MAFS #5- Stevo is a massive knobbo, Ixperts are still gaslighting the contestants. We wish for more and get nothing but sad care bears. NO SPOILERS

[Dillite2]

You lot need to stop talking so much. I am 3 pints of gin in, it's hard work with everyone wanting to be in my business 😉

I've watched several aussie ones and the UK ones but I get increasingly fed up.
I wish they wouldn t pretend its about matching people in an ' experiment'. It's quite obviously reality tv in rhe style of big brother. I've watched as each year the challenges become more clearly about upsetting people and making it impossible to have a decent relationship. Some of the most solid relationships in real life would struggle under the weight of some of their challenges. I first became suspicious of it a few series ago when that woman Coco was on the Aus one, strealing other peoples partners etc..The programme zoomed in on that and i realiswd then that it wasnt really about genuinely wanting people to find love..And last year
again I realised it was white when literally not kne relationship lasted too far past the end of rhe series. This year I watched the odd one but I'm tboref already. I've had it with this crap..

Caspar from last year's MAFS got married this week.

I saw that!
Also saw that Jaqui from MAFSA is still with the golfing guy. She was an odd fish.

Off topic for this year’s couples, but remember Caspar ("I've rarely gone for the curvier person”) from last year - matched with Emma - he got married for real today!

Great minds!

She’s like a slimmer Emma - Slemma?

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I bet they have a shrine too.

I'm glad Caspar is happy. Hopefully Emma next...

Yes she was so weird. Im.durprisrf she's still with snyone. How could he stand her. She was a fruitcake.

Same! Just catching up with the thread and I was quite surprised to see those comments about Joe. Bit unnecessary.

I think him and Abi have a better chance of working out than a lot of the originals because they have a bit less of a past for want of a better phrase.

They are both 30s, been unlucky in love, no great loves from the past and both childfree. Both seem to be from close knit mixed culture families. So it’s a potential really strong match.

They find each other attractive too so with all that I have high hopes for them. But knowing MAFSUK it won’t work out - I am rooting for them though 😆

Has anyone noticed how couples on MAFS who really get on and make ut in rhe real world tend to start to withdraw half way through. It's as uf rhey knkwnrheybarecstrong and rhey refuse to be dragged in on the shenanigans . I kind of imagine them when they are alone saying to each ithercthatvthey are committed and making a pact to just stick up for each other and not get pulled in to any shit. And it seems to work. And it seems to work coz other couples then leave them alone.

I am torn on Grace and Ashley, I see a lot of myself in Grace. She can be quite rigid and has strong principles but she is also self aware and reflective and has a keen sense of fairness. So I think even though it doesn’t always seem like it she is being flexible and making compromises too and is aware that Ashley’s making an effort.

I am not sure of Ashley’s intentions and if he intentionally forgot about stuff that he had said but he did eventualy apologise and seems to be trying hard eg. Reading a book on feminism (it’s a start!)

I think unfortunately they’re just not well matched and if he didn’t find Grace to be so attractive I think he would have gave up by now. There’s a phrase I heard that there’s no one so nice as a man who hasn’t slept with you yet and is trying to! So I do worry his attitude might shift a bit for the worse if they do have sex then Grace will spiral.

In fact in one of the recent seasons I’m pretty sure that blonde woman who said she was ‘celibate’ did end up sleeping with her husband who appeared to be a gentle giant. It wasn’t discussed properly but I think someone asked her at a dinner party and she hinted they had had sex. And it was shortly after that the mask came off and he became super aggressive and punched walls etc.

Sally Thomsett.

https://alchetron.com/Sally-Thomsett

That suit does him no favours

I had an absolute corker of a new thread in my head as I was drifting off to sleep. Do I remember it now that I am awake? Like fuck I do.

People my age (20s) also grew up with the Inbetweeners. Ali G was maybe less popular/know but people still like it.

Grace needs therapy, not a man, to figure out her aversion to touch. The feminism thing is too much, she’s completely fixated on it and turning every thing into a battle.

See, I don't think she has such a big issue with touch and feminism as the show is making out. Her view that a man shouldn't tell a woman to get her nails done, wear a dress to look "fancy" and just put out when the man get's it in his mind isn't unusual. She's not doing anything girls my DD's ages don't instinctively expect (maybe a bit younger than 20) but I know we live in a populated area where there is perhaps a higher bar for equality than Ash may have had growing up in rural Wales.

Having had an ex who used to insist on touching my face while I ate, I do get her annoyance at a man pawing at you all the time, especially if you are trying to have a conversation and they've mentally checked out and just want sex.

At the wedding her friend asked Ashley what he thought feminism was. She then told him it was about equality.

So, given that feminism is all about equality, why would she then let Ashley pick up the bill TWICE when they went out? Not very equal is it?

And if indeed him picking up the bill made her feel that he would think she owed him sex, then again, why let him pick up the bill, TWICE.
Why not insist on paying her share, if him paying, would make her feel so uncomfortable?

Grace, has double standards.
It is okay for her to buy him a shirt, that she thought he should wear.
Telling him what to discuss with the X-perts, how to think, he looked frightened offering a drink, He took a risk offering.
If Grace was a male, it wouldn't be okay.

There's so much we don't see or hear. It's entirely possible he has a lot more money than her and suggested that he pay to go somewhere nice because he wanted to go there while in London rather than somewhere cheaper that she could afford. That's not an uncommon scenario in relationships and friendships with uneven incomes. She clearly felt quite uneasy about the arrangement so it didn't look like it was something she'd asked to do.

I agree with @FirstCuppa. I'd bridle if a man seemed to expect me to get my nails done for example (I hate polish on my nails) or appeared to want me to dress a certain way, so I wouldn't have a successful relationship with anyone who felt like that. It feels controlling and old fashioned to me. I totally accept that many other women wouldn't blink at Ashley's approach.

But I don't think either of these two is a particularly extreme version of anything. I just think they don't go well together so we're seeing their traits magnified through each other's eyes.

Yeah I think that’s what’s frustrating me about her, is that she does seem to have double standards at times. Seems to pick and choose her moments to engage with feminism.

Whilst I agree we don’t see all of what happens so we don’t know the full details, even if what you say is the case, I’m not saying she should pay for the entire meal. She could’ve offered to pay for some drinks etc. She didn’t give any indication she’d even offered.

Equally because we don’t see everything, we don’t know that Ashley is as presumptuous about sex as she makes him out to be.

They’re definitely not suited though, that’s for sure.

No, and I haven't been one of the posters who has found Ashley to be a giant red flag. I think he has some very common misconceptions about sex and consent that I'd love the experts to call out for the sake of the wider viewership but I don't think he is someone who would behave in any awful way based on what we've seen.

Yeah I think per his own description, he’s a bit old school and maybe needs to move into the modern era a bit more.

But I agree he doesn’t come across as someone who would behave badly or intentionally try and cause hurt.

I know it's heavily edited but Abi's mum (Penelope Wilton) saying she's soooo good at judging characters (even though her daughter has a succession of bad relationship presumably while her expert mother looked on)....and also saying she wanted to get to know John.

Well the only conversations shown between them were of her telling him what she expected of a man. Hardly getting to know him.
The only question that Mum/Penelope asked John was if he'd relocate down south to Bournemouth.

If I was Abi I'd move the 300 miles away to Flintshire as soon as I could.