When it comes to sex on Love Island, it’s safe to say there is a lot to unpack. For years, we have dissected how sex is talked about on the show, whether sex scenes should be kept in and what duty of care producers have for islanders - knowing they often fall foul to intense shaming should they showcase any sexual agency in the villa.
This year, that conversation is even murkier – notably, because Love Island appear to be treating it differently. In the last few weeks, late night scenes in the bedroom have heavily implied sexual activity is going on. Iain Stirling’s narration is more sexual than ever, with his jokes last night all but confirming Chloe Burrows and Toby Aromalaran have been having sex.
But if you cast your mind back to the first seasons of Love Island, you’ll remember this was all incredibly normal. Night after night we would witness almost every couple having sex in beds next to each other, one memorable scene including Nathan Massey commentating as it all went on. It was, to put it mildly, romp city – or should we say, Romp Island.
Of course, the trolling female islanders received for having sex on television led producers to completely U-turn on the topic. From 2018 onwards, sex scenes were either completely cut out or only subtly implied – we might see some slight movement under covers or feet intertwined in bed at most, and only after things had gotten serious between the couples.
Montana Brown, Zara Holland, Zoe Brown and Kem Cetinay have all said they regret having sex on television.
In 2019, sources told reporters that ITV bosses had learned from the way past islanders were treated due to their sex scenes being aired - Montana Brown, Zara Holland, Zoe Brown and Kem Cetinay had all spoken about regretting having sex in the villa.
‘Everyone is being extra careful about the well-being of the cast and how they will deal with the aftermath if their sex scenes are shown,’ the source told The Sun during season five being aired. ‘Most of [the current islanders] have said they're not comfortable with their sex scenes being broadcast and bosses have taken it all into account - many go on to regret having sex on camera because of how they're viewed by the public and their employers… it's easier to not show the sex - if it happens it's alluded to in the commentary by Iain Stirling rather than explicitly shown.’
Even the conversations around sex have become notably PG post 2018. Islanders will debrief on sexual antics in code, with Wes Nelson creating the ‘Do Bits Society’ in season four, and this year the girls have taken to using NVQ qualification lingo to describe exactly what they’ve got up to.
And yet, sex is clearly more visible than ever this season – despite the fact they’re still treating it as taboo.
We say clearly because, as viewers, the antics are obvious. We might not see long scenes of group humping like we would in the past, but each couple getting busy will be broadcast for a few seconds – one actually showing Toby making his way down Chloe’s body - before production cuts immediately to scenes of the islanders discussing ‘What happened last night’, while Iain Stirling jokes about them ‘getting F’ed’.
On the surface, it’s the same rules they’ve had since 2018, and yet compared to the 2019 series – where sex was essentially ignored – it’s clear that production have found ways to show that Islanders are having sex without explicitly including the long scenes akin to season one and two.
Through editing and narration, we’re slowly going back to Romp Island - the question now then is, is that a good thing?
Sex shouldn’t be a taboo on the show, this much is true. It’s a huge part of dating, and in the same way Love Island acts as a microcosm for our societies attitudes toward dating, being open and honest about sex could serve up some very interesting talking points. But the thing is, we’re still extremely sexphobic as a society –has much really changed since the 2019 series where contestants explicitly asked for their sex scenes not to be aired?
With that in mind, we have to ask, is it any better to heavily imply islanders are having sex? By cutting out sex scenes and explicit chats, islanders are better protected, sure - but regardless of whether we see it or not, we’re still catching glimpses of sexual activity and being told their having sex, so it stands to reason that islanders will still be shamed regardless of whether we see them getting it on over the covers or not.
It’s a strange experience, watching a reality show where sex is clearly happening but islanders are forced to talk about it in code. If they’re happy to have their sexual activity basically confirmed – which, we can’t possibly know without talking to each islander – it seems adolescent to watch grown men and women talk about sex in such juvenile ways. Are they prohibited from being open about sex then? Or, are they speaking in code because they’d rather not have their sex scenes confirmed? If the latter is a ‘Yes’, they’re not going to be at all happy when they re-watch the show.
Ultimately, it feels as though we’re watching some kind of production experiment – testing the boundaries of how much sex can be confirmed without islanders getting upset, while also treating is as completely taboo inside the villa. In that sense, it only serves to further stigmatise female sexual agency while still putting islanders at risk of being shamed for it. Viewers might be getting the salacious sexiness they miss from season one and two, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of islanders feelings and boundaries.
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