November 10, 2026:

After the Season 11 reunion of Love Is Blind aired on Nov. 8, we can finally put another installment of the hit Netflix show behind us. But the internet is still deliberating the uncomfortable conversations that these couples—who chose to get engaged to one another over the course of ten days, “sight unseen”—had about their values and political beliefs. 

The Netflix reality series has become a sensation among reality television fanatics, with global spinoffs now filming in Germany, Brazil, Sweden, and more. The show, billed as an “experiment,” asks whether people can fall in love with one another regardless of their physical appearance. Participants initially date through an opaque wall, meeting face-to-face only once engaged. 

The experience famously falls apart for most couples after this point—allowing viewers to revel in the chaos of contestants living together, meeting each other’s families, and, ultimately, deciding whether to leave each other at the altar. Still, an increasingly prevalent throughline has been how couples navigate political differences. 

And when human rights and social justice topics are raised, it’s almost always by women who skew liberal in their views.

Correcting abortion misinformation

The most recent season of the Netflix show, which took place in Boston, was no different. Contestants had to explain and defend their controversial behavior, from drinking raw milk to drunkenly yelling at producers—drama that is par for the course when it comes to reality dating shows. 

But they also talked about politics, which distinguishes Love Is Blind from other dating franchises like The Bachelor which have historically avoided conversation topics that could risk alienating or dividing their audiences. 

One of Season 11’s most-discussed relationships was between health-care program manager Sarah Williams and account executive John Shannon, who dove into topics like the COVID-19 vaccine and abortion while getting to know one another in the pods. Williams deftly corrected her eventual fiancee—now her soon-to-be ex-husband—on the misconception that later abortions occur because a person never “got around” to terminating their pregnancy until six months. 

Later abortions, which typically refers to pregnancy termination at 21 weeks or later, are rare. They comprise just 1 percent of U.S. abortions, according to KFF, and often happen due to previously unforeseen, serious complications that may threaten the life of either the fetus or the pregnant person.

“From a health-care perspective, I do think there’s a little misinformation,” Williams told Shannon. “The number of women who do it late-term ‘just because’—it’s almost non-existently low. And women using abortion as birth control, that number is so low. So I hate that that’s used as an argument [against abortion].” 

Both Shannon and Williams have said the clip aired on Netflix was only a small snippet of their conversation. 

“Netflix is not going to show an hour-long conversation between two people. They are going to pick and choose what sounds most scandalous,” said Dr. Brandy Monk-Payton, a media studies professor at Fordham University who teaches a course on the ethics of reality television. “It serves as a teachable moment … but it’s also trying to create a kind of spectacle of a conversation between two potential partners that then goes viral and circulates and gains attention.” 

‘Televisual versions of app dating’

This wasn’t the show’s first time tackling abortion. 

To Love Is Blind’s credit—or detriment, depending on your viewpoint—the series hasn’t shied away from airing contentious discussions between couples that touch on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, and ideological beliefs. But in the same breath, it also hasn’t been particularly concerned with correcting any misinformation spouted by uninformed participants. 

The show also has cast singles who appear to be from across the political spectrum—including denizens of the manosphere—irrespective of a host city’s typical partisan makeup. 

The exchange between Shannon and Williams illustrates an unignorable pattern in the series: Women are either educating their male partners on social justice and human rights issues, or begging them to form opinions on them. (All of the relationships on Love Is Blind have so far been heterosexual.) 

These dynamics reflect those of today’s dating landscape, which has only grown bleaker amid a widening political divide between men and women. Fifty-six percent of young men aged 18 to 29 voted for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, up from 41 percent in 2020, according to Tufts University-based research center CIRCLE. The majority of young women from the same age cohort—58 percent—voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

The gender gap persisted during the 2026 midterms: CIRCLE found that 70 percent of young women voted for Democratic U.S. House candidates this year, compared to 59 percent of young men.

Misalignment in political views is increasingly becoming a dealbreaker in romantic relationships. This is particularly true for women, many of whom fear that their rights to health care and bodily autonomy depend on who is in office. 

And reality shows reflect that climate.

“Dating shows are just televisual versions of app dating, and so you’re just going to replicate some of the same issues,” Monk-Payton explained. 

Early conversations about abortion

Longtime Love Is Blind watchers might remember abortion as a plot point in the ultimately doomed relationship between Nancy Rodriguez and Bartise Bowden from the show’s third season, set in Dallas. 

Back when they were engaged, the couple discussed their feelings about terminating a hypothetical pregnancy after learning of a medical complication. The conversation resulted in disagreements between that Bowden ultimately cited as a reason he rejected Rodriguez at the altar. 

Rodriguez, a speech pathologist, told her fiance that her career had shaped her feelings on abortion. She worked with families who had children with difficult medical issues, and saw firsthand the challenges families could face. 

“I see the amount of trauma [learning about complications] does to the family,” she told Bowden.  “… I realized, if this happened to me, what would I do? If I could have prevented that, would I have?” 

Bowden, on the other hand, told Rodriguez he believes everyone gets “one pass, but you can’t do it again.” 

Rodriguez pressed him on this arbitrary limit he had placed on what can be, in many cases, life-saving health care. “What if the second time you get raped? And then the third time you have sex with someone who poked a hole in the condom because they wanted to spread their seed?” she asked. 

Bowden acquiesced, voicing support for the procedure as a result of “a traumatic event.” But, he reiterated, “if it’s just purely unplanned … after one time you should learn your lesson.” 

