Leave Callum alone: Being single and sleeping with 16 people in six months is no big deal

On Friday’s episode of Love Island All Stars, a comment from Callum rocked the villa as hard as it rocked social media on the outside world. After a “savage” truth or dare question from Anton which asked Callum how many girls he’d slept with in the six months since he and Molly split, Callum told the group and the world that he’d bedded 16 women in that time. If you’re doing the maths, it’s about one a week. Everyone has reacted to this admission like Callum just confessed he was Hugh Hefner reincarnate, and to my shock the usually wised up, forward thinking viewers who make the best memes on Twitter / X were equally as appalled. Have we fell back in time to the Mary Whitehouse ruled, pearl-clutching era of the late 80s without me knowing? Let’s all get a grip: Love Island All Stars has bigger issues than Callum sleeping with 16 women in six months – it’s literally nothing to bat an eyelid at.

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I guess what I found most sobering about all this reactionary behaviour from everyone regarding this revelation is how different the attitudes to sex are in different circles. I’m a gay man and most of the people in my life both online and IRL are also queer, or if they aren’t they’re huge allies, very forward thinking and relaxed about sex and sexual partners. I think in the circles I move in, sex is so everyday. If we want to have casual sex, we’ll have it. We’re safe, we’re careful – slut-shaming or being outraged at the amount of sex someone was having would just simply not happen. I know people who easily sleep with 16 people a month, never mind in six months. Everyone is single or in open relationships, no one’s getting hurt: What’s the harm?

I do think Callum would have a fair few choice words for Molly if the tables were turned, and that obviously speaks to the wider misogyny in general to the way straight men treat women who enjoy sex. But no one in this day and age should be getting criticised for how many sexual partners they have. Literally, who cares? Are we in 2024 or 1994? Grow up, I beg. Molly claimed in last night’s episode that she was annoyed because he’d also been ringing her up and assumingly trying to talk things through – but that’s a different issue altogether.

I think what all this hoo-ha has really made me realise is how much of a bubble I live in when it comes to attitudes towards sex. But honestly, it needs to change. We’ve got bigger issues to be pissed off about than how many people someone from the telly has been shagging. He’s a good looking man with minor celeb status: If you’re outraged he’s shagged about a woman a week for the past six months, I suggest you get out more.

For all the latest Love Island All Stars news and gossip Callum and the rest from the villa, and for the best memes and quizzes, like The Holy Church of Love Island on Facebook.  

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