One person who certainly will not be watching The Bachelor when its 21st season airs Monday night is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The basketball legend made it clear that he is not a fan of the reality dating competition and called out the show for "ruining romance."
"You're not even in the running for love unless you fit a very narrow ideal of Ken and Barbie doll physical beauty," Abdul-Jabbar wrote in a lengthy think piece for The Hollywood Reporter titled The Bachelor is Ruining Romance in America.
"These shows promote the scorched-earth effects of raising females to be continually judged physically above all other attributes and then measured against impossible physical standards that has marginalized a majority of girls and women — and made billions for the beauty products, clothing, and cosmetic surgery industries."
The 69-year-old Hall of Famer went on to discuss the lack of diversity on the ABC show and opined about why black contestants aren't voted off the very first night writing, "if you're black on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, you're usually kept around as a courtesy for a few weeks before being ejected."
Abdul-Jabbar concluded his guest column by noting that he believes there is a danger in a show like The Bachelor or The Bachelorette because it is sending the wrong message to young people about what love really is and how to find it.
The new season of The Bachelor premieres tonight at 8 p.m.
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