All the seemingly hopeless romantic New York women in their 20s (and me), a couple of supportive boyfriends, and a couple of insane guys who surprisingly aren't gay, live in Bushwick. They flocked to the Syndicate, a water station in the city. I've been hosting Bachelor Nation watch parties for years. We were there to see who tennis coaching professional Joey Graziadei, perhaps the most emotionally intelligent bachelor of all time, would propose to. Could it be Daisy Kent, a bubbly blonde who grew up on a Christmas tree farm and recently received a cochlear implant to correct her near-total hearing loss? Or Kelsey, a sweet and tearful construction manager from New Orleans who lost her mother to breast cancer six years ago and has enviable Julia Roberts curls who feels her mother's presence every time she sees a butterfly.・Is it Anderson? (In the end, it was 100 percent Team Kelsey that won Joey's heart.)
What we didn't expect was the shock of host Jesse Palmer's announcement about who the next Bachelorette would be. Jen Tran was the first Asian-American lead in the series' history.
“We've wanted Jen since the moment she stepped out of the limo!” exclaimed one of the two Vietnamese-American women sitting next to me.they would have done that They became fans of Tran, a fellow Vietnamese American with immigrant parents who is studying to become a physician assistant. She told Palmer that the day before she donned a gown to appear on national television, she was working in the emergency room in scrubs.
“My cousin! My cousin!” one of the bar mates jokingly exclaimed. They couldn't believe that someone who looked like them could be the star of America's most popular network TV dating show.
Tran also seemed to understand the importance of this moment. “As a kid, I always wanted to see Asian representation on TV, but I feel like it was really sparse,” she told Palmer. “Whenever Asians have appeared in the media, it's been to play a supporting role and fulfill some kind of stereotype. …And now here I am today, sitting in this position, saying, “I don't know what my love is.'' I just can’t help but think, “I’m going to lead the story, I’m going to be the hero of my own story.” How many people I will inspire and how many lives I will change. ” (Changing your life? It’s a little difficult, but it’s okay!)
I’m so excited for Jen Tran!I've seen it #Bachelorette Ever since the first season, I never thought I'd see the day when there would be an Asian American lead role. It was so touching to see an entire bar in Brooklyn explode with surprise. I'm so happy, sis! pic.twitter.com/2GHJ6AuHg1
— Jada Yuan (@jadabird) March 26, 2024
If you're not familiar with “The Bachelor” or think it's downright frivolous, I don't blame you, but I don't agree with you. — In fact, it's a fascinating subject to many smart people I know, who see it as a window into social progress. And as TV's longest-running dating show, with millions of viewers, the show has an undeniable cultural significance that is often dismissed in ways that reek of sexism. .
Emma Gray, co-host of the podcast Love To See It, which looks at the Bachelor series from a feminist perspective, says, “We refuse to take our easy-going culture, our fluffy coded culture, seriously.'' I think if you do that, you're putting yourself at risk.” “Millions of people watch this show every week. It's the gold standard for romance reality shows. [that] Every reality dating show that comes after it reacts. …Will casting Jen in the lead role achieve the grand goal of racial equality? no. But can we move the needle in terms of what we as a culture deem desirable, what is noteworthy, who has lived experience that deserves to be connected to by all of us? I really think we can. ”
Charlene Joynt, a biracial Chinese-Canadian opera singer who co-starred with Juan Pablo Galavis in season 18, said, “If you watched this show when you were little, or even in college or high school, you never watched this.'' If I hadn't been able to do that, I would have lost my life.” Ten years ago, she was one of the first Asian contestants to make it big on the show. “I mean, I remember when Mulan came out.” [in 1998] And I learned all the lyrics of the song because I had never seen anything like it before, and it was animated! ”
Ari Barthwell, Vulture's “Bachelor” executive director and three-time Emmy Award-winning screenwriter for “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” thinks Tran is funny. It was just that she tried too hard to develop her sexy girl personality, even though she was very bad at telling jokes.
