“Ready to Love Ft. Worth” is heating up with singles looking to find love or at least get as much camera time as possible on the latest season. The singles are given a joint task of finding a compatible partner and also remaining as likable as possible to their other cast mates to avoid being sent home. After being introduced in two separate groups of 10, week four will bring both groups together to see who has romantic chemistry and, most of all, who is ready to love?
April, 42 is an accomplished pharmacy operations director and is very confident in what she brings to the table. Unfortunately, her date, Lamar, a 42-year-old coach and entrepreneur, wasn’t impressed with April’s qualifications. When the two sat down for brunch, April started the conversation by firing off a series of questions at Lamar about previous relationships. Instead of humoring her, Lamar rudely shut the conversation down, suggesting April wasn’t entitled to know his relationship history.
Lamar’s confessional offered additional insight into his irritation with his date. He accused April of leading with her accomplishments and insisted that men aren’t impressed with degrees or accolades. For “Ready to Love” fans, singles that appear unequally yoked isn’t new. Each season, female cast members complain about being ill-matched with men that lack career stability and emotional depth. For accomplished women like April, finding a man who isn’t turned off by her high-powered and high-paying career can often be challenging. On the other hand, the men complain that financially affluent females are often arrogant and unwilling to compromise.
The mismatched dynamic of high-earning females looking for a partner in a pool of low-earning or unstable men has created a reputation for unsuccessful pairings on “Ready to Love.” The women feel duped while their counterparts are turned off by the aggressive energy. The dynamic on “Ready to Love” has become a trending topic on social media, because it mirrors what is happening in the real world. According to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Black women hold a large lead over black men in almost every facet of higher education. Black women currently earn about two thirds of bachelor’s degree awards, 70 percent of all master’s degrees, and more than 60 percent of all doctorates. Black women also hold a majority of all African American enrollments in law, medical and dental schools.
While celebratory for Black women, the same conversation is frustrating for their Black male counterparts. The tension between April and Lamar is a microcosm of a much bigger issue for Black singles hoping to find a compatible partner that checks all their boxes and shares similar lifestyles and goals. Witnessing the tension between two singles on a reality show will no doubt be triggering for the audience because of how the issues connect with the realities of dating in 2024.
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Ready to Love airs every Friday at 8 pm. EST on the OWN Network.
