The Whatsapp messages were coming in thick and fast last night. Some already making note of popular catchphrases, while others were trying to make sense of the ‘underboob’ bikini… But the messages I so desperately didn’t want to receive from my friends were the messages I got the most of: ‘Love Island is already making me feel fat’, ‘I need to get to the gym’, ‘it’s a good job I’m not getting in a bikini this year’.
There was a time I was the friend that would merely agree, validating my friends’ insecurities while filling my head with my own. I would spend my time creating ‘thinspo’ collages from magazine clippings to hang in my wardrobe, even from stories that were trying to shed light on the dangers of being underweight - I would ignore the words and take the celebrity images instead. But having overcome my body image issues, nowadays I feel mad and upset because entertainment that is meant to be enjoyed like reality TV, is making my friends feel shit.
It's important to remember that TV shows as big as Love Island, are just as impressionable for women as social media might be, for example. Body confidence advocate Alex Light shared a reel in her efforts to counteract a dip in body confidence, reminding us that ‘we cannot let it make us feel bad about our own bodies’. A message I try to convey to my own friends although it's hard when I can see the impact this show is still having on them.
Love Island's lack of body diversity only subjects women to entering into a state of 'compare and despair', influencing women to conform to current beauty ideals because they see no representation of themselves. Body image researcher Dr Helena Lewis-Smith, explains how these ideals are forever changing, as is the shift in the 'idealistic icon'.
‘When I was growing up, the kind of idealistic icon was Kate Moss, and she had no breasts,' she says. 'So if you were a kid growing up then and you went through puberty earlier than your friends, if you had a bigger bum perhaps, you’d be feeling bad about yourself. However, if you’re a kid growing up now where the icons are the Kardashians, you want bigger breasts and a bigger bum. It’s all about chance, and if you body conforms to what is the current ideal of the time.’
Conforming to beauty ideals is not on my agenda. I love my body because it's different and I will never understand why Love Island aren't championing the same message, and more so, why we're still having this conversation seven seasons on! I want to see aspects of a woman that makes her a woman – stretch marks, cellulite, love handles, hip dips, scars, blemishes, spots? It’s a reality TV show, so show us some reality please…