A lot of the time on Love Island, when the guys congregate together, things can get uncomfortable to watch.
On any given year, when they're sent away to Casa Amor, the "lads' holiday" mentality sets in and they'll often encourage each other to be unfaithful, irrespective of the strength of the couple that they might be in at the time.
One of the things that the show has always struggled to shake off has been its relationship with toxic masculinity, even among beloved contestants.
But it looks like that might be changing in series nine thanks to Shaq, one of the original islanders in the latest winter instalment of the show. In a way that feels unprecedented, he's more than willing to call out the behaviour of the other guys on the show, in a way that can – hopefully – lead to some meaningful changes in how the men interact with not only each other, but the women that they're coupled up with.
At the centre of this has been the drama between Ron and Lana, and the gulf between his words and his actions; constantly saying that she's his number-one priority, but rushing to get to know any bombshell that walks through the door.
As Shaq himself put it, the way that Ron has treated her is "out of order," and there's a lot in the exchange between the two of them that feels legitimately like it's breaking new ground for the show.
One of the most striking moments is the extent to which Ron struggles to take the idea of being held to account seriously; his first response when Shaq brings this up is to ask "are you joking?"
This is telling. It reveals just how unusual it is for the guys on Love Island to call each other out on their behaviour. What's admirable is the extent to which Shaq is willing to double down and insist that he isn't joking. And, more than that, Shaq's admonishment of Ron clearly comes from a place of empathy for Lana more than anything else – there's no sense of an ulterior motive, or a desire to drive a wedge between the on-off couple.
And that's one of the things that makes Shaq's honesty so important, not just for this series, but potentially for Love Island as a franchise: it shows an empathy that can feel all too rare in the villa, a desire to stick his neck out for someone that he isn't coupled up with for no reason other than the fact that it's the right thing to do.
And during this confrontation between Shaq and Ron, none of the other guys felt the need to interject or undermine Shaq – who insists that other guys also feel the same way as him when it comes to Ron's treatment of Lana.
This is one of the things that gives the impression Shaq is changing the game, not just that he's thinking these things, but that he's willing to vocalise them, and call people out when what they're doing is wrong, something that's vital when it comes to actually creating a space for people to change their behaviour, and maybe move the dial a little on how Love Island itself presents masculinity.
Which is what made Shaq's apology to Ron in a recent episode (February 2) feel like such a disappointment. When the two of them went for a chat, Ron stressed how much he respected Shaq, and how important it was that he was honest about the situation that's still ongoing. But Shaq ends up apologising, saying that he got too involved in something that he thinks, in the end, wasn't his business.
This is one of the big problems when it comes to accountability on Love Island: there's a strong temptation to think that any drama that doesn't involve you and/or the person you're coupled up with isn't your business, and that you shouldn't offer an opinion on it.
But it's exactly in those situations where speaking up is most important.
Related: Love Island's dumped Islander thinks Shaq and Tanya could split in Casa Amor
The concern here is that the chat between Ron and Shaq, and this apology, ends up setting a kind of precedent, stopping other Islanders (Shaq in particular) from offering up their opinions on the behaviour they witness. If this happens, then the door to changing the way that masculinity presents itself on Love Island will be slammed shut after barely being open at all.
In fact, it's the end of this most recent episode, and Shaq's response to the kissing challenge (Tanya won, which has rubbed Shaq the wrong way) shows just how difficult it is to actually hold people to account in the villa.
Shaq's reaction (in the words of other Islanders, he's "fuming") is to go to both Ron and Tom and ask if he's overreacting, and neither of them think that he is.
In contrast, all of the women talking to Tanya think that Shaq is overreacting, that it's just a challenge, and "not that deep".
What's ironic is that if there was someone else in the villa like Shaq, who'd previously made an impact by pulling up the lads, it might have been possible for him to feel more grounded about the aftermath of the challenge. And it's interesting that he has ended up going to two of the guys in the villa he has been most critical of.
Up until this point, Shaq's fair and reasoned bluntness has been not just a breath of fresh air, but a necessary change to the ways in which guys have acted in the villa, especially over the last couple of seasons.
There was real power to his willingness to ask the guys bluntly if they thought they'd done anything wrong. Seeing Shaq's own inability to process his feelings in a healthy way only brings into sharper focus how necessary this kind of accountability and willingness to be honest to the other guys is in the villa, and how difficult it is to just have one contestant to do that kind of emotional heavy lifting.
Love Island airs nightly on ITV2, and is available via catch-up on ITVX and BritBox.
