By: Serena Edwards
A new bombshell has entered the villa for season 7 of Love Island US (LI USA): parasocial fans. This season had more fan interactions than any other LI USA season ever, with more voting sessions that impacted the islanders. With new fan interactions came divisiveness, making the season overall unenjoyable.
Love Island is a reality TV show that focuses on people in their 20s building romantic relationships. The show premieres in real time over the summer, with episodes coming out almost every day except Wednesday.
Although the end goal for any contestant is to find love, there are challenges that test relationships as well as new people, also known as “bombshells”, that come into the villa to stir up the current couples. Many would categorize this show as a game show, not only from the challenges presented, but also due to the winning prize of $100,000 for the winner to keep for themselves or split with their partner.
Season 7’s predecessor set the standard of what was expected this season.
With the expectations set high for a whole new cast, disappointment became prominent as the episodes aired. Fans began to build a parasocial relationship with the cast members, as they felt connected to their stories. However, the feelings developed were expressed in extreme measures.
Within the villa, contestant Huda Mustafa dealt with the results of a fan-held vote that separated her and her partner at the time, Jeremiah Brown, causing her to spiral. She lashed out on anyone who threatened her connection with Jeremiah, which many viewers did not agree with.
Outside the villa, haters rose and ultimately started calling her “Hurricane Huda” and her fans “Hudrats” because of their behavior. The fans and haters clashed for weeks on why they liked/disliked her, but the hate got out of hand once they began commenting under Huda’s personal social media posts, saying her family should be bombed.
For context, Huda is a Palestinian woman, and with the genocide going on in Gaza, haters used her culture as a leverage to spew malicious comments her way in an attempt to purposefully cause pain and ostracize Huda from the rest of the cast.
Since the show has ended, Huda has gone on the podcast “Call Her Daddy,” where she mentioned she felt like an outcast among the other islanders.
The hate didn’t just get directed towards Huda; fellow contestants Olandria Carthen and Chelley Bissainthe, two dark skin Black women, faced an immense amount of backlash near the end of the season.
With mean girl allegations coming their way and blatant racist tweets directed towards them, there was no escaping the LI critics. Some argued that the name-calling was valid due to Olandria and Chelley’s actions towards Huda. Chelley, Olandria, and Huda were friends throughout the season until the end during a popular LI challenge, “The Heartbeat Challenge”. Huda pulled Chelley’s partner Ace and started dancing on him, which caused Chelley to feel unsettled. Many think the way Chelley handled the situation made her a mean girl. Olandria faced backlash for her handling of her previous partner, Taylor, and airing Huda’s personal business out. Olandria was this season’s fan favorite due to her beautiful appearance and witty personality. She brought a new flair to Fiji this summer; however, with all the positivity also came negativity. Memes of Olandria’s face being attached to George Floyd’s face flooded the internet, showing Huda and Olandria fans were clearly on two sides of the fence.
The Twitter discourse was nonstop during and after the show, with fans calling each other outlandish names. Judging appearances and belittling each other over a show for people no one knows personally. The fans were critiquing and trying to find anything to get the islander they didn’t like kicked off. LI USA had to issue a statement on television and social media due to the cyberbullying the islanders were facing and would face once leaving the villa.
The difference between last season (S6) and this season is that the fans had less of a say about the islanders’ actions and relationships.
There was less concern for friendships and more focus on the original focus of the show, love. Last season’s famous PPG (Power Puff Gang) friendship between Serena, Jana, and Leah happened organically through interactions and challenges. This season emphasized being a “girls girl” and not stepping on people’s toes, which, in comparison to the previous season, made the romance feel inauthentic.
This season felt more relatable within the islanders; they had stories that made the fans feel close cast.
Olandria had been single for five years before entering the villa and had more reserved perspectives on relationships. She wasn’t as expressive, which most Black women relate to. Huda, on the other hand, wore her feelings on her chest regardless of what the narrative would be. Chelley is a bisexual Haitian-American woman, which is a niche community in itself.
Each islander resonated with a demographic of people, which caused those fans to defend them because they ultimately saw themselves in the islanders. The fans seemed to forget that it was a show and instead acted as if they were in the villa defending themselves.
LI USA ranked number 1 this summer for best reality television show because of the interactive fans staying plastered to their screens. But in the end, it felt more like an addiction than enjoyment.