Love Island is Educational
On Tuesday night’s Love Island, earnest ex-school teacher Hugo got himself into a spot of bother. When asked what female attributes were a turn off, he said “Fake” sparking a spat between himself and the numerous boobjobbed contestants.
26 year old Faye, who has fake boobs, lips and botox told Hugo that he couldn’t judge her choices when he didn’t understand why she’d had “work” done in the first place. She went on to explain (whilst wielding a plastic prosecco glass) that she’d had insecurities about her body triggered, no doubt by society’s expectations of beauty standards.
Hugo (and myself) were mortified for judging. This remarkably sensitive moment from ITV2 is jarring against the near constant dialogue of “what’s your type” followed by the “petite blonde with dark features” response.
Equally interesting is that contestants Jake and Libby have accelerated through every stage of a 2 year relationship in the space of a week. Over 7 days they’ve gone from coyly getting to know each other, to “we’re the same person and so in sync”, to time for pastures new.
This has proved to me that Love Island is educational on two fronts. 1. It shouldn’t be “it is what it is” — labelling people as “types” is not inclusive or sensitive without context and 2. Time is…
