Bringing Adam Collard back to Love Island sends a dangerous message

The controversial decision gives the green light to misogyny on the show. It tells the country that emotionally abusive behaviour doesn’t matter – and neither do women

Last night, ITV teased the arrival of what they called “the ultimate bombshell” in the latest Love Island episode description. In Sunday night’s episode, presumably to get our hearts going, we were gifted flashes of an oily bumpy torso –  viewers at the edge of their sofas, shielding their eyes from the glare of the sheen but squinting past the pain –  before a face was revealed, that of Adam Collard, season 4’s most lackluster charmer.

Lackluster, because he radiates the same zest for life as an earthworm. Charmer, because even charity Women’s Aid has criticised Love Island for allowing the show’s most notorious gaslighter to return four years later.

Back in 2018, when Adam first graced the Love Island villa, Women’s Aid warned that there were “clear warning signs in Adam’s behaviour” of “emotional abuse” towards fellow contestant Rosie, after he ghosted her for two days with no explanation, and smirked saying “I just think it’s funny the way you react” when she confronted him.

She said: “I shared a night with you. I trusted you when I shared that night with you, you had what you wanted and ditched me 12 hours later.” He really got her there! Good one, Adam.

Clearly, women don’t (or didn’t) matter to Adam. But that’s no shock when we’re dealing with a bloke who has a tattoo of Mickey Mouse on his calf. Clearly, at 22, he hadn’t grown up. Now 26, let’s hope this leopard really has changed his spots and, as he suggested on last night’s episode, has got all that kind of “stuff” (what, do you mean Adam? Misogyny?) “out of [his] system”. Boys will be boys, eh?

But whilst Adam’s gaslighting behaviour is nothing new to women, what is a shock is that Love Island thought it was a good idea to bring him back. By doing so, they have given the green light to misogyny on the show. They have told the country that it doesn’t matter. They have told the country that women don’t matter.

Adam’s family tweeted in his defense four years ago: “Say what you will, it’s just a reality game show.” But that’s exactly it: although it is a warped, exaggerated and edited truth, reality TV does reflect our society to some extent, which is what makes it so titillating to watch.

But gaslighting is a reality for women. And guess what? There are lots of Adams. They may not be brazen “bombshells”, exploding into women’s lives every other week, obliterating us as they go, but they are present in the spirit of everyday sexism – at the very least.

You can find Adam’s 2018 attitude in situations where we are the butt of a joke, ghosted on dating apps, or groped in a club. And the same energy and disregard for women is a factor in the most heinous of crimes against women, like domestic abuse and homicide.

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I don’t think the show should censor misogyny when it happens: we need to be identifying and talking about it, and Love Island is a high-profile stage to do so on. But Love Island should make an example of it, at the very least. I want to see justice. Maybe they could all “get a text”. Laura Whitmore could walk in wearing black, and the gaslighters could be kicked out with a lengthy explanation about why their actions do matter. I think that would be cool.

But bringing back one of the show’s most controversially sexist contestants and gloating that he is a “bombshell” before dangling him in front of the women in the villa, marketed as some kind of naughty treat, is wrong.

We are living in a specific moment in history – through the overturning of Roe v Wade, and when male violence against women is widespread. When you consider this, it seems baffling that ITV could be so thick. So no, misogyny should not be censored on Love Island. But it certainly should not be celebrated.