Kaitlyn Bristowe has continued ranting about her opposition to The Bachelorette having two leading ladies and how the new "Team Rachel" and "Team Gabby" branding has her up in arms.
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When Rachel's group of men were moving onto the cruise ship, producers called them "Team Rachel" in an onscreen graphic and showed their massive suite, separate from Gabby's suitors.
"We'Re NoT pItTiNg ThE wOmEn AgAiNsT eAcHoThEr #TheBachelorette," Kaitlyn wrote alongside the post, clearly mocking producers' alleged intentions from the start of Season 19.
Kaitlyn also uploaded her tweet on Instagram and captioned the post, "How do we feel about this? I love both of these women. I don't have a team. There shouldn't be teams. There should be connections."
"I'm asking myself the same thing, why are we branding it this way?" Kaitlyn said, referring to the critic of the original tweet who admitted she's not loving the "Team Rachel" and "Team Gabby" branding.
"I want to believe it's all worth it if they are happy," Kaitlyn continued. "I just disagree with the journey to get there. PS I still love this franchise. It's a weird relationship. Always has been. #TheBachelorette."
Many fans weighed in, including The Bachelorette 14 alum Blake Horstmann, who commented, "The wording is just terrible lol why not say 'Gabbys guys' 'Rachel's squad' Idk how this was approved lol."
Kaitlyn admitted to TODAY that she "hates" watching Season 19 and didn't think The Bachelorette would ever have dual leads again following the backlash from her season, when Kaitlyn had been forced to face off against Britt Nilsson for the role.
On Season 11 of The Bachelorette, Kaitlyn and Britt's bachelors only had one night to get to know both women before they were asked to vote for which woman they'd like to continue dating. Kaitlyn received the most votes and ended up becoming the solo The Bachelorette star while Britt got sent home immediately.
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"It was definitely set up to be competitive. I always said it felt like we were being pitted against each other. And I'll never forget hearing what Chris Harrison said when he was introducing us as the Bachelorette. He said, 'Who will make a better wife?' I just felt sick to my stomach," Kaitlyn recalled.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"I was like, 'Are you kidding me? We're both gonna make incredible wives.' Because we were incredible people. I didn't want to be pitted against Britt. We were friends. I didn't want the guys to have to choose who they liked better. That just felt also icky to me."
Kaitlyn noted how Gabby and Rachel are not pitted against each other because "they're definitely friends," but she said the show is still competitive "in a sense" because the guys got to choose whom they liked best and wanted to date.
"It's still giving the guys power for who they like and embarrassing them by saying, 'No actually, I don't want your rose, I want Gabby's instead.' That's going to make anybody feel insecure," Kaitlyn explained.
Kaitlyn said two friends would naturally never want to date the same men, which is why fans were relieved to watch Gabby and Rachel finally hand out individual roses and split up the guys.
"When you're in that position of 'The Bachelorette,' you're like, 'I've already been here. I've already felt competitive with other women I've already been made to feel like maybe I wasn't enough.' It's supposed to be your turn to find your true love," she argued.
"It's really unfortunate for them that they have to be put in a situation but they're handling it like absolute pros."
Kaitlyn went as far as to say watching this season has been a little humiliating so far.
"Yeah, I felt almost second hand insecurities. Both women felt so rejected by [The Bachelor 26 star Clayton Echard] and he hurt them so badly. Here they are in a position where they should be finding their love and they're having to sit there and feel rejected by you," Kaitlyn reasoned.
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Kaitlyn said she would've liked to see Rachel and Gabby have their "own separate season."
"But if they were going to do this together, it would have been nice for the producers or the casting directors to actually pick men that they felt would be great for either one, not for both, and then have 30 men for Gabby and 30 for Rachel -- but I just don't see how that would work either," Kaitlyn said.
Kaitlyn pointed out how "there's bound to be 'crossover' with feelings" even in that case as well as "people flip-flopping."
"That's what happens when you put two incredible beautiful women in front of a bunch of men," the former Dancing with the Stars winner noted.
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When the July 25 episode showed three men dumping Gabby on a group date and then three men rejecting roses from Rachel at the third Rose Ceremony of the season, Kaitlyn said on her "Off the Vine" podcast, "This didn't even feel good TV to me," according to Us Weekly.
"It felt sad. It felt like they were doing exactly what they said they're not going to do and pit them against each other," she said.
"And the fact that they, like, sat in the same room and had to have the guys deny them and then have [Jesse Palmer] take away a rose and just come in and be like, 'I'm just gonna take that right away from you,' is, like, I don't know."
Kaitlyn has been vocal about her issues with this The Bachelorette season even before it premiered. She felt "triggered" by the March announcement of two The Bachelorette stars and has tweeted messages like, "I f-ckkkkin hate this" while watching the show air.
While Kaitlyn apparently can't stand two women sharing one The Bachelorette season, Rachel and Gabby have insisted in recent interviews they wouldn't have had it any other way.
Rachel and Gabby have been very outspoken about how they loved leaning on each other throughout the process and still managed to have separate journeys to find love.
"It was so nice to have somebody else, a true friend, go through it with you. Watching the criticism back and seeing it online, it's not that surprising, but it's almost like, 'Oh, you guys are kind of missing the point,'" Gabby told The Hollywood Reporter in a joint interview with Rachel.
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"So as far as what anyone thinks about it being a competition, it's really coming from them and not us," Rachel concluded.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
