Recently, former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe has been seen in Bachelor Nation news defending Clayton Echard’s actions of sleeping with multiple women.
She wanted to offer viewers a different perspective since she’s been in Clayton’s shoes before in wanting to explore final relationships as far as they can go before proposing, or in her case accepting a proposal, in the end.
While Clayton has been criticized and slammed because of his actions, not only by fans but also by the women on his season and Bachelor Nation alums, Kaitlyn wanted people to be more open-minded and less harsh on Clayton.
Kaitlyn Bristowe looks back on the two seasons she was on, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette
In fact, while on Chris Soules’ season of The Bachelor, Kaitlyn was asked by Jimmy Kimmel what she would do if she had found out after the fact that Chris had slept with all three of his final women in the fantasy suite. Jimmy went on to ask if she would be angry finding out Chris not only slept with her but two other women as well.
Kaitlyn had been quoted as telling Jimmy, “No… I can’t be. It’s part of the process. You can’t take a car without test driving it.”
Kaitlyn supported this testimonial when she was The Bachelorette herself and slept with Nick Viall during the season, but didn’t choose him in the end. It was said that in Kaitlyn’s season as the leading woman, she accommodated casual sex during her season.
Kaitlyn also defended Hannah Brown when she was The Bachelorette
Moreover, Kaitlyn also supported Hannah Brown during her season of The Bachelorette when Hannah Brown was both criticized and praised by fans for being so forthcoming on her season of having sex.
Both Kaitlyn and Hannah were seen as strong female leads and ones who went after exactly what they wanted when they wanted it. Hannah and Kaitlyn seemed to follow the mantra that “Women can have sex if they choose, and women can wait till marriage if they choose. Point is, [IT’S] THEIR CHOICE.”
Is there a double standard of male and female leads?
So then why were Hannah and Kaitlyn showered with judgment but also recognition, when Clayton has only been met with harsh resentment?
Natalie Payer asked the same question on her Twitter feed when she posted, “Remember when Kaitlyn Bristowe and Hannah Brown both slept with multiple men on their season and we came to their defense when people tried to sex shame them? We don’t know Clayton’s whole story but let’s not have a double-standard here.”
This poses a very interesting question to ponder… Are Bachelor Nation fans and alums more critical when male leads sleep with multiple women on their seasons and during overnights than when Bachelorette leads do?
The Bachelor airs Monday at 8/7c on ABC.