Today’s generation of women have been conditioned to think of sex as cheap. It’s something to be easily given away, as opposed to something that should be guarded. And whether or not a person should save sex for marriage can certainly be debated, but it’s generally a wise decision to not just give sex away without requiring any kind of commitment from the person who’s benefitting from the good time. Rather than being realistic about how degrading cheap sex is, though, we’ve packaged it as empowerment. And unfortunately, for most women, it ends up in heartbreak, not lighthearted fun.

Nowhere was this truth more evident than on this season of the Bachelor.