I’VE GOT A TEXT… along with an unrealistic perception of body image- Love Island 2019
6th June 2019
It is that time again. 9pm, every evening millions will be tuning in to ITV2 to watch a group of singletons couple- up, and re-couple over and over again- Love Island is back.
It seems to be everything we love and hate at the same time. If you have been living under a rock the past few summers and have no idea what is going on- all you need to know is that 12 single ‘hotties’ are all thrown into a villa together and have eight weeks to find love and couple-up to be in with a chance of winning 50k cash.
However, it doesn’t take a lot of digging into the show to uncover one major flaw.
Everyone has the same, certain type of look… For the guys: a six pack, gleaming white teeth, large biceps, waxed chest, and tiny little swimming shorts. For the girls: A flat stomach, either large boobs or an impressive bum, cute hair, plump lips and thighs that don’t touch.
Watching identical Barbie and Ken doll bodies parade around a pool in nothing but swimwear all summer is all fun and games, until I realise that I have just finished a family share-size bag of crisps and now feel terrible about my own body.
Personally, I don’t agree with all the negative press that Love Island receives. Some, but not all. I would not say that the body type of contestants this year are unhealthy, they are just unrepresentative. What is misunderstood is that in reality, the tanned and slim bodies we see on Love Island- only represent the minority of the general population. The average dress size in the UK is a size 16, not a 6, and it is not promoted enough that THIS IS OK.
Reality TV is feeding unrealistic expectations of how young people should look, and this is leading to negative falsifications of body image in young people. Portraying fit and healthy individuals is not the issue, the issue is the lack of body diversity and the promotion of the unrealistic aspects of the individuals parading across the TV. Okay, if we all worked hard enough, we could be slimmer if we wanted to be, but our lips will never look like Anna’s (2019 Love island contestant) without the aid of filler and a syringe. Plastic surgery, tucks here and there, fillers, synthetic enhancement are all examples of things that we cannot naturally achieve and promoting these girls as beautiful based solely on this is wrong.
As one of TV’s most high-profile reality shows, there have been numerous calls for the show to feature a wider range of body types in order to properly reflect society. The Mental Health Foundation (MHF) has raised concerns about the impact television programmes, such as Love Island, have on their viewers, particularly those that are targeted at predominantly younger audiences who are most likely to develop feelings of anxiety about their bodies.
Almost one in four people aged 18-24 confessed that reality TV makes them worry about their own body image, according to the YouGov survey of over 4,000 UK adults released by the MHF. More than 15% of them also said they had self-harmed because of concerns about their body image, and 23% had experienced suicidal thoughts because of concerns in relation to their body image.
What is needed, for both men and women, are body confident role models in a varied range of body types that we can truly relate to and possibly identify with. It is then that we can start to foster healthier relationships with our own bodies, accept that there is no such thing as the ‘perfect body’ and learn to appreciate and celebrate body diversity in all its full beauty.
Within society, the spiralling pattern of youth mental health can largely be attributed to the impact of the internet; reality TV and social media has on the mindset of our younger generation – the target audience for Love Island. The contestants that are tailor picked for the show are valued and chosen for their bodies. So, Love Island are implying that it is okay for women to be judged on their bodies when it’s really not! Likewise, for males: suicide is the biggest killer of young men in the UK. By trivialising the body image pressures that men experience, we’re essentially saying that it is okay for these suicide rates to exist and continue…
Another facet of the show is the emphasis that is put on having to be with a partner, whether that is in a sexual sense or the life partner that the contestants claim they’re looking to find over the 8 weeks. Why not advocate individualism, the idea we’re self-sufficient without the support from another man/woman stood by our sides?
Love Island goes against this- promoting the desperate need for the contestants to be in a ‘couple’… at all times! Contestants cannot be single (they have to be coupled-up), throughout the entire running of the season or they face being ‘dumped from the island’.
In more recent years, Love Island producers have been placing a much larger focus on the wellbeing and aftercare of their contestants in the wake of Mike Thalassitis’ death. The reduction of body image pressures, for both men and women, will not only play a role in benefiting us viewers at home, but also benefit the mental wellbeing of the contestants themselves during their time in the villa and after they leave.