The only relationships on Love Island 2019 worth talking about are the girls' friendships
30th July 2019
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A wise woman called Beyoncé once said: “I love my husband, but it is nothing like a conversation with a woman that understands you. I grow so much from those conversations.” And as Love Island comes to an end (there are three more episodes left at the time of writing) I’m here to tell you that Beyoncé was right.
The only relationships worth an ounce of our time - and admiration - this year are the friendships that the girls have formed.
As a young woman, this season has been exhausting to watch. This is in no small part owing to the way many of the women have been treated. Have the girls all been perfect angels? No, of course not. But have the men been particularly devilish? Yes, they have. And the repeating pattern seems to have been man hurts woman -> woman cries -> other women gather round and pick her back up. And having spent seven years at an all-girl school and four years at university, girls bonding through picking up the pieces left by boys who won’t embrace our complexities hits slightly too close to home.
This season, time after time, the men have attempted to smother any non-docile aspect of their partner’s personality and it’s been up to the women to band together and reignite the embers of their girls’ once fiery flames. Now, after rocky beginnings, it seems the most genuine, well-developed relationships are these female friendships. Let’s go back in time (a long time, when Michael was still in the top tier of 2019 contestants) and remember Danny and Yewande. Before anyone was truly shipping a couple, they were shipping Amber, Anna, and Yewande for the loyalty and care they showed to one another in the fallout of the latter’s coupling with Danny. In light of his poor treatment of Yewande, Tommy- at Amber’s prompting- calls him over to be confronted and Anna is unsure. Amber assures Anna “don’t worry, I’ll back you” while Anna’s own partner Jordan repeatedly calls her unwillingness to entertain Danny’s bulls**t childish. They defend their friend, even in her absence, and the foundations of the girls’ support system are laid. We saw it again with Anna and Maura; Anna put her friend’s wellbeing ahead of her relationship to warn Maura that Tom is having doubts, and ensure that she isn’t blindsided when they have their inevitable Love Island Chat. When Amy decided to leave the villa after Curtis lulled her into a false sense of fairytale security only to “have his head turned” (read: opt to take an active interest in other women), the most emotional goodbye was with her group of girlfriends. As she tells the group that she has made some of the best friends she’s ever had, Anna, Molly-Mae, and Amber seem to take the news worse than Curtis, all sobbing into their hands. When Michael announced that he had chosen to recouple, Anna, Amy, and Molly-Mae appeared to feel just as betrayed by his decision as Amber herself. Once again, the romantic relationships have shattered- if they were ever really there in the first place-, but the friendships formed among the girls only appear to have strengthened with every turning male head.
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