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Phoenix Cast

Unpacking Love Island USA Part 1

August 26, 2026 • Season 8 • Episode 1

0:00 | 23:25

In part 1 of this episode of The Phoenix Cast, Violence Prevention Educator Cassandra Carmona-Wayman (she/hers/ella) is joined by Survivor Advocates Jenae McCall (they/them) and Marissa Moreno (she/hers) for a spirited conversation about Love Island USA and the relationship dynamics playing out on and off screen. Using examples from recent seasons, they explore issues including forced intimacy, consent, boundaries, and power and control.

Content warnings: This episode includes discussions of interpersonal violence such as: intimate partner violence, emotional and psychological abuse, manipulation and coercive control, sexual violence and assault, sexual coercion and pressured intimacy. There are also themes addresses around victim-blaming, survivor experiences, trauma, mental health, sex work and survival sex work, and sexualized/kink-related content. Strong language is also used.

Sources and Resources mentioned in the episode:

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Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 0:00
Hello and welcome to the Phoenix Cast.

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 0:20
Before we get into this episode, here are some content warnings. This episode does contain discussions of interpersonal violence, such as intimate partner violence, emotional and psychological abuse, sexual violence and assault, sexual coercion, trauma, sex work, and sexualized and kink-related content. Please take care of yourself while listening, and feel free to pause or skip the episode if these topics may be difficult for you. If you happen to get activated or just need to talk with someone during or after this podcast, you can always give our 24-seven helpline a call, and that phone number is 303-556-2255. Now let's get back to the podcast.

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 1:07
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Phoenix Cast. I am so excited to dive into this episode with you all. I am your host, Cassandra Carmona Wayman. My pronouns are she, hers, Aya, and I am a violence prevention educator for the Phoenix Center at Araria or PCA. I'm very happy to announce that this is going to be the first in a series all about the Love Island franchise. Many of us in the office are viewers, so you will get to hear from different folks about their perspectives on different issues with the Love Island franchise and various other topics. So for this episode, we will be specifically addressing Love Island USA and topics of consent, relationship dynamics, manipulation, coercion, and so much more. We will be going over more recent seasons of Love Island USA, like season six to eight, just so listeners are aware. And as a quick spoiler alert, if you're not caught up, joining me today are my two amazing colleagues from the PCA. I'm going to let them introduce themselves now.

Speaker 1 2:14
Thanks for having me. My name is Jenae McCall. I use they/them pronouns, and I'm one of the survivor advocates here with the Phoenix Center Auraria.

Speaker 2 2:21
And hello, I'm Marissa Moreno. I'm one of the survivor advocates here at the Phoenix Center at Auraria, and I use she, her, her pronouns.

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 2:27
Thank you so much for being here to talk about this. I know in the office, listeners, we have been very excited to dive into this with you all, and so we will have many more episodes that we will introduce a part of this just Love Island series, especially as we have other colleagues in the office who want to participate in some of the discussions around Love Island as a franchise. So we will just start now with telling you all a little bit more about the dynamics of Love Island, how the show works, kind of like a Love Island one and one. You know, I'm kind of a newer viewer, so from what I know, right, they usually start with like six men, six women.

Speaker 2 3:13
So basically, it like you said, it is six men, six women, and that's kind of the starting, and it's a bunch of 20-somethings usually who are kind of all getting to know each other, as they call exploring connections to kind of see who their fit is. And basically, the whole objective of the show is to find your person, and at the end, whoever wins, because that's the fun part about it. It is a reality show, but it is still a voting-based show for the viewers that get to get on in it as well, and whoever wins then gets the grand money prize, and they can either split it or take it all for themselves. I don't think anyone has ever taken it all for themselves. They usually split it, but that's kind of my gist of it.

Speaker 2 3:59
Yeah, and I think some important parts, like when we're thinking about like how Love Island functions, right? Is like it's kind of on the premise that you're going to interact with everyone here in some kind of romantic capacity, right? To test that connection to see if you're compatible. I also want to name that Love Island is like incredibly straight, with the exception of some uncomfortable uses of LGBT identity for male gratification, which I'm sure will be talked about much much later in the podcast. But it's important to name that it's it's a very straight show. There's not a lot of interaction between same sex folks. There are not gender diverse people on this show. It's very hedgerow. Nothing wrong with that, but something to name. And then on top of that, like there's a lot of not just coupling, but then recoupling, right? Like to what Marissa was talking about earlier, America gets to vote, right? And sometimes that vote means they pull apart a couple that really wants to be together, and it causes chaos in the house. So I think that's something to also consider when we're thinking about this. They don't have. A lot of they don't have complete autonomy over what's going on there, and then another thing I wanted to talk about was they're isolated, right? They send them to Fiji. They're in a different place, like entirely, and I think that isolation kind of brings up a lot of a lot of things here, right? Your typical support system isn't there. They don't have access to their phones or the outside world, you know. So you really are isolated in this chamber of nothing but Love Island for as long as they are there.

