(warning: vague setting spoilers)
At first glance, you might mistake Ready, Set, Love for a reality dating show. But it is actually a dystopian drama set in a world where men are the minority and women have to compete to marry them. Due to this show taking place in a tyrannical society where rules don’t make sense, I’ve devised a guide to understanding the setting and major themes to look out for.
Patriarchy Somehow Still Exists in a Female-Dominated Society
One major aspect of the show is how much men are valued over women. This would seem contradictory due to the lack of men, but it seems that modernity can’t always break tradition. However, this is a pretty relevant issue in today’s society. Despite more women going into male-dominated fields and taking up traditionally male roles, they still don’t receive even similar treatment as their male counterparts. The main character, Day, is one of many examples in the show. In fact, men who do less work than women are still paid and respected more.
Something important to note about this show is that it takes place in an alternate version of modern-day Thailand, so it is not a completely different world from our own. Ready, Set, Love does not take place in a society that is historically run by women, but rather a society that happens to oversee a significant decline in men. In fact, Thailand has more women than men, yet still operates under patriarchy.
Real-Life Parallels with Authoritarian Regimes
In the world of Ready, Set, Love, women and men live completely separate. The men live a life of luxury while everyone else struggles to make ends meet in the city. The government puts on an annual show for the nation, where a bunch of girls have to compete to marry one of the selected men for that season. Women across the country are entered through a lottery system to compete in the show, hoping to get picked.
Similar to countries under dictatorships or The Hunger Games, people gather like a hive to watch the government-sponsored televised event instead of addressing the problems that affect their daily lives. One prominent example is when the Roman Empire held gladiator fights in the Colosseum to distract people from the empire’s ultimate decline. The guys in Ready, Set, Love are groomed and dressed to be appealing to their audience with cartoonish personalities, almost as if they’re acting like characters.
Marriage Isn’t Really About Love
While marriage is a big component of the story, the concept shows many flaws. First of all, there is so much emphasis on women marrying men but the government makes little recognition of same-sex marriage. This is reminiscent of how marriage and birth rates have been declining globally, resulting in countries with the lowest making measly efforts. However, these countries typically don’t address systemic issues to help more families thrive, so there is barely minimal improvement.
The program glamorizes the opportunity of love for these women, but it is far from the truth as more secrets get revealed in the show. There is also little acknowledgement by the government of gay men or trans people and whether the few guys who exist even want to get married. After all, they’re practically forced into this lifestyle, so they have little say. They’re marketed as if they were limited edition products.
Conclusion
The main takeaway of this show is the real life implications of dystopians. Dystopian media tends to use already existing problems and exaggerate them for entertainment. When watching the show, you start to realize how easily the aim for perfection can turn into disaster. Let’s just hope we’ll have a Day for when that happens.
You can watch Ready, Set, Love on Netflix.
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