Brooke Blurton: first ever Indigenous, bisexual 'Bachelorette'

Brooke Blurton has just been announced as the first ever mixed gender 'bachelorette' on TV show: 'The Bachelorette' Australia.

The West Australian is a Carnarvon-born Yamatji-Noongar woman, and has been cast as the first openly bisexual star on the popular reality TV show.

So yes, that means Blurton will have both men and women competing for her love and affection,  signalling the first time The Bachelor or men has had a mixed gender cast.

'The Bachelorette' show host Osher Günsberg said in a statement that the upcoming season highlights the diversity and common interests of Australia.

"We are a nation of people from so many different backgrounds, so many different cultures and so many different experiences, yet we all have one thing in common – we all want to be loved in a way that is meaningful to us," he said.

Brooke herself said: “Times are more progressive and sexuality and gender expression are just so fluid these days,” she told News Corp Australia.

Brooke burst onto the scene in Nick Cummins’ season (yep, The Honey Badger... he who did not pick ANYONE at the end of his show tenure, much to the dismay of, well, most of Australia) of 'The Bachelor' Australia, then left the mansion on her own terms towards the end of the show.

Brooke had indeed let Nick know she had previously been in two relationships with women.

Brooke also appeared on 'Bachelor in Paradise'.

Equally exciting for the show is that Brooke is of Aboriginal background - finally! More beautiful Indigenous women on our screens. Much more of this please TV programmers!

Says Brooke, a youth worker: "I've done it twice before and now, having the opportunity to choose my person and who I want in my life, is a truly unique and special experience," she said.

"I'm so excited and hope that I finally find that person I've been waiting for."

Bring it on!

No screen date set yet, as the show will go into production shortly.

The impact of 'Six Feet Under'

'Six Feet Under' - the groundbreaking TV series which had such a profound impact on the way we view death... and life.

I was riveted the entire series... until it came to the last episode.

Somehow, I missed it that week... and decided, I could not bring myself to watch it because that would mean the whole thing would be over. Unusual, I know, and psychologists would have a field day with analysing that one. To this day, I have not seen the last ep. Not on YouTube, not as part of the last season DVD boxset. Until this coming Monday, when channel 7TWO (Australian TV) will screen the last episode. I have just seen glimpses of it in the third clip down, here.

The clips here are from the doco 'Life and Loss: The Impact of Six Feet Under'.

[Warning: many scenes here are graphic and confronting]:

Says series creator/executive producer Alan Ball: "I wanted to explore the drama and beauty of the fact that we're mortal. I wanted to bring death out of the closet."

Continues Alan Ball: "When someone you love dies, a piece of you is ripped out of you. And there's no way out of it, than through it."

Adds Alan: "Until you really face the truth of your mortality, you can't really start to live."

After watching the first few eps when it first screened, I told a friend that I was obsessed with the series and she asked me how I could be, seeing as I'd lost my father so tragically and so young and have never really recovered. I couldn't quite explain it. 

Now, Alan Poul, executive producer on the show, explains it for me: "People who have just suffered a loss of a loved one, rather than finding it too difficult too watch, they find the show a source of comfort."

Are you a fan? Why did the series appeal to you? Have you experienced death and were you drawn to the series because of that?