New Love Island rules reveals racism in Britain

We all see it, but why are we not talking about it? 

Love Island is a popular dating TV show in the UK, which places 'attractive' contestants in a villa for a number of months, and viewers watch as they pair up to fall in and out of love. It's huge popularity is due to the levels of relationship drama the UK public love to watch, but it also reveals a lot about how racism can enact itself within dating and how the UK public views interracial couples. 

The pictures are the first 'coupling' of the contestants. How this works is each contestant (either all the males or all the females) stand in a row, and the other gender group comes out one by one. The ones standing in the line step forward if they find this person attractive, and then that person chooses who they want to 'couple up with'. 

This year, these rules changed. 

This time, the public were given the power to vote for who should be coupled up with who. 

Now, the public are given a number of short videos and articles expressing the contestants personalities, but ultimately the public pairs people together depending on looks. 

Now look at this picture again.

You can see that the British public collectively voted for those who either shared the same racial group, or appeared to look like one another, right down to their skin tones (more on colourism here).   . 

This is no coincidence. And people are noticing.

The British public voted this way, yet the comments have clearly noticed that they have been separated into different racial groupings. 

Why we find this so interesting, is because in previous years, all we were able to claim is the contestants themselves exposed their own internal racism, typically finding the blond white women the most attractive every single year. But now, its the entire nation revealing the same assumptions of who should be with who, who they expect to be with who. 

It shows us how as a country, we collectively have built these ideas around what love and relationships should look like, and feel uncomfortable when they differ from that. We want to chat about why that is. 

So, let's unpack this a little.

Blondes have more fun!

The first thing we have to consider is how the British public view beauty and desire in the first place. 

Eurocentric ideals around beauty shape the way we form attractiveness ideals, when we think these are autonomous choices. Women all across Asia are bleaching their skin or avoiding the sun to prevent skin darkening, Black women in Britain are feeling social pressure to straighten their hair, Muslim women not perceived as women as some cover the elements that make them 'women', and mixed women are being commodified. 

We associate whiteness with class, with success, and with power. We associate beauty with this whiteness. 

Using an example from the show, the contestant Ruchee, the first Nepalese woman on the show, was speaking to George, a white man, and stated to him "I did not think you would be interested in me". 

When he asked her why she thought this, she told him "I thought you would like blonds". This is ALWAYS code for white women, whether they care to admit it or not, showing how it’s ingrained in women’s minds that men will be attracted to whiteness over themselves. 

This code upholds Eurocentric beauty ideals because of whiteness. Whiteness is invisible but it is the hidden systems that continue to justify race-based discrimination when people choose who to date and find attractive.

In other words, in Western society, romantic attraction has a transactional role. White communities protect their inherited wealth by marrying within their circles – who are mainly white. And the generational cycle repeats.

Here’s the thing – why do we feel morally fine when white men say things like, ‘I don’t refuse to date black people. I simply refuse to date people I don’t find attractive. And I just haven’t found any black people attractive.’

This is because historically and now, whiteness in the UK is the standard of beauty individuals are held up to. If you're not white, you're either 'exotic' or avoidable. 

Lots of us are misinformed about racist ideology no longer exists when it comes to dating standards.

But Love Island 2023’s outcome proves that attraction and ‘respectful’ dating standards are still based on ideas of racial purity – we are still expected to date within our own racial groups.

"You don't look like you're _________"

Mixedness is also valued as a beauty standard on the show, when mixed with whiteness. 

The mixed contestants are seen as 'tan', 'different', 'fetishised'. As I have experienced these terms, and the interest from white men trying to ‘conquer’ and ‘colonise’ multiple ethnic groups.

The white men come running when they feel they can access a new group to use as their racism shield. 

This coupling revealed how British people assume love to look like, or what they think it should look like. 

We never question a white person with another white person, nor a Black person with another Black person... but the minute we see a mixing the world goes crazy. 

If the coupling decided to 'mix it up a bit' and pair an Asian woman with a white man, the country would be like WOW, we've solved racism. 

Yes, a lot of White men date Asian women and find them ‘beautiful’.

BUT, you can still be a racist white person and sleep with an Asian person.

The point here is that, yes, the British public noticed what they did, they saw the enactment of racism still prevalent in this country right in front of their eyes, yet still say nothing. 

How? White men can claim 'I love Asian culture' but chase after Asian women who are seen as submissive and 'easier to get' than white women. 

"I'm not racist, it's just my personal preference"

The point here is that, yes, the British public noticed what they did, they saw the enactment of racism still prevalent in this country right in front of their eyes, yet still say nothing.  

But I didn't vote, so it's not ALL of us! 

Okay, so you're in denial. 

Yes, it was not the entire country that made these choices. But millions of the British public COLLECTIVELY made these choices, revealing a general consensus that no one is fully talking about. 

Many users on Twitter are attacking the show for allowing these pairings to occur, and the show fails once again to address the issues properly. 

If you deny this issue, if you defend the couplings, or if you say nothing, you are part of the problem.

Some comments state that people should stick to their own ethnic groups, and that there is no problem. This is called segregation, (if you remember that). While many people make the active choice to stay within their own ethnic groups for dating, it could be for a multitude of cultural, relational, and comfortability choices. 

The thing we have to reflect on is, why am I only ever sticking to my own racial group? Have I ever dated outside of my race? if not, why not? 

But, its so ethnically diverse, what's the problem? 

What we find funny is this is the most ethnically diverse year of Love Island yet, but while some argue this is 'progressive', we argue it has not changed the standards of beauty, but only performatively placed more ethnicity to account for its previous criticisms. 

Listen closely, diversity does not equate to equity. Just like how interracial couples do not represent the end of racism. 

As a country, we like to claim to be liberal and progressive, and then nation-wide case-studies such as this one surface, and show us once again that we are not. 

There are a multitude of complexities as to what love is, what relationships can look like, what Britishness looks like, and what beauty looks like, but each and every concept has a historical narrative before it, and when we ignore that narrative, we ignore the ways in which our ideals around beauty, love, and power were formed. 

Like, they have to come from somewhere, right?  

The whole premise of Love Island is ablest, sexist, homophobic, and racist at its core, and until they change the entire structure of the show, it will continue to perpetuate, rather than address, these issues. 

Dating Reflection Checklist 

Still unconvinced that you don’t discriminate based on racist stereotypes and ideas?

We draw inspiration from Sisters of Resistance’s Revolutionary Dating Assessment Form for you to reflect on your dating attitudes:

1. Do you challenge racist attitudes in yourself and your mates?
2. Do you know where you stand on the racial hierarchy and reject racial hierarchies?
3. Are you open to engage in constructive conversations about race and racism affecting you and others dating decision-making?
4. How much history do you know about mixed-race couples position in society?
5. Do you really appreciate Asian women or are you engaging in the ‘yellow fever’ wave?
6. Have you ever dated someone outside of your race? If not, why not? 

Further engagement list:

1. TikTok video by psychologist Dr Han Ren about decolonising attraction 
2. An essay by political economist Dalia Gebrial
3. Book Inequalities of Love by sociologist Averil Clarke
4. Imperial Leather by the public intellectual Anne McClintock
5. The ‘Whites’ Who Loved Me: Interracial Romance, Hollywood, and Bridgerton’s “Post-Racial” Fantasies by Tré Ventour-Griffiths 

This piece was co-authored by Rhianna Garrett and Iman Khan. 

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