Dating Shows Still Have a Type. And It’s Not Us.
Love Island and The Bachelor keep casting South Asians — and cutting them out of the love story. How long will we let it slide?
The first 25 seasons of The Bachelor had 17 Laurens, 13 Jennifers, and 12 Ashleys. In that same period, there were only five South Asian women. For men, this statistic is even bleaker: Mohit Sehgal was sent home on night one of Rachel Lindsay’s season of The Bachelorette. The U.K.’s Love Island — a dating show that places dozens of singles on an island resort, asking them to couple up for a cash prize — cast Shannon Singh in season 7. But before she could unpack, she became the very first to leave the show. The most recent season of Love Island U.S.A., which just wrapped up, had no South Asians at all.
Dating shows have long been the TV equivalent of a comfort meal. They’re maybe a little bad for you, but a chance to turn off your brain and watch beautiful people fall in love. But when Love Island contestants like Nas Majeed keep getting ignored and rejected, or when every new man who enters the villa describes his type as “blonde-haired and blue-eyed,” there’s a sudden whiplash back to reality.
Watching participants consistently sideline the few contestants of color on any show feels more like picking at the scab of a healing wound than it does entertainment. And maybe, at the end of the day, we’d rather not have it at all.