"GOT A TEXT!"
We know the familiar phrases, that familiar tune, the familiar faces we come to love or hate. We know the buzz of excitement we get when we overhear someone open up discussion on an event from the previous night's episode. For the majority of us we have ashamedly fallen hook, line and sinker for this nightly hour of drama and gossip. In a lot of family homes it's usually scheduled for a 7pm sofa sit-down of the Soaps, the familiar line-up of Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Eastenders- the addiction to keeping up with these Soaps is the excitement and anticipation of uncovering what's going to happen next.
I've heard a lot of people from older generations criticize Love Island for being a 'load of rubbish' because it's reality TV but the addiction to shows like this stems from the same addiction the older generation have to the Soaps and there are clear similarities between the two. No matter how much people say they don't enjoy Drama, it's human nature to be fascinated with the stories of other people and the on-goings in other people's lives. Have you ever had a friend message you with hints of gossip from their own life or someone else's and your eagerness to find out becomes borderline desperation. Granted, part of this feeling comes from a place of genuine care for this person but for the most part it is the lack of knowledge that draws us in, the power of new information dangling in front of us is overpowering.
The issue isn't the initial addiction with the drama of Love Island- it's the same as the huge obsession we used to have with Big Brother before it became a Channel 5 disaster. For some reason the idea of watching humans move around like Guinea pigs in the same space every night for an hour is captivating audiences everywhere. The issue for me is the lack of body diversity, in fact the lack of any kind of diversity in the show is quite frankly, disturbing. It's something we should almost certainly be opening up discussion about.
There is a clear lack of representation for marginalised bodies on the show and I think it's important that the producers of the show recognise this and change their casting habits moving forward. Granted, most people applying for the show are people that feel comfortable strutting around in swimwear to the nation for eight weeks but that doesn't take a good body (whatever that means), it takes body confidence and are you honestly going to tell me that out of all those people that applied (fun fact: more people applied for the show this year than people that applied for Oxford) that not one had a body that wasn't able, tanned or toned?
Quoted from the ITV Media website "Proving a massive success with young audiences, regularly capturing a 56% share of 16-34 viewers"
Given that these are the audience statistics for the show you would think the Casting Directors and Producers of the show wouldn't be so oblivious to the message they are sending out to young people but in fact for another year running we are faced with the same white-washed show. Not only is it incredibly damaging that there is such a poor lack of representation for any body that isn't able, tanned and toned there is also a lack of any kind of diversity at all. The only representation of people of colour are Wes and Josh who are both light-skinned, the only female of colour being Samira.
Why is there ONE black woman on the show? Why are no other ethnicities being included? Why are they all able-bodied? Why are none of the females on the show above a size 6/8? What kind of message is this show trying to send out to it's audiences? The show is not in any way inclusive and I don't understand what their reasoning could possibly be for this. The only excuse I could think of for the show being Heterosexual and therefore not inclusive of sexuality is that the pairing might be difficult to work out, other than this I have no understanding of the selection in contestants.
In my opinion, the message the show is actively sending out is that anything that doesn't fit society's ideals of beauty is wrong.
I listened to an episode of my favourite podcast this week 'The High Low' as Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton also discussed the lack of body diversity on Love Island- "Given that the average size of a woman in the UK is a size 16, this is unrepresentative." All of the contestants on Love Island have bodies that could have easily- as Dolly and Pandora put it- have come straight out of a Hollyoaks calendar- they are completely homogenized. As they also put it if the producers were worried about diversity affecting ratings they would only need to take one look at how much the Nation loves First Dates. First Dates embraces diversity in all its forms- age, sexuality, disability, ethnicity and body diversity. The Nation love this show because it reflects true society and they are able to connect with it, it presents real people. The word real seems silly to use because obviously the contestants on Love Island are real but in my opinion they are not a real and true representation of society.
My favourite quote from Dolly Alderton when they were discussing how slim bodies and body confidence are often intrinsically linked is "It's a viscous cycle because how can people over a size 8 ever have that body confidence if they never see themselves on screens or on pages." The lack of body diversity on the show encourages fat phobia which is something much of the body positive movement have been working tirelessly to diminish for years and shows like this which capture the Nation's attention are choosing to use their power to inflict fear on body types that aren't slim and toned. What's even more baffling is that Love Island are sponsored by Missguided and their new commercial often shown throughout intervals in the show is promoting diversity, how can a brand trying to promote diversity support a show that isn't?
I have noticed a lot of comments on Twitter from younger generations talking about wanting to go on a diet after looking at the bodies of the contestants, making derogatory comments about themselves and how they feel that their body looks bad in comparison. Interestingly, if you look at a lot of these overly re-tweeted comments you will notice that most of the girls in the pictures have very similar body types to those on Love Island and yet they still don't think they are good enough.
Whilst it's perfectly okay to watch what you wish and to enjoy some trash TV from time to time, it is important that we acknowledge and recognise shows like this for what they are. They are not inclusive, they are promoting poor body image and fat phobia, they are not a reflection of true society, they have just selected society's beauty ideals and given them a platform to 'find love'- which is also encouraging a message that anyone other than these ideals is undeserving of love which of course as you all should know, is completely untrue.
