholden to the destiny of marriage and motherhood that the inherently conservative Bachelor/ette franchise promotes.
An even more explicit link between Barbie and The Bachelor/ette can be found in a 2023 episode of the series broadcast shortly before the movie's release. Child and family therapist and former Bachelor contestant Charity Lawson took up the mantle of Bachelorette, and episode three of Lawson's series saw her inviting twelve of her suitors on a group date. Veteran Bachelorette couple Jojo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers hosted the date, welcoming the men to ‘Charity's Barbie Land’. A pre-recorded video message from actor Simu Liu – who starred as Gosling's main rival in Barbie – was shown, in which he said: ‘When I found out I was going to be a part of Greta Gerwig's new film, I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and something really special; probably how some of you are feeling right now’. Rodgers then explained to the men that in Barbie there were ‘many Kens, all vying for Barbie's heart; sounds kind of familiar, right?’. The contestants were told they would be participating in a Barbie-themed sing-off, with the winner having one-on-one time with Lawson while the others were sent away. The men were given a selection of Ken costumes to choose from, and were charged with writing and performing their own lyrics to Cyndi Lauper's ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ (1983).
The language used in this Bachelorette group date offers an interesting commentary on the Kens’ role in Barbie, and Stereotypical Barbie as a figure of desirability. Just as the men's purpose in the show is to compete for the lead's heart, the Kens were created for no purpose other than to admire Barbie. And while Barbie Land is populated by numerous Barbies, it is the battle for Stereotypical Barbie's attention that is the source of rivalry between the Kens. Stereotypical Barbie also has, at the beginning of the film, many of the characteristics of a traditional Bachelorette: white, blonde, thin, pleasant, undisruptive. When she visits Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), her flat feet and cellulite are highlighted as signifiers that she is not fulfilling her function; Weird Barbie warns her, ‘and then you’re going to start getting sad and mushy and complicated’, in response to which Stereotypical Barbie yells, ‘NO!’. In the Bachelor/ette franchise, vulnerability is romantic currency, but only within very specific parameters. ‘I’m a liberated man, I know crying's not weak’, Beach Ken mumbles to Stereotypical Barbie; yet in reality TV, exposing emotion is directed by production in such a way as fits with a desired narrative. Contestants and series leads are encouraged to ‘let their walls down’ and ‘open up’ by speaking about past relationship trauma, broken home lives, grief; however, the purpose of these conversations is generally to display producer-sanctioned humanity in the contestants to encourage the audience's emotional investment in their storyline. When contestants speak about failed relationships or divorced parents, it is usually the set-up to an explanation of how this has fortified them in their search for true love. When they discuss struggles with body image, particularly fatness, it is from the perspective of someone who has ‘overcome’ these self-esteem issues (often by losing weight) and now dares to feel worthy of affection. Conversely, when Stereotypical Barbie is vulnerable and deviates from the ‘perfect’ aesthetics and temperament that have previously defined her, it serves as part of an individual journey of self-discovery, rather than a hurdle that must be overcome in a quest for heterosexual love, with a conditional self-actualisation that depends on the validation of a romantic interest.
The framing of the Bachelorette Barbie group date as ‘Charity's Barbie Land’ is also significant given that previous Bachelorettes (and, indeed, Bachelor final picks) have been predominantly white women. To date, Charity Lawson is one of only four Black women to star in the role of Bachelorette across over twenty series (preceded by Rachel Lindsay, Tayshia Adams and Michelle Young). There has been only one Black Bachelor; Matt James's casting was announced following a 2020 fan campaign, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement receiving widespread attention. James's series concluded with a proposal to Rachael Kirkconnell; however, controversy arose while the series was airing, as pictures emerged of Kirkconnell attending an ‘Old South’ sorority ball in 2018 (an event which celebrates the Antebellum South and has been banned since 2016). Rachel Lindsay, the franchise's first Black Bachelorette, interviewed the series host Chris Harrison while the show was still airing in February 2021, asking what his views were on the scandal; Lindsay observed, ‘It's not a good look […] If I went to that party, what would I represent?’. Harrison responded, ‘You’re 100 percent right in 2021; but that was not the case in 2018. I’m not defending Rachael; I just know that—I don’t know—fifty million people did that in 2018’. Harrison, the host of the Bachelor/ette shows and spin-offs since its inception in 2002, was let go from the franchise the following month.
