S10.E05: Andi Et Les Beaux

[PoorerThanDead]

Aaaaaagh, so I know this topic has been debated a lot already, but I just. couldn’t. stop. myself from de-lurking to comment.  I also agree with @karewho . And I think JJ is an idiot, because if he had any sense he would realize that comment would be hurtful to Marquel. And it’s not solely Marquel’s job to combat racist statements, if JJ found it offensive, it is just as much his battle to fight as it is Marquel’s. He should have pulled Andrew aside and said, “Hey, calling people “blackies” isn’t cool with me, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t use racial slurs around me. But other than that, we’re cool, bro.” I also don’t believe he actually said, “blackies” since that’s such a bizarre word choice, and he himself admits, yeaaaaaah, it  could have been black guys.

 

Some people have said that it’s not racist to not want to date a certain race. Well, first, I think that whoever is the Bachelor or Bachelorette is probably asked whether they are opposed to dating outside of their “race” beforehand.

 

Maybe it’s just me, since I find the idea of only dating a “type” kind of strange, but it still seems like a little bit of stereotyping because you’re assuming an entire race is a certain way and there isn’t a single person of that race whom you would ever consider attractive or an acceptable life partner. I mean, it would be a little strange to appear on Bachelorette and inform them that you would only like contestants who are 6 ft tall, burly, with brown hair and full beards. Because that is your type.
I wouldn’t hold it against anyone who didn’t want to date outside of their race, but if you are trying to find the person who “gets” you or who you connect with, hypothetically at least, and you haven’t had any luck yet in life, so you had to appear of a reality show, you might want to expand your idea of your perfect partner.  It’s like the Leonard Cohen song, “You told me again you preferred handsome men, but for me you would make an exception.”

 

I also think that @Bugs Meany makes a good point about the “black guys” comment. I mean obviously these kind of cynical thoughts go through people’s heads. You can’t help it, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you are racist.  Especially, since there has been so much talk lately about whether the Bachelor is racist, or is excluding certain races. So, you can’t help but wonder if they encourage the lead to choose certain people, or if they are just trying to be PC, etc.  But since it’s just a wild speculation that you have, you really shouldn’t state it to someone else.  At your place of work, you wouldn’t think it would be a good idea to say, “I think Sam was hired because of affirmative action,” to another coworker. That would be disrespectful to Sam, and basically spreading a rumor.  And it does have some racist connotations(whether you mean it to or not), because it implies that the person couldn’t have gotten the job on their own merits, or, in the case of Bachelorette, that they are not attractive or desirable in their own right.

(Which in the case of Marquel, is the opposite of the truth, no ? :)

 

Another theory I read was that maybe Andrew was implying that black men have large penises (I don’t know if we’re allowed to say that here?) So, that would be 10 times worse, in my opinion. I have definitely known some white guys who are semi-obsessed with black guys, and seem to feel kind of threatened by them as romantic competition. So, maybe Andrew had some insecurities, and felt more confident stereotyping black men in one way or another? I don’t know. But here is Marquel going into this experience with the belief, naïve though it may appear to some, that people will see him as Marquel, this awesome, unique person, and not as “black guy” (possible owner of a big dick.)

 

In the end, we don’t really know what Andrew was implying by his statement, but anyways none of the possibilities are good, and they all seem to have some racial ramifications.

 

I also side with the people who think Marquel handled the situation brilliantly-- with class and restraint.  I can’t remember someone on a reality show ever handling a confrontation/dispute with another person as well.

 

Okay, whew, got that off my chest!

[aradia22]

Marseilles is pretty on a sunny day like that but also kind of dirty. You can't just distract me with the music, show. 

 

I thought we were supposed to be pretending that she wrote all the notes. But she just admitted she doesn't speak French very well. Work with me, show. It was fairly basic French, too. Except for "le cap" I think you'd learn all those words and that sentence construction in your first semester. Maybe not "tenir." They're kind of weird about the order they teach you verbs. 

 

Not that I think she'll find "tru wuv" with any of these guys but Andi seems to mesh really well with Josh. When she talks to him I don't feel like she's being condescending or uninterested. They have that same sort of "yeah" response to everything which makes her seem less rude.

 

Ugh, Nick is awful. 

 

It was super weird to juxtapose Marcel talking about getting pre-judged because of his race with Josh talking about getting judged for being an athlete (yet again). Did they do that intentionally?

[aradia22]

 

By the way, had anyone heard of Ben Fields, the singer for Andi and Josh's date before?  I liked the snippet of the song they played, not the usual Bachelor cheesefest.

I misheard and thought, why the heck would Ben Folds agree to be on The Bachelorette?

 

Nope, Nick is just pissy. Yeah, it's unnatural but it's not holding back any of the other guys. You don't get to go on ANTM or any other stupid reality show and then complain. Dylan has experienced a lot of personal tragedy. You don't see him going on about how trivial and beneath him this is. Shut up, Nick. Shut up. Having Cody voice all the issues with Nick allowed him to sidestep the issue. It's not about him thinking he's the frontrunner or mocking Cody for being thankful. It's about Nick being this awful smug and smarmy jerk. He just makes my skin crawl. 

 

The poem was so stupid. It sounded like something that could have come from an ANTM contestant or from those old trashy VH1 dating shows when they forced them to write poetry... in 30 minutes. 

 

I was really not expecting the movie to be the 100 Foot Journey. I mean, with the Oprah and Spielberg thing I guess it's not your typical quiet indie and it probably has all those feel good cliches but still, I'm used to promotional tie-ins like Despicable Me or Transformers.

 

I can see some qualities in Andi that make her a good Bachelorette. She's able to narrate and express her feelings continuously which is probably really helpful for production. However, in the midst of all that she sometimes says idiotic things and I feel like most of it isn't genuine because she's keeping up this constant stream of chatter and she doesn't actually have the time to think about what she's saying. She's pleasant enough that she can kind of push the guys to talk. But she's actually a really poor conversationalist and she doesn't know how to keep a conversation going.

 

I liked Patrick. From the beginning I picked him out as one of the generically handsome contestants that I thought would hang around for a while. From some of his expressions during the rose ceremonies I thought he was going to be a villain but aside from the terrible arm tattoo, he seems like a pretty nice guy. I don't remember him spending any meaningful time with Andi.