 I don't know about you, but one of my guilty pleasures is watching these Netflix dating shows like Love is Blind, Too Hot to Handle, The Ultimatum. There was this new one called Dated and Related, which was kind of strange. But if you watch those two, I don't know if you've noticed this, but when you look at the entire cast of characters, there's not a single person on there who's overweight. And I wanted to kind of talk about that today, what might be going on and why that's an issue. So for those of you who are new here, hi, welcome, I'm Chris. Make sure you subscribe to my channel and make a lot of wonderful videos talking about different topics that I find interesting. Try to understand human behavior, see what's going on. And for those of you who are long term subscribers, welcome back. And you might notice, Hey, Chris, you're back on camera. Well, for this specific video, due to the subject matter, I wanted to make sure I was on camera so you could soak it all in. So just get it all in there. All right, because today we're going to be talking about lookism and what's going on with these Netflix reality shows. So this has kind of become a little bit of a joke in my household, because my girlfriend and I, we love watching this, but every single time we notice that on all of these reality TV shows, every single person who gets cast is conventionally attractive, right? Like you could take anybody from any of these series just pluck them out and turn them into an Instagram model. Well, I guess if we're being honest, most of them already are Instagram models. And this is just really strange with so many overweight people in the United States, even around the world. What's going on? Why aren't these people on there? Well, Vanessa Lachey actually did an interview a few months back. And this is actually when I wanted to make this video, because I read that. And it was just kind of infuriating what the response was, because she she tries to make it seem like to all about inclusivity and body positivity. But here's what she had to say about why there's no overweight people on love is blind or any of these other shows. So real quick, for those of you who are unaware, the way this show is kind of formatted is that love is supposed to be blind. So the contestants don't see each other. They put the men and women in separate pods. And all they're able to do is talk to each other. Then after, you know, X amount of dates of them talking to one another, they decide if they want to get married. The guy gets down on one beat, he proposes to the woman through wall, they've never seen each other. Then there's the big reveal, they see each other, they get together, then they go on their merry little way. And I think it's like six weeks and they have to make the decision to get married or not. They go to the altar. And that's when the whole intense moment happens. You don't know if the man's gonna say yes, you don't know if the woman's gonna say yes, because of course, putting two people together in this high pressure situation to get married after just a few weeks after not even knowing each other. There's a matter of times when it just doesn't work out. But obviously this is set up kind of like the voice you don't see the other person. So the premise of this show is that looks are not what Matt, right? You're connecting with the person's the personality, their soul, who they are, right over this recap of the interview from insider.com. It says she said she often wonders if some contestants don't make it past the pod stage of the experiment, because they feel quote unquote insecure and don't have enough time to make meaningful connections. Well, 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. The shape set of contestants who may not believe they fit into conventional beauty standard. So this would make some sense if we saw bigger men or bigger women in the pod stage, but they were very nervous the entire time they're just so nervous, because they were afraid that when this person sees them, they will not be attracted to them. But the issue is that we never see bigger men or women even make it to the pods. So the article goes on to say this. Lachey acknowledged that many couples who move past the pod stage fit into conventional beauty standards. She's not a part of the casting process. But she said she knows that love is blind and Netflix give people with diverse bodies a quote fair share as far as casting them on the show. Well, I wonder if they truly don't have enough time in those two weeks to find themselves and then be themselves to find that spouse. She said no one on the show controls who gets engaged. So that is part of the reason why we don't see more physically diverse contestants move on to the stage of the show where they go on vacation with their partners. Vanessa, as my father used to say, I was born at night, but it wasn't last night. Okay, so Vanessa doesn't control the casting who gets on the show. So I think this would make sense if people actually made it to that stage of the pod. Because with these shows, a bunch of people apply to get on sometime they send in their little casting videos and things like that, then they're selected and these groups are narrowed down narrowed down to whoever they think will be best with television and they put them in there. But people aren't even making it to the stage where they're not being seen by their future or potentially future husband or wife. You see what I mean? So there's something going on where there are blocking bigger men and bigger women from making it to that stage. But the thing is, it's not just love is gone. So on the show, the ultimatum they bring in couples, they bring in couples who have been together for a long time. And the man or the woman doesn't want to pull the trigger to get engaged, get married, have kids and all that kind of stuff. There is a one couple on there that is not conventionally attractive. And this show is also hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey. So that doesn't make sense either. Why did they not ask any bigger couples on then look at a show like too hot to handle? Okay, this is taking a bunch of sexy singles. These guys and these girls, they get tricked and going to this place. I think it's going to be some kind of other reality show. But the whole thing is like, you got all you do is hook up and you don't