Last week Zara Holland was stripped of her title as Miss Great Britain when ITV2 reality show ‘Love Island’ aired scenes of her having sex with fellow contestant Alex Bowen. Since her ‘de-crowning’ over 16,900 fans have signed an online petition to have her re-instated and the pageant has been accused of ‘living in the dark ages’ and treating Holland unjustly.
‘De-crowning’
Holland was publicly stripped of her title with a Twitter statement put out by the Miss Great Britain organisers. In the statement the pageant said it prides itself on promoting strong, positive, female role models and they could no longer allow Holland to hold their title.They added that they understood that everyone makes mistakes, but as the ambassador for Miss Great Britain they felt Hollanddid not uphold the responsibility expected of the title.
“I’ve done nothing wrong”
On Tuesday, less than a week after her ‘de-crowning’ Holland spoke to The Sun and said she felt she had done nothing wrong by having sex with Bowen during ‘Love Island’. She also said she hadn't “committed a crime” so why should the title be taken from her?Holland also stated that Miss GB had given her a letter of permission saying she could do ‘Love Island’ and that she hadn’t been told she couldn't have sex on the show.Despite sayingin their statement that Miss GB would talk to Holland upon her return to the UK, the 20-year-old says she hasn't heard from anyone and all she saw was the public statement on twitter.
Harsh punishment
The online petition calling for Holland’s reinstatement calls stripping her of the crown a “harsh punishment” over a “silly little mistake." As Holland herself has said, she was only doing something that hundreds of girls do every week, the only difference being she did it on national television.
Living in the dark ages
After Holland was stripped of her crown ‘Love Island’ host Caroline Flack tweeted: “What even is 'Miss GB' ? Are we living in the dark ages?” With over 16,900 fans signing the petition to have Holland re-instated it seems Flack’s views are echoed across the country. Does a pageant have the right to shame a woman for having sex and call her out for being a ‘bad role model?’ In 2016 it really shouldn’t.
