Single black female: Love Island and the problem with race and dating

dowie

dowie

dowie

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(I don't watch this show btw..)

Once again it seems that this groundbreaking, educational TV show has highlighted yet another social issue. I did wonder if this would happen when I saw the news coverage of the contestants previously back when Dr Chad didn't get picked as he simply wasn't as "alpha" as the super chads on the show. Sure enough the black female contestant isn't having a great time either - she's not exactly unattractive, she's certainly in shape, has a pretty face etc.. I guess it is more a case again of the other contestants simply being even more appealing than her rather than her being unappealing.

As television continues slowly to diversify, the dating show Love Island has finally followed suit, with the casting of the show’s first black female contestant, Samira Mighty.

Viewers have long complained that they are fed up with the conveyor belt of white women on the show. Yet her casting has only thrown into focus the struggles black women face when dating.

Unlike other shows, where diversity woes can simply be redressed by recasting, Love Island is complicated. The show has been praised for its unfiltered portrayal of the dark side of dating – from ghosting and gaslighting to toxic masculinity and relationships. But there is another reality the show has brought to the fore. Samira’s arrival highlighted the cast’s very slim (and white) definition of their “type”.

Samira was the last of the Islanders to find a match, with newcomer Sam, and while most of us are simply happy to see her finally paired off, it doesn’t negate the fact her much-delayed date simply mirrors real life: on dating apps, black women are less likely to receive responses to messages than any other ethnic group.

When Samira said her type was “blond hair and blue eyes”, Twitter users were shocked, with one even mocking up an image of her as a Nazi. When Wes, like most of the black or mixed-raced male contestants before him, professed to liking blondes and brunettes, viewers hardly flinched. And that is because it is simply ex-pec-ted: as stylist Ayishat Akanbi tweeted last year, “only black girls see a man of their own race that they are romantically interested in and have to consider whether he even likes black girls”.
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It does seem to highlight some blatant double standards too in society re: a black woman causing controversy when she says she likes white guys but it simply being accepted for a black guy. I can see why (in Western countries at least) black females sometimes have trouble dating, they're (on average) perhaps a bit bulkier etc.. not fitting the western feminine ideal whereas that doesn't necessarily affect black men in the same way as they are often seen as strong/muscular etc.. Asians perhaps have the issue reversed with Asian women often being skinny, petite but Asian men seen as being a bit weaker, less masculine etc..

I guess on a dating show these common (perhaps ingrained) preferences get shown up and not in a good way, even when the contestant herself is attractive and of a similar shape to the rest. I wonder if they perhaps might want to add a bit more diversity next time around - include some fat or skinny people or shorter people etc..etc.. though that might trash the ratings - perhaps they don't want to risk not having just people with the perma-tanned Essex look who seem to be standard for reality shows these days. Maybe, since they can rig/engineer a lot of the stuff on these shows, they could perhaps make sure they've got some better matching contestants... like get some guys on who have expressed that they fancy black girls, get some girls on who have said they find smart guys attractive - then perhaps lone black female and Dr Chad won't be left out.
 
dowie said:
get some girls on who have said they find smart guys attractive - then perhaps lone black female and Dr Chad won't be left out.
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The black electrical design engineer did ok didn't he?

He was in better shape than the Dr though. I've not seen the current season though
 
There's a definite difference between "blond hair and blue eyes" (by far the most famous part of the Nazi idea of ideal appearance) and "blondes and brunettes" (not that), especially for people who are hard of thinking. That's why some viewers of the program (who are more likely than average to find thinking difficult) made the association with Nazism. Not because the person saying it is "black".
 
You can say your not a racist all day long, but physical attraction will show the reality that racism is only an act not a feeling.

I am generally less attracted to black women than white women.
 
terley said:
You can say your not a racist all day long, but physical attraction will show the reality that racism is only an act not a feeling.

I am generally less attracted to black women than white women.
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Depends on the type of black woman, half cast, Hawaiian, Barbadian etc are beautiful.

Nigerian and African, not so much.
 
You like what you like it's not a social issue.
Despite what we are told there's not a huge deal of interacial relationships that do succeed because of predudice on all sides.

If you want it to work it will though....

Not a huge deal
 
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