Ulrika Jonsson brands Love Island boys as 'toxic' and demeaning towards women

The legendary TV presenter has slammed male contestants of the hit matchmaking show for being 'the biggest vehicle for seriously toxic masculinity'.

Ulrika Jonsson brands Love Island boys as 'toxic' and demeaning towards women
© Getty/Samir Hussein
Ulrika Jonsson brands Love Island boys as 'toxic' and demeaning towards women

This isn't the first time Ulrika Jonsson has criticised Love Island for being a bad influence on the more impressionable and younger viewers of the show.

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'Televisual definition of misogyny itself'

This time around, she has called out the male contestants of Love Island for perpetuating gender stereotypes in which women are treated purely as objects.

What's more, she believes that the most dangerous part lies in the fact that these messages are subliminally being transmitted to viewers allowing for this toxic behaviour to be normalised. Writing for the Sun, she says:

There have been many shocking examples in the series, some less blatant than others. It has become like some televisual definition of misogyny itself.
And added:
Putting aside, briefly, the tribal overtones among the men — the pack mentality, the back-slapping and chest-beating — it’s their sense of ownership of the women that might seem subtle and could go unnoticed to the untrained eye.

'We have a duty not to gloss over conduct like this'

Jonsson goes on to explain that the matter should be taken more seriously as a large and worrying percentage of young girls have experienced some form of relationship abuse. She explains:

This series has not only been hugely frustrating but deeply worrying. Especially as we know a huge chunk of its audience is young and impressionable and could think certain behaviour is acceptable.

She continued:

A third of teenage girls have experienced some form of relationship abuse and 64 per cent of the remaining two thirds have endured it without recognising it as harmful behaviour. So we have a duty not to gloss over conduct like this.

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