Bachelor Nation's attempts to prove a commitment to diversity – its casting of Black leads, Harrison's dismissal, repeated statements that they can and must do better – have yet to translate into tangible impact. Will Ferrell's rendering of the Mattel CEO in Barbie has transferable relevance; he declares to Barbie Land at the film's conclusion: ‘Thanks to the Barbies, I too can now relieve myself of this heavy existential burden while holding onto the very real title of CEO’. The Bachelorette frames its lead as a strong, confident woman afforded a high level of agency in her search for love, yet the show has repeatedly let down its leads of colour. While the Bachelor/ette showrunners insist they will do more in future to ensure diversity in their casting, much of the work highlighting racism in the franchise has been done by women of colour who have been exposed to it. Charity Lawson spoke on the podcast 2 Black Girls, 1 Rose in 2024 about the fact that the previous Black leads had distanced themselves from the franchise, and the pressure she felt to advocate for the women of colour appearing on the following series: I have a little bit of, like, anger – that's not the word, but like, just a little frustration. If I go […] who's left? I’m the last one standing […] why is that the case? All the ones who have paved the way before me, why are they no longer here? What's happening, why are you guys not protecting us as much as you guys are protecting your other leads? (Lawson, 2024)
Lawson spoke of encouraging producers to film a segment on the 2024 ‘After the Final Rose’ special, in which Rachel Nance – a 2023 Bachelor contestant with both Black and Asian heritage – spoke about the racist abuse she had received from viewers on social media. After years of calling the Bachelor/ette showrunners to account for their lack of diversity, lack of support for contestants of colour and reluctance to platform narratives involving contestants of colour, Rachel Lindsay has now distanced herself completely from the franchise.
In 2022, Ethan Kang became the first monoracial Asian contestant to make it to the Bachelorette final five, as well as the first Asian man to kiss the Bachelorette on screen. After Kang's elimination, Simu Liu wrote on his Instagram story: ‘Make this man the Bachelor!’. 2 Despite the endorsement of Liu and Bachelor/ette fans, Kang was not cast as the lead in the following series, and the franchise's handling of race has been a point of longstanding and ongoing controversy. The year 2024 saw the casting of the first Asian-American lead in the franchise, Bachelorette Jenn Tran; Liu was among those congratulating Tran on social media. Tran expressed pride at being cast as the first Asian Bachelorette, although shared in an interview with Glamour: ‘I can’t really speak to the casting process and the decisions that were made, but it is unfortunate that there weren’t a lot of Asian men this season’ (Hudgins, 2024). The show has perpetuated a predominantly white cast as the standard, its leads traditionally Stereotypical Barbie-coded. There is also an interesting parallel to be drawn from the history of Barbie. Christie and Cara were Black Barbie dolls released by Mattel in 1968 and 1975 respectively; in the documentary Black Barbie (2024), director Shonda Rhimes recalled owning these dolls in her youth: ‘I don’t think I ever thought of Cara and Christie as “not Barbie”; they were what Barbie meant to me. But to find out later that those dolls were not Barbie, and very specifically considered “not Barbie”, was interesting to me’ (Black Barbie, 2024). Issa Rae, who played President Barbie in Barbie, has also spoken about the significance of owning Black Barbies as a child, saying that her mother wanted to ensure she owned one, and that it gave her a sense of her Black identity as a child. ‘I gave a shout-out to Christie as President Barbie in the movie that isn’t in the final cut’, Rae said, ‘but I was basically saying that Christie walked so I could run for president’ (Dixon, 2023). This maps quite neatly onto the Bachelor/ette franchise. Lawson has spoken about the Black Bachelorettes who ‘paved the way’ for her, saying upon her appointment as the Bachelorette: ‘I can’t wait to show little girls that look like me being in a position like this is possible’. Yet while a Black Barbie can be President in Barbie Land, people of colour cast in the Bachelor/ette franchise remain a sporadic concession to diversity rather than being the norm.
Bachelor Nation embodies the lines spoken between Beach Ken and a businessman in the Real World: ‘You guys are clearly not doing patriarchy very well’, Beach Ken accuses. ‘No, we’re doing it well’, the businessman mumbles with a sideways smile. ‘We just hide it better now’. As Gosling himself noted, there are entertaining parallels to be identified between Barbie Land and the Bachelor/ette mansion. Each episode of the show is a new music number, a new beach battle, a new insight into what ridiculous tactics the men will employ to get the Bachelorette's attention. Barbie Land serves as a refreshing antithesis to the dating show's zealous heteronormative agenda; yet comparing the two texts also serves to further highlight The Bachelor/ette's shortcomings in casting and production.