There’s nothing that says Love Island more than a man on his villain arc because his ego was bruised. Last night, it was Luca Bish – kicking off after Paige Thorne innocently commented that the fishmonger is ‘punching’ with his Love Island partner, Gemma Owen.
The comment immediately caused ‘What does punching mean?’ to trend on Google. In case you’re still not sure, ‘punching’ is short for ‘punching above your weight’ – i.e. the boxing idiom when someone fights a competitor above their weight class. In dating then, it’s when one partner is dating someone much more attractive than them.
It’s kind of savage how commonly the term's used when you think about it, but arguably it’s typical of straight relationships – specifically, that the man is usually less attractive than the woman (although, attractiveness being subjective is apparently taken out of the equation for this kind of conversation).
Now, when used in modern dating it’s rarely taken too seriously. In fact, many a man will proudly confess they’re ‘punching’ with their partner – who wouldn’t want to date someone super-hot, right? If anything, it proves you’ve got such a great personality, you can get any partner you want regardless of looks.
Of course, not everyone will take the sentiment so lightly – Luca, case in point. ‘No, I'm f*****g not,’ he argued – before telling Paige she was in fact ‘punching’ with her partner, Adam Collard. Oh, how we love the childish arguments to come out of locking six couples in a Spanish villa for eight weeks.
While viewers quickly took to social media to share their thoughts, there’s one point not being considered – scientifically, being told your ‘punching’ is basically a compliment. That’s according to a 2017 study from Florida State University, which found relationships that are more likely to be successful when the woman is better looking than the man. How convenient, huh?
After analysing 113 newlyweds in Texas, researchers found that in instances where the man was less attractive he was likely to compensate with acts of kindness like gifts, sexual favours or doing more housework. They saw a pattern in that this made women happier and feel more appreciated, therefore strengthening the relationship. Well, how about that ladies, get yourself an ugly man and he might just pick up his fair share of laundry and actually put effort into making you orgasm… how we’re spoilt!
Seriously though, if Luca ‘punching’ means Gemma ends up happier, perhaps it’s not that much of an insult after all. That being said, who can really ever say who is more attractive in a couple? Yes, we’re all aware of typical beauty standards, but attractiveness is so subjective it’s difficult to take any one person’s opinion about who is punching with who that seriously. As long as Gemma fancies Luca, does it really matter?