“I want her to have a good time and get everything she's looking for, but when it comes down to it, she's so awkward. I mean, that's a sign of true equality. I mean. , when all races and all creeds can be represented as equals. Understood It’s ‘Single’ season,” said Barthwell, who is Black.
The show's failure to cast an Asian lead character has long been a running joke among fans. It's so old-fashioned that the Game of Roses podcast, where the host recaps the show like a major sporting event, has a special countdown at the end of every episode (and the countdown is still on!). ”
To understand why it's been so long, you need to know how the show works. “The Bachelor” (one man dates his 32 women) and “The Bachelorette” (one woman dates her 32 men) get stuck in a somewhat toxic feedback loop. The Bachelorette chosen is usually the one with the best “love-worthy” story from the previous “Bachelor” season. She's most often the one who gets left in the final four on The Bachelor and goes on that all-important “hometown” or “fantasy suite” date and gets heartbroken, only to turn around and not be able to date 32 men. It's not that I'm heartbroken. , for about a month. If a white lead character only has a white love interest, then you will move on to a stage where only white people can be cast as the next lead role.
Tran hasn't been able to get past Joey's top six most seasons, which keeps her out of the running, but it was one of the reasons her selection was so surprising.
She said that when Joint was filming the show in 2013, the idea that she could become The Bachelorette was completely out of her league. “Of course I knew there wasn't anyone who looked like me, but I didn't really care,” Joynt said. She is currently the host of “The Bachelor in the Bachelor,'' where she reflects on the show with her husband on the podcast “Dear Shandy.'' Paradise: Canada. ”
“But once the show started airing and I started getting messages from people, just general excitement that you're Asian and on this show, I was like, 'Wow, that's kind of a big deal.' (I) am a Chinese American and can recite the names of every contestant of Asian descent in the show's history. This is because there are very few performers. )
For years, the show's MO has been to cast one or two Asian contestants, but they are usually sent home immediately. If someone can make it through the first night, it's a win, Joynt says. A one-on-one date? Hall of Fame. However, most of the time, Asian contestants only get airtime if they get into a fight with someone before returning home.
Like me, Joynt remembers the thrill of 17-year-old Bachelor Sean Lowe proposing to Filipino graphic designer Catherine Giudici in 2013.
But we didn't get a lead role of a person of color until Rachel Lindsay was cast as the first Black Bachelorette in 2017 after being a contestant on Season 21!!! “of. Matt James, a black bachelor, appeared on the show for the first time after a huge outcry from viewers during the George Floyd protests.
But 28 seasons with Grazia Dei felt different. We first got to know him when he fell in love with his fourth Black Bachelorette on the show, Charity Lawson. He lived in Hawaii, so he was already giving us Asian women the feeling that we might have a fighting chance. The show also seemed cast with Joey's wide range of interests in mind. In addition to Tran, multiple Asian American women topped his first three episodes (a milestone!).
“What we've been talking about for years on the podcast is that having diverse casting doesn't just mean casting people who aren't white and non-Christian season after season,” Gray says. “We need to cast leads with truly diverse tastes.” (Next up is body diversity and the fact that not every woman over 30 feels like an old woman.)
It remains to be seen whether the producers will respect Tran enough to not cast a racist on her season or subvert her love story with another made-up drama, as they did with Lindsay. do not have. Barthwell is skeptical. “This Bachelor series is really bad at talking about race…and that makes me uneasy about the weird dating fetishization that's going on with Asian women.”
There are also things you need to do to get to know Tran. But here's what we know: She is estranged from her father. There is a cultural gap between her and her immigrant mother. She has been outspoken about her AAPI representation on her Instagram. She makes everyone who comes to her house drink alcohol during what she calls the “shot-o-clock.” And she's afraid of sharks. (Get ready for lots of beach dates.)
If my Brooklyn bar is any indication, people are excited about her.
The joint's most notable moment was when Tran told Graziadei that in Vietnamese culture, it's not uncommon for people to live with their parents before or even after marriage. “I was like, 'Oh my god, that's right!'” Sharing trivia that a lot of people would never have known otherwise,” Joynt said. “It's an exciting time. It feels very important.”