What happened in the seventh season of Love Island USA? The reality show where sexual desire is taboo

If one of my nightmares came to life, it would probably resemble the microcosm of Love Island: all the contestants forced to wear swimwear, almost 24/7, constantly monitored by cameras and microphones, with no smoking allowed, no clocks, because it’s the production team that decides the environment, the dynamics to create, when to sleep, and when to wake up. Showers must be taken at set times, and the women begin doing their makeup immediately upon waking, before even eating or having coffee. Breakfast is brought to them by the men, often consisting of avocado and scrambled eggs.

Love Island USA is the most-watched version

The reality show first aired in the UK in 2015, and like many other successful dating shows, it has since spawned spin-offs in various countries: Australia, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, South Africa. However, since last year, the most-watched version of the franchise is its American twin, Love Island USA: the finale of season 6 drew over 10 million viewers, even launching a spin-off focused on post-villa life (Love Island: Beyond the Villa).

The show's rules

What makes Love Island USA interesting and popular is how it deviates from other reality dating formats, even while relying on tried-and-tested structures: contestants don’t necessarily need to find true love but someone they could potentially start a relationship with outside the villa. There’s a cash prize (€100,000, to be split between the final couple); couples can be reconfigured (recoupled) and anyone who becomes single is at risk of being eliminated. New contestants (called Bombshells) are introduced regularly; the audience can vote to save or eliminate islanders, and when couples are still intact, they’re sometimes split up: the men are sent to a new villa (Casa Amor) to live for three days with new Bombshells, while the women stay in the original villa, also joined by new male contestants. All of this unfolds almost in real-time with the outside world: what happens on Tuesday in the villa becomes Wednesday’s episode, and so on. Like a nostalgic early 2000s TV series, there’s one episode per day, matching the number of days the islanders spend inside: 36 days, 36 episodes, making it one of the most prolific TV shows currently airing.

Season seven of Love Island USA as a mirror of modern times

It’s noteworthy that, for the first time, the viewer demographic aligns with the age of the participants. In the just-concluded seventh season, all contestants are extremely young, some were in high school just a couple of years ago, yet they appear notably chaste. While they enjoy themselves and explore possible connections through challenges, they’re reluctant to open up, hold hands, show genuine interest, or seek intimate moments. On this, executive producer Simon Thomas said: “[On the show] we have a very sex-positive approach. We don’t want couples to form just to get married, there’s no puritanical goal to pursue.” That’s what has historically made Love Island USA different from other shows: there’s no grand love story to chase; it’s all left in their hands. They can flirt with multiple people at once, jump straight into a stable relationship, or take their time to get to know someone slowly or more quickly.

Sexual desire is taboo

However, this season, two contestants who chose to have sex with their partners were ridiculed and harshly criticized, both by the audience and the male islanders. One of them was reportedly even eliminated for having “explored” her connection. Apparently, expressing desire is not acceptable in a reality show based on flirting among beautiful twenty-somethings. Some contestants in relationships were even accused of not exploring all their options thoroughly enough. So, yes to connections, but only superficial, and without too much intimacy. In contrast, one contestant who received public praise from the start was Belle-A, a 22-year-old from Hawaii in search of a “good Christian man.” She describes herself as high value, a term often used in red pill communities. As such, Belle-A refused to kiss the men, preferring chaste cheek kisses. During a game where the islanders' body counts were revealed, she proudly stated hers: 1. One Reddit comment compared her to “an AI who watched too much TikTok,” and honestly, I agree.

Thankfully (spoiler alert), the winner was a girl who had been labeled “too much” by the men in the villa, and was rewarded, both symbolically and financially, for being vulnerable, outspoken, and passionate. Amaya Espinal, a nurse from New York born in 1999, expresses her emotions in a chaotic yet joyful way: “Your girl is trying to flip that anxiety into excitement”, and that’s exactly how it should be. Nonetheless, it’s concerning that a show whose core theme is fun in all its forms is shifting toward an increasingly moralistic and conservative narrative.