For good or bad, this year’s MAFS season has been one of the most enthralling in recent memory. Why? It has just hit different.

Every year, this show is typically dominated by men who are simply the worst. Between the Tims, Pauls, Harrisons, Jacks, Bryces and Deans – it’s been a buffet of bad men for as long as I can remember.

This year was another story. With the tiny exception of blink-and-you’ll-hopefully-miss-him intruder groom Tyson – a manosphere-shaped mirage, if you will – the men cast in this series have largely been kind, empathetic and well… normal men.

Sure, Danny occasionally has terrible opinions, but he’s hardly a fully-fledged MAFS villain.

By contrast, it’s been tough to find any women to root for each episode. The most toxic of the bunch is the two brides dominating basically 90 per cent of the airtime: Gia and Bec. Between their faux-feminism, empty ‘girl’s girl’/’boss b*tches’ rhetoric and constant bullying of the other women while belittling their own partners, they’ve been painful to watch.

And most viewers tend to agree. The girls have been wildin’ out.

“Why are most of these men being disrespected this season? I don’t get it, I feel bad for them,” read one popular Instagram comment on the MAFS page.

Watch: A truly upsetting MAFS scene. Post continues below.

It would be one thing if it were just Bec and Gia’s bad behaviour, but they’ve sat in the majority all season. It turns out misery really does love company on MAFS. Between Mel, Brook, Juliette and Julia, it’s been a revolving door of women mistreating their men and each other.

Many MAFS fans had hoped that Alissa would come through as a bride they could get behind, but her recent treatment of her groom, David, has been disgraceful to watch. In recent episodes, she was seen mocking, gaslighting and talking over him constantly.

Among all this mess of women behaving badly, we are left with two brides who haven’t just treated their partners with dignity, lifted the other women up and err… acted like nice, normal people – but they’ve saved the whole season from being an unwatchable sh*tshow.

Let us thank the MAFS heavens for Stella and Rachel. These women deserve the world!

Stella was an early standout. This Lithuanian-Australian bride met her match in Filip, her Croatian-Australian groom. Since the wedding, these two have gone from strength to strength, even dropping the L-bomb to each other, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing for Stella.

In the early weeks, she was the only woman to stand up for Luke when Mel was complaining about him in a group session, leading to Brook and Gia turning on her. This dynamic only grew nastier at the dinner party, where she had to endure nothing short of high school bullying from the women.

Image: Nine.

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As insults were shouted her way, Stella sat calmly.

“Do you notice how much time you have been talking, and I haven’t said a word?” Stella cooly stated. “This is not worth my breath or energy.”

Stella has always remained respectful and has proven to be a supportive friend throughout the experiment while bravely speaking out about abandonment issues rearing their head in her relationship with Filip.

Image: Nine.

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Rachel has been a slow-burning bride. Like her relationship with Steven, it’s taken time for things to develop, but Rachel has proven again and again that she will stand up for what’s right.

During couples’ retreat, Rachel clashed with Bec over her infamous ‘finger-banging’ comment about Rachel and Steven getting intimate for the first time. Bec resorted to cruel taunts that Rachel should ‘get over it’ or ‘get a personality’, but Rachel remained calm and empathetic towards her friend.

In her relationship, she has been patient with Steven to allow his feelings to catch up with hers, while always treating him with kindness and respect.

Image: Nine.

At Sunday’s commitment ceremony, I was left touched when both Rachel and Stella got emotional watching their friends break down on the experts’ couch. They’re clearly both emotionally intelligent with huge hearts – the kind of women we should all strive to be.

Sadly, these women remain in the vast minority. The never-ending drama around Bec, Gia and Alissa is still the domineering storyline.

Ahead of the final dinner party on Monday, it’s unclear whether Gia and Alissa will even attend, as both brides have threatened to leave the experiment after unflattering videos of them flirting with their alternative grooms were played to Scott and David, respectively.

Image: Nine.

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This isn’t to say that I’m arguing for more problematic men next season and fewer problematic women. I’m actually saying the opposite.

The positivity beaming from Stella and Rachel was a necessary contrast this year, but it’s still been illuminating to see toxic masculinity showcased by women on this season of MAFS – a show that is known for holding an ugly mirror up to Australian dating culture.

Women like Bec and Gia have continuously peddled damaging notions of masculinity, encouraging their partners to ‘be real men’ by not showing their vulnerabilities or communicating their feelings. In the case of Gia and Alissa, they’ve been known to simply speak over their men – literally, taking away their voice, which is a longheld toxic trait that equates a man’s strength with silence.

These women aren’t simply perpetuating toxic masculinity; they’re punishing these men by weaponising their vulnerability against them.

I’m grateful we got to see this toxic dynamic play out for once on Australian reality TV, a digital landscape dominated by f*ckboys, ‘nice guys’ and ‘bad men’.

I’d much rather watch this than another man named Paul punching a hole in a wall.

But remember this: in a world of Gias, always be a Stella or Rachel.