ABSTRACT
Entwined within the story of Cinderella are American cultural myths that perpetuate the normalcy of women fighting each other. The story of women desperate to find a man in The Bachelor for their Cinderella happily-ever-afters includes mythic battles between women to win the man. The Cinderella fairy tale as told depicts a beautiful young woman forced to be a slave for her stepfamily after her father dies. The Bachelor lives up to the simplistic Cinderella plot quite nicely and is regularly touted as a Cinderella story. Reality television then serves to reinforce many of the taken-for-granted ideological discourses found within popular cultural myths such as Cinderella. This chapter examines the myths that fuel the success of The Bachelor, not only in its popularity, but more important, for the lack of critical analysis that sheds light on the weekly battles among the gaggle of women vying for the bachelor.
