The Bachelor was full of bait-and-switches tonight. First they made it look like Chris Soules had sex in a tent, which was a lie. Then they made it look like he reacted badly to Ashley I. telling him she was a virgin on Monday's Bachelor. That wasn't accurate either, but that still doesn't mean I'm 100 percent satisfied with his response to her admission.
Ashley I. sat Chris down to inform him that she's waiting for the right person to have sex for the first time. She was very nervous Chris would hate her for it, but he took the news pretty well. "I think that's a great thing," he told Ashley. "I totally respect it. I think it's incredible."
Despite his positive reaction, Ashley sobbed afterwards, frightened that she'd scared him off. She needn't have worried though, because in his confessional interview later, Chris elaborated that he admired her for her virginity. "If anything it makes me respect her more," he said.
Ugh. He was doing so well not being a jerk about things and then he had to go and say that. There's nothing I hate more than guys who idolize virgins or put them on a pedestal above women who choose to have sex. Everyone on The Bachelor is an adult. If they want to have sex, they can. If they don't want to, that's fine too. But neither decision makes them worth more or less respect from Chris.
Virginity, or lack thereof, does not determine your value. Who you are as a person and how you contribute to the world determines what you're worth, not how much sex you've had. Chris needs to accept that these women are unique people. Some may have never had sex, some may have had a little sex, some may have had a lot of sex, but none of that matters in the long run. They should be evaluated based on who they are, not who they've slept with.
Virgin or not, these women deserve equal regard from the Bachelor because they're human beings, and that's all the reason he should need to respect them.
Image: Rick Rowell/ABC (2)
