Dylan Barbour teased a critic saying that Hannah Godwin could do much better than him on Bachelor in Paradise. No pair was as steady as these two throughout season six of Paradise, but apparently, that wasn't good enough for everyone.
The love story of Barbour and Godwin, who were engaged during the finale, is one that wasn't fully shown to the audience. Barbour had serious eyes for Godwin from the onset, but Godwin was slower to commit. She got caught up in a romance with the mercurial Blake Horstmann, and it led to a standoff on the beach between the two hopeful Godwin suitors. When Godwin picked Barbour at the rose ceremony, Bachelor Nation unleashed a shriek of joy. From then on, the relationship quickly developed into something serious. In one of the least surprising scenes of Paradise, Barbour told Godwin he loved her. Godwin eventually got there too, and they became one of the most likely couples to get engaged on the beach. They are one of several relationships from the season still together.
When an Instagram user commented (via People) that Godwin "could do so much better than Dylan! You need a MAN!”, Barbour clapped back in the most hilarious way possible. He responded to the troll, Lauren Jensen, by writing, “You tell her Lauren."
It may be the best way to reply to a hater, sarcastically approving of their message to show that the comment has literally no negative effect on his day-to-day activities. It would have been easier, potentially, to call Barbour's manhood into question had he not conducted himself respectfully throughout the entirety of the season while taller, bulkier guys with deeper voices treated the women poorly.
Barbour's reaction was epic, but Jensen's opinion reflects a larger, often problematic definition of what a man is. The sense that someone becomes more of a man if they are more physically intimidating and aggressive is what leads to the normalization of women being mistreated in relationships. Barbour entered Paradise as a relative unknown, a fringe contestant on Hannah Brown's season of The Bachelorette. When he came to Mexico, the audience likely overlooked him for other characters like Horstmann. Perhaps Godwin was guilty of that too. But, like Carly Waddell once did with Evan Bass, Godwin realized that there's nothing wrong with a guy who doesn't fit the societal mold of masculinity if he's willing to love her unconditionally. When Barbour dropped to a knee in the season finale of Bachelor in Paradise, the majority of Bachelor Nation was rooting for Godwin to say yes, because it wasn't a love rooted in deception or false promises or more screen time. It was just two people in love, the way it should be.
Source: People, Dylan Barbour