'Love Is Blind' Finale Suggests Society Thinks We Owe It Babies
"Love Is Blind" may be marketed as a social experiment, but in reality, it is often much like any other reality TV dating show: filled with unnecessary drama and, sometimes, a healthy dose of exploitation.
What is 'Love Is Blind'?
The show sees a group of singles date blindly in "pods," where they can't see but can only hear the other person. If they fall in love in the pods, they become engaged, meet face to face and, a few weeks later, walk down the aisle, where the love is blind hypothesis is really put to the test.
In season four, three of the five engaged couples ended up saying, "I do." As if the show's four-week blind dating experiment wasn't already fast-tracked enough, host Vanessa Lachey had yet another demand of the contestants.
In the season four finale, which aired April 14, Lachey decided to conclude the episode with a desperate appeal to each couple: She wants babies and she wants them soon.
Cringe-worthy 'Love Is Blind' finale
"Auntie Vanessa is still hoping for that 'Love Is Blind' baby," Lachey said enthusiastically, a sinister lilt to her voice. And it didn't end there. Lachey then played a video clip of Bartise, a former "Love Is Blind" contestant, with his new baby.
"Out of all of the final couples, who is going to be the first to become parents?" Bartise asked in the clip.
"If that doesn't make your ovaries burn, I don't know," Lachey chimed in, adding, "I hope you're all trying."
As if this baby scolding wasn't enough, she then proceeded to go around the circle asking each couple about their baby plans.
"As of right now, we're really just trying to enjoy our marriage," said an uncomfortable Tiffany.
"Let's step back. We're going to let it happen when it needs to happen," Chelsea said.
When Lachey got to the final couple, Bliss and Zack, she initially thought a pregnancy announcement was coming and practically leaped out of her seat with rabid glee. But…
"We're still talking about when that time is," Bliss replied.
For many viewers, Lachey's maniacal baby obsession was uncomfortable to watch:
- "CAN WE STOP WITH THE BABY QUESTIONS?!?!!! Fr it's ridiculous. Get outta here with that 1950s bs," one fan tweeted.
- "So cringeworthy when she kept asking for a #LoveIsBlind baby, especially from Tiffany, who's over 35. Pregnancies over 35 are at such a higher risk. Leave these people to enjoy their very young marriage," tweeted another.
- Yet another fan wrote, "The constant pressure about a #LoveisBlind baby was just gross. Any of those couples could be struggling to conceive, and having to answer to that on 'live' TV would be extremely painful."
Inappropriate questions for the new couples
As many viewers were quick to note, Lachey's fixation on these new couples' baby timelines felt over the top and cringey, but also inappropriate.
For Paige, a 31-year-old fan of the show from Virginia Beach, Virginia, the baby obsession was her "biggest issue with the entire reunion." Paige said Lachey's pushy line of questioning left her feeling a little disgusted.
"She does not know any of their fertility history. That could be something they have struggled with in the past or any of them could have chosen to terminate a pregnancy before and questions like that can be quite triggering," Paige said. "It is also pretty presumptuous to assume that everyone on that stage or in general wants to have kids. That might not be in their plan and that's OK."
Lex (a pseudonym used for privacy reasons), a 27-year-old from London, is another fan who found the reunion deeply unsettling to watch.
"I was like, wait, isn't it 2023? Are we still asking women about babies like this?" Lex said. "You never know what's going on in other people's lives, and it can be a very sensitive subject for a lot of people. Also, that's a question for the couple; it's almost none of your business. It can bring up a lot of trauma and complications."
As Paige and Lex noted, there are many reasons it may not be acceptable to ask young couples about having children, let alone placing demands on them. While Lachey seemed to assume that everybody who ties the knot does so in order to immediately start churning out babies, this is not the case for many couples.
Some couples like to travel. Some couples like to spend a few years together before even considering starting a family. Some couples don't want children at all.
Plus, fertility is an intimate and often difficult topic of conversation for people who are going through fertility complications. Having a pushy, smiling stranger ask, "When are the babies coming?" might even be painful.
Sadly, Lachey is only one example of a worrying trend in modern society.
An uncomfortable situation
Paige, for example, who has been with her partner for more than 10 years, is no stranger to intimate questions about her baby plans.
"I have been questioned a number of times about thinking about having children because I am in my early 30s, and it makes me very uncomfortable every time," she said. "I've made it a point not to ask others because I don't like when people ask me.
"Of course, there is societal pressure on women and couples to get married and have kids because it's just what's always been done," Paige added. "There is this idea that not having kids is selfish somehow, and I don't understand it. I wish people would stop projecting their own insecurities onto others and making them uncomfortable."
Lex agreed that among her friends, the baby chat still comes up far too frequently.
"We're all so ingrained in the system that we live in," she said. "It's all, go to school, grow up, get a job, get a partner, get a house, have a baby, get married. We just think that if you tick those boxes it means you're happy. And I think that's just very old-fashioned. However, we still live in this society where it is prized and it is considered a success if you do those things. And I think that's a reason people often ask, but we need to be a little more sensitive about what's actually important to us."
The bottom line
If the fan reaction to the "Love Is Blind" finale is anything to go by, Lachey's baby mania isn't only cringey, it's also potentially harmful. Maybe it's finally time we all reconsidered the idea of the baby timeline—and it's definitely time to stop talking about it.
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