Love Is Blind: If You’re Conventionally Attractive
The third season of Love Is Blind is now officially out, and with it have come some negative reviews and a considerable amount of media attention – definitely more than the last two seasons. The show itself already has some fundamental issues, and this new season has seemed to really bring those to light – with some other added-on issues. Some of these include that the people in the show are cast to make good TV, the short timeline of the experiment, and the editing, specifically what we don’t see.
The idea of testing if love is truly blind isn’t problematic itself, especially in an age of dating apps where we mostly swipe based on our visual attraction to the person. The issue is that Love is Blind is a reality show which needs a cast who would make for good television – aka people who are conventionally attractive. So, how are you supposed to test if love is blind if you’re choosing contestants who meet societal standards of beauty and attractiveness? Granted, not every couple is attracted to each other (cue Shake and Bartise), but it seems like part of the whole “falling in love based on compatibility and not looks” thing is rigged from the start.
Particularly in this season, we can see how extensively editing plays a role in the show (S3 spoilers ahead). Since they have hours and hours of footage, it’s no surprise that they can’t include everything in the show (I am glad, though, that they did not cut Andrew putting in eye drops to make it look like he was crying out – he needed humbling). But, with this, it’s important to consider what we are not being shown, especially if there are more “Cutiegate” situations. In this season’s reunion episode, Zanab stated that the editing of the show saved her ex-fiance Cole’s image, as they omitted many scenes of him making comments about her weight, appearance, and her not eating. This leaves us to question how much we aren’t seeing – especially in cases like this, where emotionally and verbally abusive and offensive comments were claimed to have been made. Or in the case of SK and Raven, where many thought both would say “I do,” but SK said no at the altar. This left both Raven and many audience members feeling blindsided, as both were seemingly happy together and didn’t appear to have many major arguments or issues during their engagement. There has to be more to every couple’s story that isn’t being shown just because it might not make “good TV.”
The whole experiment itself is very quick-paced, as the couples go through the entire process of dating, getting engaged, honeymooning, living together, and getting married in a little over a month. It’s a major life decision and commitment these people are subjecting themselves to make, and it seems more impulsive than a real testament to love. It takes time to get to know someone, and I think that having only 10 days to get engaged is pushing for them to see each other sooner – which is against the whole point of the show. The group honeymoon is also weird to me, and is clearly set to create some good TV drama; there are always a couple of men who regret their choices after they see another person they almost picked, who they end up finding more attractive than their fiance. Again, this seems to go against the main idea of the show, as it fosters couples to compare their fiances to the other people they were dating.
Overall, it’s a bit weird to consider that this is, after all, an experiment on human beings with the serious commitment of marriage. Hopefully, future seasons work to address some of these issues and improve the conditions of the show so that maybe, after all, they can prove that love can actually be blind.
