'The Bachelor': Madison Prewett refers to at-risk youth as 'throwaway children', fans say it's 'disgusting'
So far into this season of 'The Bachelor', there's one contestant who has been the frontrunner right from day one. Madison Prewett won over Peter Weber with her sincerity and Bachelor nation fans with her unproblematic charm and mature demeanor. It all seems too good to be true now, now that fans have dug up something from Madi's past that they're calling 'absolutely gross.'
Redditor Vintell shared a screenshot of Madison's portfolio website where she refers to at-risk youth as 'throwaway children'. According to the screengrab shared, in her legacy section, Madison mentions that she would "love to equip and empower children. Helping take throwaway children and turning them into world changers."
Fans, furious with her 'white savior complex' said that she could have used many other terms to describe the children she was aspiring to work with. "I keep trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, but at a certain point, we can’t just keep excusing her density," said a Redditor commenting on the post.
Many Bachelor Nation fans, especially the ones who were adopted took serious offense at her for using the term. "As an adopted child I am pretty disgusted by this kind of language," commented one viewer adding that although their adoption story was a happy and successful one: "This kind of language is vile and so offensive to those that may not have been as fortunate or are still feeling lost and hurt."
Another shared, "Seeing things like 'throwaway' makes me think of when I was a little girl trying to figure out what was wrong with me that my biological family just gave me up. I never want anyone to feel that way ever. I truly hope Madison sees the error of her ways here. The white savior complex seems to be very prevalent in Christian communities in the south so it doesn’t seem like she’s surrounded by people thinking and acting with a social justice lens. I hope she takes this as an opportunity to educate herself. She seems to have a good heart."
A third fan said that it was too close to a term that they had endured growing up because of being adopted. "I’m adopted as well and this reminds of a time in middle school when some boys made up a song about me being thrown into a gutter and abandoned (that’s not what happened). I’m not personally offended because I never felt like a 'throwaway', but I’m offended on behalf of every adopted kid that feels this way and I am disgusted with her."
Madison has so far been heavily leaning on her faith and is very religious but one fan thought that she was so very privileged and didn't see it. "She really doesn’t get it. Her language use is appalling, and her privileged upbringing is really showing," they said. "Approaching adopted/foster children with a perception of them being broken, rejected and unwanted -- we can tell. It's very hurtful and quite untrue. Even if her goal is to 'empower' and 'help,' she's still of the belief that they were once throwaways," said another.
Another user shared, "I placed my son for adoption when I was a teenager and I can't even begin to explain how much I chose that decision out of love for my baby, not because he was "throwaway" oof. Yikes. I could give her a bit of a pass for her church mission trips and just not realizing that the things she was posting were exploitative to the children amongst other things.
But calling these children throwaway under something she calls her legacy. I cannot give that a pass."
In another post, also shared on 'The Bachelor' subreddit, fans felt that Madison referred to at-risk 'poor' children as 'filth'. The Instagram post, whose caption was deemed questionable featured two children laughing and hugging each other. Madison said, "He blinded me to the filth and I saw children only hungry for love that I was eager to share with them."
One fan said, "Not just her calling the kids filthy, but also her saying that the way she looked at them was the way God looks at her?? Big yikes" Another shared, "Holy shit. Okay, so I’m Nicaraguan. Half my family emigrated from there, half remains in a political nightmare realm. But the one thing we are NOT is filthy and broken. My grandma went from being born on a dirt floor to being a nurse in America. We are resilient. We are survivors" A third one said, "Too sad she needs to be "blinded to the filth" to help people, and too sad that her point of view is so f-ed up, it cancels her actions."
"So tired of these self-serving posts on Instagram about charity. You didn’t change anyone’s life. You just made yourself feel good about yourself. Notice how these charity and voluntourism posts are all about what this trip did for the privileged author of the post and not for the children they visited. Every single time it’s the same," another said.
Madi is one of the top three finalists this season along with Victoria Fuller and Hannah Ann. So far, she was the one contestant everyone liked. Is she still your favorite? let us know in the comments below.
Catch 'The Bachelor' every Monday 8/7c on ABC.