Tom And Maura’s Love Island Fight Is A Reminder That We Still Place Unfair Expectations On Women Who Are ‘Sexually Open’

From deep-throating a Calippo to bringing the term ‘fanny flutters’ back in fashion, ever since she strutted into the villa over a week ago, Maura Higgins has been TV gold; hilarious and horny in equal measure. In fact, you might - quite rightly - argue that the 28-year-old ring girl has saved 2019's Love Island from being incredibly boring, as villa favourites Curtis and Amycontinue to resemble Sharpay and Ryan from High School Musical (if they weren’t related, obviously).

Regardless, last night’s episode certainly wasn’t a snooze fest, with more drama happening in under an hour than the last three weeks combined - if Danny became the villain for brushing off Yewande, then Maura was officially anointed Queen of the Villa - but it was in the last few minutes that one of the most sensational reality TV comebacks was broadcast to the nation.

Fresh from winning the Gym Bunny challenge - hopping around in a Playboy costume and showing off some serious carrot skills - Maura received a text saying she could pick any boy to share a night with her in the Hideaway. Shouting that she was going to get ‘frisky’, the Irish model chose Tom, the guy she's been closest to in the villa - until she heard the vulgar comment he made about her sexuality.

While Maura told her friends that sex wasn’t definitely on the cards, because they had only kissed three times - when talking with the lads, Tom took a chavunistic approach. Taking a condom from his friends, he smugly told them, ‘It’ll be interesting to see if she’s all mouth or not.’

If Tom thought that comment was funny, he was wrong. And, if he thought it was going to get him laid, he was also wrong - especially because Maura overheard. ‘You did not just say that, did you? Why’d you say that?’ she yelped in disbelief, before branding him a ‘dickhead’ and telling him to go fuck himself.

Tonight we will find out what happened next - hopefully Maura spends the night in the Hideaway alone, taking up as much of the bed as humanley possible - but the exchange shows how there’s still unwritten demands and expectations placed upon women who (have the audacity to) talk about sex openly.

Throughout the series, the ‘body count’ (a gross term) of the women in the villa has been scrutinised, while nobody has batted an eyelid about how many women the lads have had sex with. For goodness sake, as early as his introductory VT, Anton said his mum kicked him out when she found two girls in his room - and nobody cared! Women can't win; people were aghast to find out Yewande's 'number' was one, but the girls were perhaps more shocked to find out that Maura had only slept with five men because, as Molly-Mae said, she’s so ‘sensual’. Conversely, I don’t know how many women any of the boys in the villa have slept with, because men being sexual is never made out to be a big deal.

As a female friend declared earlier, just because you’re confident saying the word vagina out loud, doesn’t mean you're willing to offer yours out to any Tom (quite literally), Dick or Harry. In 2019, being sexually empowered as a woman shouldn’t be quite so intimidating or shocking, but, somehow, it still is. Openess about one of our most basic needs certainly doesn’t correlate with being ‘easy’ (not that 'easy' is a thing either) - a lesson men like Tom need to grasp before they expect a woman to fall at their feet.

Read more: All the best moments from Love Island Twitter this year so far...