Love Island 2022: After this outrage, it’s time to break up with Love Island for good
The IndependentThe best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. But if you thought this year’s show would have laid that all to rest, you’d be wrong: we’ve already seen reports of creepy age gaps, a plastic perfect cast and accusations of “misogynistic and controlling behaviour” – with more than 3,600 complaints in the last week alone and a warning from domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid. Welcome to Love Island 2022, as if this year – which has been beset with wider issues of sleaze, sexism and harassment in British institutions like Westminster – hasn’t pushed feminism and the progression of women’s equality back far enough. For me, watching Love Island has become synonymous with watching control tactics and possibly even emotional abuse, which will inevitably influence and affect young people’s understanding of what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in real-life relationships. If Love Island isn’t cancelled altogether, then it needs strict guidelines on acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, like Women’s Aid have asked for.