When semi-professional footballer Tyrique Hyde and gas engineer Mitchel Taylor were placed in the spotlight on Tuesday night’s episode of ITV’s Love Island, their reactions were similar; to dismiss the women around them. They told female contestants Abi Moores and Whitney Adebayo to “shut up,” while chastising the men that surround them. “Lochan be pillow-talking with his girl too much,” Hyde smiled with intent to the room. Viewers posted about the segment in weary, yet unsurprised, tones. “tyrique always constantly beefs whitney bcs he’s threatened by someone who doesnt give into his alpha male gimmick and also has a mind of their own,” one Twitter user wrote. “I would be horrified if my partner spoke to women the way Tyrique does, especially my so-called friend,” another posted.
“The way tyrique speaks to women is alarming,” one viewer posted on Reddit. “But you guys will ignore it and give Catherine, Whitney, Molly, and Abi ten times more hate. and we all know why!!”
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We've all witnessed this type of misogyny, both on our screens and in real life, and it requires some context. It happens with men – who exist and have always existed in a patriarchy – feel threatened. Some arguments have arisen over the past 10 years that feminism has gone too far, and that we should turn our attention to men. That men have been displaced by progression and that the detoxification of masculinity is proving detrimental to the male identity. The events of the past decade – the rise of Trump, Johnson and Putin, the #MeToo movement, and a recurring debate over female bodily autonomy – have further threatened masculinity.
This manifests itself in what we've seen in this week's episodes of Love Island, which showcases the fear and aggression such masculinity triggers when provoked by a woman. “Ella B is fake,” Taylor said at the end of Wednesday’s episode, pre-flattening the potential rejection that he fears will come when the show ends. “I think Ella B is fake.”
It's a lot less than you may think.
However, it's important to caveat that reality television is prone to cruel editing; sharing one clip of someone is hardly a contextualised view; placing anyone under a spotlight is bound to showcase flaws; and the issues posed in this piece are targeted towards masculinity, in lieu of simply men. (As many more articulate writers than I have shared, it’s #NotAllMen, but women don’t know which ones, so all must be treated as suspects.) That said, reality television regularly acts under the guise of a microcosm, and in this particular series, where the liberation of women is arguably more evident than previous seasons, these men’s masculine tendencies appear to be flailing.
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In Taylor and Hyde’s case – which was swiftly rebuffed by a number of their peers (Adebayo on Wednesday night’s episode said, “I just can’t stand disrespectful men,”) – their brand of misogynistic aggression speaks to patterns made by previous seasons; when, last year, Luca blamed Gemma for another man’s flirting; in 2019, when Tom, set for the Hideaway with Maura, questioned whether she was “all talk”; and in 2018, when Adam Collard was accused of gaslighting and emotional abuse towards his partner Rosie Williams by Women’s Aid. Such instances build, causing former contestants to never question their ways; in 2021, former contestant Curtis Pritchard compared Love Island's female contestants to second-hand cars.
You may be wondering why all of this matters; it's just reality TV, after all. But this behaviour on-screen reflects the rise in everyday misogyny that women must grapple with both in the dating sphere and outside of it. It reminds us that, ultimately, women are not treated equally, either on rolling cameras or in private. The psychology of misogyny bases itself around the general consideration of women as inferior beings. It acts like an octopus, sprawling and ductile, attuning itself subtly to changing situations. For those looking for statistical evidence, gender-based violence in the UK alone costs some £15.8 billion annually, and in January 2023, ONS figures showed that sexual offences are the highest level ever recorded.
The result of a patriarchal culture is that women are expected to simply tolerate pain and suffering. It is the reason they can’t walk home alone, that woman-hating, violent porn is on the rise, and that when the English football team lose, women chances of being killed are raised.
Maybe there is hope. Masculinity may be fragile, but it’s also malleable, and perhaps the pendulum hasn’t yet swung too far. But, masculinity-based aggression is a problem that urgently needs addressing in every level of society, for the better of everyone. That's why the behaviour of men everywhere – including in the Love Island villa – matters. It deserves to be called out.
