The Bachelor

Dear Nurse Dave,
I just got done looking through your blog and don't know why I only check it every few months. But that has nothing to do with my question. Here it goes... It's my first time watching a season of The Bachelor so I am a bit of a novice and have some questions. First of all, have you ever watched The Bachelor? And second, how serious do you think the contestants take the show? Are they acting or do they really think that they are going to find love? Most grateful for your insights!

Amy, Currently living in Kansas

So unfortunately Amy I've never seen the show but fortunately that doesn't stop me from having an opinion on the subject. My general exposure to pop culture does help me know pretty much everything there is to know about the Bachelor. I've also watched an episode of Nathan For You where he pretty much does the same show as the bachelor.  Let's start with the basics.

So there's an attractive guy (most likely with great abs) and a bunch of attractive girls (also with good abs).  He slowly eliminates them until he picks the one he'll marry.  They are eliminated by various means usually involving a hot tub, skydiving or going out to eat.  Finally the bachelor picks the girl that looked the best in the hot tub, didn't make him feel emasculated while skydiving and had good table manners.  From what I understand all of these marriages are extremely successful and this is probably the ideal way to choose a mate.  Hence the Bachelorette, so that women could have an opportunity to also choose a mate in a similar way. I've heard some say that the first airing of the Bachelorette is when the women's rights movement really got headed in the right direction.

These are likely real laughs at a rose ceremony.

But I have glossed over perhaps the most important aspect of the show.  It's called the rose ceremony.  This is the time when all of the attractive girls are lined up and the bachelor gives a rose to each one that he's going to keep until next week.  It is a lot like getting picked for kickball only rather than just rejecting someone based on kickball ability the bachelor is rejecting an entire personality.  Really the problem with the rose ceremony is that it is only used on this show.  There are plenty of other situations where we could really do with a rose ceremony like: choosing coworkers; choosing plumbers; choosing cell phone companies; and of course choosing kickball teams.

So in conclusion I've never seen the show but from what I know about it I really, really want to see the show.  Fortunately I'm already married and it has been successful despite not beginning on a reality TV series.  But for anyone else out there that is still single I'd suggest trying it.  I can't imagine someone going on television not sincerely looking for love.  We just live in a terrific world.