‘It’s painfully unrepresentative’: 83 per cent think Love Island isn’t diverse enough

Last week, The Tab published a survey asking you whether you think Love Island shows enough body diversity or not. Since then, the new season has started and yet again we have not seen any diverse body types on our screens.

The Tab asked you these three questions:

• Do you think Love Island shows enough body image diversity?

• Do you think Love Island should show more body image diversity?

• Would you be more or less inclined to watch Love Island if its contestants had more diverse body types?

The Tab surveyed almost 6,000 people. Here are the responses broken down by each question:

83 per cent of you agreed Love Island doesn’t show enough body diversity

In a survey of 5,807 people, 83 per cent of you agreed Love Island doesn’t show enough body image diversity. 19-year-old Leeds Uni student, Sophie, told The Tab she believed Love Island producers need to adapt their show for its younger audiences a bit more. Sophie says: “Everyone watches Love Island now, even kids. So they need to make it more diverse so children aren’t constantly seeing unrealistic standards.”

‘It’s currently painfully unrepresentative of different female body types’

The Tab surveyed over 5,843 people and 77 per cent of you said Love Island producers should make more of an effort to cast more diverse Love Islanders with different body types. Edinburgh student Sophie Butcher thinks Love Island producers should cast Islanders who have more diverse body types. Sophie told The Tab: “I think Love Island should be more inclusive in terms of the body types they show because it is currently painfully unrepresentative of different female body types. Putting in the occasional ‘plus size’ girl doesn’t cut it – and the absence of one this year shows they can’t even pretend they care.

“Also, I know I can’t have been the only curvy girl with big boobs to be seriously confused by how on earth all that underboob in the first episode stayed in place.”

Would you be more or less inclined to watch Love Island if its contestants had more diverse body types?

Out of 5,336 responses, 80 per cent of you argued you’d feel more inclined to watch Love Island if the Islanders had more diverse body types. 20-year-old student Miya agrees with the 80 per cent of you, however she fears seeing women who aren’t “conventionally” attractive get rejected by other contestants.

Miya says: “We see women of colour getting rejected every year. I’m not ready for my body type too. I feel like there would have to be diversity in body sizes across the casting rather than only having one person thrown into the cast.”

Love Island 2021 continues on ITV2 at 9pm tonight. For all the latest Love Island news and gossip and for the best memes and quizzes, like The Holy Church of Love Island on Facebook. 

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