Speaker 2 5:28
I think another thing is they're also from cast members coming out. They're also really sleep deprived. Like a lot of the times, they do not know what time it is. They are woken up whenever production wakes them up. Like even on their off days that they have when they're not filming, they're still all around each other, or they're going to what they call like their therapist that they have on a site, and they'll go talk to them and have different sessions and stuff like that. To what extent, not sure, but I think that also adds to the intensity of it all. Where it's like, yeah, you're rocking with this person 24 hours a day, every single day, not knowing what time it is, not knowing really when you are in time, and then just kind of having to go with it and move on to the next thing.

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 6:07
Yeah, I think that again, like it's important to mention all these things, and we can definitely dive deeper into them. And just like as a foundational piece, right, for folks that might not keep up with the show or not know exactly how it works. That there aren't those clots, as as you might have mentioned, right? And so they do not have that time, you know, awareness. They have cell phones, but they they use them mostly for taking photos, right? Or like barely, maybe getting some communication from producers, but specifically, obviously, for those points where, like, oh, you know, you have to do this challenge or you have to get ready for this date, right? So I feel like you know that's also very interesting. Do you all want to share more on that as well, like your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2 6:53
I think something that also people don't realize with it being like a reality show is there is a lot of producer involvement. I think Leah from season six recently came out, and how it was like almost like bribes from production, where it's like, hey, if you go talk to this person, then you can get an extra glass of wine, or you get a little more rest time, things like that, or they'll like push you more towards someone because the producers do know how the fans are watching it and who they want, and so to kind of go back to what Janae said, where there's not full autonomy there, where it's like, oh, okay, like maybe this is my person, but I'm getting pushed to go talk to this other person, even though I'm not really interested in this person. But everybody around me is saying to do so, and so it's almost like you feel that pressure to then make a different connection or talk to someone who maybe you haven't talked to before or someone you wouldn't have gone for on the outside, but that's who's here. So then we're gonna go for that.

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 7:41
Yeah, I think that's a big piece. There is that like forced aspect, right, for people to yeah develop those relationships again, even if you're not that into it. And so it's like those issues of consent, right? Like where are the boundaries? Almost non-existent, in my opinion. So and like that's really awful, right? Because then they also have that perspective that they introduce, where like if you know you're not in a couple now, you're single and vulnerable, right? As Ariana Madix usually says, and it's like very dramatic, and you're like, oh my god, like are they dying now? Like, so I think that you know that kind of came up for me as you were like talking about that, and you know, do you do you want to share your thoughts as well, Jenae?

Speaker 1 8:25
Yeah, I think you make a good point with the like the forced intimacy aspect of this. Even when I'm watching it, right, because it's a short time frame. I can't remember how long they're actually there. Maybe one of you know, but it's a short time frame, right? Like it's not they're not there for a year. They're there for a short period of time with strangers, right? And I think with my advocate hat on, when I think about that, right, and that forced intimacy and this constant communication and constant contact and things like that, it creates this almost unreal connection, right? It's a dynamic we see very often in dating violence, of like let's create this this high intensity connection, so that you feel like you can't leave me, right? And it almost replicates that dynamic in such an interesting and weird way that we're all eating up as entertainment, but not having a conversation about, which I find very very fascinating because of the intense connections that they're expected to have, and apparently bribed into having sometimes, like had no idea about that.

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 9:26
Yeah, absolutely, exactly. I did not know that as well, and so I did look it up right now. So cast members on Love Island stay in the villa, and this is for Love Island USA version. They can stay in the villa up to six weeks, just like, just there with each other, right? That's that is a long time, and it often like they all describe it feels like way longer than that, and it's on purpose, right? It's very intentional to really shake things up and to I think honestly just like really like mess with people's heads, right? As we see, to create that drama and like create that instability and. Said, do you want to also share?

Speaker 2 10:02
Yeah, I think with that forced intimacy, there also becomes an aspect to almost perform, especially whenever it does come to the affection that is shown on the show. Whether that is, you know, the kissing challenges that we have all seen, everybody got tongues with tongues. But I think that not everybody on the show and is always, you know, up for that. I think it was in season seven. One of the girls, Bella or Belle-a, as they called her, she was a little more reserved. She didn't want to do a lot of the kissing. Her first night, she only kissed one of the guys, and the rest were on the cheek. But then it was like fans came for her for that, or like I think even within the villa, they're like, oh, dude, like y'all haven't really kissed outside of a challenge, or you know they're in bed and they're not fooling around, but everybody else around them is. And then it's like how much of that pressure actually comes out, even if they may not necessarily want to. Because I know if it was me, I'm sorry, I'm being filmed 24/7. I don't want to be having everything all out all the time, obviously. And it's almost like that gets treated in almost like a negative way, if you're not like that, because we saw that in this most recent season with the Aniya and KC when she was the one not, you know, giving as much affection at night or not cuddling, and then all the guys are like, "Well, that's weird. Like, why isn't she doing that?

