FBoy Island Australia host and Aussie entertainment powerhouse Abbie Chatfield has continued to champion the fight for diversity in reality TV. This time around, the professional fuck boy buster has spilled on what she reckons needs to be done to promote diversity on Aussie screens, as well as her true thoughts on FBoy Island‘s Season Two casting.
Growing up in Australia as the daughter of Filipino immigrants, it was bloody rare to see minorities play major roles on reality TV. Actually, scratch that, Australian TV in general. From my memory, the only representation I saw was Kathleen De Leon Jones (my lord and saviour) on Hi-5. Alongside the lack of BIPOC, it was extremely rare to see any form of body diversity — especially on dating shows.
It’s something Abbie Chatfield — who rose to fame on perhaps the least diverse dating show in history, The Bachelor — takes seriously.
“I think in terms of racial diversity, [FBoy Island’s first season] was the most diverse dating show that Australia has seen, I think,” she told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“I do think it was 1/3 of the cast as people of colour, which is virtually unheard of in Australia unfortunately,” she added. “This year is equally as good.”
For those woefully unfamiliar, FBoy Island flips the narrative on dating shows — or perhaps it’s just more honest. Three women looking for love try to find their match among 24 men, half of whom are there for the $50,000 prize and reality TV fame. In other words, they’re fuck boys, and it’s up to the leading ladies to spot them from the genuine ones.
It’s messy, it’s chaotic and it hands the women the upper hand when it comes to the dating scene.
The FBoy Island Australia Season Two includes leading lady Krystal Thomas, who has Caribbean heritage, and contestant Minjarrah Jarret, a First Nations musician who has performed with hip-hop collective Indigenoise. The rest of the cast includes a TiKTok star, a stripper, and a youth worker, who will be fighting to win the love of Krystal and fellow leading ladies Ally Woodfall and Nicole Mitrov.
Despite the strides, Chatfield reckons FBoy Island — and Australian reality TV more broadly — still have far to go, particularly in terms of body diversity.
“I think body types is somewhere we can have more diversity but I think the casting is pretty bloody good for an Australian reality show called FBoy Island,” she continued, adding that season two will feature two contestants with different body types.
I’m not going to lie, I am super excited to watch our body-diverse contestants take on the love interest roles! It’s so bloody refreshing.
With Abbie Chatfield’s fight for diversity on Aussie screens, I would absolutely loooooove to see an FBoy Island jam-packed with body-diverse contestants. Especially if one of the leading women were to be a plus-size contestant!
Fingers crossed FBoy Island Season Three delivers on that dream.
The post FBoy Island’s Abbie Chatfield Calls For More Body Diversity On Aussie Reality TV appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
