To the entire production team of Married at First Sight, this includes the casting department…How dare you! You should all be ashamed of yourselves. The ignorance, dated, backward storytelling is downright dangerous.
I write this with a heavy heart, and a sick feeling in my stomach.
Last night’s episode of Australia’s Married at First Sight made for uncomfortable viewing. It saw the marriage ceremony of Liam, 29 and Georgia, 25. If you’re unfamiliar with this show; it pairs two strangers together who were supposedly matched by “experts” and meet for the first time on their wedding day.
The Official MAFS Instagram page posted a 1.26 clip of Liam and Georgia’s wedding reception where Liam was outed as Bisexual. He was immediately met with laughter, gasps and “ooo’s” as if it’s a hilarious joke. When Liam confirmed that he is in fact Bisexual, he was again, met with laughter and whispers. As if to say, “Poor Georgia”, “How embarrassing”.
As someone who works within television production, it is our responsibility to:
1. look after the contributors to ensure that their wellbeing and whole self is protected.
2. It is our responsibility to showcase a cast that reflect the community which we all exist in.
3. Share stories in a way that is respectful, interesting, and powerful.
Married at First Sight is the most watched program in Australia when it’s on air. This fact alone has weight. It means that 1 million viewers witnessed the blatant biphobia displayed last night and laughed along. It reiterated to these viewers that this behavior is okay, which naturally encourages bullying.
The producing team used this information for their gain, they purposely took his bisexuality and made it into a story point which was engineered to make Liam feel uncomfortable, to isolate him, to make Georgia feel that she had to second guess his “masculinity” or “devotion to her” and put Liam in an extremely dangerous position.
THIS IS DANGEROUS.
This is not a safe environment, this is telling everyone from young to old, that this is an appropriate reaction to when someone is outed to their peers. This show has proved it’s not a safe environment for women and members of the LGBTQIA+ community time and time again. This is toxic.
I still get harassed, heckled, and threatened. It was only last month when I walked into a pub to use their restroom and was told that he’d take me outside and punch me in the face if I didn’t complete their COVID-19 sign in, he did this because he was threatened. He did this because he doesn’t see confident queer people and therefore, immediately felt the need to attack me. I am constantly placed in terrifying situations and Channel 9, I'll be placing the blame on you.
You have the opportunity to tell stories respectfully, you have the opportunity to share stories from all different, wonderful minorities and you choose not to, in fact you’re doing the opposite. You’re choosing violence, you’re telling the Australian public that it’s okay to behave like this. That it’s okay to taunt and violate people’s privacy.
I consider myself extremely lucky to have the job I do, it allows me to do better. It allows progressive change. My goal on every show I work on, is to work with minorities and showcase them in a positive light. Why? This normalizes their existence and by doing so, I hope it gives John in Toowoomba a different viewpoint, one that he hasn’t thought of before which places us all in a safer environment to co-exist in.
As of 2019, 38 reality stars had killed themselves after appearing on a reality television show. I want to ask the question to Channel 9 and the production company…
“What are you doing to ensure your contributors are safe, what are you doing to prevent more deaths?”.
We as viewers have a responsibility to ensure we do not engage in programs that showcase this kind of violence. Enough is enough.
Be kind, be respectful, do better.
Sandy McIntyre x
