Love Island is back, baby. While this season is sure to give us plenty of water cooler chat, it also marks the return of the show's unrealistic body standards.
The ITV reality show is known for casting slim, toned twenty-somethings (or even teenagers in Gemma Owen’s case) who are a far cry from the average UK women’s clothing size of 16.
Yet, even though this season has only just begun, one of its male contestants has already given women another unrealistic body standard to live up to - the size of her feet.
In an introductory clip at the beginning of the first episode, 21-year-old Haris Namani revealed that he could never date a woman with feet larger than a size five.
He later doubled down on his remark, telling new Love Island host Maya Jama that he prefers women with smaller feet.
Maya, who is said to be a size six - the average size for a UK woman, clapped back at Haris, saying: “You can’t be that strict down to the foot size!”
She added that his rule would mean that she would be excluded from his dating pool. We bet she’s heartbroken.
People on Twitter were quick to comment on Haris’ remark too, with one person tweeting that they “forgot how ridiculous people are on this show”.
Another asked: “Did this boy say he doesn’t date someone with a shoe size more than five? Does he ask women for their shoe size on initial contact?!”
“Since when are men bothered about a woman’s shoe size? Is this a joke?” a third person added.
“Not even 10 minutes in and a lad is ruling girls off based on SHOE SIZE. Way to unlock new insecurities,” another person said.
“Mans said he’s not dating a woman with a shoe size over five ……💀 Sir if your feet are small and you wanna share shoes with your girl just say that???” another theorised.
With shows like Love Island already pushing unrealistic body expectations, we really don’t have the time (or mental energy) to be insecure about our feet too. But if anything does scream “insecure”, it’s having an opinion on someone’s foot size in the first place … just sayin’.
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