Abbie Chatfield: the Media’s Punching Bag
Who would have thought that in 2019 an article such as this would still need to be written? Thanks to the shenanigans of reality TV, one million-odd Australians tune into Channel 10 every Wednesday and Thursday night to watch one eligible bachelor or bachelorette date 20 or so people at once. The Bachelor and Bachelorette franchise has become the main source of ‘news’ for Australia’s high quality gossip magazines and media.
One contestant from the most recent completed season has unfortunately become well acquainted with the Australian media. Since the airing of The Bachelor’s 2019 season finale, Abbie has made herself known as a strong feminist on social media (mainly Instagram) and has appeared on numerous podcasts (see: Shameless & Outspoken the Podcast). After being relentlessly attacked for her actions (and portrayal) on The Bachelor, Abbie has used her platform to defend herself, and other women against sexual double standards.
Following an episode of The Bachelorette where fan favourite Ciarran posed nude as part of a group date, Abbie striped down and posted a photo parodying the images from this episode on Instagram. Her aim was to highlight the sexist double standards of the Australian media. Raising very valid points, Abbie questioned what viewers and the media’s reactions would’ve been if the roles had been reversed.
Ciarran was seen as courageous and endearing for being willing to pose nude on national television. If this had occurred during Abbie’s season, and she volunteered to pose nudes on a group date, the headlines wouldn’t be as loving. We certainly wouldn’t be reading articles like ‘Just all the best reactions to the moment Australia fell in love with The Bachelorette’s Ciarran’ and ‘Australia’s most confident man! The Bachelorette’s Ciarran Stott casually chats to Angie’s best friend NAKED and wearing just a bunch of grapes — after being exposed as a club stripper”.
During the last few weeks of the show, Abbie was taken on a date to the beach and guess what?!? She wore a bikini (GASP).
“During the trailer or Wednesday’s show, the pair are seen enjoying their steamiest rendezvous to date — with the blue-eyed beauty straddling the Bachelor in nothing but a skimpy bikini on the beach.” (souce)
Bear in mind, her bikini wasn’t any ‘skimpier’ than what any of the other contestants had worn.
Another thing that baffled me about this was how quick the media was to condemn her for being so open about sex and whether or not she wanted kids. She was quickly labelled a ‘slut’ and was apparently on The Bachelor for the ‘wrong reasons’ (whatever that means).
She was treated like she didn’t deserve to be a Bachelorette, just because she was honest. Does being unsure of whether you want kids or not mean you don’t have the right to find love?
In the book, Reality Bites Back, prominent feminist and media critic Jennifer Pozner concludes that reality TV shapes what we think about the ‘way things are’, and more particularly, what society thinks of women. Evidently, the combination of Abbie’s portrayal and her openness about sex created the perfect recipe for a media punching bag. The Australian public was to quick to criticise her every action.
In my opinion, Abbie was the first woman that wasn’t the perfect ‘wifey’ material cookie cutter to make it to the final week of the show. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted marriage and kids, was confident, and totally comfortable in her own skin. As a society conditioned to love the white, heterosexual, domestic-godesses, when confronted with a modern woman such as Abbie, society labeled her as a slut.
Expecting all women to be stereotypical ‘wifey’ material is where the double standard issues arise within The Bachelor and Bachelorette franchises. As Pozner stated in her book, reality TV warps how we interpret gender roles in society. If we expect so much from women and don’t expect the same from men, we create double standards.
It takes two to tango. Calling a woman out for being a ‘slut’ when the guy was equally involved (and in The Bachelor’s case — dating multiple women) enforces the double standards feminists have been fighting against for centuries.
The responsibility for fighting back against sexual double standards lies within all of us. Although reality TV is a big instigator of double standards, women face them in their everyday lives. From politics to university sexual double standards creep into our society and can have major impacts on our livelihoods.
We’re all at times guilty of making quick uninformed judgements of others. So the next time you feel compelled to call a woman (whether it’s a reality TV contestant, or someone you know in real life) a ‘slut’ or ‘whore’ take a step back and really consider the potential hypocrisy of your statements.