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 11:15
Yeah, there is definitely that unfair expectation, and there is that double standard, right? Especially within the cast. Especially with that example you gave with Aniya and KC, how KC was venting to the group of guys in season eight, right? About those issues that he felt like, you know, like, oh, well, my physical needs aren't being met by this person that I'm coupled up with, and it's like you are strangers, you just met. How could you hold that against someone? And it is very-it's framed very punitively. And I wanted to also bring up an example as well from Casa Amor, which is another little spinoff that they do for this show. So you know when they removed Alana Kaiser from the show, right, like that, also triggered some controversy. But specifically with Alana, like she also was very uncomfortable when they were doing that heartbeat challenge, right, or hearts on fire challenge, and you know they're obviously dressed in very revealing clothing that can make someone feel very uncomfortable and vulnerable, and then having to perform and basically giving like you know very sexualized like performances for you know this like group of men and I think especially KC was very aggressive with her and she did not appreciate that she was you know very upset and uncomfortable and you know KC was kind of like egging on Corbin, and so Corbin kind of like followed that lead, and he was also you know very like I want to say it it was like sexual assault on live TV, where they were like slapping her butt right and like making her feel like just so demeaned, I would say. And then it wasn't until the end where you know someone was just like, it's okay, like you know you don't have to do anything for me, and but yeah, like she was you know just so mistreated. I feel like in that moment, and I think that that does play into that pattern with this show of like, well, the women have to be overly sexual, and then it there is that aspect as well. If you are a woman of color, so you know that that that plays into that expectation.

Speaker 2 13:27
I just think with Casa Amor, the thing that always gets me is obviously the women or men who come in for Casa Amor. Their whole job is to kind of break up these couples, and then obviously sometimes it's not done the best or the most respectfully, but I feel like then fans kind of always jump on the women more than they do the men, especially whenever it comes to Casa more when they're like, oh well, then you know they're doing this and oh look they're giving it up already and like all of these kind of things and it's like that's the whole point of them coming in is to then break up these connections so that way to show that they have a better one and I think that's something where all of the female islanders from all the seasons I've seen usually get a lot. They take a lot more of the hits than the men do, who are doing just as bad, if not worse.

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 14:10
No, exactly, exactly. Yeah, like we definitely see again, like those double standards, and like I always try to frame it as like Love Island is that social microcosm that we get to see on live TV, right? It does play out like so. Everything that we kind of are taught, and the different you know cultures we come from, and just the way that we are behaviors, our attitudes, like from the real world, quote unquote, get played out in this show, which sometimes can have those realistic aspects, right, playing to that reality TV, but at the same time, it's like I think that there are a lot of performances, and then a lot of folks do get very much harshly judged for how they act or how they react, and it's very intense. And as you know, we all mentioned, like again, you are put into this almost impossible situation where you're like forced to have those intimate connections with these strangers. You do not know them. You don't know their background. You don't know their intentions, really. And you're supposed to trust them. You're supposed to make out with them. You know, you're forced to like have these sexual acts together, and I don't know why. I just thought of like when in season eight when they're like forced to, it was like that challenge. I think it was between Casa Amor versus like the villa, and you know, like they're they have to do different acts, right? And a lot of them do become very sexual, and so they lick each other up and down. They, you know, suck toes and like all this sort of thing. And it's like, would someone actually want to do that if it wasn't happening in the show, right? So again, I feel like there's a lot of issues of power and control.

Speaker 1 15:54
Yeah, I think there is so much fetish content in this show, and I don't think anybody is calling it what it is like. I feel like the foot thing really put it in everyone's face this season. But my God, this has been fetish content the whole time, and we are not king shaming. But let's just call it what it is. We are watching fetish content in these challenges. I don't think the general public knows what they're looking at a lot of the time. But it is fetish content, right? Like especially when they're spitting in each other's mouths and food and even the the goopy thing we see this season that was very very common this season. It's kink content, right? Like it's fetish material, and I think that that's important context when we're talking about this too, because because it's not just the forced sexual dynamic within the show; it's also the forced sexual dynamic towards the audience. And of course, like we're engaging consensually. I know what I signed up for when I'm watching Love Island, but I can't say that there were not moments for me that were uncomfortable, and not because I'm like a kink shamer or not sex positive or any of these things, but just to to be in this kind of oh, I didn't know that was going to happen, and I wasn't prepared for the kink content that I am currently being exposed to is is an interesting dynamic to play with the audience as well, especially given how little the general public knows about fetish, kink, BDSM, and kind of what those dynamics look like.

