Does 'The Bachelorette' Practice Safe Sex?

Some fans of The Bachelorette have been shocked and appalled this season at the idea of Kaitlyn Bristowe openly admitting that she had sex during the filming of her season. And, while the needless slut-shaming from TV audiences is not OK, it does raise one interesting question: When they do have sex, do the contestants on The Bachelorette have safe sex? According to host Chris Harrison, the answer is an emphatic "yes." He gave an interview on HuffPost Live where he explained that, during production, they try to make everything available for the couple.

But, Harrison is talking about the Fantasy Suite, the prescribed time and place where it's "acceptable" to have sex with one of the remaining contestants. Of course, once the contestants are in the Fantasy Suite, it's also possible they could choose not to use any of the provided supplies, but many of them do have sex in the Fantasy Suite. And, if you look at the clip, when sex gets brought up, Harrison immediately starts talking about the Fantasy Suite, and says that "everything" a couple could possibly need is available there. But, he stays silent about any sex happening on Bachelorette premises outside of the overnight dates.

He never mentions anything about condoms or anything else being available during the rest of the season, and, as we know from the many trailers for upcoming Bachelorette episode, Kaitlyn has sex before the "overnight" dates. She's not the only one, by the way — if producer Mike Fleiss is to be believed, than the average Bachelor "will end up having sex with three women during the course of the show." He didn't give an inside scoop on how often the Bachelorette hooks up, but I'm presuming it definitely happens. AshLee Frazier told US Weekly, "Minus maybe Sean and maybe another Bachelor or two, I think they all have sex."

And, the show has seen plenty of hookups not limited by the constraints of the Fantasy Suite. Many of them have been on the beach or in the ocean, far from a convenient nightstand. Erica Rose, from The Bachelor Season 9, told US Weekly that plenty of hooking up also goes on in the mansion. "I hope they sanitize that place after the season ends, because there is a lot of hooking up that goes on — especially on Bachelor Pad." No mention of condoms there. Plus, I think it's pretty impossible that a condom materialized during, say, Clare Crawley and Juan Pablo's tryst. That, at least, was definitely not emotionally safe, because it lead to one of the most brutal scenes in reality TV history.

Oh, and for what it's worth, Courtney Robertson claims in her book that when she and Ben Flajnik entered the Fantasy Suite during Season 16, "producers had left a cell phone for use in case of emergency, but they did not leave us any condoms." So, Harrison may be describing a very recent change in Bach sex policy.

Fans have been judging The Bachelorette and Kaitlyn Bristowe for all the wrong reasons. They've criticized her sense of humor, her flirtatious demeanor with so many of the guys, and the fact that she has sex outside of the Fantasy Suite. But, I think with all of these conflicting reports, it might be time for The Bachelorette franchise to revisit Sex Ed 101 and realize that its contestants need to be treated like adults and have access to anything they might need to practice safe sex in or out of the Fantasy Suite.

Image: Clodagh Kilcoyne/ABC