want a serious relationship. So when you're here, you can win money by just not hooking up by not doing anything sexual. Again, there is not one single bigger man or bigger woman. Okay. And again, this doesn't make sense. Are we saying that there are no big people who go out there and just party and hook up and don't want a serious relationship? Because anybody out there who I don't know is alive, you know that that's not the case. But I guess let me roll that back a little because one of the reasons we're talking about this is because Netflix is perpetuating a stereotype that bigger men and bigger women just aren't, you know, quote unquote, too hot to handle that nobody is a chapter to these people. So therefore it must be impossible that any bigger men or bigger women are out there just in hookup culture, because who would want to hook up with one of these people? So although Netflix tries to say that they're being, you know, inclusive and having some diversity in there when it comes to body inclusivity, it really sounds a lot like Jordan Peterson and his famous tweet when Sports Illustrated had a plus size model when he tweeted this out. Sorry, not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that. It almost sounds like Jordan Peterson is the CEO of Netflix pulling the trigger on who does and doesn't get on these dating shows. I don't know about you. If you're a bigger person like myself, I don't know about you, but it drives me absolutely nuts watching this play out every single time one of these new dating shows comes on with all of these conventionally attractive people and watching them talk about how insecure they are about their bodies. Now, don't get me wrong. It doesn't matter what size you are, how you look, no matter what it is, everybody has insecurities. But all of us are sitting here without seeing any kind of representation for people like us watching these small people talk about how insecure they are about this. I remember in season two of Love Is Blind, there was this guy, Shay, and he was like the villain of the show. And people lost their mind when he asked, when he asked, aren't you small enough for me to carry you on my shoulders? And people lost it. Why? Because Shay is seemingly saying that he can't be with a bigger woman. And I'm like, are you guys really losing it and getting mad when this entire show as well as all of these other Netflix shows doesn't even include a plus size man or woman, but you're going to get mad at this guy for asking a normal size woman who might have like three pounds extra maybe if he can hold her on her shoulders. Like we need to talk about how these shows don't even ask people where there'd be no way that Shay could put somebody on her shoulders, right? But what you'll notice too is if you watch a show like the circle, which is another great show, right, where everybody is in several little permits and they can't see each other, there is so much body diversity. And if you look back at the last two seasons, both of the people who won the last two seasons were bigger guys, okay? And that's cool. It'd be cool to see a bigger person win any of these other shows. But on the circle, there's no there's no love to be found every now and then. Some people get together after the show, right? After they meet. But it's almost like they're saying they're like, we can have you here, but we don't want to give off the idea that any of you might be attractive. Like they even had someone I believe it was on season three, who had dwarfism, right? So there's a lot of different body diversity on the circle, but none of these dating shows. And this is an issue because there are so many different implicit biases. When it especially when it comes to people who are overweight, there are so many stereotypes. And to be honest, like this is one of the reasons why I'm not on camera as much. It's one of the reasons I haven't been putting my face in the thumbnail. Lookism is a very real thing. And it's something that I have to take into consideration every single time that I'm uploading a video. Okay, because there are these biases, I have to wonder, huh, if I put my big chunky face in a thumbnail, will people click? Or should I just try using text and using one of these conventionally attractive people on here or somebody that they might know? It's something that we have to think about all the time because there are so many stereotypes about who we are because of the society and diet culture and all that, we have linked weight with like morality or weight with work ethic, even though we often don't even know the circumstances that these people are. So I don't know, I don't see anybody talking about this. But as a bigger person, I noticed this with every single show. And it makes no sense at all. Because like I said, even with too hot to handle, they're acting like plus size people don't go out and they don't hook up. And I have been in a very long term committed relationship with my girlfriend of about six years now. But I can tell you from my younger days and knowing a lot of other plus size people like people get down no matter what size they are. All right. So if you've noticed this, just know you're not the only one, you're not going crazy. But when we're talking about how society pressures us with all these conventional beauty standards and all this, this is part of it. And I've seen people like Vanessa Lachey just duck and dodge and make these excuses for why it doesn't happen. Even though the logic there makes absolutely no sense because they're not even making it to the pod stage. Like we need to take a step back and start talking about this thing. All right. But anyways, I had to get that out there because I don't see anybody talking about that. If you have any facts on this, leave a comment down below. Okay. But anyways, that's all I got for you. If you're new, make sure you subscribe, turn on that notification bell. And if you're already subscribed, thanks for sticking around. Thanks for watching. And all of you out there, make sure you follow me on social media at the rewired soul over on Instagram and Twitter. I love chatting with all of you. I do a lot of other work like I write a lot and everything. I share that all on social media. So make sure you follow me at the rewired soul. All right. Anyways, that's all I got for this video. Have an amazing rest of your day.