The Bachelor

She does things like refusing to accept apologies and going topless at the drop of a pineapple, but...

Just because some of the “ladies” on The Bachelor Season 16 dislike model Courtney Robertson doesn’t mean she’s done more to deserve viewers’ fury than, say, the girls who called Blakeley Shea a toxic cougar slut for flirting with Ben Flajnik. Or the ones who said Shawntel Newton was an ugly creeper with thick thighs. We’re not dealing with a crop of Mother Teresas. Even Kacie Boguskie joined the “motor-boating” train when laughing behind busom Blakeley’s back and Emily O'Brien told the other girls Brittney Schreiner was smart to bring her grandma on the show so she could look better next to an old, wrinkled face.

So why are those comments — and Emily’s constant disses of Courtney behind her back — considered funny and fair game while things like Courtney’s “How’d that taste coming out of your mouth?” comment to Kacie was treated like a record-scratch diss?

As Lance Lau put it in the comments of our 5 Things You Need To Know story about Courtney story, “I have harsher opinions of this air brained model who makes a mockery out of what A true relationship entails. Ben is sadly blinded by beauty. Her comment to Kaci made me slam the door on her being anything less then satan himself. She is evil pure and simple.”

Satan? Evil? Come on...

But Lance is not alone. Fans seem adamant that Courtney is bad news — the same way they were adamant that Michelle Money was crazy and needed psych treatment during Brad Womack’s Season 15. But now Michelle has proven, in her post-Bachelor Pad 2 life, that she is actually as sweet as apple pie with ice cream and whipped cream on top.

Courtney may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but is she really that bad? Or are viewers just blindly following the sound of the anti-Courtney mob? It doesn’t help that she’s also getting the — dun-dun-dun-dun — “villain” music in case we didn’t get the memo that You’re Supposed To Root Against This Girl. 

Isn’t it possible that sweet, quiet Casey Shteamer is right and Courtney is just a good person who is “misunderstood” and “sweet to people who are sweet to her”? Why should Courtney be nice to Emily or the other mean girls who stop talking the second she enters the room? Is it really “fake” to be nice to people you like (Ben and Casey) and not nice to girls you don’t care for? At least Courtney is honest and up front.

Is this just a matter of the girls always needing a target to gang up on? When Blakeley got a group date rose in Episode 2, she was attacked as an unworthy threat. When Shawntel showed up in Episode 3, she was attacked as an unworthy threat. Now that Courtney appears to be high on Ben’s love list — much more than Blakeley — she’s being attacked as an unworthy threat. 

This says more about the women than Courtney. They are not exactly paragons of great judgment. So why not question them on Courtney? 

True, Courtney can be annoying. Playing with her hair. “Winning.” Sometimes her sense of humor falls flat and comes off as childish. And she definitely did not have her best moment when she called Shawntel “what’s her butt” at the rose ceremony. But she’s hardly the worst offender, and for the most part she’s been making fair points about the deficiencies of the other girls, without resorting to calling them “whores” or horse faces. Yeah, her self-confidence can be jarring — she’s very Michelle Money that way — but Ben likes that in a woman, much more than Brad Womack did. Ben thought Courtney’s “how’d that taste” comment was a “sick burn.” Who cares if the other ladies don’t like her? He’s going to dump most of them and maybe never talk to them again. 

If Ben is connecting with Courtney, that’s all that should matter. Will he propose to her? Who knows. Would that be a bad thing just because the other ladies don’t like her? No. Would that automatically make her the next Vienna Girardi, destined for a trainwreck breakup? No. As corny as it sounds, everyone deserves love, and if Ben is into Courtney — flaws and all — maybe it’s because he sees complementary human flaws in himself. 

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