Can I Steal You?: An Analysis of Monogamy in The Bachelor

The Bachelor first aired on ABC in 2002, and its gender-swapped counterpart The Bachelorette aired a year later. The premise of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette is that one lead, the titular bachelor or bachelorette, pursues romantic connections with up to thirty contestants at a time, with an elimination ceremony every week where the lead decides who they would like to continue dating and who they would like to send home. This paper uses queer theory on non-monogamy to explore the role of non-monogamous practices in the franchise and their relationship to the monogamous goals of the shows. By exploring the tension between monogamy and non-monogamy, this paper illustrates how dissonance between monogamy and non-monogamy is not only present but essential to preserving the shows' goals.