A Feminist watches Love Island: episode 1 - meet the contestants and judge them on their appearance

And we are off!
The “summer of Love” has begun with the first episode of Love Island, there have been some surprises and some not. First let’s look at the contestants:
Lucie: “surfer Barbie” 
Is this her job or her hobby? My internet searches say she is also a model so who knows? She is clearly the contestant set up to be the “hot” one. Only on Love Island could the feminine beauty ideal be so narrow that amongst all these gorgeous women one is the “hot one”. It is rather interesting that they are labelling her as a “Barbie:” a doll widely criticised for damaging children’s body image with it’s unrealistic physical proportions.
Callum: “romantic engineer”
Apparently he is “old-fashioned” and “would be better placed in the 1920s”, imagine having so much privilege you miss a time where fascism was rising across Europe and human rights were abysmal. He then mansplained Cardiff to Amber, we all know where this going… *cough* *benevolent sexism.*
Sherif: “fiery chef”
No girls stepped forward for Sherif, anyone else having flashbacks to Marcel last year? The three black, mixed race and Middle Eastern contestants were picked last, again.
Love Island clearly tried to dodge the criticism of racism this year by starting the show with the majority of the women not being white.
Look at us, we love diversity! As long as the men and women still fit within a narrow definition of attractiveness that is.
Of course they should have known that asking men to pick women and women to pick men based on looks alone will always reveal the ugly truth about Eurocentric standards of beauty.
Why does everyone keep repeating that Amy has never had a boyfriend? She doesn’t understand this whole dating thing, she needs someone to teach her! I hope for her sake she isn’t as naïve as she seems.
We need at least one air hostess of course, because it is the sexist job a woman can have apparently.  Anyone know why?
Amber: “Geordie lass”
She is getting a lot of stick for saying “28 is old” but to be fair who doesn’t feel that way at 21? I am 27 and I feel too old to go on Love Island. In the world of unrealistic beauty expectations and have the luxury of spending all summer in a Spanish villa, of course 28 is considered old.
Michael: “sexy firefighter”
They both seem not terrible so far, mostly because they didn't mention cheating in the first 5 minutes (the bar is low). 
I liked the “we both like science” moment with Michael and Yewande. It is not the worst thing to bond over.
Anna: “brainiac beauty”
I am impressed how quickly she mentioned she was Middle Eastern, just in case anyone was wondering and yes it is laughable that she is considered plus size. I hope no vunerable young women watching are falling for that bullshit.
She was also the only girl who came in wearing skirt (though it was made of mesh) flashback to Tyne-Lexy.
Her treatment as someone with slightly larger hips is worth keeping an eye on.
Yewande: “glam scientist”
A woman in STEM! Who went to university at 16! Who has dark skin! Who was picked last! I am praying for her.
Anton: “scottish hunk”
My arsehole alert went crazy as the red flags went flying with this guy. Why does he think it is a surprise he is Scottish? Does he seriously think being a cheater is a medical condition? It has now come out that he has a photo of him in black face on his Facebook page, 
Pull him out right now.
You want to be more diverse Love Island? Ditch the racist.
There is also Tommy and Curtis
We learn more about everyone next episode, I am looking forward to diving further into any issues of beauty standards, sexism, consent, relationships, attitudes around sex, etc. that may arise!
Are we excited?

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