Rachel Lindsay Is Done Trying to Please Bachelor Nation, Which Seems Fair!
"I’m exhausted from defending myself against a toxic fandom"
CelebritiesDirt Bag
Internet fandoms are a grouping of some of the worst people who choose to be extremely vocal about a thing that most likely doesn’t matter. Like a school of piranha, that fandom moves as one and when they turn on a subject, it’s blood in that water until some new meat comes along. In an interview with Vulture, former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay delves into her relationship with Bachelor Nation, which to no one’s surprise wasn’t a good one. A group of viewers who’ve been watching a show that spent 16 years casting white leads having some sort of issue with a successful, vocal, Black woman? Who could have seen that coming!
“I was known as the contestant who was always starting trouble,” Lindsay said, “The one who couldn’t stay quiet, who bites the hand that feeds, Bachelor Nation’s public enemy No. 1. Later, I would be known as the one responsible for Harrison’s eventually leaving the franchise.” Harrison parted ways with the show after the Kirkconnell Kerfuffle of 202o and reportedly received a payout of $9 million, to which Lindsay adds, “If he spends all of that, I’m sure the fans will somehow blame me, too.”
But it wasn’t just the fans Lindsay had to deal with, it was the entire infrastructure of the Bachelor. In her interview, Lindsay describes in great and at times painful detail what it was to be cast as a contestant on Nick Viall’s season and eventually be plummeted to reality show fame when she was chosen as the first Black lead. “I had to be a good Black girl, an exceptional Black girl. I had to be someone the viewer could accept.” Yet for all her efforts in trying to effect change for Bachelor Nation, Lindsay was a lone agent working against millions of people’s preconceived notions of a decade-old franchise. Talk about the roses being stacked against someone. [Vulture]
Olivia Rodrigo is growing up and taking her driver’s license with her into the next stage of her life: high school graduation. The singer and Disney star celebrated her graduation over the weekend, reminding every geriatric millennial that youth is fleeting and life is nearing its natural end. But congrats to Rodrigo, I guess, and I cannot wait to hear what break-up album we get from her college years. [Vulture]
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- Usain Bolt’s family has grown by two! The olympian’s girlfriend recently gave birth to twins Saint and Thunder. [TMZ]
- Kendall Jenner is “just a genuine basketball fan” which is how she is now dating her third NBA star, Devin Booker. I am just a genuine soccer fan, someone please let Kristie Mewis know. [Elle]
- Future Texas governor Matthew McConaughey got up close and personal with potential voters at an FC Austin game. [TMZ]
- Travis Barker was in a virtual fashion show for Philip Plein. Okay? [Instagram]