Don't Judge Us for Loving Love Island

The post that was timetabled in for today was going to have the subject ’20 Years of Harry Potter’. I was going to talk about why I’ll read and reread the books over and over and how I’ve floated away from and come back to the story again and again. I wanted to talk about how important it is that Ron’s character has some anti-non-human (ie. racist) views that have been instilled in him not through violence or hatred, but simply by the society he has grown up in.  I wanted to talk about how important it is for children to read about 3 kids who all have a supernatural gift (magic) but also each have a trait that they might be bullied for (glasses, ginger hair, bookworm). I wanted to talk about the fact that it’s important that Harry names his kid after Snape, not because that’s what he should have done, but because it shows the true extent of Harry’s flawed perception of bravery, and heroes should still have flaws, even at the end of their tale.

And then the night before I wrote it, I watched Love Island. Yeah that episode where Jonny dumps Camilla and then sticks his tongue down someone else’s throat while Cam’s still drying her tears. I literally felt sick watching that episode because I’ve never seen anything more reflective of real life instances I’ve wiped tears from a gal’s face. I wanted to rant and rant about it, all the nuances of that situation are so hurtful for so many reasons and I wanted to tell people where those feelings came from. Jonny and Tyla talking about how nice Cam is whilst also smirking about how much they fancy each other seconds before they kiss is the vilest form of disrespect. ‘But we haven’t done anything wrong?’ they say. No you haven’t, but you’ve failed to understand that she’s put your happiness before her own. And because she’s so politely said ‘no I wouldn’t want to be in the way’ you don’t have a fucking clue how much she’s crying right now.

And then I realised that both of these posts were just me ranting about things I’m passionate about. Be it the multi-faceted portrayal of racism and heroism in Harry Potter, or the multifaceted shit-ness of Jonny from Love Island. So instead I’m going to talk about how neither of these interest/passions tell you anything about me. My argument in defence of Camilla’s tears makes me no less intelligent than my argument in defence of Hermione’s. But only one of those things make people go “oh my god are you actually watching that?’ and dismiss my GREAT arguments as to why Camilla and Hermione both have solid sets of principles. I'll admit, I used to be one of those people, turning their noses up at people getting excited over something I deemed to be shallow. It's fine to have opinions, but to have this kind of snap reaction to something others are excited over just means that you're left out of all the fun. And you also invite the same kind of down-the-nose-sneering to be a reaction to your hobbies and likes. 
This isn’t the worst thing in the world, and I’ll certainly put more time and effort into championing other causes, but it’s something that I feel like we could quite easily stop between us, and would lead to community's being less judgemental on the bigger issues too. If you can open your mind and listen to someone's argument about why Love Island's great, you can probably open your mind to listen to someone tell you their differing opinions on a political issue. Judge someone for the TV shows they watch, you only invite judgement for the shows you enjoy. Judge a girl for moving to another country for her boyfriend, well you’ll feel a lot of pressure to not do the same if you’re ever in that situation. Judge someone for missing a class, you’ll feel an insane sense of shame if you do. Judge someone for using the welfare system, you'll feel guilty to your core when you need to use it. Judgement only leads to more judgement, so if we’re going to impress it on others, we’d better be ready to stand up to it when it comes back to us. Or, as I'd rather, just lose it all together.

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