'Let's be honest, The Bachelorette is a whole lot better than The Bachelor.'

All hail Queen Sam.

After forcing us to endure three seasons of the blatantly anti-feminist, yet highly addictive The Bachelor, Channel 10 has thrown the women of Australia a bone or fourteen by flipping the the show’s premise and putting a woman in charge of the rose pile.

The first episode of The Bachelorette premiered on Wednesday night on the network, with Australia’s newest sweetheart Sam Frost meeting her suitors for the first time.

Among them were the obvious hotties, including but not limited to, Dave the Plumber, an absurdly suave bald man named Alex, pro-footballer Michael, current favourite to win Sascha and super villian in the making male model David (now departed).

There were also the notties: Guy with bad hair and an owl, quirky/terrible musician Will (who is clearly just Ben Lee preparing to launch his comeback tour) and Shane, who arrived by skateboard in a Hawaiian shirt for some reason (also, now departed).

Missed last night’s episode? Read Rosie’s recap here.

After meeting and greeting her potential beaus, Sam spent a bit of one on one time with each of them at the cocktail party, laying ground work with some, while the others were forced to stand around, bristling with testosterone and bro-ing out with one another.

Honestly, it was nice change of pace from watching a group of uncomfortably dressed women forced to stand around, chinking champagne glasses and waiting for their moment with the cardboard cut-out that is every Bachelor to date.

For three cycles of The Bachelor, feminists Australia-wide have struggled to balance their conflicting love of bad TV with their discomfort at watching their sisters forced to compete with one another (in increasingly contrived and demeaning ways) for the affections of these guys:

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Sorry, I just fell asleep.

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In a recent episode of ABC Radio National’s Life Matters, Natasha Mitchell posed the question we’ve all been grappling with inside: Can a feminist enjoy The Bachelor?

The answer, a resounding ‘yes’. Well, mostly.

Our resident recapper Rosie Waterland admitted to having “incredibly negative” feelings about the show, but said that she enjoys it as a form of escapism.

Journalist Clem Bastow said that, for her, each episode was a sobering reminder that there is more to life than nailing down a monogamous relationship:

“It’s an utterly bananas, completely contrived emotional rollercoaster in which the failings of heteronormative relationship ideals—finding Mr Right; that you’re nothing if you can’t hook a man; meeting the parents is a Big Deal; diamonds are a girl’s best friend; ‘I love a woman who makes me laugh’ and other lies—are writ large twice a week.”

And look, if we’re honest, The Bachelorette is not ‘streets ahead’ of it’s male-fantasy counterpart.

While Sam is now the centrepiece of the show, it still perpetuates the idea that her life won’t be complete until she rectifies the injustice of her time on The Bachelor by FINALLY nailing down the big hunk of man we all know she deserves.

It tells us (almost literally) that, as a woman, she won’t be able to declare her life a success until she has a ring on her finger or at the very least a steady, long-term, heterosexual partner.

In spite of this obvious flaw, it’s incredibly refreshing to see her as the one wielding the power and to watch big-burly bros forced to suffer the indignities of competing for love on national television.

In last night’s episode, the men we forced to “take a leap” of faith — one by one jumping from a cliff top like a bunch of lovestruck lemmings.

If that’s not great television, I don’t know what is.

In the first episode we watched Kayne (the guy that brought the Frosty Fruits) try — and spectacularly fail — to impress Sam by doing a headstand.

And then there was David. International Model David.

His first encounter with our heroine left us with little uncertainty that he was a) an International Model (he said is about 584638 times), and b) an unbearable twat.

David identified himself as the villain of the piece early on, displaying little respect for the other men in the house and even less for Sam’s authority.

Last night, after a final, flagrant violation of the “bro-code” and a particularly disastrous interaction with Sam, David and his disturbing lack of self awareness got the boot.

It was truly a glorious smack-down, which you can read about here.

The best thing about the whole David fiasco (other than watching a walking chin-cleft taken down a peg or two), was that it confirmed a point of difference between The Bachelor and The Bachelorette and displayed the tangible power shift between the two shows:

Sam set the bar on what she would and would not be tolerating. And she enforced it.

Don’t get me wrong, there a problems with this show. Massive ones.

While the women of The Bachelor are often conveyed as bitchy desperados, the men of The Bachelorette (with the glaring exception of David) are apparently just a bunch of “great blokes with good personalities”, who hang out cracking gags and stroking each others egos.

And even though Sam is now calling the shots, at the start of BOTH episodes the audience has had to be reminded of her recent heartbreak and of the very public screwing-over she received the year before.

We are constantly reminded of her vulnerability, her beauty and that her heart is on the line here.

“The man in me just wants to give her a big hug,” said the guy who owns a bloody owl when she first retold her tale of woe.

On her first date with Dave the Plumber, she basically just stood around watching him hit cricket balls across the SCG and listening to him declare how he couldn’t “wait to tell the boys”!

Not exactly a great time, Channel 10.

So I guess this begs the question: Can a feminist enjoy The Bachelorette?

The answer? Yeah, it’s bloody hilarious, primo-addictive, great television.

In justifying her enjoyment of everything from misogynistic rap music to yes, watching The Bachelor, everyone’s fave ‘bad feminist’ Roxanne Gay says this:

“I hold certain truths to be self-evident. Women are equal to men; we have the right to move through the world as we choose, to be free from harassment or violence. We have the right to easy, affordable access to birth control. We have the right to make choices about our bodies, free from legislative oversight; we have the right to respect.”

The point of feminism is that women are given an equal footing, free from discrimination, from which to choose for themselves. Everything from work, to (occasionally trashy) television, to relationships.

The world of The Bachelorette is not a feminist utopia by any stretch, but if we’re honest, we can’t bloody wait to watch Sam continue to whittle down her suitors (and their egos) as she sashays her way to her final decision.