‘The Bachelor’: Catherine, Sean Lowe defend April Fools’ joke
In looking at the aftermath of what has been a bizarre two days for the former “Bachelor” star and the woman he picked (and married) from the show, it certainly seems that way. While there may be many out there understandable sensitive to certain issues, what we also may have here is another example of us living in the Year of Outrage, where almost any comment or action can be interpreted as offensive to a particular group of people. Take, for example, judging Trevor Noah entirely as a person and a comic based on some unfunny jokes on social media.
In getting back to Sean and Catherine, what happened began with Catherine posting a photo on her Instagram account on April 1, leading many to believe that she was pregnant.
The post was made by Catherine primarily as a way to skewer those who constantly bombard her with questions about pregnancy, which many married women are handed anytime they are out in public and snapped by paparazzi. It was clearly meant to just be silly from the moment it was clear it was a joke, but she was eventually attacked all over social media by some claiming that what she did was hurtful to people actually suffering from fertility. Shortly after some of the attacks broke, she responded with the following:
“About my earlier post, it was intended to be lighthearted and fun and certainly not insensitive. My heart goes out to all the women struggling with fertility.”
Eventually, Sean took to his own blog to issue a few thoughts of his own on the subject:
“I understand there are a lot of people hurting out there who are struggling with fertility and they are left with feelings of worry, frustration, and anger. I get that. But my wife’s Instagram is not the place to voice those feelings.”
One of the real questions is out of all of the things to be outraged about, why choose a picture of a supposed pregnancy posted on April 1? Announcing a pregnancy is such a big moment in a woman’s life, so why would she deliberately choose that date if she was actually pregnant?
In the end, everyone will have their own opinion about any controversy, but sometimes the best thing to do is to prioritize your outrage, judge intention, and try to relax and be happy. If you’ve followed Sean and Catherine on social media with regularity, then you will know that these two things are priorities for them.
As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.