Whew Chris…And Other Thoughts After Last Night’s “Married At First Sight”

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Another season of “Married at First Sight” is underway and just like every other season, after meeting the couples we have some precursory thoughts we’d like to share about first impressions, potential red flags and more. Check it all out on the following pages.

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Briana

Briana follows in the footsteps of most of the Black women who appear on “Married At First Sight.” She’s level-headed, beautiful, accomplished, intelligent and seems like she would make a great partner. She shared that in the past, her problems in relationships have been going for men based solely on their physical characteristics. (Most of us can relate.) Initially, I wondered if her desire for a man that makes more than her would present a problem–because she’s an engineer. But then they introduced us to Vincent.

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Vincent

Vincent shared that because of the relationship with his largely absent father, he wants to be the exact opposite. He wants to be the provider in his household and he wants to be a great father. He shared that in the past, his ex wanted him to have a college degree and didn’t appreciate the fact that he was an entrepreneur. Instead, she wanted him to have a corporate job.

Both Vincent and his friends seem like sweet and level headed men, which is always refreshing to see from Black men on reality tv. They asked him some thoughtful questions and it was nice to hear that his friends feel like he is ready to be married.

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Virginia

Virginia seems sweet. But her childhood, being a “child of divorce,” with a bit of a tense relationship with her father will certainly show up in her marriage, whether we see it on camera, during this experiment or not. She’s younger and less experienced than her match, since she’s been single for five years. Her father is not here for the arrangement. He told her he’d catch her on tv. Thankfully, her stepmother showed up for her dress fitting.

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Erik

When people say things like they have a fear of dying alone, I wonder if that’s a good enough reason to get married and certainly married at first sight. Time will tell. Erik is well-traveled but he does it mostly for work. He was also married before. That can be a good or bad thing depending on what he’s learned from the experience.

He keeps saying he’s conservative… That’s always cause for alarm and concern when white men say that. John McCain conservative or Donald Trump conservative?

Also, I do wonder if Erik is too conservative for Virginia.

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Haley

Haley also seems like she’ll be a decent person who could be ready for marriage. The challenges she may face is that she’s used to being single and doing things her own way. She also may have been scarred by dating someone who eventually had a child while they were dating her.

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Jacob

I can’t quite get a read on Jacob. When we were first introduced to him, he struck me as sensitive, older and more mature. And he said it himself, he’s a hermit. But his comments about women’s attractiveness during his bachelor party were…interesting. He said he wants a woman who is a 7 or above. I wonder what his wife to be will rate him.

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Clara

Clara shared that she’s gone through a slew of bad dates. She, like a lot of singles in this group, shared that she’s tired of being single. Again, that’s a bit of a red flag for me.
Clara comes off initially as fun-loving and free spirited. But as the wedding got closer and closer, sis was really in her bag. I don’t know if it was nervousness from the day, or time will show that she has a problem going with the flow if she can’t control it. I found it interesting to hear that she was raised with conservative values and plans on being a submissive wife.

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Ryan

Chile, I really hope Ryan told the production team more than they actually showed. Because they spent a lot of time talking about him being a “super minority” growing up in predominately white environments and that while he doesn’t exclude women based on racial characteristics, he is somewhat of an advocate for interracial relationships…

I did really appreciate the thoughtful letter he wrote for her, the playlist and the fact that he spoke about the importance of physical touch, through hand-holding at the altar. Very sweet.

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Paige

Paige also has the potential to be a great wife. Personally, I can’t relate to her purpose in life being a wife and a mother but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I do worry that Paige is focusing more on getting married than what it means and takes to actually be married. We’ll see. She says men in her past have simply not been ready.  She wants 2-3 children and a baby within the first year of marriage. Interestingly enough, her husband wants seven children. Hopefully, they’ll be able to meet somewhere in the middle. But the way Chris came through in this first episode, I doubt that will be their biggest issue.

She doesn’t believe in gender roles but Chris is absolutely expecting a woman to be submissive–we’ll see what that means. Thankfully, Paige said she is open to it with the right partner.

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Chris

If anyone left an impression, it was Mr. Chris. The first red flag was that he wanted a submissive wife. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the desire but submission, especially, in the Black church, is often used a catch all and a way for men to exercise their will in totality in relationships with women. His comments about a woman’s body “not being her own” is alarming.

Chris has a fascinating background. He was an ordained minister but apparently, the calling wasn’t all that strong because he left the church because he wasn’t making enough money.

More troubling than that is the fact that Chris has been engaged TWICE. And the last engagement ended just months ago. Chris jumped into the relationship and jumped right out of it. He also shared that there might be a few people he needs to cut off.

I felt it was interesting to hear Chris say that he entered into this process because God knew he would fail on his own. Just because the experts have picked “the perfect match” doesn’t mean that there won’t be additional opportunities for Chris to still fail.

For better or worse, we know we’ll be paying attention to him all season.