Amassing millions of views since its creation back in 2005, ITVâs Love Island has become the pinnacle of British reality television. With every new season of the show, there is a mass amount of online buzz and discourse around the theatrics that define the Love Island villa.
Contestants enter the show to supposedly âfind loveâ and the formulaic script of the series acts as a form of escapism for many, however it has also received backlash. From concerns over the impact on the mental health of many contestants â due to multiple deaths associated with contestants from the show over the years – to the toxic behaviour from many of those on the show, as well as the unrealistic beauty standards the casting choices promote year after year.
So, what makes Love Island so addictive to watch? Is it the escapism for viewers? The dramatic suspense at the end of each episode? The theatrics?
Love Island has created a buzz in British pop culture through its constant viral moments and memes, but it also reveals a lot about the gender roles at play in our popular culture. The female contestants on Love Island are consistently portrayed as dramatic, irrational and having âoverly emotionalâ reactions. The ups and downs of one Love Island couple, Anna Vakili and Jordan Hames from season five, resulted in thousands of online conversations, with Anna Vakili becoming known as âStorm Annaâ as a result of their roller coaster relationship in the villa. This dramatization of her character in response to his bad behaviour is undoubtedly a crazy double standard, that tells us a lot about todayâs gender roles. Shouldnât Jordanâs actions be the crazy thing? Imagine a guy asking you to be their girlfriend and then two days later flirting with another woman in front of you, and after all that, the only thing anyone can talk about is how you reacted?!
Thereâs more than one female contestant that has become infamous amongst Love Island viewers as overly dramatic and for flying off the handle for supposedly âno reasonâ. For example, Kady McDermott from season two, or Ekin-Su from season eight. However, where is this energy for the male contestants? When thinking of male contestants from the villa over the years, there have been little to no occurrences of public discourse remembering them as dramatic or emotional. When Adam Collard, a contestant from season four, made a return to the show in 2022 for season eight, Womenâs Aid issued a statement concerning the âclear warning signsâ in his past behaviour on the show, claiming it was clear emotional abuse towards a female contestant. At the time, there would have been a certain level of conversation around this, however when Love Island viewers think of season eight of the show, most minds would go straight to Ekin-Su and Davideâs dramatic relationship which again, in true formulaic Love Island style, involved a ton of screaming and finished with the pair winning the season finale. Furthermore, all conversation around this coupleâs tumultuous relationship was always centred around Ekin-Suâs persona of a loud and emotional âdrama queenâ. Again, we should question where this energy is for any of the male contestants that are also involved in these outbursts? Love Island is shockingly consistent with the way in which gender differences are presented at the forefront of the show, and those were just some of the examples. It would be difficult to find one episode of the series where there isnât at least one example of a double standard between the male and female contestants.
Gender roles play a role in all areas of life and are obvious to almost all women, whether it started young with boys in school constantly asking if girls were on their period at any sign of heightened emotion, or to the viral moments of female rage on reality TV. One thing is clear; gender roles still dictate the way many of us consume culture, whether this is conscious to us or not, and Love Island perfectly demonstrates this imbalance between the way male and female emotion is shown. It definitely would not be as entertaining to watch, and or as popular, without a good dose of female rage. And itâs a hit every time.