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The Love Island UK villa has brutally turned on one contestant. Here's why they're wrong.

Love Island UK is back doing what it does best (read: worst): reinforcing harmful tropes about women. 

The new season has only been running for two weeks but already most of villa have started picking on one contestant, Molly Marsh, for umm, not becoming immediately monogamous with a man she met mere days before. 

Molly was matched with Mitchel Taylor by the public, which is worth remembering as Molly didn't actually select this man for herself. Molly and Mitch enjoyed a few good days but Molly's head turned when bombshell Zachariah Noble entered the villa. 

Molly and Zach spent some time together and after he kissed her in a challenge, they grew closer. This prompted Mitchel to tell Molly to 'never speak to him again' after she dared to talk to Zach one night at a party. She later broke things off with Mitch for good, yet he persisted. 

Quick! Have a listen to this episode of The Spill. Post continues after podcast.


In a painfully awkward exchange, Mitch picked Molly to re-couple with, and essentially told her that he wouldn't take no for an answer. "I know you've got a connection with Zach but I don't think I'm ready to give up yet," he told her.

After this encounter, Molly elected to sleep outside instead of sharing a bed with Mitch. 

After making it crystal clear that she had no interest in him, things took a nasty turn with the other contestants quickly turning on Molly.

Did Molly lead Mitch on? Is Molly game-playing with these men? Is Molly to blame? These were some of the opinions being shared between the islanders. Yes, this is 2023 and we're still doing this s**t. 

Most of the animosity has come from Mitchel (yes, the guy trying to get with Molly) and Jess Harding.

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During a gym session where Molly was awkwardly standing watching Zach and bombshell Charlotte Sumner work out, Jess started yelling out sarcastic remarks in front of everyone. 

No one stepped in to say anything and it all felt very high school. 

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The pile-on continued as in another episode, Whitney called Molly the 'biggest game player' during a challenge, and Tyrique referred to her as a 'people pleaser'.

In an earlier challenge, Jess was asked to kiss the islander she thought was most two-faced on her cheek, and when she picked Tyrique Hyde, Ella Thomas whispered that she "should have picked Molly".

Jess replied that she "didn't want to be nasty," and Mitch added "you should have done".

The continued targeting of Molly has been labelled as 'bullying' by many Love Island viewers. 

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Several times during these moments, Molly has ended up in tears. This is all because Molly set clear boundaries with Mitch and explored dating another man, Zach, on a show literally formatted around single people recoupling with multiple suitors. 

This isn't the first time that contestants in the Love Island villa have iced out another woman. On the 2019 season, the women were accused of bullying Maura Higgins after she flirted with another man on a date. Even winner Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu from the 2022 season wasn't immediately welcomed by the other women. 

The nasty energy radiating constantly from Jess reached boiling point this week, as Catherine pulled her aside to tell her to "stop the whispering". She encouraged Jess to be upfront with her issues with Molly, or simply stop bad-mouthing her altogether. 

Hopefully, this will be the end of the victim-blaming of Molly whose only crime was... being nice to Mitch in the first place.

Feature image: ITV + Mamamia. 

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