TLC’s latest show — “MILF Manor” — proves that reality television has finally gone too far. Like many networks targeting older generations in dating shows, the show starts off simple enough: Eight attractive older ladies travel to a villa in Mexico for their very own “Love Island” experience, except the men they are searching for are young enough to be their sons. In the first episode, the women take some time to get to know each other, eagerly anticipating meeting the men that will reveal themselves as their potential suitors. However, the show takes an unsettling turn when the men are revealed to be the women’s actual sons, looking for love with older women.
All of this may sound like the setup to the most awkward season of “Bachelor in Paradise” ever, but it only gets worse from there. Do the men and women sleep in two separate large rooms similar to other dating shows like “Single’s Inferno”? Nope, bedrooms are shared by mother and son, an arrangement that will inevitably lead to contestants kicking out their own mother or son in order to get the full scandalous experience. Are the overly-sexual challenges done by the closest couples? Nope, mother and son again. In fact, a game in the first episode requires the mothers to identify their sons by feeling up their shirtless bodies while blindfolded.
The women themselves range from typical soccer moms to nipped and tucked cougars — one of whom even goes by social media persona “Disco Mammi” — but all of them lead more promiscuous lives than perhaps their sons are aware. In the second episode, the mothers and sons are asked to write down their deepest, darkest secrets, which are then pinned to a wall in front of the entire villa. A date is awarded to all of the mother-son pairs that do not correctly guess the other's secret. Some of the secrets are sexual in nature, but the majority are benign, like hooking up with people and never calling them again, or doing the deed in some interesting public locations. But one stands out from the rest: One mother confessed to sleeping with her son's best friend. Once it is revealed which mother the secret belongs to, what ensues is a scene only meant for a therapist's office. By the following episode, it’s clear that her son has been legitimately traumatized by the information and viewers are left to question if this should have ever been put out for public consumption.
When watching this show, one has to wonder whether the inverse would have ever been allowed to air. Would there ever be a market for DILF Domicile — where older men are invited to date younger women who turn out to be their daughters? This inverse seems unlikely for two reasons. The first is that the primary market for TLC is older women, who probably are more comfortable watching other older women in a sexually taboo context. But the second, and far more impactful reason, is that it feels sexually exploitative — the incestuous undertone would be too “creepy,” and their fathers would be deemed too overprotective.
But how is “MILF Manor” any different? The show’s airing, as absurd as the premise is, exposes the double-standard in perspectives on age gaps in heterosexual relationships. There is, unquestionably, a power imbalance in the romantic relationships explored in “MILF Manor,” a dynamic that would be protested if it was explored in father-daughter relationships. Rest assured, “MILF Manor” is exactly as creepy as described, and should never be viewed within a one hundred mile radius of one's own parents.
—Staff writer Julia Kennish can be reached at julia.kennish@thecrimson.com.
