Tyler Cameron was a breakout star on Hannah Brown’s season for even more reasons than just his dashing good looks. Tyler’s conduct with Hannah, especially during the fantasy suites, led him to be deemed a “feminist icon” by both fans and the media.
While Tyler appreciated the progressive title, he used his new book You Deserve Better: What Life Has Taught Me About Love, Relationships, and Becoming Your Best Self to share candid details about his fantasy suite date with Hannah Brown and explain why his respectable behavior with Hannah should be the standard not the exception.
Tyler Cameron believes respect should be commonplace
Tyler and Hannah had a solid connection and a strong physical chemistry. When Tyler made it to fantasy suites, many assumed it would be inevitable that he and Hannah would sleep together during the notoriously sensual date.
However, Tyler revealed that the two did not sleep together during the overnight date and that he felt it important to honor Hannah’s wishes to not jump the gun on their sexual relationship. Instead, Tyler and Hannah used their rare time away from the cameras to genuinely connect and get to know one another.
When people learned that Tyler and Hannah chose to have “a meaningful night without having sex” during fantasy suites their abundantly positive response towards Tyler was overwhelming.
Tyler admitted he found the praise he received to be surprising and unwarranted since, in his eyes, what he did was normal and the bare minimum of being a gentleman.
Seeing fans uphold Tyler as a rare shining example of respecting consent motivated Tyler to write his book and address the problem with todays dating culture. In his book, Tyler wrote, “What is consent, and why isn’t it universally understood? What does being a ‘good guy’ really entail? Are things so bad in our culture that what I did on the show was worthy of so much praise?”
Tyler Cameron finds the praise he received to be scary
Tyler has been outspoken about the underlying issue of him being touted as a feminist icon for doing something that every human being should do, which is treat people with respect. He shared that it’s not just sad that his actions were deemed rare but it’s also very scary because it means we’ve come to expect so little of men that even when they honor “no means no,” it’s viewed as something special to behold.
While the praise Tyler received could easily be viewed as strictly positive on the surface level, Tyler cared enough to dig deeper and realize that the praise is an indicator of how messed up dating culture is and felt it speaks to why people are having such a hard time finding quality connections.
Tyler expressed that he may be a feminist for encouraging Hannah to be herself and defending whatever decision she made, unlike his fellow castmate Luke P. who tried to control Hannah’s decision-making, but Tyler also warned that it’s problematic for him to be considered a feminist icon since what he did should always be the norm.
The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.