Former ‘Bachelor’ Contestant Taylor Nolan’s Tweets Proves Nobody Is Immune To Cancel Culture

The last few weeks have been eventful, but nothing comes as more of a surprise to Bachelor Nation than the old tweets that resurfaced from former contestant Taylor Nolan on February 28. This incident goes to show that nobody is immune to cancel culture, even those who perpetuate it the most.

Who Is Taylor Nolan?

Nolan first appeared on Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor, which was filmed in the fall of 2016 and aired in the winter of 2017. She was 23 years old at the time of filming and had just received her Master’s in mental health counseling from John Hopkins University.

She’s mainly remembered for her feud with fellow contestant Corinne Olympios. Corinne was known for her over-the-top behavior, and Taylor wasn’t afraid to confront Corinne about her maturity. But instead of having an honest discussion with Corinne, Taylor spoke down to Corinne in a condescending way and insulted her “emotional intelligence.”

Though neither woman was perfect in this situation, Taylor came off worse and looked like a bully. It also didn’t help that Taylor is a mental health professional, and it’s unsettling to see a mental health professional be this condescending. 

Since her initial appearance on The Bachelor, 28-year-old Taylor is a therapist, podcast host, and influencer. She posts content on her Instagram related to racial justice (she’s biracial), other forms of social justice, mental health, and sex positivity. Her podcast, “Let’s Talk About It” talks about similar topics.

Though there’s nothing inherently wrong with the content that Taylor posts, many Bachelor fans (myself included) have a problem with her condescending and holier-than-thou attitude, similar to the attitude shown when she was on The Bachelor. Fans also aren’t a fan of her pro-cancel culture stance and saw her as condescending when she tried to cancel former Bachelorette Hannah Brown. She was also extremely vocal about the Chris Harrison scandal before her own scandal broke on February 28.

What Did Taylor Nolan’s Tweets Say? And How Did She Respond?

Before I get into the tweets, I have to make a few things clear. I’ve been watching The Bachelor for nearly a decade and have seen a lot of offensive social media posts from contestants. Due to the sheer volume of cruel posts from Taylor, the number of marginalized groups she attacked, and how she responded to this situation, I believe this is one of the worst offenses to come from someone in the Bachelor franchise. Taylor’s hypocrisy also makes it worse, but we’ll get to that later.

These weren’t just a few racist tweets that resurfaced; this was a collection of tweets and other social media posts insulting black people, Asian people, Jewish people, sexual assault survivors, LGBT people, disabled people, and other marginalized groups posted between 2011 and 2013 when Taylor was in her late teens and early twenties. She also tweeted something a client told her in a private session, which goes against client confidentiality.

If this were a handful of rude tweets from her teen years and she apologized for her past actions, then this wouldn’t be a giant scandal. But since there are numerous cruel posts that Taylor wrote while she was in school to become a therapist and the irony of her being the most pro-cancel culture influencer out there, it’s a problem. 

Taylor’s advocacy for cancel culture and her holier-than-thou attitude make this situation horribly ironic.

Taylor issued an apology via Instagram on Sunday afternoon. In part, she said, “My tweets from 10 years ago are sh–ty, they suck, they were wrong and are hurtful. I want to be clear that they don’t take away from the work I do today, they are literally how I got here to doing this work. If you’re gonna take the time and energy to scroll through 10 years of my tweets, then please take your time to listen to this video. I never deleted those tweets for a reason because they’ve been a part of my journey since way before going [on] The Bachelor. I didn’t need anyone to call those things out to me to know they were wrong, I’ve been doing that work on my own for the last 10 years, and it’s the same work I do today, and the same work I will continue doing for the rest of my life.”

