It needs to be said: The Love Island boys this year are just straight-up toxic

This is probably the worst cast of male Islanders ever

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Every single year on Love Island there’s your absolute dream man in there pretty much right from the start – think Tommy Fury, Nathan Massey, Finn Tapp. But this series? The boys in the villa right now feel like every single toxic trait and red flag, from all the worst dates you’ve ever been on rolled into one. The Love Island 2021 boys just feel downright toxic.

Not one of the boys at the moment seems like an actually nice, decent person whom you’d want to hang out and be mates with – let alone one you’d want to couple up with or date. They’ve been rude and acted in ways to disrespect and hurt the girls they’re with, and they’re not being properly honest about how they really feel. Toby’s obsessed with tests, Liam’s all-but forgotten Millie in Casa Amor, Danny showed red flag after red flag, and Aaron repeatedly said he doesn’t like “firey” women.

Here’s all the ways the Love Island 2021 boys have just acted straight-up toxic:

They use ‘being tested’ as an excuse for being dicks

Okay so tell me one thing: Why do the Love Island boys need to be “tested” all the time? Why are they so obsessed with pushing the limits of their relationships? It’s nothing but weird and, frankly, unnecessary.

When Abi came into the villa, Toby said Chloe just wanted to not have any tests – as if that’s a bad thing? As one Twitter user put it, why are the boys acting like you need to get with someone else at the start of a relationship, just to prove you actually like the one you’re with?

In *that* chaotic recoupling speech where he chose Chloe after Toby dumped her for Abi, Hugo said all the stuff with the tests is “complete bullshit” and said Chloe deserves someone who’s honest and communicates. This is probably the only time any of us will agree with Mr Hammond, but he got to the crux of it: You can’t just treat people badly and act however you want without communicating about it, and then say “it was a test” as if that excuses it.

And now all the boys are acting like Casa Amor is one big test, saying snogging all these other random girls is a way for them to see if they really like the girls they’re already coupled up with, and it’s just not fair. Which brings us on to:

They’ve forgotten about the girls after being gone for literally one day

When they arrived in Casa Amor, Jake said that on lad’s holidays you would always do bits with girls if you weren’t in a full-on relationship, and started encouraging the other boys to crack on with the Casa girls.

Liam originally said he was happy with Millie and wasn’t looking for anything. But whilst Jake and Teddy immediately decided to sleep outside on the first night, Liam started cracking on with new girl Lillie.

He chose to sleep in a bed with her on the very first night, and the two told their fellow Islanders they’d woken up cuddling. Meanwhile every single girl in the main Villa slept outside or in the living room, away from the boys in the bedroom. Millie had even given him her favourite necklace which she wears every day, to remind him of her while they were separated by Casa Amor.

Every single boy in Casa Amor kissed at least one the new girls on the first night, when they chose to play a raunchy game of Truth or Dare whilst the Villa girls opted for a rather PG Never Have I Ever. It was heartbreaking and uncomfortable to watch how loyal the girls were staying to the boys, whilst their men were merrily snogging girls left, right and centre.

And then came the Villa vs Casa Amor challenge, which saw them all snogging one another. When Liberty had to kiss someone, she did it with her face screwed up, clearly only doing it for the challenge and even apologising to the boy and saying she just wasn’t in to it. But when Jake (her literal boyfriend) had to kiss girls, he didn’t even hesitate before giving them huge, proper kisses.

Yes it was only a challenge and it might be far to call it “cheating” but it still felt grim to watch him seemingly be so happy to kiss all these other girls whilst his actual girlfriend is waiting for him in a villa just down the road.

Danny got angry because Lucinda didn’t immediately fall in love with him

Let’s get one thing straight: Danny was literally accused of racism after an old Instagram comment of him allegedly saying the n-word surfaced. The comment has now been deleted, and ITV has shared a comment from Danny’s dad who said his son “does not have a racist bone in his body” and apologised, saying although the comment “was not done maliciously, it was a mistake”.

There were calls from fans, demanding Danny be removed from the villa in light of this.

But not only this, Danny showed red flag after red flag in his short time on Love Island. He fancied Lucinda but she wasn’t sure as was interested in Aaron too. Danny got incredibly possessive, even going so far as to tell Lucinda he was going to have an argument with Aaron over her. He’d barely been in the villa for an episode at this point.

Then in a challenge Islanders had to choose their fellow contestants to snog, marry or pie, Danny chose to throw a cream pie in Lucinda’s face rather than kissing her – the girl he fancies and is literally coupled up with.

love island 2021 boys toxic

Danny went out of his way to humiliate her in front of everyone – he didn’t have to snog or marry her, but he could have pied anyone.

