And just like that... MAFS is over

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8pz1k4r2lo

It was coming. You dont get good reality TV without people suffering.

This news however is awful. Bloody awful.

Another thought: although this obviously needed to be exposed, it's likely to start a witch hunt as to the identities of the unnamed men. I'm not remotely saying it shouldn't have been exposed, of course it should and there needs to be appropriate consequences for the perpetrators, but there's bound to be a lot of speculation and I do think there's going to be collateral damage in the shape of false allegations from the public towards other male participants who have done nothing wrong.

It was trash tv. Expect trash behaviours .

I think the point is they could be safeguarded, open and unexploited.

Women got raped because the production team weren’t producing a show about marriages anymore. It was increasingly about sexual relationships and social media and the participants were picked accordingly.

The best reality tv was surely Castaway back in 2000, and not only because it gave the world the gift of Ben Fogle.

As you say, a genuine social experiement where nobody really knew what they were letting themselves in for and no real gimmicks.

The first series of Big Brother was also good. Nasty Nick....... 😂

Oh charming! However it doesn't surprise me.
I've never watched that, or Love Island, not interested.

Indeed it proved what people would do for money...then you had people like "Bubble" who like, really wacky this, wore different hats...

And IMO it's time C4 put a stop to Open House - that show where they all go and try out polyamory. The 'experts' always encourage them to go for it even though one party is usually very upset.

OK I can't really say 'always' because I only watched part of one episode, but it seems to be similarly exploitative and to stretch the meaning of 'consensual' where it includes the pressure of 'experts', of being on TV, of the removal to glam surroundings away from reality and your normal perspective.

I still can't believe how big that whole Nasty Nick scandal was. Featured on News at Ten because a man snuggled a pencil into a TV house!

Different, more innocent times.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who was horrified by how Paul treated Sarah because she wasn’t attracted to Dean. I was surprised there was no online commentary about it at the time (I went looking for it as I thought it was so awful!)

I enjoyed the first couple of series even though it did seem a bit of ridiculous concept. The fake wannabe celebrities soon started appearing who clearly had no interest in marriage. It was bound to end in disaster one way or another. Very sad.

I was a bit confused when the woman said that the guy who raped her and said he'd get someone to throw acid over her if she told anyone 'threatened to leave'. I mean, surely that would be a good thing, no?

This. It was originally more serious and they legally got married. Still follow the couple from the last series of original MAFS on social media.

Yes I do remember the first couple of series as posters have mentioned. Very normal people, not getting glammed up for dinner parties. No dramatic music, no arguing with other couples or even meeting other strangers, very little drama.

But I guess at the end of the day it could still happen. Moving in together all the same and back then it was a legal marriage, not a pretend one.

The early series seemed really serious, like they genuinely wanted to match compatible people and watch them make a go of it. The people on it were normal people. Subsequent series have just been about attention seekers being matched with other attention seekers, largely to make “good” television. It’s been a car crash for a while and I stopped watching.

Let's be real, it's probably fair to say that one in every three or four men is coercive, or abusive in some other way, so I'm not in the least bit surprised.

It's awful but I'm pretty sure you could ask five friends and find at least one has been assaulted in a marriage. And there's probably a second that has been but downplays it and excuses it because she's still stuck with him.

The uk has a massive abuse problem.
I guess everywhere does, unfortunately.

I remember last series of the Australian one - there was a bride called Jacqui complaining her husband wouldnt have sex with her before he went to the gym. Everyone on the show made fun of this groom for having this reason and it was edited as a punchline. The expert Alessandra told him - "If you don't want to have sex - what about her needs - you could/should have still pleasured her, even if you dont want sex!"

The guy was totally shamed for not wanting to shag her, it was awful and at the time I remember being completely dumb founded over the double standards.

I really don't know how it would be possible to make a show where two people get 'married' and live together as a 'married couple' and it be 100% safe, unless you filmed them 24/7. That seems like the only way that everyone can be protected, and that includes the TV company and 'both' participants.

Drama is added and suggested to participants to increase views. Nobody wants boring, give me an affair, a fight, flirt with this husband, be confrontational with this wife, … everything is fake, the aim is to increase followers on Insta and a commercial value.

Although im really upset by this and feel incredibly sorry for the women... should the police not be investigating this? The panorama said that none of the women claiming to bs raped have gone to the police.

Surely panorama should not publish their claims as though they're fact - this will lead to a massive witch hunt/trial by social media.

Totally agree. Absolutely laughable to see the channel 4 execs trotting out how much they care about welfare and all the checks and support they had in place. Maybe you wouldn’t need to ‘worry’ about welfare if you chose to make a programme that didn’t depend on strangers sleeping with each other for entertainment. Just a thought.

Everyone involved in the production is implicated, including the three bogus 'experts' – Paul C Brunson, Charlene Douglas and the late Mel Schilling – who frequently encouraged participants to ignore their own instincts and boundaries, putting pressure on them to have sexual contact with the person they'd been paired with even if they made it plain that they definitely didn't want it.

The show itself encouraged an atmosphere of coercion and duress. It's unsurprising that some participants with both hateful attitudes to women and poor impulse control took that cue and committed acts of sexual violence.

I hope the women who have had these awful experiences sue the production company, CPL, and Channel 4.

The women came for fame not for finding love. Fame was linked to remaining on the show even at the cost of their own safety so they would endure sexual abuse. Sex was expected as part of the show. As I said, trash tv.

There was on here, we were all saying how badly Paul treated her

I think the 'experts' (and the production team) will have fully recognised the coercive control for what it was but left it til the last possible moment to intervene, because it made for good telly ('good' in the sense that the MAFSUK audience loves conflict and upset).

Look at us. Would we talking about the show without the drama?