Mel Owens’ season of The Golden Bachelor is here, and it’s even cringier than we could have imagined.
Season 2 of ABC’s senior dating series kicked off on Wednesday night, and Mel wasted no time apologizing for his ageist comments before he even filmed the show. He continued apologizing and asking for a chance to redeem himself throughout the night as the women continued to bring up what he said.
That’s not the problematic part of the show. In fact, it was expected that he would address his comments and try to smooth things over.
The biggest issue with The Golden Bachelor is this notion that when a man shows you who he is, that you should try to prove him wrong and change his mind.
Starting with the limo entrances, multiple women brought up Mel’s comments on the In The Trenches podcast back in June.
What did we see as women over 60 walked out of those limos? Not women who said, “Boy, bye.” Not women who recognized their worth and refused to play second fiddle to ageist nonsense.
No, what we saw were women immediately stepping into the role the franchise loves to script for them: the validators. They wanted to prove that women over 60 are sexy, desirable, and worthy of his attention. They wanted to show Mel he was wrong.
While The Bachelor franchise dresses this dynamic up in sequins and roses, let’s call it what it is: the same old patriarchal playbook. Women shouldn’t have to prove their worth to a man who has already written them off. Period.
There is only one woman under 60 on The Golden Bachelor
Unfortunately, Mel won’t have an opportunity this season to prove whether he meant what he said or not. He infamously said that he preferred a woman between 45 and 60 years old. So what did production do? They cast all the women 60 years old or older, with the exception of Maia, who is 58.
In fact, every single woman on the show this season is over 60 years old, except Cindy and Monica. Those of us who haven’t boycotted the show completely were hoping to see if Mel was really sorry or if he was going to send all the older women home. Now, we’ll never really know.
Mel did end up giving his first impression rose to Gerri, who is 64 years old, making her one of the youngest women on the cast.
Mel Owens’ first eliminations were all over the place
Perhaps Mel Owens was trying to prove himself with his first round of eliminations because it was all over the place when it came to the ages of those who went home.
Mel did send Maia, 58, home, and she was the youngest woman cast for Season 2. He also eliminated Andra, 77, Lisa, 66, Lily, 72, Susie, 62, and Tracy, 62. He eliminated the two oldest women, leaving women ranging in age from 60 to 71.
