"I Wanna Marry Harry" is a reality tv show airing Tuesday nights in the US, where 12 women compete to win the hearts of a ginger haired British man, whom they believe to be the real Prince Harry. In reality, he's a professional Prince Harry look-alike named Matthew Hicks, doing his best to feign royalty, complete with fake paparazzi, helicopters and bodyguards.
After watching the first three episodes and sifting through the #marryharry hashtag on Twitter to gauge audience responses, one thing is glaringly clear-this show is making American women look really, really bad. Tweet after tweet say things along the lines of, "These girls can't seriously believe he's the real Prince Harry!" or "American women are so dumb!" So-are they?
No.
Well, at least...not in general. While I can't personally attest to the IQ of each of the 12 women, I don't think their behavior on a reality show is the best way to judge their intellect. If you're a single woman who auditions to be on a reality show where the prize is falling in love with a man you've never met, chances are you aren't in it to prove to the world what a genius you are. It's no longer a secret that the "reality" in reality tv is slim to none, so it only makes sense that the cast would want to put on as much of a show (or spectacle, in this case) as possible, even at the risk of looking stupid. Heck, especially if they look stupid!
Isn't it peculiar that not one of these women, many who seem to have no problem speaking their minds, never looks Matt/Harry and asks him his name? Asks him if he is, indeed, the Prince of Wales? They sit in their interview chairs, crying about not getting a chance to kiss the ginger of their dreams...yet they don't even know his name, or much about him other than he sucks at rowing and his older brother recently "settled down with a wife and child." Are these women any more ridiculous than all of the women (and men!) worldwide who go on television claiming they are looking for love when in reality, they are just hoping for five minutes of fame? These women do not believe that Matt is the real Prince Harry anymore than the latest Bachelor plans on marrying the woman he deems worthy of his final rose. Why are we expecting so much here?
In the second episode of the show, one of the American women summed it all up brilliantly when she said, "I don't see how they'd let a bunch of America girls around Prince Harry!" Truer words have never been spoken! Maybe the joke is on us, the viewer, for not giving these women the credit they deserve-of course they know Matt isn't the real Prince Harry, but they also know that nobody would be talking about them right now if they didn't take another shot and play along.