One month removed from The Golden Bachelor starring 71-year old Gerry Turner, drama on the less-than-golden version of The Bachelor sparked the question: Is 31 “too old?”
However, this seems to happen every other season on this show. This time, one of the many women competing for bachelor Joey’s heart admitted that — because most of the other women are in their early to mid-20’s — she “feels old.” That woman, named Madina, backed up her statement by revealing that she’s 31 years of age. Utterly shocking! This was not as utterly shocking, however, as two of the women revealing that they are sisters, but then we were offered a strange subplot that spun into some unnecessary drama.
Another woman on the show, Maria, is 29 (shocking!) but, contrary to Madina, she actually doesn’t seem to feel that she is too old to compete for love on ABC’s rosy show. She even suggested to a few of the others that Madina’s mentality is rather foolish. Madina heard this suggestion through someone else and took a bit of an exception to it, leading Maria to have to explain herself to Madina, though it seems Madina didn’t want to hear it. It’s kind of funny how one of the oldest women on the show is still immature — and that alone somewhat proves that 31 isn’t “too old.”
Yet, here’s the twist that the episode failed to present. The bachelor himself, Joey Graziadei, is 28 years old. If he were 20, then I might actually agree that Madina is too old for him at 31. But he isn’t 20. He’s 28. This gives Madina and Maria an advantage, because they are closer in age to the object of their desire than a lot of the other women are. Joey is, so far, seemingly very mature in how he carries himself, so this also means that Madina and Maria could have an added element that attracts him.
What their age definitely does not do is make them “too old” for him. Whereas Maria wisely sees her age as an advantage, Madina sees hers as a stumbling block, as she’ll be having to compete with younger women. Ultimately, Joey will theoretically choose who is right for him. It’s doubtful that he will choose someone based strictly on her age, especially when no one really looks any younger than anyone else.
The irony of this drama is that, for many years, viewers have expressed their displeasure at the show’s constant casting of twenty-somethings. The stunned reactions on social media on the rare occasion that a 35-year old is on the show is almost sad, and that person always becomes the center of attention for being “Whoa, so much older!”
So, the producers responded by casting 60-75 year olds for a totally different version of the show, leaving 30-60 year olds — which is the age demographic most viewers of the show fall into — in The Bachelor dust. This likely adds to the mentality of someone like Madina, who sees that being 31 on this particular show is a rarity.
There’s no reason why The Bachelor can’t have an equal number of women 5 years younger than the lead man, and 5 years older. If such a man only wants to date younger women, then he likely doesn’t deserve to be the lead on the show. Also, instead of casting a bachelor of approximately the same age every season — with a couple of exceptions — then each season should be slightly different in relation to the age of the contestants. I can’t see how this could ever be a bad thing.
One selling point that the producers can indisputably benefit from is more success stories. Considering that the average age of a Bachelor female contestant is 26, then it’s safe to say that age is a contributing factor for the failure of many of these Bachelor engagements. Anyone is much more likely to be wiser at 36 than 26, especially considering they will have a significantly better idea about what they truly want in a relationship.
Yet, producers seem to think otherwise, and as long as they push the idea of the show being centered mostly around 26-year olds, than it will always make a 31-year-old woman feel like an exception and out of place when, in reality, she’d be perfect.