What do the Married at First Sight rape claims tell us? That reality TV is sometimes all too real | Gaby Hinsliff

A woman says no to a sexual act, but her partner proceeds anyway, dismissing her feelings. Three former brides from a reality dating show report rape and other sexual misconduct by their on-screen husbands, including violent temper and an alleged threat of an acid attack. The accused men deny the allegations. The accounts are framed as part of a broader pattern of emotional harm caused by shows that pair strangers and intensify pressure, then expose participants to months of hostile scrutiny on social media. The piece also notes online speculation about identities and accused individuals, increasing the risk of further harm.

"She said no. She didn't want it, she made that very clear, but he did it anyway; pushing her feelings aside as though they didn't. It's a story so depressingly common that most women probably carry a private version of it in their heads, either buried in their own memories or confided to them by a friend. But still, there's something profoundly shocking about the idea of it happening right under the noses of a TV audience."

"Lizzie and Chloe (not their real names) both say they were raped by their on-screen husbands and, in Lizzie's case, also subjected to alarmingly violent outbursts of temper and an alleged threat of an acid attack while Shona Manderson, who has spoken publicly, accuses hers of sexual misconduct. All three men, it should be said, deny the allegations."

"Long before this story broke, the risks inherent in putting human beings through the emotional shredder for the sake of an evening's mindless telly were already crystal-clear. It's hard to disagree with Caroline Dinenage, the chair of parliament's culture select committee, that Married at First Sight was an accident waiting to happen, given the way it blurs boundaries by pushing total strangers into bed with each other."

"But it's hardly alone in exposing contestants first to the psychological pressure cooker of the show itself, and then for the unlucky ones to months of being brutally picked apart on social media afterwards. (Already, a dangerous online guessing game has begun over the identities of Lizzie and Chloe and their anonymous accused husbands, alongside some grim argument"

Read at www.theguardian.com