Love Island SA has once again been thrown into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons following a contestant, Camille Terreblanche, making a “joke” related to rape.
Community organisation, Keep The Energy, reached out to Cape Town Etc regarding the scene which aired on DStv.
“Many of our followers have raised concern about a rape joke made on a recent episode of @loveislandsa and we feel we should address it. We have tried to make contact with the Love Island SA team via Instagram before this post, but they have not responded and our comment is not visible on their posts by any other accounts,” the organisation said.
Watch the clip:
To add some context to the clip, the woman on the right, Millie (@millieterblanche), was talking to another “islander”, Tania. They spoke about Tania’s current relationship with Ross and how he would prefer to save himself for marriage.
They laughed and Millie is seen to say “rape him” as a response.
The episode now has been edited so that the remark is not included anymore, after Twitter users called Millie and Love Island SA out for the rape joke and for originally including it in the episode.
Keep The Energy continued:
“This post does not intend to incite bullying and hate towards Millie or Love Island SA, but no matter if you’re male or female, rape jokes are not funny and they contribute to rape culture.”
Taking this into consideration, Tania should be treated in the same regard as Millie, who not only ignored the comment but can be seen laughing along.
“Joking about rape and sexual assault assists in normalising these offences. A rape joke is a far cry from an actual incident of sexual assault, but think of the rape jokes as the foundation of the pyramid of rape culture.
“If you take away the foundation — if you create a situation where rape jokes are unacceptable, instead of a situation where victims feel forced to bite their tongues and bear it — then everything else will be a little bit less likely to take root and flourish. We call on Love Island SA and Camille Terreblance to apologise for this.”
According to Michael van Niekerk from Keep the Energy, followers have been asking for a response from the Love Island SA team, which have been ignored despite the show continuing to post actively on social media platforms. Comments about the rape jokes have also allegedly been deleted.
“We would not like this issue to die down and be swept under the carpet, because a rape joke is not funny but quite damaging,” said van Niekerk.
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