When “The Bachelor” first came out, I was intrigued. You had a man who wasn’t very good looking with a group of women going nuts just to go on a date with him. My girlfriends and I would watch it and laugh at the devious and cunning ways the women on the TV show would try to get his attention. It was entertainment.

It came back for a second season, and then the show had a bachelorette instead of a bachelor. Now, we are more than 15 seasons into the show and nothing has changed. Women are still acting crazy and desperate on television.

Why? What has happened to these women that they feel they need to compete with 20 others just for one — typically cocky and kind-of-a-jerk — man?

Has the dating world gotten so bad that women — many of which are very attractive and sometimes crazy females — are now willing to date in groups and compete for a boyfriend? What’s the deal?

To figure this out more, I asked a good friend who actually applied to be on the show years ago. She’s now happily married with two sons and wasn’t selected to participate, but she shared an interesting perspective.

“I never looked at it as competing for a man. I just thought maybe I might meet someone I really liked since I wasn’t meeting anyone at bars or online,” she said.

Could it be that simple? Perhaps I was being too judgmental of these women. Perhaps they were all simply looking for love.

Then, I watched the most recent episode and realized that my friend is probably the exception to the rule. The women on the show were saying things like, “I’m going to win him from all these women” and “I’m taking that girl down.”

And it hit me.

This isn’t entertainment anymore to me. This is sad and pathetic. I turned off the television, turned to my husband and thanked him for never applying to be “The Bachelor” before we met.

Though, I do believe I could take all those ladies down if I had to…

Danielle Herzog is married and a mother to two children. Read her every Wednesday on momaha.

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