The following article, based on this week’s episode of The Bachelor, could be triggering for anyone who’s experienced sexual assault. If you or someone you know need help, call RAINN’s hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673).
On the surface, the fourth episode of Colton Underwood’s season of The Bachelor was entirely typical. There were two romantic one-on-one dates, a chaotic group date, a trip to a stunning location, and the usual “villain” drama. That all shifted, though, when contestant Caelynn Miller-Keyes opened up to Colton about being sexually assaulted in college. This was different from anything we’ve seen from the franchise before, and The Bachelor got this #MeToo moment right.
During her date with Colton, Caelynn shared every painful detail of her story as she described being drugged and assaulted at a party during her sophomore year of college. “I woke up the next morning completely naked in my bed and had no memory of the night before,” she says. “I had a small vision of a guy in my bed, and I just had this pit in my stomach that something really bad happened last night.” Caelynn says she later learned through a friend what had happened, and that another student allegedly lifted her skirt and took Snapchat photos. “It was horrible,” she says. Her assailant, she says, was expelled from school but faced no other charges.
Caelynn explained that she tried to get a rape kit but said she was turned away from the first hospital she visited. “The reporting process is a lot more difficult than people realize. I had no idea what to do,” she told People in a later interview. “I was completely stranded, I was completely alone. I didn’t even think it was possible to be turned away from a hospital. Thankfully, I had a good support system and people went to a second hospital with me and I was able to get a rape kit and speak to authorities and go through that process. But it’s a lot more difficult than it seems.” (In addition to Caelynn’s experience, there’s a noted backlog of untested rape kits across the country, which interferes with prosecuting perpetrators of rape and assault.)
Caelynn’s story matters for a lot of reasons—but in the context of The Bachelor, it hopefully marks a turning point for how the franchise will address issues of sexual assault going forward. After all, this show doesn’t have the best track record. In 2017 the spinoff series Bachelor in Paradise was steeped in controversy when a producer brought forward sexual assault allegations regarding two contestants, Corinne Olympios and DeMario Jackson. Much of the public discourse surrounding Olympios was full of slut-shaming, and while the series did attempt to clear the air with a televised conversation about consent led by host Chris Harrison, the entire situation left a bad taste in many viewers’ mouths.
Last year news broke that The Bachelorette contestant Lincoln Adim had been convicted of indecent assault and battery. Warner Bros., the studio behind the franchise, issued a statement saying the production was unaware of the charges when he was cast. But the show never addressed the controversy; Adim was excluded from the “Men Tell All” special.
But Monday’s episode was poignant for many viewers, especially those who are sexual assault survivors—and there are likely many of them. According to RAINN, one out of every six American women (and three percent of men) have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape. What’s more, the vast majority of sexual assaults go unreported; out of every 1,000 sexual assaults, only 230 are ever reported to the police.
Anna, 25, a sexual assault survivor who asked Glamour to withhold her name for privacy reasons, said she “couldn’t breathe” while watching Caelynn tell her story. Like the Bachelor contestant, Anna woke up after a party with no memory of the previous night’s events but later had flashbacks of being assaulted by a coworker. “I never got a rape kit done, and I still have no solid conclusion as to what happened that night,” she says. “I fell into a deep depression for a couple years, but I’ve been able to slowly come out of it more recently.”
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