Lots of different semantics going on here.
I don’t like Gina or Clint, so I’m not on either of their “teams.” But, I had to take Clint’s side when she started in on him. She did tell him multiple times she didnt like his looks (“heard”). She did start that stuff in front of everyone about the physical attraction problems. Ginger IS an insult when you use it as a descriptor of someone you arent attracted to, and make faces and word exaggerations to go along with it (“ginger-y fea-TURES” and “GIN-geeerrrrr.”) Ugh. She asked for it.
However, there shouldnt be a male human alive that doesnt know you will be taken to the castle with torches for criticizing a woman’s weight, in public, in front of 4 other women, 3 of which are not thin, either. Clueless. Not reading the room, indeed. And worse, he needed to be walked through it by the Afterparty hostess to understand what he did wrong. He’s a clueless dude.
I don’t think Clint was equating slender and athletic, though. He was taking his turn to return a shot at her and was reaching and panicking for words that werent “not thin” or “fat.” I guarantee his preference in women are waaaay closer to “slender” than “athletic.” Athletic sounded safe to him. Theres a ton of thin, very athletic women out there, but just as many medium to stout, not slender athletic women, too. I just think he was babbling and trying not to say slim vs heavy.
The Afterparty said a lot. Gina did bring up not being thin. They did discuss this. And the fact is, even these women are quite clear that they arent slender. Dominyque called herself “thick” (apt description) and feared Mac might be expecting “a 100 pound girl.” Even Nicole who has curiously been called “petite” described the women as “5 beautiful women with natural bodies,” code for not thin. It really is odd that 4 of the 5 women are larger, with one (Nicole) very large.
I wish someone explained to Jas (Is that Shaq’s wife?) That Arris can recognize that his girl is both objectively beautiful (the beauty contest winner) and that he can find her not attractive due to some arbitrary detail. I actually think that way about Jas… an absolutely beautiful face, but way too large a bottom for me. Arris would disagree.
It slays me that Arris thinks her excellent shape is too small, particularly as compared to the other women. It almost feels like this opinion is conveniently plugged in to balance out the issues with the other women, on a show where so many of the women are bigger, and at least 4 of the total 5 couples arent attracted to each other.
Which begs the question, do the experts select people that they guess wont work out, just for conflict interest? Its interesting, because on a show where I think no one stays together, its been the most boring season yet.
