‘Love Is Blind’ Embraces the Manosphere

When Netflix dropped the first season of love is blind in February 2020, he offered a respite from the washboard abs that normally seem to be a casting requirement for reality TV shows.

The premise – where couples get engaged “blindly” after talking to each other via pods, then, after a big reveal, decide if they want to get married – had just the right amount of messiness. Who can forget Jessica allowing her dog to sip wine or an insulted Carlton throwing his fiancée’s engagement ring into a swimming pool? Meanwhile, Lauren and Cameron’s unvarnished conversations highlighted the awkwardness that sometimes accompanies interracial dating.

It was a reality show, but it seemed like a format that could actually allow people to fall in love without getting bogged down in distractions and superficial expectations. Maybe.

Now in its 10th season, love is blind is a cornerstone of Netflix’s reality TV cinematic universe. But even though each cycle brings us remarkable women who sincerely embrace the original idea of ​​the series, it becomes increasingly difficult to find men to root for.

With the latest American season featuring Chris Fusco, who willingly compares himself to Andrew Tate and mocks another male actor for being “submissive”, and Alex Henderson, a Trump-loving crypto bro with an ever-changing storyline, more and more men in love is blind appear to have been extracted directly from the manosphere.

Season after season, the women on the show (and viewers at home) are subjected to men who make superficial and demeaning comments, struggle with anger and emotional regulation, and sometimes seem uncomfortable with their partner’s success.

Although race is always brought up, it is often in a superficial and offensive way. Contestants find themselves either grappling with the fact that their partner is a person of color or dealing with unresolved internalized racism that minimizes their own worth while prioritizing a partner’s whiteness—a valid topic that deserves much more nuance or the involvement of a therapist.

Widely, love is blind seems to promote conservative ideals – traditional wives, shame of divorce and large families, even when the candidates are clearly not enthusiastic about having children.

The kinetic content, which produces love is blinddid not respond to a request for comment.

When Emma Betsinger, 28, from the current season in Ohio, discusses the scars on her arms – the result of surgeries due to her birthmarks – with her podiatrist Steven Sunday, a 32-year-old who works in finance, he explains to her how she lost her virginity instead of asking her thoughtful questions. Betsinger’s health problems make her hesitant to have children, but instead of taking her word for it, the men she dates point out that she would make an excellent mother.

Then there’s the fast-talking Henderson, 31, who, despite having no job other than the day trading he claims to do, expects his fiancée Ashley Carpenter, a 34-year-old claims handler, to pack up and move to Arizona or Florida, possible promotion be damned. Carpenter’s father, a MAGA “patriarch,” barely lets his wife speak at the family gathering with Henderson and later touts his own daughter’s attractiveness as “dyn-o-mite.”

At a time when women are outpacing men in earning college degrees and narrowing the wage gap in some cities, some men love is blindThe later seasons also seem to react poorly to having high-performing partners.

Last year in Denver, Jordan Keltner couldn’t get over his insecurities about his fiancée Megan Walerius’ wealth, which ultimately led to their breakup after he said he was too “tired” to have conversations with her after work or follow her wealthy hobbies. This season, Fusco, a 33-year-old account executive, visits his doctor fiancée Jessica Barrett’s multi-bedroom Ohio home and later belittles her for not going to Pilates every day. “I don’t care if she’s a neurosurgeon or if she’s a fucking $100 million trust fund,” he says, while complaining about their lack of sexual chemistry before spending a lot of time trying to convince already-engaged contestant Bri McNess that she needs a “dominant” man like him.