The weather may have been mid at best here in the UK, but for a brand new cohort of sexy singles, the long hot summer is about to start.
Yep, Love Island is returning for an eleventh (yes, really, eleventh) season on ITV2, where 12 contestants head to the now legendary Mallorca villa looking for love, lust or lucrative sponcon deals.
Having first aired in 2015, the earlier iterations of Love Island were, frankly, wild (remember when Zara Holland lost her Miss Great Britain crown after performing a sexual act in season two? Or when Terry Walsh and Emma Woodham had sex on top of the covers in front of all the other Islanders?) but as the show has grown in popularity, so has the awareness that literally millions of people at home will be watching. As a result, contestants are coy, twists have become tired and ratings have started to decline for this once reality TV goliath.
So, for Love Island’s eleventh outing, the villa has had a lil spruce with extra beds and more opportunities for Islanders to…get to know each other intimately, with show boss Mike Spencer explaining that sex on the show is actually educational for those watching at home.
“Love Island should demonstrate what a relationship is like and what dating is like,” he said in an interview ahead of the new season launch. “We’ve got an audience of young people so I think it is an education. It’s seriously important for people to watch the show and know people aren’t perfect — none of us are.”
It’s true that Love Island is watched by a primarily younger audience. In 2020, the series was crowned the most watched programme amongst its target audience of between 16 to 34-year-olds. A study by YouGov found as many as 43% of those watching Love Island are under the age of 30.
Love Island is not a show without its flaws (criticism about the overall lack of body diversity, as well as questions about whether contestants receive an appropriate amount of aftercare, are justified), but what the show has always excelled at is showing the often rocky road to true love.
The villa serves as a microcosm of the dating world; yes, tensions may be heightened due to the smaller, pressure-cooker environment, and some of the drama may be manufactured, but a lot of the dilemmas are very real and relatable.
Love Island has never shied away from showing us behaviour that can make us feel uncomfortable or in some cases, horrified (remember smirking Adam Collard in season 3? Luca Bish being accused of ‘bullying’ in season 5? Faye Winter’s explosive row with Teddy Soares in season 7?), and while the show presents the drama in a neutral way, it can elicit genuinely interesting and nuanced discussion on social media. While some of the actions we see on the show can be ugly, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be exposed to them. A 2021 study by the World Health Organisation revealed that almost a quarter of teenagers aged 15-19 have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime, with women disproportionately at risk. We need to be able to recognise those problematic behaviours; Love Island serves as a mirror that can be used to look at our own romantic relationships, and gives us a way to take stock if we recognise the negative implications of certain behaviours on screen.
And Love Island shows the often explosive aftermath following said uncomfortable situations too. From 2019’s Maura Higgins standing up for herself after Tom Walker made crude remarks about her being “all mouth”, to Liberty Poole expressing that she deserved more than the offhand treatment from Jake Cornish, and choosing to leave the show altogether, the women on Love Island demonstrate they won’t stand for poor treatment – and therefore, neither should those watching at home.
Is a reality TV show necessarily the correct format for young people to learn what healthy relationships look like? Arguably not. However, the fact that teens are turning to Love Island to learn about relationships merely points towards the dismal state of sex education in the UK. While relationships and sex education was made mandatory in primary and secondary schools in 2020, a survey conducted by the Sex Education Forum found that teenagers were unhappy with the quality of teaching they’re receiving on the subject. The survey found 28% of teens didn’t believe they were taught about how to recognise a healthy relationship, while 46% say they weren’t taught anything about sexual pleasure. The Sex Education Forum also found a patchwork level of quality in how sex education is delivered, with a lack of consistency in teaching varying between schools and teachers.
Things are not set to improve should the Conservative Party remain in power following the general election. Draft guidance drawn up by Education Secretary Gillian Keegan looks to ban sex education for under-nines, while explicit discussion of sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault will not be taught before Year 9 in secondary school (this is despite one in 10 nine-year-olds having already been exposed to pornographic material). However, teaching unions have criticised the suggestions, with some saying that the government is playing a game of political football with young people’s sexual wellbeing – to the point that some believe the new laws echo the draconian Section 28 laws, which prevented teachers from being able to discuss sexuality with students. Besides, even the best sex education in the world could never capture the attention or provoke the same level of engagement than one episode of Love Island, which can provide endless water-cooler talk for days after its initial broadcast.
It would be easy to dismiss Love Island as just another trashy reality show made up of twenty-somethings having fun in the sun. But Mike Spencer is right. Whether we like it or not, the show is in its own way providing a public service on what sex and relationships can and should look like – and 11 seasons in, Love Island is still more than ready to teach us a thing or two about romance.
