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ABC just announced the 28 contestants who will try to win the heart of Ben Higgens, 26, on the hit TV show The Bachelor. While reading a few articles about the contestants, I came across something quite perplexing — many people do not think a redheaded woman has a chance of winning.
Whether you are a fan of the show or not, you may have noticed advertisements for it showing mostly blonde and brunette women. Once in a blue moon you will see a redheaded contestant and we redheads always root for her because she looks like us, of course.
In 2016, Laura Esselman, 24, from Louisville, KY will be the only redhead in the group competing for Higgens’ love.
A recent Jezebel article stereotyped Laura (and redheads in general) in a negative light saying,”Other [The Bachelor] cast members include… an honest-to-goodness pale-skinned redhead who will be eliminated immediately.”
To me, it sounds a bit ignorant and ridiculous to make such a claim without any reasoning or explanation to back it up. It’s wrong of them to automatically assume that Ben Higgens won’t fall for the redheaded girl. Sure, he may be more attracted to blondes or brunettes, but to weed out the contestants based on their hair and skin color is preposterous.
Last year, Fantasy 4 Reality stated in an online article that “the ideal contestant is an early 20s, blonde teacher, nanny or social worker from the Western part of the U.S. Conversely, the worst contestant is a late 20s through early 30s redheaded lawyer from Chicago, Boston or New York.”
I’ve been watching the show for years, and have noticed that The Bachelor typically typecasts stereotypical Barbie-like blondes and brunettes without much intelligence. However, in my opinion, the casting agents of The Bachelor can’t find enough redheads who fit the profile — we must be too intelligent to fall for reality television-type love.
If you follow the show, you may also remember Kylie Lewis, the fiery redhead in the pink gown. She was eliminated during the first rose ceremony during the Juan Pablo season. Kylie spoke about her experience on The Bachelor with TMZ and said the producers asked her to do three things:
- Dye her hair from strawberry blonde to red
- Wear a pink dress instead of a purple one
- Send Juan Pablo a tweet following their first meeting
Kylie believed that she was set up to fail by the producers of the ABC dating show. International Business Times wrote “While the producers had no comment for TMZ, Kylie’s claims make sense based on the fact that everyone knows redheads shouldn’t wear pink.”
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It’s doubtful that she was set up to fail because as we redheads know, redheads can pull off any color. It’s the confidence of the person wearing the color which is key.
What do you think? Do you think that a redhead could win on The Bachelor? Comment below!