Love Island returned to the UK’s screens on 28th June, and once again, unsurprisingly, there is a significant lack of body diversity. The same body shapes and ideals of beauty are being shown, night after night, and it has consequences.
This latest season promised that it would have “the most diverse line-up yet” but from what’s appearing on our screens, it certainly can’t be classed as diverse.
Why does it matter?
With each season that airs, Love Island proves time and time again that diversity is not a priority. Even though Love Island stated this year would be ‘the most diverse’, this obviously contradicts what they’ve clearly put across to viewers.
The only conditions that the Love Island application states is that candidates must be over 18, single and wanting to find love. Seeing as these are very open conditions, it seems ridiculous that there aren’t more diverse contestants.
Love Island is one of the most-watched shows and has some of the most-complained about moments shown on TV. Therefore, the show is in a position of being incredibly influential. This can become damaging to young girls who are continuously influenced by social media.
Consequently, if Love Island are only showing a certain type of body this suggests that only a certain type of body is socially acceptable in society.
Contestants from previous seasons of Love Island have taken to social media to illustrate their discontent of the lack of body diversity:
Malin Andersson
Malin, a season two contestant, expressed on Instagram her disappointment with this season of Love Island. Malin took to Instagram with a photo from a few years ago, with a caption detailing the show’s lack of diversity.
Malin listed three points that there was:
- “Pressure to look and feel the same way everyone else does”
- “Bullying within the show”
- “Reality TV is often intended to humiliate and/or exploit its participants”
Malin summed up her time stating, “they only showed what they intended you to see”.
It’s important to remember that Love Island is a reality TV show that seeks to make money and gain an audience.
Therefore, this show does not depict nor represent reality, so unfortunately there is a complete lack of body diversity.
Alex George
Similarly, the famous ‘Dr Alex’, a season four contestant, wrote on his Instagram about the importance of ‘being kind’. Alex continued by stating:
“I just wanted to post a gentle reminder to be kind online. Particularly when it comes to body image and appearance”.
Dr Alex was recently made a mental health advisor and it’s refreshing to see an influencer who uses their platform for both mental health and body positivity awareness.
There’s been an increase in mental health conversations after the death of ex-Love Island cast members Mike Thalasstis and Sophie Gradon, as well as ex-host Caroline Flack.
Previous contestants have been repetitively trolled on social media because of their appearances:
Molly-Mae Hague
In 2020, ex-contestant Molly-Mae from season 5 had photos taken of her by the paparazzi in a bikini whilst on holiday with her boyfriend ex-contestant Tommy Fury.
In these photos, Molly was wearing a bikini and trolls took to social media calling her “lardy, out of shape and needs to lose that flab” and “awful”.
It’s so disgusting that people actively seek to hurt and degrade people, especially women, about their appearance.
This repetitive bullying suggests that women can only look and appear in a certain way. Any deviation from this ideal is not considered ‘beautiful’ or indeed ‘normal’.
Anna Vakili
When Anna joined as a contestant for Love Island in season 5, the Love Island were bosses glad that they had finally added a ‘plus size’ contestant.
However, Anna is not a plus size, she’s curvy. So essentially, Love Island basically promotes the idea that if you’re not stick-thin-skinny, you’re classified as plus sized.
By including a different body type to skinny, this doesn’t mean that curvy is plus sized. Instead, this shows that Love Island repetitively does not value or consider any other body type apart from ‘skinny’.
By neglecting different body types, Love Island induces a certain type of culture, by neglecting reality.
Ultimately, social media is incredibly influential and simultaneously damaging. Social media and TV shows should be used to promote body positivity. Instead, social media is used as a tool to degrade, bully and troll anyone that doesn’t conform to Love Island and therefore society’s values of beauty.
