Casa Amor is designed to only manipulate the girls. It’s cruel and needs to stop

Watching Casa Amor play out, we all know what’s about to happen. Shaughna is going to be waiting in the main villa, anxiously hoping Callum has stayed faithful. She’s then going to be humiliated on national television when he walks back in with Molly. Being rejected by the person you’re with is most people’s biggest fear; now imagine having to live with them both in a tiny villa, and dealing with the heartbreak in front of millions of people. As you would expect, a lot of people are really worried about how this is going to affect Shaughna’s mental health.

Don’t get me wrong, Casa Amor is entertaining – it’s probably one of the most exciting TV moments of the decade. I, along over four million other people, will be watching with my jaw open when it airs this week. But can we just step back for a minute and ask why it’s always set up in the boys’ favour? And, more importantly, why so much of Casa Amor is manipulated to completely fuck with the girls?

Ofcom received over 2,500 complaints about how Dani Dyer was emotionally manipulated in season four because of Casa Amor. The same season Georgia Steel, who put faith in Josh to come back alone, had to stand by herself while he walked in holding hands with a new girl. Similarly, last year Amber Gill, who was left oblivious to what was happening between Michael and Joanna, had to walk in to see she had been replaced. They were all driven to tears and put through days of anxious suffering – for our enjoyment.

Casa Amor is a cruel tool set up so producers can torment the girls, but never the boys, and it just doesn’t feel fair. If you need any more evidence that it’s completely rigged to make the girls emotionally vulnerable, look no further:

The producers choose to send the boys away – but not the girls

Every year, bar last year, the boys in the Love Island villa are always sent to Casa Amor, whereas the girls have to stay.

Sending the guys away to a new place and keeping the girls in the villa sets up an environment that encourages the guys to sway and the girls to stay loyal.

Nothing’s really changed for the girls – they’re in the same place, surrounded by reminders of the bed they share with their couple, the mug he makes her coffee in. Home comforts that would make you miss your man. However, the guys are encouraged to have a “lads on tour” mentality. Being in a completely new villa with no way to contact their partner makes it so much easier to partially forget about them and fall for someone new.

Also, it’s just unfair – why do the boys always get the fun adventure?

Even the way Casa Amor is announced is used to worry the girls

From the off-set, Casa Amor is meant to make the girls paranoid. Either the boys are asked to sneak out of the villa behind the girls’ backs or they receive a text with #WhatGoesOnTourStaysOnTour and #IfYouKnowYouKnow. Before the boys get to the new villa, the girls get the impression the trip is already full of secrets and betrayal, and the boys think that’s okay.

The girls they send in are so much better than the boys

Not that it’s all about looks but the girls they send in to the boys are literally there to turn heads. Some of the girls in Casa Amor this year are the most attractive female islanders they’ve had in the history of the show. This is obviously a tactic.

Every year the guys sent in are average looking and don’t offer much to the group. The girls are rarely swayed and that’s not because girls don’t have it in them because we 100 per cent do.

Put the two groups together and look at them superficially, it’s clear where the producers put their efforts and why. And it works – the majority of the guys slept with a new girl on the first Casa Amor night, except Finn who surprised us so much with his loyalty that we applauded him.

They orchestrate the games to fuck with the strongest couples

To “break the ice” in the two new villas, they play the same games which is basically getting them to kiss each other. Looking at how the game is set up, it’s clear malicious tactics are being used.

This year they asked the tallest boy to kiss the girl he fancies. They knew Shaughna will get the same text, know it’s Callum that’s had to kiss someone else and get upset.

The next challenge asked the youngest boy to suck one of the girls’ toes. This was perfectly created for Finn, who’s the youngest in the group and who admitted to having a foot fetish. This game is purely there to further tease the girls with what could be happening behind their backs.

They always send the footage of the guys cheating to the girls, never the other way round

The pictures and videos of the boys kissing, spooning and getting close to the new Casa Amor girls are only ever sent to the girls. It’s never the other way round, even when some of the girls in couples have been with new guys. There’s a clear intention to upset the girls rather than the guys. The entertainment factor of Casa Amor just becomes us watching women breakdown over men being unfaithful.

Innocent situations are manipulated to upset the girls

In season four’s episode, they sent a video to the girls of Jack Fincham reacting to when he saw a girl he used to date enter Casa Amor. Naturally, Dani gets really upset. Anyone would assume the worst if they knew their new flame was in a villa with his old flame. What they chose not to send Dani was all the moments Jack was talking about missing her.

This placed Dani in a really difficult position. She had to put so much trust in Jack and believe this video meant nothing. She then had to take the risk that if she doesn’t find someone new she could be walking back into the villa alone and get dumped. That’s so much to take on – all created out of a two second innocent clip that was used to create entertainment.

The footage is always edited in the boys’ favour

Okay so aside from the fact they set Casa Amor up to mess with the girls on the inside, they also edit the footage to make it look like the they’re overreacting.

They cut clips of Shaughna talking about missing Callum next to Callum talking about how fit Molly is. They constantly include moments where Shaughna and Paige talk about missing the boys, and never of the guys saying the same.

They basically present a bunch of girls pining over their man, while the guys are off without a worry. They make entertainment out of men being unfaithful. They present a woman anxiously worrying about being cheated on as something to laugh at.

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