In recent times, I often finish my day needing an escape from reality. So I often find myself partaking in the guilty pleasure of reality TV. I used to be a viewer of Big Brother when reality TV was a new concept, and touted as a ‘social experiment’. But that soon lost its shine when I realised I was just gawping at the lives and relationships of others, rather than learning something about the human condition. And so I didn’t bother with much reality TV for a long time. However, it seems that gawping entertains me more these days.
TV channels are now packed full of slightly trashy shows like Married at First Sight (both the Australian and the UK versions, but the Australian is best), The Ultimatum, and Love is Blind. They make for some seriously easy watching. But whilst I’ve been watching a recent season of Love is Blind, I’ve become acutely aware of the role that alcohol plays in producing entertainment. Any seasoned Love is Blind viewer will immediately recognise the signature gold wine goblets. They appear in every show, and apparently that’s because they make continuity easier when editing scenes, because you can’t see the colour or quantity of the liquid inside. But for me, the gold goblet symbolises the ever-presence of booze, and represents its central role in the show.
Now, I have to admit that I am teetotal. I gave up drinking alcohol over 2 years ago after realising it was an unhealthy, unnecessary addition to my life. I don’t miss it one bit; I’ve never felt clearer headed, happier, and more present in my own life. Many people might assume that means I’m now really judgmental about their alcohol intake, and that I’m, perhaps, a little bit boring now. It doesn’t. Honestly, all it means is I don’t drink anymore. And in reality, life is significantly less boring now I’m not numb to all the experiences where I’d normally be supping something boozy.
But quitting the booze has really opened my eyes to the role of alcohol in western society. In learning to stop loving alcohol, I had to learn more about it; what it was doing to my body, how it was detrimental to human health and just how addictive it is. But the biggest surprise for me, was just how much alcohol is both normalised and pushed down our throats. It’s everywhere! You only need to look at the beautiful beach-side people in alcohol adverts to see the insinuation that if you’re not drinking, you can’t really be enjoying life as much as those who are.
There are also schools of thought that propose that alcohol is used as a tool of oppression – Holly Whitaker’s Quit Like a Woman discussed the idea that the war on drugs was a racist act, stripping cultures of their ceremonial substances, replacing them with alcohol, whose use has just continued to proliferate with the approval (and profiteering) of the western governments. And when alcohol is one of the most dangerous drugs, causing the deaths of 7565 people in 2019 in the UK, compared with just 2883 deaths in the same year from drug misuse, it seems so unethical that this promotion is allowed.
In TV shows like Love is Blind, alcohol is quite clearly being used to manipulate and control the participants. For those who don’t know about the concept of the show, here’s a quick summary; a bunch of men looking to meet their spouse live together, whilst a bunch of women also looking for their spouse also all live together. The men and women meet potential partners from the other group, one by one, in ‘pods’ which are cosy little rooms from which they can hear their potential partner on the other side of a screen, but not see one another. The idea is that they will then meet those individuals they are interested in again and again until they hopefully fall in love, and decide to marry one another, ‘sight unseen’. Sounds like a recipe for drama even without any alcohol involved, right? But once the participants have decided on a partner to marry, there are boozy meetups galore. And it’s obvious what excessive amounts of alcohol, plus insecure new relationships are going to add up to: more drama. The glazed look in the eyes of a particular participant whilst mid-nonsensical argument about flirtations with a fellow participant felt oh-so-familiar from my era of boozy nights out, which would often end in over-emotional tiffs about something trivial. But without these alcohol fuelled tiffs, flirtations and mistakes being made, it wouldn’t be so entertaining, right?
“But the participants don’t have to drink!” I hear you exclaim. I think this is one of the biggest myths about alcohol. Even just one drink reduces our control and inhibitions. Humans are inherently drawn to activities that provide our monkey brains with pleasure. But once the inhibitions have been turned off by that first drink, it’s hard to know when to stop. Perhaps this is why producers of Love Island, the infamous British dating reality TV show, decided to limit the amount of alcohol their participants are allowed to consume. Dr Alex George, an NHS doctor and former Love Island contestant, revealed that alcohol consumption is limited to just 4 small cans of lager, while other former contestants state they were only allowed 1 or 2 glasses of wine. Whilst I can’t find any reasons for why this rule was put into place, Dr Alex did surmise that it is “so important that popular TV shows reflect safe practices when it comes to drinking”. And I couldn’t agree more.
I would also question the ethics around plying participants of such TV shows with alcohol. When we know that inhibitions are lost after alcohol consumption, how can producers be sure that consent, for example, is still valid. This is a really important point when we are looking at this in the context of a dating show, where intimacy occurs. Surely something as important as consenting to an intimate act, on television nonetheless, couldn’t be pushed to one side in the name of entertainment? Could it?
I know, I know. I’m standing on my soapbox, bemoaning these booze fuelled episodes of Love is Blind, and I could just stop watching. But in an age where the sober curious movement is going from strength to strength, and we’re ever more aware of the importance of both consent after the #metoo movement, and the impact of reality TV on participants’ mental health, maybe it’s time to follow in the footsteps of Love Island, and cut down or even consider ditching the alcohol in reality TV shows.
thevegandoctor.co.uk 