From the moment Farmer Paige hit TV screens in the 2022 season of Farmer Wants A Wife, she made it clear that won’t accept anything less than true love.
When presented with 10 suitors, Paige only chose four blokes to take to the next round, with another man dropping out soon after.
By the season’s halfway point, she had sent all of her original picks and a few intruders home and almost walked out of the show entirely.
“I want love. And I want that potential for love,” she told her final two at the time. “What I need to do is listen to myself. And … today I’m not actually going to be asking either of the gentlemen to come on a date with me. I made the decision to send both boys home.”
From the moment Farmer Paige hit TV she made it clear that won’t accept anything less than true love.
(Image: Seven)Producers and Samantha Armytage jumped in with a new batch of men for her to date, but fans flocked to social media to slam Paige for being “too fussy” and “ruining the season”.
“I don’t think Paige is into it at all,” one wrote on Facebook, another agreeing that she “doesn’t seem interested” and urging her to “lower her standards”.
A third commented: “The men couldn’t really do anything to take the lead since Paige made all the decisions.”
Some claimed including a female farmer “ruined” FWAW, insisting the male farmers were “making an effort” while Paige wasn’t.
But is she really the problem? Or do viewers at home need to reconsider what they expect of women who sign up to reality TV dating shows?
Before FWAW 2022 started airing, Paige acknowledged that finding a partner who could adapt to her lifestyle would be difficult.
“You don’t have to be a farmer to go out with me, but you have to understand that things will show up on Friday at 7:00 p.m. and you have to fix the fence because otherwise the cows will run away,” she told Sunrise.
She then struggled to find a spark with the city blokes she was paired with on the show, confessing to Woman’s Day that she didn’t feel that love connection.
Paige acknowledged that finding a partner who could adapt to her lifestyle would be difficult.
(Image: Seven)“There were a lot of questions going through my mind,” she said, adding that she was “disappointed” that she hadn’t found romance yet.
“I was being given not very much [from matches like Dylan], so I genuinely couldn’t tell from things like body language where he was at.”
Now Sportsbet has announced the odds suggest Paige will leave the season alone and fans are saying it’s ruined the show for them. But what else would viewers really have her do?
We’ve all seen reality TV stars declare their love in the finale episode, only to announce they’ve already split days later.
A select few make the romance last in the real world, but with so much evidence that reality TV relationships rarely last, can viewers truly blame Paige for being “picky”?
Paige has previously confessed she was “disappointed” that she hadn’t found romance on FWAW yet.
(Image: Seven)Would they prefer she pair up with one of the men she’s matched with purely out of a sense of duty (or contractual obligation), only for her to end up single again when cameras stop rolling?
Just look at Bachelorette Brooke Blurton, who split from her winner Darvid Garayeli just a few months after filming wrapped and later confessed she’d never date him in the real world.
“I picked someone who I probably wouldn’t actually ever approach ever,” she revealed on Angie Kent and Yvie Jones’ podcast. “I needed someone who understood me as a person and you don’t get to explore that in six to nine weeks or whatever it is.”
Perhaps Paige learned from watching other women like Brooke – though it seems fans are still catching up.
WATCH: Brooke Blurton chooses Darvid Garayeli in the Bachelorette 2021 finale
Sure, Paige could fake a romance for the cameras or try to force a spark, but would that really make viewers happy?
It wouldn’t be true love for her, the guy would doubtlessly get his heart broken and viewers at home would only be more disappointed when they eventually broke up.
By refusing to settle for anything less than true love, Paige is setting boundaries and prioritising her own happiness in a way we rarely see from women on reality TV.
This may just be a sign of a more empowering future, where women can assert their own desires and expectations when it comes to dating on national TV.
So is she really “too fussy”, as some viewers claim, or are we just not used to a woman refusing to settle for less on a reality dating show?
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