Love Island Shouldn’t Have to Tell Fans to Cut the Misogyny

Season 7 of Love Island US premiered in early June. This season comes after the extremely successful Season 6, which had viewership breaking records and produced fan favorites like Leah Kateb and winners of the season, Serena Page and Kordell Beckham. This new season’s viewership showed a clear increase at 1.2B minutes viewed across nine available episodes from June 6-12, per Luminate’s streaming data. This is a 244% increase from the week prior, when the first few episodes drew about 335M minutes viewed. 

With this viewership increase comes many varying opinions on the show and its islanders. Even prior to the first episode’s release date, viewers were quick to deep dive into the lives of the cast and cast predictions and opinions. 

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As of June 24, there are 18 episodes out –  the show releases episodes “every day except for hump day.” Those on the show have no access to life outside of the Fiji villa where they live for the duration of the show, and apparently don’t even have access to clocks. But while this island vacation seems like paradise, there have been instances of prior cast members citing poor treatment on the show, including bad experiences with production. For example, Season 6 contestant Leah Kateb described a moment where the producers instructed her and fellow islander Olivia (Liv) Walker to wait to cry until cameras were filming. 

In fact, the show has a long history of being problematic on and off screen. In the show's original UK version, the 2022 season received over 7,000 complaints to Ofcom over the course of the summer viewing, with most of the complaints stemming from the misogynistic behaviour by the male contestants. Further, previous contestant of Love Island UK, Dami Hope, publicly noted how Black islanders have to “work twice as hard” to secure a partner as their white counterparts. It's clear to viewers that this season – Love Island USA Season 7 – is not an exception to the show’s usual misogyny and racism. 

One of the biggest plot lines of the season stems from the relationship between original islanders Huda Mustafa and Jeremiah Brown. The two coupled up on the first episode of the series and were together for a number of episodes. But, despite thinking that they had a solid connection, the audience disagreed and online hate towards Huda grew rapidly. 

Many individuals online were quick to pass judgement on the way that Huda acted in the villa, starting off with her hesitancy to tell Jeremiah that she was a mother. Those on social media were quick to label Huda as manipulative. Then, viewers took issue with how Huda has shown internalized misogynistic behavior. Huda developed a track record for calling female bombshells that gave Jeremiah attention “b—-hes”, starting with Amaya Espinal in the first week and then contestant Iris Kendall later on. And while Huda’s behavior was problematic, Love Island audiences used it as an excuse to insult and attack her online, while ignoring the toxic behavior of many of the men in the villa. 

The hate regarding many of the female islanders was so prevalent that host Ariana Madix spoke on it during an episode of Love Island: Aftersun. Ariana spoke directly to fans about online posts about the cast, stating:

“Don’t be contacting people’s families, don’t be doxxing people, don’t be going on islander’s pages and saying rude things. You still have time to delete all that, because the Islanders don’t have their phones because this is an amazing fun and beautiful show and we should be thanking each of these islanders every day for giving us themselves, so be nice. Be nice or I’ll come find you.”

Ariana isn’t the only one that is sticking up for the islanders. Former cast member Daniela Ortiz-Rivera defended Huda Mustafa specifically. In a Tiktok, Ortiz-Rivera states that "I just want y'all to understand that the more I watch her, I feel like she's not as mentally there, you know what I mean? She probably has been crashing out in her brain the whole time being in there."

She then calls for the viewers to have empathy for Mustafa saying, "I want everyone to be f-ing aware of that s--t and just give the girls some f-ing grace. Y'all jump in rooting for this girl and her downfall. It's just crazy. Just love each other and give each other kisses, you know? Lighthearted jokes and everything."

Plenty of social media influencers are calling out their fellow users. “Love Island is a perfect case study on how women even when they are somewhat in the victim role or victim, will still be villainized” said Tiktok user Meccavellii. In the video, she continues to explain how “Twitter,” now known as X, is the hub for this misogyny. 

User Meccavellii further discusses the dynamic between islanders Ace Greene and Amaya Espinal as well. In an on-screen feud, the two cast members fought about relationship boundaries. Immediately after the two coupled up in Episode 6, the two sat down together to talk. Islander Ace admitted that he still wanted to "stay open and explore" his options in the villa, as well as expressing that he was more of a “slow-burner” in relationships and was not comfortable with physical affection or pet names. Amaya reacted to these ground rules by saying Ace was giving “player vibes.”

One side of viewers at home believes that Ace was just setting boundaries, while the other side criticizes Ace for imposing rules on Amaya before they began their relationship, being unkind in a moment that was supposed to be exciting for them. 

A Love Island fan on X noted, “ I don’t know how yall find the way Ace acts towards Amaya fun… he’s so unnecessarily mean it’s really blowing me. Like he gets off on humiliating her,” a couple days after their coupling aired. 

While another user stated “Ace is a villain for a lot of reasons but telling Amaya his boundaries isn’t one of them.” 

The relationship between Ace and Amaya is similar to Jeremiah and Huda. In both, male islanders behave in a way that baits their partners, but the internet focuses on bashing the women instead of acknowledging the toxic behavior coming from the men. 

Further, we can see how the men this season differ from the men last season, particularly in their judgement of other couples' relationships.  The men judge their male counterparts for building connections and prioritizing the women, with an occasional exception when Ace – sometimes called the “ringleader” of the men by online fans –  excuses such a relationship. 

As the season progresses, fans have just seen the conclusion of one of the most anticipated parts of the show: Casa Amor. In Casa Amor, the couple's loyalties are truly tested, with a group of new men and women introduced to the islanders. 

When the members of Casa Amor were revealed, the internet began to criticize every physical aspect of the new islanders imaginable, particularly commenting on the female contestants. The islander who got the worst treatment was Savanna "Vanna" Einerson. Online criticism notably centered around Vanna’s appearance, rather than her time on the show. 

The official Love Island USA X account posted a statement on June 24 regarding the treatment of the islanders online stating, “We appreciate the fans, the passion for the series, and the amazing group of islanders who are sharing their summer with us. Please just remember they’re real people - so let’s be kind and spread the love!”  

Some of the criticism that individuals on the show are getting for political or social beliefs may be fair. But, these takes are completely overshadowed by the hate trains for a majority of the women in the show. The rampant misogyny that the audience holds is disturbing for what should be a light-hearted reality show, and will affect the lives of the women in the villa once they return back to normal society. Of course, this misogyny exists and is perpetuated within the villa as well, as female contestants worry about their image and male contestants treat them poorly. 

Gen-Z is clearly recognizing the problematic undertones of the series, but how can the culture around such a popular show be changed? The easiest way is to not feed into misogyny on social media. Viewers should continue to address the inappropriate behaviors exhibited, poor casting choices, and inappropriate online behavior, and even call in to Love Island production to demand action when necessary. 

The audience needs to recognize the impact of their posts, and in the words of Ariana Madix: “there is still time to delete” your posts.