nude leak island
a brand new revenge porn bombshell has entered the villa
cw: talks about thoughts of suicide
love island usa has had me in a chokehold for weeks. yes, i know it’s over. no, i haven’t finished it. even though i know who wins and the drama that has yet to unfold, i am thoroughly entertained. as a reality tv show lover, i know that no matter how behind or out of the loop i am, i’m still hooked. unless, of course, the “drama” that unfolds is something horrible and (very likely) criminal. things have been very messy recently, and not in a fun, silly way.
for those who don’t know, love island is a reality tv show similar to big brother in the way that the cast is filming as you’re watching, and you’re voting american idol-style for what you think should happen next! with new episodes every night (aside from wednesday’s) you’re watching love connections form and burn and you get a say in who stays, goes, or gets extra special treats! i’ve heard it compared to sims in the way that, as viewers, we’re able to watch the contestants in the closest version of “real-time”. it’s like the truman show but with sexy 20-somethings who all want to fuck each other. while on the show, the islanders are livin’ it up in figi and only have access to phones production has given them as a way for them to document their time through selfies and to receive news and challenges from behind the cameras. this leads to the famous “I GOT A TEXT!!!” meme the show is heavily associated with. these are not their real phones, they’re merely a can on a string connected to production. the only other knowledge the lovers have of the outside world’s opinions are through various challenges when tweets are read or when they finally talk to their family members after a good long while in the villa. in all, the experience of the fijian vacation is concentrated and isolated, leading to a very intense build-up of emotions and steaks. there’s no real need for them to stress about the real world until they leave.
when ejected from the island, islanders are given back their belongings and are able to return to “normalcy”, which includes going back on social media. in recent weeks, particularly before the finale, we saw islanders like andrea and cain taking to tiktok to vent about what “really” happened on the island, rehashing now “old” drama, starting beef with other islanders, or, in andrea’s case, singing frank ocean’s “thinking bout you” every chance she can. it seems like there are no nda’s to be signed when leaving the island, and i think these two will be the reason why production will likely require them in future seasons. it’s safe to say that by going on a reality show, even if the goal is to find love, there will always be the attention and celebrity that comes with it, but what happens when things go sour?
the goal of love island is to win as a couple and (ideally) split the prize money. however, everyone seems to forget about that cash prize because the drama and sexual attraction is so consuming. when it comes down to the last few couples the winner is determined and then everyone is free to go home! once the couples were able to leave, kendall, who was coupled up with nicole and self-proclaimed silly, goofy guy received the shock of a lifetime once returning to regular-degular life. videos of him in compromising sexual positions were leaked on twitter1 only a few hours after the finale. this was almost exactly around the time he would have gotten his phone back. it appeared that whoever had the video was almost waiting for his return before dropping the bomb. the response from fans was mixed. some people were teasing and making homophobic comments and harsh jokes at his expense. the comments were enough to warrant a response from kendall’s sister, taylor, expressing her concern for her brother’s mental health and asking the production team of love island to provide some sort of psychiatric support given the fact that in previous years islanders had taken their own lives under the stress of returning to their everyday lives now famous and vulnerable.
surprisingly, even with all of the negativity and jokes made at kendall’s expense, an almost equal amount of support and empathy was shown from viewers. about halfway through the show, kendall quickly became a “villain” of sorts after supporting the other men on the show to engage with the new women in casa amor, the show’s messy way of challenging islanders’ current pairings for mess and conflict. regardless of the distaste the public may have grown for him, fans described this as a “violation of privacy” and some went so far as to say the video should not be searched for, shared, or even joked about.
not too long after his sister’s statement, kendall eventually responded to the leak on instagram writing, “what a way to get my phone back y’all” and “that was something i shared to someone in confidence and in trust. it’s no longer private but it is what it is.” this is so sad! the poor man’s junk is now on the internet forever, and no matter how much time passes, people will still search for it and send it around. kendall seems to be taking it in stride, though. since responding, he has been on multiple podcasts and has appeared to be in high spirits regardless of this situation.
in many states, revenge porn is illegal and punishable by law, and yet, it still happens! frequently! it’s unfortunate to see men, likable or not, have their bits and pieces available to view on the internet forever. this is especially true for those who have been thrown into the public eye so quickly, particularly from a show like love island. a program like this allows viewers to watch closely and thus feel closer and connected to the contestants. c’mon parasocial relationships!
if weren’t for kendall’s good attitude about it, things could’ve gone very bad very quickly. in a recent study, researchers found that 47% of revenge porn victims consider suicide after the intimate images/videos were shared, and 80% of revenge porn cases were perpetrated by an ex-partner. we can agree that this was malicious and deliberate, right?
almost immediately after kendall’s leak, rob, an islander most known for his back-and-forth relationship with leah (an island favorite) and four-day affair with recent tiktok gossip andrea, had an intimate video of his own leaked to the public. i first found out about this one while scrolling on tiktok and seeing multiple videos of people doing “me when i saw rob’s video on twitter” reactions. at the time i’m posting this rob has yet to respond to the leak, but he has since been on podcasts talking about his time in the villa. the reunion is set to happen on august 19th with arianna madix (you know i love this queen) running the reunion as the host of the show. she doesn’t seem like the type to pry about that serious of a topic2, but with production in her ear and the desire to make this showdown between the islanders long and very clippable for tiktok, anything can happen.
it’s been a while since i thought about revenge porn. i remember watching a lifetime movie once where a girl had sex for the first time with a boy who was recording it to prove to his friend that it actually happened. inevitably, the boy’s ex-girlfriend got a hold of the video and sent it to the entire school. the girl was then teased, ran away from a party, got hit by a car, and died. i was sixteen watching this, mind you, so suffice it to say that i was quickly terrified of the possibility that something like that could happen to me. i was thinking about it a bit too much, and i hadn’t even had sex yet. it’s an incredibly traumatizing thing to experience, no matter who it happens to. the psychological effects on revenge porn victims have been compared to that of sexual assault victims, so when you consider it happening to people whose frontal lobes aren’t developed you begin to realize it’s a kind of common occurrence. it was found that one in three teens have reported seeing nonconsensually shared nude photos of other minors. now imagine snapchat, twitter, and other social media platforms coming into play. things can only get worse, and in minors’ cases, illegal.
i think about vanessa hudgens, paris hilton, and many other young women in hollywood who have had their nude photos or videos leaked to the public. in researching, i found out that 90% of revenge porn victims are women. the internet in the early 2000’s, as we know, was not as empathetic3 as it is now. these women received backlash and blame for years after these leaks. even now, those same women are expected to speak on their experiences and emotional trauma years later, forced to relive the trauma over and over again. if it were one of the women on the island whose nudes were leaked, would the response from fans be the same? take andrea for example, as loud and controversial as she may be, she has an overwhelming amount of hate spewed in her direction. add something like this in and think: would she be defended in the same way? something to think about!
i feel for kendall and rob, whether i like them or not. i hope that the leakers at fault are slapped with the swift and calloused hand of justice, but i’m confident this will likely be a blip in their careers post-reunion this month. i do wonder, however, if the same would be true if they were andrea or daia, or any of the other women on the show that receiving backlash for their behavior on tv and thereafter.
let’s see what happens at this reunion. hopefully, by the time it airs i’ll be caught up on all of the episodes, but i think i’ve got about 100+ more to go.
i won’t call it x and you can’t make me!
who knows, maybe i’m just being parasocial!
i’m being gracious to the internet here. i know it’s hellish a lot of the time.