You can’t like Love Island and #MeToo, top head tells girls

WOMEN must choose between Love Island and #MeToo because they cannot be in both camps, a top private girls’ school head has said.

Jane Lunnon, head of Wimbledon High in London, said the ITV dating show risks making women appear ‘trivial’ and is incompatible with feminist causes.

Love Island challenges good-looking bikini-clad young women to pair up with male contestants – often resulting in them having sex on TV. A number of female contestants have been ridiculed for showing an appalling lack of knowledge on current affairs.

Those who support campaigns such as the #MeToo movement should be challenging these shows rather than enjoying them, Mrs Lunnon said. She told the annual meeting of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference in Manchester: ‘Can we couple up – to use a Love Island term – Love Island and #MeToo? We might have to decide which camp we are in. If we want to be taken seriously … can we also be saying [about Love Island] “this trivial nonsense matters”?’

While her own pupils are keen to take on her message, she said other young girls appear to focus too much on their looks rather than their brains. She said: ‘There is so much around, “How do I look, how am I presenting myself” rather than, “What am I saying, what are my views, what are my values”.’