If you’re the sort of person who’s secretly mourning the absence of Love Island, then you’ve probably turned to Netflix’s Love Is Blind to numb the pain. And who can blame you? It’s both amazingly tacky and hopelessly addictive. But is love really blind? Can you actually find real true love without even setting eyes on your partner? Although the show does attempt to prove the thesis it’s entitled for, with less than half the episodes featuring the couples forbidden to see each other, it seems there’s a lot of factors to still be considered before we all go blundering around with our eyes shut on the search for true love. 

I completely agree with the premise of this the Love Is Blind show- why should we let physical features navigate us to a significant other when surely having a ‘type’ based on appearance just restricts our choices. If you date only the most stereotypically attractive people, you’re probably missing out on some vital personality compatibility. But, hey, if you’ve found both then congratulations from me.  

In ideal world, love would be blind. Sometimes, when you connect with a person’s personality first as friends and feel a spark, physical attraction does come later, you notice little details like how long their eyelashes are, or that they have colour changing irises in the sunlight. It’s ideal when you know someone’s character before being pathetically overwhelmed by their stunningly attractive features, only to later realise that they treat you like crap. Maybe we should all be making an effort to truly get to know people, even when you don’t see anything particularly soul-shattering about them upon first glance. 

However, I feel like the show’s set up of ‘the pods’ (in which you communicate with a potential partner through a wall without seeing them) could never lead to true genuine blind love. For starters, all the contestants on Love Is Blind are stereotypically attractive anyway, so whoever you pick based solely on the conversations, it doesn’t feel to me like a genuine representation of choosing personality over appearance. The pods also don’t work for the same reason talking to someone on the telephone couldn’t cause you to fall head over heels for someone. Although you could find initial similarities and common interests, there’s a huge gap in terms of connection. To fall in love, surely you need to judge their expressions and reactions; you need to feel comfortable in their physical presence. 

Maybe you can fall in love without seeing someone, but this would definitely take more time than the show permits. I also feel like a lot of the female contestants on this show, even if they did have lovely chats with a possible significant other, would ditch them instantly if their man was too short or for some other shallow reason. Try as we might to find genuine connection and not get dragged into petty obsessions with looks, if a person’s appearance really makes them an unattractive romantic partner for you personally, then there’s not a lot you can force. 

I believe should all attempt blind love, if only because the concept is so much more pure and perceptive. But when it comes down to it, physical connection counts too and, try as we might, this cannot be ignored.

Megan Johnson

Image credit: CNN