Why the Bachelor Never Offers His Jacket to a Freezing Lady on a Date

The Bachelor, a show in which several conventionally attractive women vie for the heart of one conventionally attractive man, is a pretty unapologetic testament to traditional heteronormative codes of romantic etiquette.

Given the show’s penchant for upholding old-school traditions of chivalry, then, you may expect the bachelor, a man often wearing a suit, to occasionally offer his jacket to one of the many of ladies who typically accompany him on glamorous dates clad in skimpy evening gowns. You might especially expect the bachelor to make such a gesture when the woman in question directly alerts him to the fact that she is cold.

However, when this exact scenario occurred on Monday night’s episode of the ABC reality show, many viewers watched on in confusion and/or frustration as Peter, this season’s bachelor, responded to his clearly shivering date’s complaint by doing pretty much nothing at all.

(ABC)

Apparently, however, it turns out Peter wasn’t just being an unchivalrous jerk. When questioned by one puzzled EW reporter confused by Peter’s apparently blatant disregard for his date’s comfort, a producer on the show explained that the bachelor is actually specifically instructed not to offer a chilly lady his jacket.

“The Bachelor nearly always offers his jacket to every shivering woman sitting in front of him,” the producer explained. “But [we] tell him not to, because it looks so damn silly.” Apparently “a small woman draped in an enormous blazer” just isn’t the look producers have in mind for female Bachelor contestants, so instead they’re just left to freeze in their evening wear.

Just kidding. The producer went on to explain that a fully-stocked wardrobe of pashminas is kept on hand for just such situations. Is a pashmina really going to help a woman stay particularly warm? Probably not. But that’s show business, (if we can call it that) baby!

Anyway, please keep in mind that you are not the bachelor, and you are not on TV. So if you find yourself in the company of an obviously freezing woman in an evening gown, please, by all means, offer her your jacket. It’s sexy, and also much more effective than putting your arm around us and rubbing our shoulder with your hand like you’re trying to sand down drywall.

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