Last night’s episode of Love Island was a mess and the Islanders need to be called out

This year’s Love Island has arguably been the most confusing season so far. With no couples seeming mutually smitten with one another at this stage (I don’t trust Toby Aromolaran or Jake Cornish), and hatred rather than love appearing to be in the air between the contestants in this year’s villa, everything seems to be going wrong. Last night’s episode saw this nightmare come into full fruition.

From body-shaming to comparing the criticism of plastic surgery to racism, the contestants really outdid themselves in making last night’s episode a problematic mess to say the least.

Here’s a list of everything that went wrong.

Sharon and Faye’s emotional meltdown towards Hugo’s ‘fake’ comments

While this may be a controversial point to begin with, please hear me out. In the couples’ challenge, Hugo Hammond did overly emphasise his distaste for fakeness in terms of looks and attraction in the villa, but Sharon Gaffka and Faye Winter’s emotional outburst blew his comments completely out of proportion.

When confronting Hugo, Sharon literally stated that she “wouldn’t say that she wouldn’t date someone because of their race,” comparing her “decision” to get plastic surgery to people excluding certain races from their dating preferences.

The irony is hilarious. Love Island is plagued with issues ranging from the stark lack of diversity to colourism, and yet Sharon and Faye attempted to create a scandal out of an Islander not liking plastic surgery.

Sharon and Faye also made Hugo cry in the process, as they made so many catty comments towards him and patronised him as opposed to politely educating him on why they were upset.

Viewers also speculated that Faye took her anger out on Hugo as she was jealous of the fact that all the boys in the villa fancied Chloe Burrows instead of her. Take from that what you wish.

The impression seems to be that it’s perfectly reasonable for Jake to state that his type is “petite blondes”, and for Kaz Kamwi to be one of the contestants picked last at the coupling ceremony, but for an Islander to criticise plastic surgery…it’s BLASPHEMY!

Aaron claiming that his biggest turn off was hairy arms

So, not liking plastic surgery crossed the line, but Aaron Francis expressing disgust at something that yet again, women can’t control, is seemingly perfectly fine?

Hair on women’s bodies is nothing but natural. Aaron’s “preference” of women’s arms conforms to a feminine ideal that is damaging and outdated. The Tab recently reported on how Love Island severely lacks diversity of body types, in particular the standards it sets for women, and Aaron’s ridiculous comment only furthers this.

Again, Love Island prides euro-centric beauty standards and shames women of colour for their natural features. Threads were made on Twitter documenting WOC’s experiences with body-hair and the insecurities that have emerged from it, often following us throughout our lives. The tweets are truly heartbreaking to read, especially if you can relate to the comments made.

Us hairy-armed women don’t want a man like Aaron anyway.

Brad ditching any interest he had in Rachel so early on

Poor Rachel Finni. She didn’t really have much choice between Brad McClelland and Chuggs Wallis when she entered the villa, but Brad’s personality initially seemed to change completely upon her arrival.

He blabbed on about how his type was “dark women with dark features” and how he genuinely felt like he clicked with Rachel, but as soon as Rachel chose him and his spot on the show was secured, Brad’s attitude towards her changed completely. With the arrival of two new *blonde* bombshells, Brad stated that “he liked blondes now” indicating that getting to know Rachel further isn’t one of his current priorities in the villa.

It makes you question whether dark-skinned women really are his type, or whether that has been a lie this whole time that perhaps secured his place in the villa. Long story short, he’s a player and has a crap track record with women on the show right now – don’t support him!

Love Island having no diversity with the bombshells YET AGAIN!

There are currently eight women in the villa, and FIVE of them are blonde! Did the show really need two more blonde bombshells? When they introduced Rachel a few days ago? I really thought that Love Island was changing for the better – how stupid of me.

Diversity is something that Love Island is criticised on repeatedly, and whilst the term is thrown around a lot, adding two more blonde women to the villa when the cast is already very white, just wasn’t necessary. Rachel’s arrival feels like tokenism from Love Island once again!

Does Love Island actually cast people that are into black women? Do the producers think we enjoy watching black women getting rejected every season in favour of blonde girls? The same issues are happening again and again. This season is just all over the place.

This season is a mess. Period.

We’ve never seen a Love Island season quite as messy as this one. And we’re only in the first few weeks. My opinions of both the male and female contestants fluctuate every episode, and admittedly, I am intrigued to see whether any of the current couples actually stay together until Casa Amor.

If tonight’s episode is anywhere near as problematic as last night’s, I honestly fear for the contestants caught up in the thick of it.

Disclaimer: Everything stated in this article is my opinion, and therefore please watch the show yourself before drawing conclusions about the Islanders. Please do not go on social media and send hateful messages towards any of the Islanders as they are normal people who make mistakes like the rest of us. Respect the difference between criticism and hate speech.

Related articles recommended by this writer:

• Shannon Singh’s brief appearance on Love Island felt like an act of tokenism

• The racism in Love Island’s first coupling ceremony has reared its ugly head again

• Introducing Kaz Kamwi, the influencer with over 70k followers joining Love Island 2021