She also said, "A lot of that stems from my own internalized racism from growing up in a white supremacist culture, from experiencing the racism that I did and thinking falsely that I could protect myself by being close to whiteness. That was how I protected myself, that was, honestly, my trauma response, was upholding white supremacy, which obviously, I speak out a lot on today and that's because I very well know how to see when someone is doing it, because I used to do it. I hope that ya'll take the time to listen to this video and consider giving me an inkling of grace that we're often so quick to give people like Chris after just an apology, without seeing any of the work being done. I've been doing the work."

Taylor deleted the 30-minute video after it received backlash for being condescending and self-congratulatory. Fans also accused (and rightfully so) Taylor of gaslighting her followers by claiming her situation is different than those of other contestants like Rachael Kirkconnell.

Taylor’s apology received backlash for being condescending and self-congratulatory. 

Several former contestants disavowed Taylor's posts, but Bekah Martinez of Arie Luyendyk’s season had the best response. On her Instagram story, Bekah wrote, “Taking time out of my sunday social media break to post this because I think a lot of other bach nation people will be scared to say something and this needs to be called out.” 

Bekah continued, “@taymocha as someone who consistently calls out other people’s apologies, I expect far better than this bulls–t that consistently centers yourself, and is insanely self-congratulatory and snarky. humble yourself and call it what it is. You are not above scrutiny for past actions anymore than anyone else. Come at me all you want but I will not back down. what you did was wrong and this written response is horrible.”

I applaud Bekah for this statement because I couldn’t have said it better myself. What astounded me the most about Taylor’s “apology” is that she claimed she didn’t delete the tweets because they were a part of her journey, but she’s never spoken out about experiencing internalized racism. Former white supremacists and Neo-Nazis (who have done much worse than Taylor) have been open about their racist pasts before becoming anti-hate activists, so it seems fishy that she hid this from the public. It made her apology and “journey to change” feel very disingenuous.

The Hypocrisy of Her Tweets and Stance on Cancel Culture

What I found to be the most ironic about Taylor Nolan’s apology is that she asked her followers to “consider grace,” despite her refusal to give others grace in similar situations. She didn’t offer any grace to Rachael Kirkconnell, Hannah Brown, and Chris Harrison, so why does she think that she’s entitled to the grace that she refuses to give others? 

I would argue that this is further proof that being pro-cancel culture and having a strong sense of entitlement go hand in hand. A great example of this is when Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that cancel culture is rooted in entitlement, and she was the one who came across as entitled in her statement (of course, she also denied cancel culture was real, saying it’s just “accountability.”).

Some of the biggest perpetrators of cancel culture are the worst offenders.

This story is going viral across Bachelor Nation because of Taylor’s astounding hypocrisy. Fans are shocked by her tweets, but aren’t those who have a holier-than-thou attitude often the worst perpetrators of what they claim to stand against? Think of the recent allegations against Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon and how Harvey Weinstein once claimed that he was a feminist. The hypocrisy of Taylor’s tweets may be shocking, but it’s not the first time that cancel culture has come to attack one of their own.

What’s Next for Taylor Nolan?

I’ve seen a lot of reality stars get canceled and make a comeback, but I truly don’t know how Taylor could come back from this. I’m not one for cancel culture, but there’s a question as to whether Taylor should be held to the same standards she holds others to and if she should be allowed to practice as a therapist. Taylor tweeted a lot of horrible things, but making fun of something that a client told her in confidence is downright cruel. There’s already a petition to get her license revoked, so I’m curious to see how this plays out.

Another thing that I find interesting about this when compared to other Bachelor scandals is that Taylor’s tweets didn’t come from ignorance; they came from hate. You can cure ignorance with education, but it’s tough to get rid of the kind of hate that Taylor showed in her tweets, and the way she defended herself when she got caught speaks volumes to her character.

Closing Thoughts

Taylor Nolan’s tweets are some of the most questionable things to come from a former Bachelor contestant. Her advocacy for cancel culture and her holier-than-thou attitude make the situation ironic, but it also goes to show that some of the biggest perpetrators of cancel culture are the worst offenders.