Women’s Aid issue statement in light of the Love Island misogyny

Charity organisation Women’s Aid have issued a statement in light of some jarring misogynistic and controlling behaviour seen on ITV’s hit reality show, Love Island.

The boys on this year’s series of Love Island haven’t exactly been saints as their verbal treatment of their female co-stars has been raising eyebrows. Many viewers have taken to social media to call out this behaviour.

“At Women’s Aid we are being tagged into a stream of Twitter posts, with viewers of Love Island highlighting the misogyny and controlling behaviour being shown on screen,” Teresa Parker, head of communications and media relations at Women’s Aid, said in a statement published by Metro.co.uk.

“This is clearly more than talking about any individual contestants, and a programme based around the formation of romantic relationships must have guidelines on what behaviour is acceptable and unacceptable in those relationships.”

“We are talking to ITV, and they have shared with us information on their inclusion training, but what appears to be missing is specific information on abusive relationships and an understanding of controlling behaviour in relationships.”

In their statement, Women’s Aid also confirm that they are in talks with the broadcaster regarding their duty of care towards contestants. 

“Women’s Aid has offered to help, and we want to assure people tagging us into posts that we are in conversation with ITV and the Love Island producers about what we can do moving forward to help address this,’ Miss Parker added.

“We have a new campaign called Come Together to End Domestic Abuse about the role everyone has to play in ending abuse. ITV can play an important role here, by dealing with something that is clearly an ongoing issue for the show, and at Women’s Aid we want to help where we can.”

“Thank you to viewers who are raising concerns with us, and be assured that we are listening and speaking to the team at Love Island about the issues raised,” she concluded.

Responding to this statement, ITV said, “We cannot stress highly enough how seriously we treat the emotional well-being of all of our Islanders. Welfare is always our greatest concern, and we have dedicated welfare producers and psychological support on hand at all times, who monitor and regularly speak to all of the Islanders in private and off camera.”

“Ahead of this series, contributors on the show were offered video training and guidance covering inclusive language around disability, sexuality, race and ethnicity, behaviours and microaggressions. We are always looking at how we expand and evolve on this training to ensure that all of our Islanders feel they are part of a safe and inclusive environment,” the ITV statement read.

If you’re been affected by the content in this article, then please reach out to domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid on their 24-hour national freephone helpline: 1800 341 900.