Love Is Blind UK proves that love isn't blind at all, but lust can be


I’ve been hooked on Love Is Blind since it first launched in the US in 2020, and I’ve loyally binge-watched every series that followed. When it was first announced there was going to be a UK version I was super excited, and I’ve spent months counting down to its release.
But, I’m only one episode in I’m considering whether I want to watch any more. There’s one main reason for this - the contestants are all obsessed with their looks.
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Hide AdThe show is supposed to be about people forming deep and meaningful connections based on personalities alone. It’s supposed to be wholesome and warm hearts. But what I’ve seen so far has left me cold.
The men and women each live in seperate areas and go in to pods to date each other. Here, they can have conversations for hours on end but - crucially - they can’t see each other. If they strike up a strong bond, they become engaged and only then can they meet face-to-face and see what each other looks like.
After four weeks of fast-tracked dating, including a holiday together, meeting each other’s friends and family and moving in together, they then decide on their wedding day if they actually do want to say ‘I do’, get married and commit to a life together.
Part of the reason why it’s been so successful, and is so gripping for so many viewers like myself, is that it’s so raw and real. Unlike other dating shows, there’s no gimmicks, no tasks set for the contestants . . . and any resulting marriages are genuine. It’s a true journey of human emotion and connection that everyone can relate to.
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Hide AdBut, the key factor is that it tests whether or not people can fall in love based on personality and values alone. It is completely unique in that sense - but the UK daters seem more determined than their US counterparts to ruin that because they can’t seem to help but talk about their looks.
Within the first half an hour of episode one, one male contestant had told his date that she would be very impressed if she could see him. He didn’t give away any specifics about his looks, granted, but he was still using the idea of his looks being very pleasing, shall we say, to ensure she was interested in him. It made my heart sink.
Then, another male contestant told the producers in a one-on-one interview that he often gets told he looks like musician Craig David. I admit I haven’t watched all the episodes that are available yet, but I’m sure that he’ll end up sharing that piece of information with a date soon too.
That also makes me cringe as it brings back awful memories from the most recent series from the US version, where one contestant managed to secure herself a husband by telling him she looked like actress Megan Fox . . . only for him to then cruelly tell producers that he felt like he’d been misled after he proposed to her and they met. She was also subject to horrendous trolling online which is inexcusable.
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Hide AdI don’t understand why these men and women find it so hard to not mention anything about their appearance. They all know what show they’ve signed up for, and they’ve all gone in to it declaring that they are fed up of being judged for their looks . . . So, I’m utterly baffled as to why they then take the first opportunity they can to talk about their apperance.
There’s part of me that thinks that it actually shines a light on just how terribly superficial our society has become. Can they almost not help it because we’ve all become conditioned to believe that physical attractiveness is one of the most important things, if not the most important thing, when it comes to building romantic relationships? So, they feel that they have to give that confirmation that they are indeed nice to look at, and panic they may be rejected if they don’t?
If that’s the case, then we have to wonder if any of us really believe that love actually can be blind. That’s such a depressing thought. One thing it has proved to me though is that lust can be blind.
Once people have spoken about their looks and given their match an idea of what they look like, that person then builds a fantasy of them in their head, and lust can definitely grow from this idealised image. I’ve seen that happen in previous US series’ of Love is Blind - especially with the aforementioned Megan Fox incident - and I can see it starting to happen again in the UK version.
I just hope that this time that the fantasy translates well in reality and true love connections can actually form, but I’m not holding out much hope.
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