Last Night’s Love Island Proved Twins Are Still Heavily Fetishized, But Why?

Last night, twin contestants Jessica and Eve Gale entered Love Island at the final second, ready to mix up the couples. Their arrival sent contestants into a spin, quite predictably – the men more so than the women.

Practically salivating over the twins, all of the boys seemed to forget their partners existed upon the girls' arrival (save maybe Callum, our only hope this season…we’re calling it now). ‘Oh my God, I actually couldn’t believe it,’ Nas said in the beach hut . ‘Twins! What a bombshell!’

‘They’re twins!,’ Ollie repeated four times before knocking over his drink in excitement.

‘Twice is definitely nice, you know what I mean?’ Mike added.

It was a predictably fetishized reaction, one that’s so expected you almost forget how weird it is in the context of dating. What are the men expecting? A twin threesome? Is incest suddenly an acceptable sexual kink that we’re all just going to laugh about because…lol it’s Love Island!

Even if they’re not salivating over the potential to date two sisters at the same time, the contestants' reaction – and the fact the twins were used as a TV bombshell at all – speaks to one glaring truth: everyone is absolutely by twins. But why?

According to Psychology Today, the twin obsession started long before Love Island made us question modern men.

‘Twins have been considered a source of fascination and wonder/repulsion and fear since the beginning of recorded history,’ says Barbara Klein, psychologist and expert in twin identity studies. ‘Mythology, religion, literature, film, and art use twins to represent magical powers of closeness and the opposite - discord and rage.’

Today, modern society is fascinated by twins because of the potential for scientific breakthroughs into genetics. In fact, twins are often used to examine the difference between genetic and environmental influences. Beyond science, the idea that twins are telepathic is so popular it birthed an entire YouTube challenge with some videos gaining over 20 million views.

To be clear, twin telepathy is not a thing - with any evidence of such largely anecdotal, according to Live Science.

'Twins often finish each other's sentences and think the same thoughts, but that has more to do with shared experiences than any psychic telepathy,' writes psychologist Benjamin Radford. 'This sort of psychological connection isn't necessarily mysterious: any two people who know each other very well and who have shared many common experiences.'

So all the fuss does not necessarily signal sexual interest, so much as a general feeling of intrigue around the biological wonder that is twins. But still, the existence of twin babies has been recorded way back to the fourth century. You would have thought that, by now, we might not be salivating and screaming at the sight of them.

Alas, perhaps it’s just another reminder that Love Island is as behind the times as ever. Or, that society is and Love Island simply exemplifies that. Maybe Jess and Eve will prove once and for all, twins are just normal people – nothing to necessarily throw your champagne over for. No pressure, ladies.

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