We know the familiar phrases, that familiar tune, the familiar faces we come to love or hate. We know the buzz of excitement we get when we overhear someone open up discussion on an event from the previous night's episode. For the majority of us we have ashamedly fallen hook, line and sinker for this nightly hour of drama and gossip. In a lot of family homes it's usually scheduled for a 7pm sofa sit-down of the Soaps, the familiar line-up of Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Eastenders- the addiction to keeping up with these Soaps is the excitement and anticipation of uncovering what's going to happen next.
I've heard a lot of people from older generations criticize Love Island for being a 'load of rubbish' because it's reality TV but the addiction to shows like this stems from the same addiction the older generation have to the Soaps and there are clear similarities between the two. No matter how much people say they don't enjoy Drama, it's human nature to be fascinated with the stories of other people and the on-goings in other people's lives. Have you ever had a friend message you with hints of gossip from their own life or someone else's and your eagerness to find out becomes borderline desperation. Granted, part of this feeling comes from a place of genuine care for this person but for the most part it is the lack of knowledge that draws us in, the power of new information dangling in front of us is overpowering.
The issue isn't the initial addiction with the drama of Love Island- it's the same as the huge obsession we used to have with Big Brother before it became a Channel 5 disaster. For some reason the idea of watching humans move around like Guinea pigs in the same space every night for an hour is captivating audiences everywhere. The issue for me is the lack of body diversity, in fact the lack of any kind of diversity in the show is quite frankly, disturbing. It's something we should almost certainly be opening up discussion about.
There is a clear lack of representation for marginalised bodies on the show and I think it's important that the producers of the show recognise this and change their casting habits moving forward. Granted, most people applying for the show are people that feel comfortable strutting around in swimwear to the nation for eight weeks but that doesn't take a good body (whatever that means), it takes body confidence and are you honestly going to tell me that out of all those people that applied (fun fact: more people applied for the show this year than people that applied for Oxford) that not one had a body that wasn't able, tanned or toned?
Quoted from the ITV Media website "Proving a massive success with young audiences, regularly capturing a 56% share of 16-34 viewers"
Given that these are the audience statistics for the show you would think the Casting Directors and Producers of the show wouldn't be so oblivious to the message they are sending out to young people but in fact for another year running we are faced with the same white-washed show. Not only is it incredibly damaging that there is such a poor lack of representation for any body that isn't able, tanned and toned there is also a lack of any kind of diversity at all. The only representation of people of colour are Wes and Josh who are both light-skinned, the only female of colour being Samira.
Why is there ONE black woman on the show? Why are no other ethnicities being included? Why are they all able-bodied? Why are none of the females on the show above a size 6/8? What kind of message is this show trying to send out to it's audiences? The show is not in any way inclusive and I don't understand what their reasoning could possibly be for this. The only excuse I could think of for the show being Heterosexual and therefore not inclusive of sexuality is that the pairing might be difficult to work out, other than this I have no understanding of the selection in contestants.
In my opinion, the message the show is actively sending out is that anything that doesn't fit society's ideals of beauty is wrong.
I listened to an episode of my favourite podcast this week 'The High Low' as Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton also discussed the lack of body diversity on Love Island- "Given that the average size of a woman in the UK is a size 16, this is unrepresentative." All of the contestants on Love Island have bodies that could have easily- as Dolly and Pandora put it- have come straight out of a Hollyoaks calendar- they are completely homogenized. As they also put it if the producers were worried about diversity affecting ratings they would only need to take one look at how much the Nation loves First Dates. First Dates embraces diversity in all its forms- age, sexuality, disability, ethnicity and body diversity. The Nation love this show because it reflects true society and they are able to connect with it, it presents real people. The word real seems silly to use because obviously the contestants on Love Island are real but in my opinion they are not a real and true representation of society.
My favourite quote from Dolly Alderton when they were discussing how slim bodies and body confidence are often intrinsically linked is "It's a viscous cycle because how can people over a size 8 ever have that body confidence if they never see themselves on screens or on pages." The lack of body diversity on the show encourages fat phobia which is something much of the body positive movement have been working tirelessly to diminish for years and shows like this which capture the Nation's attention are choosing to use their power to inflict fear on body types that aren't slim and toned. What's even more baffling is that Love Island are sponsored by Missguided and their new commercial often shown throughout intervals in the show is promoting diversity, how can a brand trying to promote diversity support a show that isn't?
I have noticed a lot of comments on Twitter from younger generations talking about wanting to go on a diet after looking at the bodies of the contestants, making derogatory comments about themselves and how they feel that their body looks bad in comparison. Interestingly, if you look at a lot of these overly re-tweeted comments you will notice that most of the girls in the pictures have very similar body types to those on Love Island and yet they still don't think they are good enough.
Whilst it's perfectly okay to watch what you wish and to enjoy some trash TV from time to time, it is important that we acknowledge and recognise shows like this for what they are. They are not inclusive, they are promoting poor body image and fat phobia, they are not a reflection of true society, they have just selected society's beauty ideals and given them a platform to 'find love'- which is also encouraging a message that anyone other than these ideals is undeserving of love which of course as you all should know, is completely untrue.
