However, such is the way of the world, "knowing what you're getting into" is always more likely to come back and bite a woman than a man.
Although the alleged appalling behaviour of two or three men is obviously at the heart of this scandal, for me the single most jaw-dropping moment in the Panorama programme was when one of the women complained that the man had come inside her, which was contrary to what they'd agreed ... because she didn't want to get pregnant.
WTF?
So this gormless young woman goes onto a TV programme where it is all but certain that she will be having sex with a stranger, and has no contraceptive arrangements in place? And instead intends to practise coitus interruptus, like some luckless teenager in 1960s Ireland.
What could possibly go wrong?
There was more on this on
Newsnight last night, and there’s a detailed analysis here:
External Link/Members OnlyI find the concept of these programmes distasteful. I don’t watch them, but then they’re not aimed at me. In any case what is to my taste is neither here nor there. But there are issues that go beyond taste.
On last night’s
Newsnight there was a bright and articulate young woman who had appeared on
Love Island a few years ago, who spoke of the welfare team and the fact that afterwards those who appeared were entitled to a minimum of ten sessions with a psychologist.
And Google AI has this: “The
Love Island welfare team is a dedicated group of registered mental health professionals, independent doctors, and psychological consultants employed by ITV. They provide comprehensive duty of care to contestants before, during, and for over a year after their appearance on the show.”
There have, however, been two suicides by
Love Island contestants, and famously it was a suicide that put paid to
The Jeremy Kyle Show.I find rather odd that programmes involving ordinary members of the public – by definition, amateurs in a professional world – should require safeguarding teams, the reason demonstrably being that the contestants are regarded as potentially vulnerable.
Those who appear on
The Chase presumably don’t need psychologists to be available. Nor, I imagine, did contestants on
The Generation Game.
Bring back wholesome family entertainment! Come back, Mary Whitehouse, all is forgiven!
