The Bachelorette Has Already Failed Katie Thurston

While it was very clear what Katie was talking about, the language she chose to use was cautious. Her admission of what had been done to her started off with a line she’s been pushing all season: “As you all know I am very sex-positive,” she said, before explaining that her outlook on sex was the direct result of a negative experience. “For a long time I didn’t want to have sex and I was in such denial about what this person had done, I tried to be in a relationship with them. I felt responsible for being too drunk but it wasn’t my fault… Consent is important and I did not give it that night.”

Like most emotional revelations on this franchise, the moment felt staged despite Katie’s bravery for sharing something so intimate on national television. The setup and the language had the distinct thumbprint of producers who get their checks signed by a network owned by Disney. Katie shared this huge revelation and instead of talking more about how she felt about it or even gauging the men’s reaction to something like this, the segment was quickly closed down, with Nick Viall thanking the men and Katie for their honesty. This admission, and Katie’s feelings, were left dangling in the air, unaddressed. The whole exchange was as sanitized as a discussion of sexual assault can possibly be.

Katie and Nick specifically asked the men to come forward with any red flags that she should know about before getting involved with them. Hardly any of them shared anything of note, and Thomas skirted the question entirely. Yet at the end of it, it was Katie who was baring her soul in front of a group of men who had no other reaction than shaking their heads and thanking her for sharing, as if all she had done was split the last slice of pizza.

The moment also betrays the very notion of consent itself that Katie was trying to put forward. How exactly did the producers gain her consent to have this extremely personal story aired out on national television as little more than an Episode 2 plot point that played second fiddle to an argument between Thomas and all the men in the house? If the entire marketing behind Katie’s season is that it’s a brand new girl power season with a sex-positive cool girl and her two new lady pals running the entire show, then where exactly on the feminist spectrum does a semi-scripted admission of sexual assault fall?

The sense that Katie’s admission was reluctantly made tainted the entire episode. It was nearly impossible to listen to the men squabble or talk about their feelings when a giant truth bomb had gone off in the first hour and, by the second hour, it went completely unaddressed—almost as if it had never happened. It feels as if the season is taking micro-steps into the 21st century with the inclusion of a conversation some couples might have but as usual with the Bachelor franchise, such truth and discomfort don’t seem to have a safe home in the mansion.