Maybe it's the fact that women on past seasons of The Bachelor have had jobs like"free spirit" and "chicken enthusiast," but y'all, I am very optimistic about the crop of new contestants on Nick Viall's season of The Bachelor. There are 30 women from which Nick can choose, and basically all of them are intelligent, driven, successful ladies. Basically, The Bachelor contestants bode well for a feminist season, and I couldn't be more excited.
I think part of this shift is due to Nick himself. If you look at the women that Nick was connected with on his Bachelor shows—Andi Dorfman, Kaitlyn Bristowe, and Jen Saviano — they all have something in common. All three women have strong, assured personalities. They're fully themselves, and they're not going to be pushed around. If these ladies are any indication, Nick likes a woman who has her own mind and her own life.
Of course, there will still be some hijinks this season — 23-year-old Alexis is described as an “aspiring dolphin trainer” because she is really, really obsessed with this particular marine mammal. I can let that one go, as I’m sure the producers of The Bachelor saw that one detail about Alexis and turned it up to 11. Bianca, though, is a surgical unit nurse. Brittany is a travel nurse. Corinne is running her family’s multi-million dollar business. Danielle L. also has her own small business, and Liz is a doula, so she literally brings life to the world. There are marketing managers and a chef and more nurses and a food truck owner and a boutique owner and an attorney and wow, I’m starting to feel like a real underachiever here. Taylor is only 23 and a mental health counselor — I know that when I was 23, I was too busy dealing with my hangovers to help people work out their problems. Vanessa works with special needs children, and she speaks three languages.
This is a lovely, very well-rounded group of women that the producers picked for Nick. Sure, they’re all pretty and they’ll all look good standing in a sparkly gown for, like, nine hours during the first rose ceremony, but there seems like a whole lot of substance to back up that beauty. This is refreshing to me because it’s so much more representative of the women I know and the women I know that watch the show. I love this face of The Bachelor — one where it looks like a woman can bring home the bacon and try to find love on national television. These women are more than deserving of Nick's heart, and, even if they don't win, it seems like they'll all be OK. Either way, it's going to be a season for the ages.
