Since appearing on Matt Agnews’s season of The Bachelor, Abbie Chatfield has flipped her script from villain to undisputed queen.
Abbie Chatfield went from one of the most hated women in Australia to landing several gigs as a tv show host, launching her own super successful podcast It’s a Lot, and collaborating with a number of brands, launching her own swimwear, sex toy, and lingerie collections.
You may have even seen the reality star win I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here in 2021, trumping the likes of Grant Denyer,
Paulini Curuenavuli, and AFL veteren Travis Varcoe.
So without further ado, here are four (of many) reasons why Abbie Chatfield is the best thing to emerge from reality TV.
1. Abbie Chatfield is proof that the whole “You can’t say anything anymore” thing is a sham.
Abbie Chatfield is outrageous. But she’s proving that there is nothing wrong with that – as long as you’re not saying inexcusable, hurtful things.
In both her work life and personal life, the 26-year-old is known to be open and honest, which is just plain refreshing. Last week during her national radio show, Hot Nights With Abbie Chatfield, on the HIT Network, she just straight-up revealed exactly how much money she made from appearing on The Bachelor.
From calling out influencers profiting off the recent floods, to questioning the need for International Women’s Day morning teas because they aren’t really going to help #breakthebias… or at least not as much as other things might, Abbie Chatfield is kind of like the Batman of Australian social media.
It seems like Abbie says exactly what’s on her mind, but her call-outs are so hilarious that even the people on the receiving end are probably having a giggle too. Like the anti-vaxxers who messaged her trying to disprove statistics she had posted, with maths calculations that made no sense. So in retaliation, Abbie frequently posted videos explaining basic maths in a comedic teacher tone. Those videos were basically the only thing that got us through Sydney’s last lockdown.
On the flip side, she’s had her fair share of controversy, such as the public beef with Brooke Blurton for stealing her thunder before the finale of Brooke’s game-changing season of The Bachelorette. Now, we love Brooke too, and we see both sides of the feud. To give you a brief background, basically, Abbie debuted her new relationship on Instagram the night before Brooke’s finale aired.
But the real problem was the fact that her new boyf was Konrad Bień-Stephen, a contestant from Brooke’s season. Understandably, Blurton was pretty peeved since her season was the first with an Indigenous Bachelor/Bachelorette, and Abbie’s post was another example of white people stealing any sniff of recognition and celebration from Indigenous Australians.
The thing is, whenever Abbie is called out for something she says; she listens and owns up to her mistakes. On this occasion, she apologised, stating that she “didn’t take into account… the inherent privilege that I hold as a white woman”. So even when Abbie messes up, it results in important topics, such as race and privilege, being discussed in mainstream media at the time of the conflict.
These are necessary and important conversations to be had, and when you have public figures like Abbie Chatfield accepting responsibility for her mistakes and listening to other people’s perspectives, her 350,000 odd followers are far more likely to listen to those differing perspectives too – which brings us to our next point.
2. Abbie Chatfield is opening up conversations that are rarely talked about.
Not only does Abbie use her various platforms to chat about every topic under the sun, she’s also one of the few reality stars or social media influencers to tackle a lot of these important topics. One day she’ll jump on her story to rant about politics and the patriarchy, then the next, you’ll hear her on her podcast, It’s A Lot, discussing open relationships and sexual health.
If you’re looking for someone who isn’t afraid to chat about all aspects (and we mean all aspects) of sex, look no further than Abbie Chatfield. She is so so so sex-positive, discussing topics like sexual health, masturbation, polyamory, and even sex mishaps on her podcast, radio show, and on Instagram.
Not even the most taboo topics are met with squirminess or shyness, despite the fact that we have all repeatedly been made to believe that we should be ashamed of participating in anything sexually obscure – especially for women.
But now Abbie’s bringing it all into the light of day (or Hot Nights), right where it should be. She even designed her own vibrator with the brand VUSH, called the ‘Abbie G-Spot Vibrator’.
Telling it like it is, as always, Abbie and her beau Konrad have been open in discussing how their relationship is different from others, in that they are polyamorous. “Everybody mummy and daddy aren’t breaking up. We’re just having a different structure to our relationship – so we’re open,” she revealed on her podcast.
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Many like-minded individuals have been living for the representation Abbie’s been bringing to open relationships, with one person commenting under her Instagram post, “I’ve always thought monogamy was an unachievable pressure. So I hope you guys make this work and show that it can be done! I’ve got confidence you’ll be just fine!”
Not only does she love to chat about sexy times, but Abbie Chatfield is also a public health-concerned queen. During Sydney’s last lockdown and throughout Australia’s COVID crisis, the influencer discussed, researched, and championed for vaccination.
She’d often post stats and rants about the government response (or incompetence at times), anti-vaxxer nonsense, and how she “felt hotter” after getting the jab. Iconic. Her concern for public health may not have been what people expected from her at first, but goddamn it was a welcome surprise.
3 Abbie Chatfield embraces stereotypes and challenges the norm at the same time.
In many ways, she’s both challenged and completely accepted stereotypes over the course of her career. Women historically have been misrepresented, and this continues, as shown in her time on The Bachelor. Chatfield has spoken out about how she was portrayed on the show, how women were placed in categories, and how the categories she was placed in easily made women feel justified to dislike her. She was labelled as a spaced-out/dumb blonde, bully, slut, and even a villain.
She was shamed for the type of bikinis she wore, indulging in cheeky pashing sessions, and sleeping with people (because nobody’s ever done that before) – all typical things that women cop hate for. The clear double standards that exist between men and women were brought to light by Chatfield after the show aired, and although she’s not the first to discuss the topic by a long shot, she was a hot topic of conversation, so people actually listened.
But interestingly, a lot of the hate directed towards her came from women themselves. Internalised misogyny – it’s an awful thing. It has convinced women that they need to pin themselves against each other and tear each other down, which of course only benefits men.
So Abbie challenged women to ask themselves why they might be so quick to say “Abbie Chatfield? Nah I don’t like her,” and instead, shift from the default settings of hate to adoration. Since she was misrepresented on The Bachelor, she has taken a hold of her own image. Abbie embraced the typical, blonde, girly-girl stereotype and is proving that there’s nothing wrong with that.
She advocates for women doing whatever the hell they want (basically the whole point of feminism), which is summed up nicely by her podcast episode Feminists Can Get Nose Jobs Babe. You won’t catch her body-shaming either, regularly calling out “fatphobic bullshit” on her podcast and Instagram account. Now, Australia cannot get enough of her. Heck, enough people have bought $60 tickets for her upcoming national talking tour to sell out every single show (except the Gold Coast – not sure what’s going on up there).
4. Abbie Chatfield’s rescue dog, Marco the cocker spaniel is cute af.
I mean, look at it. That’s all we have to say.
