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.

I have never seen the programme,
i never understood the format
so grim

Wow.

Are you sad for the raped women, because you appear more sad about the end of a programme you loved, more than the traumatised women! 😮

You don't think the next series will be cancelled! Well many hope it will, enabling abuse and rape isn't a great look, even if some think it's 'great tv'.

Amen. Who came up with this crap? I am a bit surprised that they found women to agree to it.

None of these shows should be done at all. They're all gross and exploitative and the people taking part are nearly all either profoundly vulnerable or malignant narcissists. Reality tv is the modern-day equivalent of going to the amphitheatre in Rome to watch people rip each other apart. Essentially you're watching people be destroyed for your entertainment.

Honestly, I'm not going to be cool and pretend I've never heard of this programme but I had no idea what it entailed until now.

The whole fucking thing is nuts. Rape is absolutely abhorrent but given the nuttiness of the whole thing, why is anybody surprised.

I think she meant that him leaving when he threatened to would be a good thing - not the acid attack!

honestly what did anyone expect? You throw a load of strangers together, and are then surprised when it turns out that some of them turn out to be predators?

And much of the fault here lies with the people who watch it. Because without an audience there is no market.

And this isn’t unique. Love island, imaceleb, the tv talent shows, big brother. Anything else reality, it’s all the modern day equivalent of bear bating, and the viewers love it.

I judge the people who watch these shows as much as I judge the ones who produce them.

and now virgin island!

they do it for fame and fortune

^ Exactly this.

This was a massive juggernaut of a programme heading full speed into a crash. So many involved in making the programme (especially the experts), have some responsibility.

The pressure to be sexually intimate was intense. The stirring up of conflict became an uncomfortable watch. I stopped watching the most recent series of MAFS Australia because it became more about the nasty conflict between the participants and not about finding love.

Just had a quick watch of this. Why the hell would anyone willingly go on a show like this?

I’m not really surprised!

I mean, what happened for all those centuries when people were married off to those they didn’t or barely knew? What happens in countries that still do this?

I realise that rape was/ is legal in those situations but TV producers/ companies should use their common sense.

Take people who want to be on tv, possibly hoping for a career in the entertainment industry, in a show which appears to be an accessible way in despite the very dodgy premise. Remove all usual sources of support and give access to “experts” advising them, throw in pressure to make the show entertaining, include talk of marriage (which implies commitment and intimacy). Hint at what you agreed to when you signed the contract and your duty to your “spouse” and it’s going to take a particularly strong person to walk away.

I imagine not being able to speak to family and friends, and the closed environment that these types of show have created a micro-environment where you just can’t think clearly. It’s designed to disorient participants and move them away from their usual decision making process and their usual checks and balances.

Totally agree.
I just can't see why anyone is surprised.

The men on this show are likely to be highly narcissistic, it is obvious to me that, given the circumstances, they're going to feel entitled to sex.

I honestly - honestly! - cannot for the life of me comprehend why this is a shock to anybody.

I'll go further those that are shocked by it piss me off.
I'm no intellectual snob but there is something about this level of naivety that winds me up.
I can't even think of a name for it.

I agree it is a weird concept. I would find it difficult to meet someone and sleep in the same bed, share a life immediately but my best friend has done this three times! Met him, bed him same night and moved in. I was horrified as you don't know the other person.

My heart goes out to them and I hope they get help/justice.

As someone else said upthread, it is real life for women in different cultures.

I agree. And why, just why would anyone willingly go on the show?
All this reality tripe needs to be stopped. End of.

I do feel tainted and dirty for watching it.

I can make a guess at some of the men but I won’t name them here. There is abusive behaviour, including emotional abusive behaviour from women to men. The forcing of people to be intimate with someone they don’t fancy is pretty awful, eg Sarah to Dean and maybe even Adam to Polly etc.

Anyway, I recognise that I am part of the problem by watching it. So in the words of some of the participants in the most recent Aus series, ‘I am done’.

to kick start their career as a TV presenter / influencer.

I think more women will come forward now. And hopefully they will be taken seriously.

I have no idea how these programmes ever got made, never mind how anyone could watch them?

It’s obvious they would be exploitative just from the name and premise.

And people refer to watching as a ‘guilty pleasure’?

Just unbelievable

Never watched Virgin Island just find the whole thing abhorrent.

It's so grim, even more so that there are a number of men whose behaviour was overt enough on camera to think it could have been any one of them. And that's the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure there were the ones appeared outwardly charming on the surface could have been awful when the filming stopped

The first 2 series on Channel 4 only featured 2 or 3 couples & were more documentary like & actually very good.
Unfortunately we picked up the Australian format with the alcohol fuelled dinner parties & terrible 'experts'. The deliberate mismatching for drama has made it completely false & just attracts people desperate to get Instagram blue ticks & sponsorship deals. So much of our tv has gone this way.

Totally agree.
Married implies there'll be sexual activity. How can anybody fail to see that?!

How can anybody fail to see that the type of narcissistic man who goes on these shows is going to see sex as his right?

Like hell he's going to take no for answer.

I've got to leave this thread now.
I really do have contempt for those who:
A, Watch it.
B, Are shocked by these revelations.