u/HowlingHollows

At my gf's best friend's apartment, I was curious and asked gf's friend to put on Love Island, which I had never watched. She was very excited and keeps up with it, and so does my gf's other friend who was there.
She had us watch through one of the challenges. To start one, an islander (not a host) is required to be very loud and excited. I'm told they have to announce it this way; it's required by the show. The challenges consist of islanders being ordered to kiss and hump multiple partners (some of which are not the partner they are seeking) before the audience of themselves, camera crew, and the broader viewership of this show. Women were even surprised by a man (a new islander) they had never met or seen, in a small backroom on the set, whom they were then to kiss. The whole time I was thinking, "this is not consensual. All of these people do not want to kiss ALL of these other people." At the same time, her friends are loving it and talking about how hot certain people are. My gf doesn't like the show, to clarify, and finds it vapid.

I brought up some of my concerns to her friends and they brushed them off, saying that certain islanders had said they didn't want to kiss before and performed some less intimate action instead.

Quick google search the next day pulled up this legal journal documenting how former producers are whistle-blowing, and how some of the showrunners allegedly watched naked contestants in the shower and pressured women into sexual acts:
https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/lawandarts/announcement/view/842

I also found this reddit post where a former victim saw what she identified as potential SA that still aired on the show:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LoveIslandTV/s/8XdEveZUnY

Didn't we put all this in the past with #Metoo?
This show's success hinges on a patriarchal fantasy, namely that women want to have sex with any man that's hot. It also relies on a fundamental misconception that contracts are entered into freely and protect both parties equally.

There cannot be consent if it's reality TV (if there's money on the table) in the same way that there cannot be consent with someone who is drunk, underage, or drugged. This will remain true as long as poverty and economic desperation exist in our societies.

I am a veteran after serving four years from 2020-2024. At my unit in the fleet, I was required to route an 'appointment chit' up my chain of command before I could attend any medical, legal, auto maintenance appt, etc. This process entailed that during work hours I independently sought out my fireteam leader, squad leader, and Platoon Sergeant. Each would check our calendar, ask what the appointment was for (as detailed as "dental" or "mental health" in these conversations) and deny the appointment if it conflicted with certain daily tasks. Our schedule wasn't known more than a week ahead of time. Detailed plans of the day changed on a days' notice.

We were given "admin time" after work to conduct the task of routing chits and taking appointments. Medical offices would often be closed, so a denial meant waiting to call during business hours, write a new chit, and route again. Many marines in the chain would often have left by admin time. I regularly had appointments denied multiple times, put off for months.

I was surprised to hear in my recent conversations with my friend that this seems like a common thing in my oc field. A friend who is a Sgt and is still in says he has had to reschedule a dental appointment 3 times, and his unit recently "canceled" a peer's mental health appointment because it was to take place on the Friday of a range. Within his battalion, he says it is policy is to give a page 11 to Marines who miss 2 medical appointments.

Early in my time at that unit, the nature of these appointments would be stated ("Medical," "Dental," "Legal" - with a building location) on a Plan of the Day published to the unit. After 2 years like this, the unit leadership saw fit to list appointments on the documents as "Personal."

While I was in, I certainly resented that so many people in my unit knew my personal business. I think if I were still in now, I would never have given detailed information out to many of the above parties.

More importantly, is this common among active duty Marine Corps units? Could this have been a policy pushed by the Battalion or Division Commander, or as small scale as a unit's Officer in Charge? Am I correct in assuming that certain aspects of the above constituted HIPAA violations?