"For a reality dating show with an experimental premise, Love Is Blind has always been pretty traditionalist. Its entire purpose is the pursuit of heterosexual marriage. Separated by gender, contestants date one-on-one in "pods" without seeing each other. When it comes time for engagement, the men do all the proposing, and from then on the show is an arrow hurtling toward the altar."
"The show's focus on conversation means contestants' values are often at the forefront of the dating process. So viewers found out early on that Anton is "very old-school traditional in terms of how I treat women," and that a woman called "Sparkle Megan" believes in "more traditional gender roles." Despite Megan's obvious wealth and ambitious career, she said she thinks women should be nurturers and men should be providers. One of her dates, Mike, visibly perked up at this and said, "I support that.""
Season 9 of Love Is Blind featured multiple contestants endorsing traditional gender roles and old-fashioned relationship expectations. The pod-based format centered conversations that revealed participants' values early, including men proposing and adherence to heteronormative marriage goals. Some contestants voiced explicit support for homemaker/provider dynamics despite professional ambition. Other couples pursued nontraditional partnerships, producing visible tensions between conventional and nonconformist outlooks. The conservative streak reflected broader cultural shifts toward traditional gender roles and made many relationships feel ideologically inconsistent. The season's value tensions persisted throughout and culminated in a finale where the show's experimental premise effectively collapsed.
Read at The Atlantic
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