If love is blind, then politics are proving to be the ultimate deal breaker.
The latest season of Love is Blind featured only one couple who got married and, notably, two couples who parted ways at the altar due to differences in their political views.
In you’re unfamiliar, Love is Blind is a reality series where singles date through a wall, their faces hidden, and if they form a genuine connection, they get engaged—all based on their emotional bond alone, without the distraction of physical appearance. After the engagement, the couples have a matter of weeks to decide if they’ll actually marry. In season eight, political discussions played a pivotal role in the unraveling of two couples, highlighting a deepening gender divide in political views.
Season eight included two couples, Devin Buckley and Virginia Miller, and Sara Carton and Ben Mezzenga, who stood divided in their political beliefs, ultimately costing them their relationship. The significance of this division spans beyond TV, pointing to a social and economic phenomenon of ideological disparities between male and female partners in heterosexual relationships.
Some researchers and scholars attribute the growing decrease in marriage rates—as seen on a micro level in the two Love Is Blind couples—to the phenomenon of “the unmarriageable man.” These men are considered less economically attractive by increasingly educated women. Everyday men may not require a job or a degree to be an attractive marriage partner, but overwhelming economic aggregates data suggests the decline of men in post-secondary education is highly correlated with the drop in marriage rates.
One of Carton’s key frustrations with her former partner was his inability to examine his own biases, and unwillingness to learn about his church’s traditional stance on the queer community. In an interview with Us Weekly, Carton shared her and Mezzenga would have the same conversation over and over again, without progressing past his inability to educate himself on social issues that were important to her.
Similarly, Miller expressed one of the reasons she couldn’t say yes to Buckley at the altar was due to his conservative political beliefs. At reunion, Miller said she and Buckley were often in disagreement off-camera over her for the 2SLGBTQ+ community, abortion rights, and appreciation for different religions.
The two couples serve as prime examples of the growing gender division in politics.
Mezzenga and Buckley aren’t totally to blame for their ignorance, though they should’ve taken more initiative—the two cast are a broader reflection of concerning social norms regarding men, education, and political engagement. Men and boys are less likely to seek help when struggling in school or attend counselling or psychotherapy. The “tough guy” stereotype is thrown around so commonly that some men don’t pursue post-secondary education for fear of failure. Ultimately, this lack of an emotional education ill equips men for politics oriented towards empathy and human rights.
The persistent decline in marriage rates and lack of ideological unity between male and female partners, has contributed to a rise in single-parent households, which can negatively impact future generations. Love is Blind highlights the consequences of diverging political beliefs on modern marriages.
In her book The Two-Parent Privilege (2023), University of Maryland economist Melissa Kearney dives into the economic disadvantages of growing up in a single-parent household. Kearney understands and sympathizes with the fact that healthy and happy families exist outside the traditional marriage structure, but this is the exception, not the rule.
Kearney uses marriage as a macroeconomic indicator of resource allocation towards a child’s potential success, finding the growing number of single parents is directly correlated with the growing number of men without a college education. According to Kearney, less educated and often less politically involved men are less likely to get married, and stay married, to their partners.
Educated and empathetic men aren’t yet scarce, but they’re observably declining along with the rise of educated women in positions of power. Not all men fall victim to the sociodemographic trend, but enough to sustain a statistically significant impact on marriage rates.
While the most recent season of Love is Blind illustrates the growing gender gap in politics, more importantly, it raises concerns about the next generation of children growing up without the economic advantages of ideologically unified parents.
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