Now that we have all had the time to catch up on this summer’s offering of Love Island, it is time to have our in-depth discussion on the season’s annual production of misogynoir. The term “misogynoir” was coined by Northwest University’s Dr. Moya Bailey, an associate professor in the university’s Department of Communication Studies. Dr. Bailey defined the term as the “anti-Black misogyny that black women experience, particularly in US visual and digital culture.” In short, it is the word that perfectly describes the ingrained prejudice black women face as a result of their intersectionality of being both black and female.
When it comes to a show like Love Island, misogynoir seems to be a recurring theme in the past couple of seasons. Now, I am only basing this off of Love Island seasons 4 through 7 (the season that just ended) and Love Island USA season 2 since those are the only ones I have watched. This isn’t to say that other seasons and spin-offs of Love Island haven’t experienced misogynoir.
Now that all of the forewards and warnings are out of the way, we can begin our analysis of misogynoir on Love Island. Let’s begin with one of the situations that have taken place in all of the seasons of Love Island I’ve watched. The one where the black girl always, without fail, gets chosen last or is put into a default couple during the first coupling of the show. It happened in season 4 with Samira Mighty, season 5 with Yewande Biala, season 7 with Kaz Kamwi, and season 2 with Justine Ndiba from Love Island USA. Year after year, the embarrassment of being chosen last always falls on the dark skin black girl without racially ambiguous features.
Now it could be said that this occurrence is just a coincidence, and with the shows that have only been on the air for a few seasons, this could be true. However, when it’s taken place on a seasoned series like the original Love Island, it starts to bring up discussions on why the show won’t bring on men (of any race) who want to be with these black women. Yet the producers of the shows continually put one black girl and one black guy in the naive hopes that they will automatically get together. Because that’s totally how it works. Believe it or not, Love Island is still the real world and that is not how it works. These black women being chosen last and put in default couples subtly implies that black women, specifically those of darker skin tones, are less desirable in comparison to women of other races and lighter skin tones.
And of course, the five-star treatment only continues from there. Once on the show, many of the black women have had to compromise themselves just to be seen as acceptable in the eyes of producers, viewers, and the other islanders. They are put in difficult situations where if they react in a normal way, they are deemed as “aggressive” and “too much.” Yet, if their nonblack counterparts were to have the same reaction, they are described as “fiery” and “feisty” with a positive connotation around it.
Take for example season 7 of Love Island that just finished in August. Kaz Kamwi, a dark skin girl on the show, more often than not has an upbeat personality and rarely had an issue with anyone on the show, despite some of their behavior towards her. In one of the last few weeks of the show, she was labeled as “aggressive” after she got into an argument with a male islander named Aaron that was treating her rudely after she and her partner, Tyler, voted Aaron’s couple as one of the least compatible. After Aaron discovered that Kaz and Tyler voted for his couple, he started an argument with Kaz, and after walking away while she gave her explanation, tried to paint her as the bad guy. Previously, Teddy, another male islander, called Kaz aggressive after she didn’t want to put up with Tyler’s behavior after Casa Amor. All Kaz did was clearly articulate her feelings.
In comparison, on that same season, Faye Winter got into it with nearly all of the male islanders after Movie Night. For over 30 minutes of the show, viewers watched Faye shout and curse all over the villa. Talking down anyone who was in her path. It got so bad that none of the female islanders wanted to calm her down, some of them even said they were scared to. Yet Teddy, the same guy that called Kaz aggressive, said that Faye’s behavior that night was only “fiery” and that he liked her that way. Even though she berated and verbally abused him that night.
This is only one example of many that have taken place on Love Island and its spin-offs. However, it doesn’t stop with just that franchise. It seems to be a recurring theme on many of these reality shows, especially those of the romance category.
This was the case of the cruel treatment of Nikki Hall on MTV’s Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D & Vinny. One of the few black women on the show, Nikki was constantly on the receiving end of the other women’s snide comments about how she carried herself on the show. Nearly everything she did was up for critique. If she cried she was deemed too sensitive, if she took charge and spent time with Pauly, she was selfish. Throughout the series, you could see the toll it had on her during her time on the show.