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 17:13
Yeah, no, thank you so much for touching on that because I think it is important to highlight that, and I know we were freaking out about that in the office too, because it's like I did not know that this was gonna happen. Right, like I knew that there's supposed to be these challenges. I thought they were supposed to be like innocent and silly, and it turns out like I'm being forced to experience this with someone who's also being forced to perform that and participate in that for our entertainment. Like, who is this really for, right? We got to like think about those aspects as well. I mean, the show makes like billions of dollars, and these poor folks are putting so much pressure on themselves. You know, because maybe a lot of the times they do sign up because you know they're sure maybe trying to find a partner or someone that they you know are interested in to have a relationship in the sort of quote unquote outside world, but also I'm reflecting on some things that have come out recently. You know, with Trinity and saying that she's going to use that money that she wanted to pay her student loans back, and so I think about that part, right? Like where folks are kind of in this moment, just like socially, where like we are having so many different needs, and one of those is financial assistance. Maybe folks are experiencing financial instability, and so I think that that plays into it too, right? Where like they are here, willing to kind of put themselves through anything, but at the same time, it's like again, where are those boundaries? Where are the lines? When do we deem them human and treat them with the dignity that they deserve? Because a lot of those challenges were ridiculous and outrageous and uncomfortable for us to witness, and I cannot imagine what they went through. And especially again to be like tired, potentially hungry, like you know all of that, sleep deprived, upset, and feeling so vulnerable and put on such a big stage, if you know you want to like put it that way, right? So yeah, I'm wondering what y'all feel about that as well.

Speaker 1 19:12
I think something that came up for me when you named that, Cassandra, specifically was not only is it like the prize money, right, the 100k at the end, right, and we know only two people are going to win this. It's also the business opportunity that comes from being a person put on national, international TV. Right, Love Island is not just popular here; it's popular across the world. Came from UK, right? So there's lots of conversations I've seen internationally, just on TikTok, right? About the dynamics here. So I think the exposure, especially if you are an influencer, that's where you're trying to go, right? To have this public career model, entertainer, any of those things where a platform really matters. Not only are you going there for hopefully the prize money, you're going there at the end of the day for a lot of these folks. For the opportunity to get big enough to make money off of this, right? And I think that's true for a lot of the dating shows we see nowadays. Love is blind. Like a lot of those folks, they have a following, right? And that's often why they get picked too. So it's something to consider when we're thinking about this. It's not just the the prize money and paying off. Like hell yeah, I would have done the same thing. Trinity's on it. I would have done the same thing. Okay, but the fact that that's even something that had to be considered, or to to do basically squid games to be able to pay your damn student loans is a wild thing to have to do in late stage capitalism.

Speaker 2 20:38
Everything y'all have said is very much resonating, and then also to tie in like the power and control aspect of it is like, at what point can they say no to challenges, or at what point can they say no to talking to another person? Like, right, can I pull you? Because I do think of for me specifically the food challenge where they are spitting into each other's mouths. I have really bad metaphobia, and so during that I do have to fast forward it. But then in my mind, I'm like, okay, how many of y'all are actually cool with doing this, or are you doing it because you do know you're being watched? You do know your couple is being watched. You are looking for that opportunity, whatever it may be. It's like, is there a line that you can say to production of like production that I I don't want to do this, or I don't feel comfortable doing this, or is it just kind of all right, we're doing this, and then you just go for it.

Speaker 1 21:23
it.I think that brings up a good point, Marissa, because when you said that, what I thought about immediately was like survival sex work, right? We know some people choose to do sex work consensually because that's what they want to do. We know some folks are trafficked into the sex work industry. Not as many people are trafficked as many people believe through that. It's more labor trafficking, as we know, but you know that people think that those are the only two things happening within a sex work dynamic. But a lot of folks do sex work because they don't have another option. They need to feed their kids. They need to keep a roof over their head. The same reason you and I work, right? The same reason you and I sell our bodies and our brains at work every day in a very different way than folks who do sex work do, right? So when you were bringing that up, that's kind of what it reminded me of of how how much autonomy is really had when we have to make choices based in our own survival to to keep ourselves safe.

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 22:13
That was so beautiful. Thank you both for like naming all these things that are so important. I feel like they don't get talked about, especially again with this context, and it's like, yeah, we are talking about a reality show, but it's so much deeper than that.

Cassandra Carmona-Wayman 22:26
Hello, listeners! You have just finished listening to part one of our Unpacking Love Island USA podcast episode. If you're ready to hear more, check out our next podcast episode. That will be part two of this episode. If you or someone you know is experiencing interpersonal violence, you can visit the Phoenix Center in Tivoli 227. You can call our 24/7 free and confidential helpline, which is 303-556-2255, or you can schedule an appointment with us online at thepca.org. All right, listeners. I'll see you in the next episode.