WARNING: Spoilers for Love Is Blind episodes 1-9 ahead!
Picture this: the love of your life is down on one knee, asking for your hand in marriage. At least, you think they’re down on one knee. You can’t actually see your sexy soon-to-be fiancé. What you can see is a very unsexy wall, which you’ve been talking to for the entirety of your ten day talking stage. In fact, you’ve never actually seen your supposed soulmate…ever.
This is not the plot of a new dystopian romance novel. This is Love Is Blind, a Netflix reality TV show designed to prove that love is more than skin-deep. As the antithesis of typical romance reality TV series like Too Hot To Handle or Love Island, Love Is Blind prides itself on its focus on emotional over physical connections. In short, Love Is Blind is nothing like all of that other superficial trash: it’s suuuper deep.
Though it has cycled through different cast members and cities over its six (and counting) seasons, Love Is Blind remains rooted in a constant, age-old question: is love blind?
I have always had a love/hate relationship with Love Is Blind, but I always end up tuning in for every single episode. Season 6 is really something: my emotional investment is at an embarrassing all-time high. Besides the multiple super messy love triangles (or squares, depending on how you see it), this season has kept my eyes glued to the screen because it seems to finally solve its main mystery: love is definitely not blind.
Now, before you cancel your Netflix subscriptions, let me make one thing clear: this does not mean I will ever (like, no matter how hard I try) stop watching Love Is Blind. I only raise this point to consider whether the show we have come to know and love actually functions within its original premise.
Reality TV as a genre is founded upon effortless enjoyment: you don’t need to think too hard to understand what’s going on, and you can essentially kick back and coast through the ensuing low-stakes drama. So how did I find myself critically analyzing a piece of media literally designed for shutting my brain off?
If you’ve watched at least parts of Love Is Blind Season 6, then you may be able to guess how I got here. No, I’m not talking about the potential cheating rumors. I’m talking about that Megan Fox comparison. For all of you who have yet to do your Love Is Blind homework, here’s a quick rundown of the situation:
Contestants Jimmy Presnell and Chelsea Blackwell formed a strong bond in the pods. However, Jimmy was also getting pretty serious with contestant Jess Vestal. Caught up between these two options, Jimmy ultimately went with Chelsea. While his exact reasons are up for debate, I strongly believe that his conversation with Chelsea about Megan Fox being her celebrity lookalike definitely swayed his decision.
In a reveal ceremony which I watched with my hands covering my eyes, Jimmy appears surprised by Chelsea’s appearance and later argues that her Megan Fox comparison was a lie. This moment set the internet ablaze; deciding whether Chelsea actually looks like Megan Fox sparked more debate than the infamous blue and black/gold and white dress.
I’m not here to feed into this celebrity lookalike conversation. Instead, I’d like to point out how the online discourse for a show seeking to dismantle looks-based romance is ironically rooted entirely in a contestant’s physical appearance.
Love Is Blind does not just explore whether love is blind through the filmed experiences of its contestants. Rather, audiences are just as much willing test-subjects in the show’s experiment. Notice how focused we all are on Chelsea’s appearance? Implicitly, this hyper-fixation suggests that we may believe Chelsea is less deserving of love because she does not perfectly embody an impossible beauty standard.
Even more, I have not seen anyone questioning the context in which the Megan Fox comparison even originated. Chelsea had only made this comment in response to Jimmy’s question about celebrity doppelgängers. Considering that this question is a thinly-veiled attempt at figuring out what Chelsea looks like, it is incredibly ironic that Jimmy would ask it on a show encouraging “real connections.”
If anything, we should be talking less about Chelsea (who is absolutely stunning) and more about Jimmy (the real villain, sorry)!
But then again, it’s just a reality show. Reality TV presents a filtered version of reality, rendering it far from the best medium to critically consider whether love is truly blind. So even though love can see in 20/20 vision on Love Is Blind, there could still be some hope for all of us in the real world.