Then after all that, Lucinda decided she didn’t like Danny (I wonder why?) and went to have a chat with him. He said she was like a Lamborghini, which he said is his favourite car. This comment is honestly just grim and afterwards Lucinda seemed very confused by it. You really cannot objectify someone any more than comparing them to an actual object, let alone one you’ve repeatedly said would be your dream to own.

Danny also said Lucinda should have been nicer to him because he makes her coffees in the mornings, which again is possessive and incredibly entitled.

They’ve acted rude, disrespectful and downright hurtful

The boys have been properly rude, and the way they’re acting just makes it seem like they’re not actually very nice people.

In an early episode the Islanders were doing dares, and Brad was told to kiss the person he fancied the most – and the one he fancied the least. For the latter he kissed Faye, who he’d previously been coupled up with, and people were shocked.

Other girls questioned why he didn’t just choose to kiss someone he’s clearly just mates and nothing more with. He could have done this incredibly easily, rather than choosing the one girl who he knew it would hurt the most. Afterwards he did apologise to Faye for this, but it was still incredibly disrespectful and the damage was already done.

But it’s not just Faye who Brad’s acted hurtful towards – he laid it on thick with pretty much every single new girl who came in and told her she’s his exact type. He jumped from Faye to Chloe to Rachel to Lucinda, and has then ditched each one despite telling her she’s his type and exactly what he’s looking for.

Aaron took this a step further. Once he decided he no longer liked Sharon, he spent pretty much his whole date we saw with Lucinda bad-mouthing Sharon with her. He’s completely entitled to feel a certain way about someone, but to not even bring it up with Sharon first and then just shit all over her with the new girl he fancies? Absolutely not on.

The boys aren’t being honest with their feelings

They’re an official couple now, but in the first few weeks of Love Island Jake has said multiple times he don’t fancy Liberty or “want to rip her clothes off”. Yet he continued to lie in bed with her every night, kissing and acting like they’re together. Toby was acting in a similar way with Kaz too.

Obviously, it’s fine if you don’t like someone – no one’s obliged to date someone they don’t fancy. But you can’t just straight-up pretend you like someone when you know you don’t.

It felt like they weren’t being honest so the girls stayed loyal, but as soon as a girl they prefered came in they’d just ditch them for her straight away. We literally saw this play out with Toby leaving Kaz for Chloe. He needed to be honest with Kaz about the way he felt, because it was like he was just leading her on and that’s not fair.

They seem to just want 1950s housewives with no hair, opinions or choices

In a task, Islanders were asked for their biggest turn-offs – and Aaron said hairy arms. I’ll repeat that: Hairy. Arms. You know, completely natural body hair, on a human body part. Hair that, I must stress, every single person on this earth, including presumably Aaron himself, possesses.

love island 2021 boys toxic

83 per cent of people think Love Island isn’t diverse enough, with one viewer telling The Tab it’s “painfully unrepresentative of different female body types”, but this feels like an all-time low of contestants setting ridiculous body standards for women.

After the same challenge, Faye and Sharon got upset with Hugo over some comments he’d made. They were very emotional and possibly overreacted, but it led to Aaron telling the boys he thought the girls were causing a scene. He said this was why he doesn’t “deal with firey girls”.

love island 2021 boys toxic

Okay so are we not allowed our own opinions now? Faye and Sharon may not have dealt with it in the best way, but Aaron acted like they weren’t allowed to speak out about something they were clearly very upset by – and he didn’t even check on them to see if they were okay. If something genuinely hurt them, they should be able to express that, not be attacked for simply having an opinion that Aaron disagrees with.

On a date that same week, Sharon told Aaron she wasn’t sure if she wanted to have kids, and doesn’t want to have them with a partner who doesn’t do anything around the house. This is an entirely reasonable thing to say, and who would want to have kids with someone who actively never helps you and expects you to just do everything?

Aaron told the boys he thought she was “scared of the idea of a guy wanting to be the main breadwinner and her being the housewife”. Then last night he ended things with her, and said a big factor in it was the fact Sharon didn’t want children.

He literally broke things off with Sharon because she wants to be successful and not have kids – she’s being punished for choosing her career. She told him she’d have liked to at least have a conversation with him about it, rather than him assuming it wouldn’t work, but he still ended things with her regardless.

Sharon’s a law graduate and a civil servant, and it’s entirely understandable that any woman might want to prioritise their career – but it’s also entirely possible for any woman to have both a career and a family, something Aaron doesn’t seem to have grasped.

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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