Bachelor: Competition or Romance?

I'll admit it: I watch The Bachelor. I also like it. There are a few reasons why: I like seeing people fall in love, I love seeing the various date ideas the show comes up with, it's something I can talk about with my friends, and it's different from my life (albeit, their's is not very realistic--who dates 25 women at a time anyway?).

Even though I like the show, I almost stopped watching it because I was not very (still am not completely) happy with the bachelor. I was rooting for him when he was on The Bachelorette because he lives only 44 minutes (33 miles) from my hometown. He lives in the same county even! Rarely do people from Iowa, let alone Fayette county, population 20,502, make it onto national television. He seemed like such a true gentleman. I was shocked when he kissed someone on the very first night and every night since. Normally they wait for a few weeks. There are some other reasons, but I have come to learn that it is not really his fault of some of the things that I thought of him, but the people in charge of editing the previews for future episodes.

Anyway, onto what I really want to talk about...

Something that Kelsey said from Week 6's episode is how it's a competition and that she's in it to win it (which she doesn't). That got me thinking could The Bachelor be under the category of competition too, in addition to romance? I think it could be. These girls are trying to win over the bachelor's heart at an attempt to become his wife. Each week X number of girls are eliminated, thus losing their chances to win over his heart, although some girls try to come back for a second chance, but always lose a second time...In addition to competing for his heart, they try to compete for the rose or a one-on-one date (even though they have no control over who goes on which type of dates). The reasons for it being a romance reality TV is obvious: there's kissing, hugging, dates, and other mushy love stuff that takes place.

If this does classify as a competition show, I like the ladies who don't treat it as such. Those that come in with a strategy or game plan of how they will get the bachelor or far enough to become the bachelorette just seem very fake to me and there for the wrong reasons.

With that all being said, I hope Whitney wins because she seems like a very cool and real person. Plus, I think she could do just fine living on a farm and she's already from the midwest.