The Best Part About ‘Bachelor In Paradise’ This Year Has Been The Women
Bachelor In Paradise has been an absolute whirlwind of drama this year. There’s been everything from walkouts, hectic Bula Banquets, fights, tears, and cheating exes, but thankfully there has also been a few good love stories that have kept the premise of the show slightly on track.
In recent episodes we’ve seen tensions hit a boiling point amongst the boys, with Ciarran never far from a heated argument. Sunday night’s Bula Banquet saw a full-blown fight nearly erupt, with producers having to step in and Ciarran, Timm, and Matt spent a lot of time yelling at each other, getting in each other’s faces, and being, well, embarrassing.
Amongst all the chaos however, there’s been a beautiful background storyline developing and for once we’re not talking about Alisha and Greg (though they deserve the world).
We’re talking about how the saving grace of this year’s Bachelor In Paradise has been the women on the show.
From Brittney’s storyline of “crazy conga dancing queen” to someone who’s not afraid to stand up for herself, to Renee Barrett graciously navigating the minefield of being stuck in Paradise with a cheating ex flaunting his new relationships in her face, watching the women form strong friendships and have each other’s backs has been the show’s silver lining.
So we wanted to give a shoutout to the strong, confident women who have made Bachelor In Paradise worth watching this year.
Renee
To say I am a huge fan of Renee is an understatement. She’s made her way into Paradise and been thrown into a situation with a narcissistic ex flaunting his numerous relationships in her face, while he then also tried to have a say about her own island romance. She’s handled herself with dignity and grace the whole time, especially when Ciarran ran his mouth acting as though he had to give permission for her to be able to go on a date.
From her very first Bula Banquet, Renee was thrown into the deep end with Timm trying to stir drama, and she’s never once backed down. She’s stood up for herself, stood up for other women, and while her relationship with Ciarran was obviously damaging, she’s persevered to get the most out of her paradise experience.
When Ciarran dumped Jess for Kiki, Renee was the one offering a shoulder to cry on and coming from a place of understanding. We’ve also seen in the Cabana Drama episodes that she was there for Alisha when Keira went off on her during a Bula Banquet, and she was also the one to go comfort Brittney when Niranga asked her on a date and Brittney had hit her limit with being everyone’s second choice.
Renee is a Paradise angel and she deserves the world.
Jessica
Jessica also fell under the curse of Ciarran, but who amongst us hasn’t dated a f*ckboi? What I really want to talk about though is how well Jessica handled herself throughout the situation of getting coldly dumped before a rose ceremony, and how she’s been giving constant online support to her fellow paradise women since her time on the show ended.
Jessica is also extremely vocal about making sure no one goes online to go troll other contestants, even the ones who may have not said the nicest things about Jessica herself. She’s using her platform to educate fans on mental health, the repercussions that can be left if online bullying goes too far, and is also speaking openly about her experience around her dramatic time on the show. Jessica may have been treated badly by a f*ckboi on the show, but there’s something empowering about her now using her status to help other women who have undoubtedly gone through similar things by opening up about it and not sugar-coating anything.
Just sayin’ she’d make a great Bachelorette.
Brittney
The biggest love story Paradise has given us this year has been the rise of Brittney, aka Litney. While she conga-danced her way into our hearts in last year’s Paradise, we’ve gotten to see more sides of this beautiful soul during this season and we bloody love it.
Brittney has been thrown into situations that would’ve tested anyone, but she still emerges as a ray of sunshine, always there to cheer people up and get the party started. But we’ve also seen her stand her ground and stand up for herself and what she wants. After being rejected by Ivan last year, and going through a testing period with Jamie on this season, Brittney opened up in a vulnerable moment about feeling like everyone’s second choice and it was heartbreaking. But what we’ve seen throughout this season of Paradise is Brittney realising her own self-worth and that she’s deserving of love and happiness. And when other people have been nasty to her on the show, she never stoops to their level.
She’s obviously adored among her fellow cast members too, and we hope Brittney eventually gets the happy ending she’s after.
Alisha
She’s part of Paradise’s most wholesome love story, and Alisha has been a rock for many throughout her paradise experience. She’s level-headed, mature, and manages to find a way to talk to people who are in the wrong without belittling them but by trying to explain their actions back to them in an honest way to help them see where things may have gone wrong.
She’s taken on explaining to Jamie why his relationship with Brittney was damaging to Britt, she’s not been afraid to stand up to Ciarran and all his BS, she tried to help Cass understand why her actions around giving Jackson her rose upset Brittney, and she’s definitely not shy to call out bullshit behaviour when she sees it.
Not only that, but she’s also been busy falling in love with Greg and healing her heart after her last fuckaround experience on Paradise, and we just love to see it.
Brittany
Britt may have to be the most patient person we’ve ever witnessed in paradise. Every time the camera cuts to her it seems as though she’s either having to deal with Timm’s childish antics or she’s stuck listening to another long spiel from Jamie.
We always assumed she had a heart of gold anyway to make it through Honey Badger’s season and be cracking jokes about it, but paradise really just proves she’s too wholesome and pure for this franchise. Even her scenes in Cabana Drama are just her and Helena chilling and finding comfort in each other after another hectic banquet or rose ceremony. We don’t even deserve the women of this franchise.
Abbie
Abbie’s time was sadly short-lived in paradise, and while some sneaky edits (“Stay AWAY from my MAN”) tried to get the best of her, our Gemini queen is resilient. Since her time on the 2019 season of The Bachelor, Abbie has always been vocal about feminism, speaking out about mental health, and helping other women. The first episode of Cabana Drama that was dropped saw Cassandra and Mary going in on Abbie for, well, being a living, breathing human by the sounds of it, and Abbie had not said a bad word about either of them in her scenes. The footage finally shed a more obvious light on how hard life was for Abbie in last year’s season of The Bachelor and how strong she’s been to bounce back from such a public level of hate and come out on top with a fanbase of young women who look up to her.
We love a strong woman who doesn’t stoop to the level of tearing other women down because of petty jealousy.
Special shoutouts:
I think there’s a lot more to Kiki than what we’re currently seeing, but my Bachy senses are tingling and I think in good time she’ll be able to speak her truth.
Also a special shoutout to Helena, who I love for her brutal honesty about feelings and her dry humour: we got to see glimpses on the show, but not as much as what was deserved.