Sexual Assault at First Sight

So, is anyone really surprised that a 'reality' TV format with a title like Married at First Sight has generated allegations of rape from some of the female participants?  As a non-viewer of this and other reality shows, it just seems obvious that this is a set-up that practically invites sexual abuse.  I mean, didn't the producers ever ask themselves exactly what sort of man would be attracted to participate such a show, with its implicit promise of virtually instant sexual gratification for them?  I couldn't help but laugh when I saw that various people involved with the show said that there had been too much emphasis on sex.  You don't say?  Like a lot of current 'reality' TV output, Married at First Sight is entirely based around the idea that the audience are a bunch of slaving, voyeuristic perverts who are only watching because they want to participate in the vicarious pleasure of imagining the contestants having sex with each other - the whole, implicit, question of who is going to shag who and when, is the mainspring of the format.  Not, of course, that the producers or the network will admit that, instead trying to claim that these formats represent some sort of sociological experiment.  Utter bullshit!  It's titillation, pure and simple.  Just look at another Channel Four format - Naked Attraction - whish is like Blind Date, but with the hopefuls having to select their potential mate on the basis of viewing various bits of their naked anatomies.  Titillation and sexual objectification, all in one package!  It's quite clear that the audience at home are being invited to look at the naked bodies - particularly the female ones - and say 'Yeah, I'd shag that'.  Talk about depersonalisation.

But Channel Four aren't the only offenders here.  Just look at ITV's Love Island.  Once again, it's an exercise in crude voyeurism, with the audience invited to ogle all those near naked beautiful bodies while speculating on who is going to 'do'  who and, no doubt, asking themselves who they'd 'do'.  It wouldn't be so bad if the makers of these shows were just honest about what they are really about: sex, voyeurism and the objectification of, primarily, women, reducing them simply to bodies to be lusted over and judged, rather than as people.  Perhaps they should just come up with a new format where all the guys are sex offenders and have semi-naked women paraded in front of them in order to see who breaks first and tries to rape one of the girls.  You can guarantee that there'd be guys at home urging some of them on - 'Go on, get in there, mate.  She's just gagging for it!'.  Or maybe they could have a format along the lines of Love Island, except that one of the girls is actually underage and see if the guys can work it out before they sleep with her.  Obviously, the 'attraction' behind all of these sex-based 'reality' TV shows, for both networks and audiences, is that they are dealing with 'taboo' subjects surrounding sex  - in much the same way that hardcore pornography's big draw is the promise of seeing real sexual intercourse take place, so it is with these shows, the promise of contestants 'doing it' for real.  It's pushing boundaries, the producers will say.  But what will they do when the novelty of 'ordinary people' shagging wears off?  Reality shows following serial killers around?  A version of The Traitors where one contestant is an actual psychopath and murders their rivals for real?  Or maybe live torture shows from the dungeons of some horrible dictatorship far from UK laws?  Viewers could take bets on which victim will last longest.  Quite frankly, nothing would surprise me these days.