On Monday night as Love Island contestant Olivia Attwood gave a post final press interview, the chat quickly turned to feminism.
‘Reality TV show girls get a harder time than boys full stop,’ Attwood stated. ‘They are always the first ones to go, they come the lowest in polls. Some of the things that girls do, if a boy did it or said it, he would be cheeky or funny or a player, but if a girl does it then she’s a s**g and you’re conniving, so we’re still living in the medieval times for that.'
Not your usual fodder for an ITV2 reality show but throughout the seven weeks we’ve spent glued to our screens watching the love lives of Kember, Jamilla and Garcel unfold in a Mallorcan villa, feminism is a topic that has popped up again, and again.
In week two Camilla was faced with the task of explaining to Johnny, and the whole nation, why we still need feminism. As Johnny revealed he would feel ‘emasculated’ if a woman offered to pay her share of the bill on a date, and that ‘feminism believes in almost inequality,’ Camilla was unsurprisingly not taking any of it.
‘I think it’s difficult for men to see that there’s been several generations which have been preferential towards men and therefore to redress the balance, there has to be in some way an active movement towards equality,’ Camilla told a bemused Johnny. As Johnny suggested that we had reached equality because we now have a female prime minister (bangs head against wall), a shocked Camilla was forced to retreat.
It may not be a groundbreaking feminist debate, but the conversation highlighted an argument that all women have had to face at some point- that feminism is sorted and we should all just shut up about it now.
Fast forward a few weeks later and Johnny was the centre of another feminist debate when his ‘possessive and controlling’ behaviour towards Tyla was called out by domestic abuse charities including Women’s Aid.
Olivia’s comments about living in ‘medieval times’ may be a little far fetched, but her point about how differently we treat women and men in the public eye certainly rings true. Throughout the show the girls have been criticised, picked apart and hated on to a much bigger degree than any of the boys. Montana was deemed ‘bitchy’ for sharing strong opinions while at the same time people questioned Gabby’s authenticity for failing to open up. As Caroline Flack pointed out in an episode of Love Island: After Sun, there was a running theme when it came to public opinion, people preferred the boys to the girls. People loved Chris and Kem but could not warm to Olivia or Amber. Love Island demonstrated how it often seems like it is impossible for women to ever get it ‘right’.
The show is definitely not perfect, and critics were right for calling out the show’s presentation of equality. The contestants all fit one aesthetic (thin and tanned) and one type of love (heterosexual), however, the fact we are talking about these things itself is something to be celebrated, not sniffed at.
While it is easy to dismiss the show as pure trash TV, Love Island has brought the topic of feminism into the mainstream in ways that we never would have expected. You could call it trivial but having these important topics seen by millions (2.4million to be precise), and spoken about in every office up and down the country, is not something to take lightly. After all, anything that makes people talk about feminism more, whatever the format, has got be seen as a positive.
READ MORE: Love Island Star Criticised For "Possessive" And "Controlling" Behaviour By Charity
READ MORE: This Czech Brewery's 'Beer For Her' Is Sexist And Patronising
READ MORE: Why Won't Boots Cut The Price Of The Morning After Pill?