For me and many others across the UK, the end of June means one thing. Love Island time! Every year I find myself glued to the television, engulfed in the drama that Love Island has to offer. After waiting almost two years, I was so ready for this season to commence. However, the television series has one fundamental flaw that concerns me every year: its lack of inclusivity for plus-size contestants.
Every year our screens are greeted by men and women who all extremely toned with abs gleaming in the sun, making me feel ashamed of the chocolate bar that I had eaten earlier in the day. For Love Island, and many other series’ like it, it sets unrealistic body images to its viewers that can have a negative impact on mental health and body image.
I just want to clarify that I am in no way body-shaming the contestants on Love Island, all of them look incredible. But it is so frustrating as a plus-size woman to not see representation of your own body when watching television shows.
Series 5 of Love Island introduced us to the first and only “plus-size” contestant of Love Island, Anna Vakili. However, when she was introduced, I was astounded by the extreme arrogance that Love Island had shown. Despite Anna being taller and curvier than previous contestants, she still had a tiny waistline and killer abs to go with it, a far cry from being considered plus size.
This brings me to ask the question as to why plus size contestants aren’t included on the show?
When the average dress size for women in the UK is a size 16, why when watching dating shows and television in general, are we constantly met with a fatphobic narrative that tells us only the slimmer girls can succeed?
And it is not just television shows that present this narrative. Underwear brands have come into criticism for their lack of plus-size representation. But when companies are questioned about why this is the case, they simply state a lack of audience interest.
Over the past few years body-positive movements have told us plus size is beautiful. Influencers like Ashley Graham and Iskra Lawrence have skyrocketed in popularity, but yet we are still overwhelmingly presented with size 8 models.
With television series’ like Love Island, excluding plus size contestants is sending an extremely harmful and incorrect message to its audience. A message that tells us that in order to succeed, or to find a partner, that we need to change ourselves, we need to be slimmer, we need to be prettier, we need to be more desirable. Aside from the fact that that is an extremely shallow way of viewing the world, just based on looks and attraction, it is also extremely incorrect.
By increasing representation of plus-size contestants, it would finally challenge this false and damaging narrative.
As a teenager, I was faced by programmes and films where the “fat girl” was cast aside or bullied. I was told that I would never be desirable due to my weight. I would see magazines and articles slate women for putting on a few extra pounds; that has only become worse since the introduction of social media. If I had seen positive reactions to plus-size people, then maybe I would not have encountered some of the same body image issues that I had.
In a society that is dominated by social media, it has become commonplace to compare yourself to the latest influencer, whose feed has been airbrushed and manipulated to show their best angles and the best sides of their life. Love Island in some ways has done the same. Many of the contestants admitted to going on extreme diets, getting surgery, and making an active effort to change their appearance to seem more desirable on the show. An unrealistic presentation of lifestyle and body image being shoved into the spotlight onto impressionable audiences.
It should be the responsibility of television production companies and the media to challenge issues relating to body image. Instead of neglecting to include plus-size people within the entertainment industry, or criticising them when they do, they need to show that all bodies are beautiful. Only until these issues are addressed will we begin to see real change within society.
So hopefully when I turn on Love Island for its next series, I will be greeted by a bunch of singles who are more reflective of my body. Those who celebrate having a bit of cellulite, or a stomach roll or two, and are confident within their body nevertheless. Those are the people who I would welcome to my screen.
