Many of you may have heard of the new Netflix series, Love is Blind. In this show, individuals essentially “date” other members of the show through a wall. They cannot see each other, but spend several hours over ten days getting to know each other and deciding if they can see themselves marrying one another. The participants aren’t able to see the people or person they are dating until they decide to get engaged (still without seeing each other) and then are finally introduced in person. This past weekend, I finished season two of the show and I was ultimately left thinking about a lot of things.

(Spoiler Alert)

After getting to see their now-fiance in person, the couples are sent to Mexico together on vacation for a week to explore how they interact with one another outside of the “pods”. Next, they are sent into the “real” world to explore how their now-fiance fits into their daily life and routine. After this, each couple that lasts has a wedding ceremony where they decide if they are going to marry the person they met without seeing and will decide if “love is truly blind”. At the end of the season, only two of the six couples ended up getting married. Honestly, this alone was surprising because agreeing to marry someone so quickly after not even knowing what they looked like was already appalling to me. 

Overall, I think the concept of the show is really smart. Oftentimes, I feel like, in regard to romantic relationships, people overlook individuals who may have the perfect personality for them due to appearance. Everyone, whether they realize it or not, has a type – short, tall, facial hair, no facial hair, etc. All of these characteristics impact who we pursue or who we stray away from, and physical appearance prevents us from getting to know people’s hearts. However, I think the issue is that while meeting someone blindly and falling in love with their personality can be an amazing experience – physical appearance will eventually play a role, especially in regard to marriage. Typically, marriage requires both partners to be both emotionally and physically attracted to their partner. I feel like a problem with some of the couples in the show, such as Deepti and Shake, was that while the emotional connection was obvious, the physical attraction wasn’t there which led to the relationship feeling more like a friendship. Similarly, with Mallory and Sal, Sal did not physically fit into what Mallory would typically go for in men, which led to a lot of initial reluctance from Mallory. 

Ultimately, I really enjoyed the show and I love the idea of it, but it has led me to question the importance of physical appearance in relationships and whether the only true difference between a strong friendship and a marriage is physical attraction.