Another reason to turn off tube

photo by Christian A. Lopez

Well, it looks like we have a newcomer. "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire" and "Temptation Island" will not stand alone in the category of the most ridiculous reality love shows on TV.

"The Bachelor," which aired at 9 p.m. Monday nights on ABC, has proven once again just how the sanctity of marriage has tumbled downhill.

Today, marriage can be as common as getting a burger from McDonalds, and divorce is as common as the fries that come with it.

With a ridiculous entourage of women at his feet, Alex Michel, the lonely bachelor, was to choose a wife within a matter of five weeks. But did he really believe that he would find the woman of his dreams on a TV show?

With the exception of very rare and lucky cases, most people cannot decide on who they want to spend the rest of their life with in the time span of a couple of weeks. For some people, this process takes an entire lifetime.

It is disgusting that the participating women not only answered to the bachelor's every beckon call, but they also became emotionally damaged and deeply offended when they were not chosen.

But did these women actually believe that his choices would come from deep rooted affection and emotions? For some viewers, a divorce would have been the icing on the cake for Michel and his future wife.

And what about the issue of privacy and how it affected the climate of the relationship? This was a non-existent element in the show. Why would one want the entire United States to watch a make out session? Further, why would one want to have a "serious" relationship on millions of TV screens? Does this not undermine the idea of marriage?

At one point in time, marriage served for many different purposes in society, not just in the United States, but in other countries as well. The two main purposes of marriage were to gain social status and start a family.

Nowadays, people get married for dozens of reasons, ranging from obtaining citizenship to falling in love.

It is unfortunate that many people (and possible viewers of this show) who are in love in our society are forbidden to legally marry. Because by law, if two people are of the same sex they cannot marry each other, and no matter how much they love each other or how long they have known each other, they cannot walk down the aisle.

So it seems rather appalling that this show allows two heterosexual strangers to get married, after only knowing each other for several weeks, for the sake of TV ratings. By law, a same-sex "Bachelor" show could never happen.

This show chooses to uphold profits and good ratings over love.

Thanks to reality shows like "The Bachelor" and "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire" an attempt at comedy and suspense has added another reason to this list while at the same time, lowering the standards. The media has once again taken something of value in life and turned it upside down, just to get the ratings.

And while it has probably worked out great for the companies, it simply diminishes values as well as degrades what is supposed to be a lifelong commitment.