Opinion: By saying you need to be thin to be attractive, Love Island is harming us – and itself

Jack Fincham and his whiter-than-white teeth.

Dani Dyer blow-drying her eyelashes. Sam Bird's sharply tweezed eyebrows. Think of past Love Island contestants and the first thing that will jump to mind is how they look. That's not our fault - from the beginning, this is how they are framed. Appearance is a cornerstone of the show and if we're honest, we wouldn't have it any other way. We're not coming to Love Island for the discourse - it's a visual experience; a nightly holiday from reality. But the show let itself down this week when its creative director said that it couldn't stray from casting slim people because the contestants "have to find one another attractive". Yeah.

"First and foremost, it’s an entertainment show and it’s about people wanting to watch who you’ve got on screen falling in love with one another," Richard Cowles told Radio Times. "Yes, we want to be as representative as possible but we also want them to be attracted to one another."

There's a lot to unpack here. You might ask, who is some producer to tell us what is and isn't attractive? - but the fact is the show has a huge voice. Love Island is inescapable; the biggest media event of the summer. It attracts millions of viewers each night and reaches millions more through unending news coverage. "We’re not saying that everyone that’s in there is how you’re supposed to look," Cowles continued - but he's wrong. Even the most cynical of us aren't immune to the effect of seeing the same body type over and over for the two months of its run. If something as huge as Love Island repeatedly tells us that only people with a low BMI can be attractive, that's what we'll continue to believe.  

ITV needs to step up

Though there's been little diversity in how Islanders have looked, we have seen previous contestants ripped apart for deviating from the show's norm. A running gag of last year's series was Dr Alex and his sunburn. The memes seemed harmless - until he revealed that his pinkness was the side-effect of a condition caused by a medication he takes. Though he appeared to laugh off the jokes, the narrative showed just how rabid the public is in its appetite for scrutinising reality stars on a physical level. Love Island is both the product of and built for the social media era and commentary about this year's crop of hopefuls is already rife. In the days since the lineup was revealed, Dubliner Yewande Biala has already been subject to racism while London pharmacist Anna Vakili has been compared to a "puppet". It'll be easy to blame trolls when a joke goes too far but having launched these people into the spotlight, ITV needs to be more aware of its role in leading the conversation. This year's Love Island opens in the shadow of the deaths of two previous contestants; Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon, who are believed to have taken their own lives. The station has been crowing about its new aftercare packages for participants in the wake of the deaths but how can it claim protect the young people it makes famous when it has shown itself to have impossibly narrow standards in its casting?  

Love Island could be left behind

Leaving aside the notion that attractiveness and diversity somehow contradict one another, the comment also shows that Love Island is at risk of becoming out of touch. A number of big brands have learned the hard way that exclusion doesn't make commercial sense any more. An obvious example is Victoria's Secret, whose chief marketing officer Ed Razek told Vogue last November that the company wouldn't use plus-size or trans models in its fashion show as long as he worked there. "The show is a fantasy," he said; a remarkably similar defence to the one used by ITV's Cowles. The comment came amid a backdrop of falling sales and store closures as lingerie-buyers seek more relatable brands to buy from. Though he later apologise for his words, the comment spelled out everything that was costing Victoria's Secret its once fiercely loyal customer base. Even bloggers, who have been lambasted for posting heavily airbrushed photos of themselves online, have started to notice the seachange. People with huge followings like Roz Purcell and Joanne Larby, known online as The Makeup Fairy, are now sharing more 'honest' images and are reaping the benefits of better engagement on posts and more influence and credibility. Though it might not seem immediately obvious, the world is changing. Love Island not only has a responsibility to use its platform for good but it also should have more sense than to reinforce outdated standards. Attractiveness is a key element of the show and that's part of why we love it - but it needs to better represent what being attractive actually means or face alienating it audience.