“I think I have no say in anyone’s body. If you need to have an abortion for whatever x, y, z reason, have it,” Rodriguez later replied. 

Bowden’s response? “That’s fucking deep.” 

Bowden and Shannon each alluded to a common, false trope about abortion—that it’s frequently used as a form of birth control. But perhaps more importantly, neither seemed to have looked into whether their misinformed beliefs held any factual weight before using it to explain their lines of thought. 

And neither appeared particularly interested in asking further questions of their partners—possibly the result of a bad edit, or potentially a demonstration of a lack of curiosity. 

“There seems to be a trend of men on these shows being reactionary [politically] and maintaining certain kinds of conservative values, even if they are not ‘capital-R Republican,’” Monk-Payton said. “Having certain ideas around tradition and patriarchy is in large part aligned with a lot of very classic dating shows like The Bachelor franchise and others, where again, men are called to perform in very heteronormative and patriarchal ways.” 

‘I’m kinda ignorant’

Political apathy has led to other breakups. Take, for example, two relationships shown during Love Is Blind’s eighth season, based in Minneapolis: Sara Carton and Ben Mezzenga, and Virginia Miller and Devin Buckley. 

Multiple conversations portrayed on the show highlighted both Carton and Miller’s fruitless attempts to learn about their fiances’ political views. 

When Carton raised that the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests “hit home” for her—particularly because George Floyd was murdered in their hometown—Mezzenga told Carton, “I’m kinda ignorant towards that stuff.” 

Carton was left to question how the BLM movement wouldn’t lead to some sort of introspection from Mezzenga. 

Once engaged, Carton struggled to get a straight answer about the values of Mezzenga’s church, which he attended regularly. So she took it upon herself to listen to a recorded sermon about sexuality and gender identity. (Mezzenga had been unable to tell her what views his church held on the queer community, claiming he didn’t remember or hadn’t been listening because it was a topic that didn’t affect him.) 

After listening, she told Mezzenga that while the pastor expressed openness, the church still held what she called “traditional views.” 

She pushed back against an idea from the sermon—that a child questioning their gender identity is similar to a child feeling uncomfortable about their weight and saying they want to go on a “super strict diet,” which incorrectly equates gender dysphoria with body dysmorphia. 

Miller initiated similarly one-sided conversations with Buckley. After telling Miller that he was “not super big into politics,” Buckley revealed that he and his family tended to vote conservatively “because they are on the side of what their teachings are for their religion.” 

Miller—who, like Buckley, identifies as a Christian—voiced her support for abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, which she viewed as in line with her religious beliefs. 

While he avoided taking an immediate position on both issues during the conversation, Buckley seemed less than supportive of the queer community in the pods. His connection with cast member Brittany Dodson fizzled quickly after she disclosed that she had dated both men and women in the past. 

Dodson’s sexuality was “a lot for me to process … it’s something to think about,” Buckley said, asking her whether she was still interested in romantic relationships with women. 

Dodson responded that she was monogamous and was only interested in whoever she was actively dating. Buckley told her “it makes me feel better knowing that if you’re with me, you’re just gonna be with me.” 

Buckley’s response perpetuated a harmful stereotype about bisexual individuals—that they are more likely to cheat or have trouble remaining satisfied in a relationship with one person. 

And though Dodson responded graciously at the time, she ended things with Buckley shortly thereafter. 

Ultimately, both Carton and Miller also chose to end their relationships at the altar. 

What does Netflix owe viewers? 

Buckley was not the only participant who made ill-informed comments about the LGBTQ+ community. During the show’s ninth season, in Denver, a conversation between Nick Amato and Annie Lancaster became a widely discussed exchange amongst viewers. 

Both Amato and Lancaster, who eventually got engaged but broke up before their wedding, expressed a disinclination to have a child who identified as LGBTQ+. 

“No matter what, I’m always going to love my kids,” Lancaster said. “But, like, I can’t tell you I would be the first person to be, like, ‘Yay!’”

Amato agreed, appearing to ask Lancaster whether she believed identifying as queer was a “fad,” to which she quickly responded, “100 percent.” 

Both Lancaster and Amato have claimed that that exchange was taken out of context, and that they had instead been discussing the “fad” of “over introducing sexual content and material to kids’ shows at a young age, or the idea of gay identity,” Amato said. 

Regardless of the edit, many viewers felt the couples’ conversation illustrated the still-prevalent homophobia that queer youth face in the United States. The idea that questioning sexuality or gender identity is a “fad” highlighted the false perception that anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+ is going through a phase or is confused. 

Some voiced concern that Netflix did not include resources to support queer viewers who may have felt hurt by the conversation. Many questioned the decision to air it at all. 

A 2024 JAMA Pediatrics study found that negative media portrayals of the LGBTQ+ community have significant impacts on queer individuals, including an heightened suicidal ideation intensity. 

Monk-Payton said that she believes that Netflix’s duty to viewers depends on the situation. She noted that the aggression demonstrated in this most recent season by one contestant, Rob, differs from exchanges when the streaming service is “creat[ing] the conditions for conversation.”

But, she said, it is noteworthy that the series has chosen to air these conversations more frequently during its most recent seasons. 

“I imagine that you could map all of this onto the broader social and political climate around the dismantling of Roe v. Wade and all of these other conversations around gender, and the rise, and perhaps fall, of Me Too,” Monk-Payton said. 

“That is modern dating, right?,” she added. “I think that’s just where we sit in terms of the American climate around what it means to look for romance and find love.” 

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