The Bachelor delves into body image issues even as it's been notoriously fatphobic

The Daily Beast

Monday's episode featured former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe moderating a discussion between Clayton Echard and his bachelorettes on body image. "After multiple contestants shared their experiences with body image issues, the former NFL player shared his own experience with body dysmorphia as a teenager," says Laura Bradley. "Considering how little-discussed male eating disorders and body dysmorphia are, this conversation could be seen as a step forward—at least, if it had happened on basically any other show. It’s hard not to eye-roll a bit when one remembers the setting in which all of this is taking place—a franchise so fatphobic that it’s featured only one plus-sized contestant in 20 years. (And lest we forget, that one contestant, Bo Stanley, went home on Night One during Chris Soules’ season in 2015—an exit deemed so unremarkable that we never saw it on screen.)" Bradley adds: "Eating disorders and body dysmorphia in men are a rarer topic of conversation than those of women—which might be part of why male body issues are under-diagnosed. In that regard, Clayton’s comments are somewhat groundbreaking for a series that often pretends that men without six-packs simply do not exist on this planet. At the same time, isn’t that... kind of exactly the problem? pretend fat people are simply not a part of the horny public. But as the grandaddy of much of the reality-dating genre, one wishes it had taken a more active role in shifting that paradigm. (Then again it also took 18 years and 25 seasons to get our first Black Bachelor, sooooo....) Fatphobia and body-shaming have always been endemic to this show, both on-screen and off." As Bradley points out, former host Chris Harrison once said that overweight people are persona non grata on The Bachelor franchise. "You know why?” he said. “Because that’s not attractive, and television is a very visual medium, and I know that sounds horrible to say, but I know that at 42, in the eyes of television, I’m old and unattractive. Sure, I can put a suit and tie on, but I have hair on my chest and I don’t have a 12-pack. I live a healthy life, but I don’t do eight hours in the gym, nor do I want to. And I don’t eat 50,000 egg whites.” ALSO: Jesse Palmer discusses whether he'd like to stay on as Bachelor franchise host and his "brotherly sibling rivalry" with Clayton Echard.