Vanessa Lachey is claiming the lack of body diversity in "Love Is Blind" is not intentional, but perhaps the result of conventional beauty standards among the contestants themselves.
"Love Is Blind" was created with the premise of finding love before knowing someone's physical appearance. To accomplish that, men and women are separated into different pods where they have to decide through conversation to be engaged before ever meeting face-to-face.
However, the emphasis of thin bodies has been a conversation since Season 1 premiered in 2020. It was again a topic of controversy after Season 2 contestant Shake Chatterjee kept inquiring about the weight of the women he was speaking to while in the separation pods. After proposing to Deepti Vempati, he continued to bring up his then-fiancée's weight outside of the pods.
Netflix's "Love Is Blind," "Sexy Beasts" and ABC's "Celebrity Dating Game" all offer the promise of love connections even when the suitors can't see each other. But it seems like a moot point when all the contestants have one thing in common: They're conventionally attractive and thin.
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Lachey, who co-hosts the show with husband Nick Lachey, put the onus on contestants in an interview with Insider published Monday, suggesting that they may be "insecure" if they don't fall into a certain body mold, which prevents them from making strong enough connections.
"Their whole life they've been so insecure about being themselves because of this crazy swipe generation that we are in and this catfishing world that we're in, that they're so afraid to be themselves," Lachey, 41, said of plus-size contestants.
She added: "I wonder if they truly don't have enough time in those two weeks to find themselves, A, and then be themselves to then find that spouse."
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Lachey also noted that during casting calls, Netflix gave people with diverse bodies a "fair shot" and the exclusion was not deliberate.
A lack of body diversity in a dating series isn't just a question of poor representation – it makes for misleading, dull, predictable TV, according to USA TODAY TV critic Kelly Lawler.
Lawler notes that the "blind" aspect of "Love Is Blind" appears as an afterthought because most of the contestants are at the same baseline weight and appearance-wise, which doesn't challenge their perception of beauty.
In addition to body diversity, some viewers have called into question why there are no LGBTQ contestants on "Love Is Blind."
"If you think about if you did just women, then it wouldn't be separate quarters, it would just be one big house of everybody out for themselves, I guess. And if you did the men, it would be the same," Lachey told Insider of the logistical issue.
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She emphasized that Netflix plans to embrace diverse love in more content "soon," possibly referring to Season 2 of reality dating show "The Ultimatum," which is set to have an all-queer cast, the streaming service announced in March.
"The Ultimatum" brings together several existing couples and gives them the opportunity to date one another before deciding if they want to get married to their partner, break up or leave them for another relationship.
Contributing: Kelly Lawler
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