Sexism Was an Unwelcome Guest in Love Island Games

The first trailer for Love Island Games held back a key piece of information about the show’s format, but it did tease appearances from some particularly polarizing veteran islanders, including Love Island USA Season 3’s Cely Vazquez and her ex Johnny Middlebrooks, whose on-again off-again relationship stirred up a lot of drama both in and out of the villa. It also hinted at a more action-based competition approach, like MTV’s The Challenge, with host Maya Jama stating that the challenges would “determine everything,” including which couple would win and take home the $100,000 cash prize.

The highly anticipated series, the first ever spin-off of the massive international reality dating show that originated on Britain’s ITV, ran on Peacock through November, and quickly picked up a two-season renewal. As promised, challenges tested the Islanders’ wits and agility to decide who would stay and who would leave during elimination episodes — until it came down to who would face off in the finale, and the show completely flipped the script.

Alliances forged over the season were tested in Episode 16 with the introduction of the Love Island Carnival, a uniquely devised challenge that pressured the couples into essentially voting each other out ahead of the finale. Emotions ran high until the bitter end, when Maya Jama returned to the villa and revealed that one couple was holding a stuffed animal with a golden heart inside that would give them the power to save one of the three vulnerable couples.

Fan-favorite couple (and eventual winners) Justine and Jack ended up with the heart and the power, choosing to save newcomers Zeta and Mitch over long-standing couple Ray and Imani. Ray made it clear he felt betrayed by Justine and Jack and their lack of loyalty, while other Islanders shunned them and Johnny explicitly told Justine that what she’d done was “f*cked up.”

Cely comforted Justine, who was now feeling isolated, while also being honest about how hard it was for her to see her friend Ray go. Her compassionate and balanced response to the situation was unsurprising, as she’d been vulnerable and kind to her fellow Islanders throughout the season. Despite her checkered history, Cely managed to keep things cordial in the villa with her ex Johnny. She even consoled Jess, who cried after Johnny dumped her for new arrival Courtney.

Ray’s and Johnny’s reactions to Ray’s dumping were indicative of a larger problem in the Love Island franchise — the misogynistic undertones of male Islanders’ strange emphasis on loyalty to each other. While the show is centered on finding romantic love, each season finds the male contestants embroiled in bromances that elicit more emotions than their respective relationships with the female contestants. There’s nothing wrong with brotherhood, but Love Island’s specific brand of it reeks of sexism.

Love Island was critiqued in the past for the rampant misogyny in the villa, and viewers have regularly voiced their issues with the franchise’s unchecked sexism. In 2022, one episode of Season 8 in the U.K. prompted over 2,400 viewers to call in complaints to broadcasting regulator Ofcom after the male Islanders taunted and harassed female Islanders during the “Mad Movies” spectacle, a recurring bit on the show.

On Love Island Games, the surprises and sexism weren’t relegated to the carnival, which was a spectacle on the level of “Mad Movies.” The finale saw all of the Islanders who’d been voted off return to vote on the remaining couples, something that had never been done in the franchise before. The change was major because it allowed the inherent sexism of Love Island to play a greater role in deciding the fate of the final couples than the viewers, who have traditionally voted to save their favorite couples in the episodes leading up to the finale, as well as the finale itself, which airs live.

If there was a villain in Love Island Games Season 1, it would be Johnny, who started his time in the villa juggling Liberty and Jess, and went on to feed girls lines while messing around behind their backs, ultimately cycling through four different girls during his stay. But his fellow Islander bros felt differently about how he handled his time on the show. They were proud to show their support for him at voting time. Mike said he “kept it real,” and Ray was tearful as he pronounced, “My pick has to go to the one person I know from the bottom of my heart that was loyal to me,” while walking over to embrace Johnny.

Ray’s celebration of Johnny’s loyalty was especially odd, considering Johnny had stolen his partner, Imani, in the first week of the show. In an interview with After The Island, a podcast hosted by ex-Islanders Elizabeth Weber and Leo Dinicio, Ray even admitted that he had been campaigning for his fellow exiled Islanders to vote for Johnny.

Meanwhile, Cely was accused of being fake by Toby, whom she had been coupled up with until they were both made vulnerable, only to be saved by two new Islanders, Eyal and Georgia, who they’d recoupled with at the same time. The judgment Cely faced for moving on with Eyal showed a double standard for men and women in the villa, as Johnny didn’t receive the same kind of criticism for cycling through girls.

The outpouring of support for Johnny pointed to the “boys’ club” atmosphere that most Love Island villas foster, no matter the country or season. Johnny may have been sneaky with his female partners, but he maintained a kinship with his fellow male contestants that helped him make it to the end.

Still, female contestants aren’t exempt from participating in the misogyny that poisons Love Island. After Toby’s accusation was laid out, ex-Islander Lisa agreed that Cely had been fake with Eyal, and even Georgia, who had voted for Cely and Eyal, stated she’d only voted for them because of her friendship with Eyal and not because she thought their relationship was “real.”

Jess was maybe the only voice of reason amongst the ex-Islanders, and she didn’t hold back on her feelings about her ex-partner Johnny making it to the finale. “Honestly, seeing you in the top four kinda gives me the ick a bit,” she said. “You change girls more than you change underwear, mate.”

In the end, Cely and Eyal received the least amount of votes with just two from Kyra and Georgia, effectively dumping them ahead of the finale while couples Callum and Deb and Johnny and Aurelia moved on to face off against Jack and Justine.

The surprising turn of events proved that there was a serious disconnect between the audience’s opinion of the contestants and the opinions of the Islanders. While involving the public was impossible due to the filming and release schedule, veering away from the challenge-based eliminations at the last minute made the selections of couples for the finale biased in a way that felt cheap and sexist, leaving viewers to potentially feel cheated by the finale. It’s been a month since the blindsiding twist, but it still stings.

Love Island Games was a fun and ultimately successful experiment, but the lack of input from the viewing public left a lot to be desired, as did the blatant sexism that snakes its way into each season. The boys’ club atmosphere will always be an unpleasant guest in the villa, especially if it’s allowed to rear its head at finale time.

Kaitlin Stevens is a freelance writer from Queens, New York with a penchant for pop culture. Her words on movies, TV, books and more have been featured in Buzzfeed, Film School Rejects, and elsewhere.