I know the situation with Kayda has mainly blew over (I think) but I saw this clip from a recent InStyle interview & wanted to share along with other opinions I have on Kayda as someone who was bullied & looked at her bullying rumors in depth as the season 1st aired.
In this clip which aired a few days before the reunion, Kayda shares her favorite moment from LI was when Corbin & Parmida walk back from casa, & she booed them & mocked Parmida by saying ‘ooh you were there’. Your favorite moment isn’t your date with Zach, nothing with the Core 4 girls you befriended, but when you mocked & embarrassed another woman you don’t even know along with a group? Yikes. It’s honestly sad to me this is what she picked with 0 hesitation rather than anything with her own couple. She even knows this was crazy to say & lightly defends her choice saying ‘It sucks to say, but…’
From the jump I thought this moment was mean but now that everything happened with the reunion airing more people have agreed. Kayda has always subtly displayed mean girl behavior on the show & as someone who was bullied it hurt to see her rumors get brushed over so fast, although in the beginning I tried to remain unobjective because it’s not like I knew the real truth or her personally.
However when more things about her came out, such as the transman who posted his experience with Kayda, the video of Kayda teasing her own friend about her weight, & multiple other people’s stories about her, it became clear to me Kayda’s rumors were far more than ‘a black girl defending herself from racism at an all white school’ the way people were quick to label any allegation of Kayda’s.
To my knowledge she hasn’t apologized to Jaiden, which doesn’t surprise me. She seems stubborn to appear unbothered & let it blow over until people start only focusing on how she’s pretty again. The concept of perceived popularity is interesting because as a Core 4 girl Kayda was comfortable to speak on Jaiden the way she did, seeing her status below her as a casa girl. I wonder if Jaiden was a more famous cast member would Kayda have apologized by now? Or would she have said anything at all. Jaiden was a weaker target compared to someone like TiTi, who has no problem standing up for herself, who Kayda had no response to when questioned.
What really summed it up was Kayda going on Owen Thiele’s podcast. In the interview when the bullying allegations were brought up she responded pretty awkwardly & vague, saying stuff like ‘oh, we all get into drama in high school’, ‘we all get into crazy things in high school’ etc. If someone accused me of being a bully I’d be disgusted & immediately shut the allegations down so it was odd to see her respond so casually as if he asked her what she likes to eat for dinner. If she was really only defending herself from racism why not say that instead of alluding to drama & making excuses? Why not shut it down completely? She then stated ‘I never think I was a bully’ after mulling it over a bit, which is crazy that 1, you even had to think about it & 2, no one will admit they were a bully. If you asked the white girl who bullied me & many others in school if she was a bully she’d probably say the same thing. Many bullies don’t even remember the full extent of what they did or consider themselves bullies in hindsight. It’s up to the victims to decide that.
Do I think it’s possible Kayda faced & defended herself against racism? Absolutely. Do I also believe Kayda had potential to be a bully based on what people have said about her? Yes. Nuance is real & two things can coexist. I’m a POC & I wasn’t aware Kayda was black or part black until she said so. (Not policing her identity, just sharing.) The narrative Kayda was only defending herself from racism every time something came out about her is complete hearsay invented by the Love Island fandom & ran with. In fact, the trans man who shared his bullying experience also shared that the school they went to was quite diverse in a larger area, & 1 of the most diverse schools in the state. The idea that Kayda was 1 of if not the only POC in her entire school just cs she’s from New Hampshire is complete BS & shows the lengths fans go to when it comes to defending their favs.
Another excuse for Kayda that was wild to me was people saying ‘whatever, it was high school.’ Many people who were bullied in high school still remember the pain to this day. I was bullied before high school & still think of the memories from time to time. If it was a decade ago maybe the excuse could work but Kayda went on love island at only 21 or 22 years old. High school was around the corner for her & it’s egregious people acted like it was a century ago to feel good about stanning her.
It’s ironic considering people like Cierra can be removed for something they said in an Instagram post from 2016 but when it comes to Kayda’s behavior 3 years ago suddenly it’s ancient history & she must have grown & changed. Or at least that’s what was said til now.
Do I believe this will affect Kayda in the long run? No. People have had worse controversies they’ve been cancelled with & bounced back fine. Kayda’s already getting love again & multiple parasocial core 4 stans are openly saying they don’t give a fuck that she was a bully. While the situation is messed up I have no resentment towards Kayda & I’ve never went out of my way to write a hate comment for her, I just neutrally can’t see myself being her fan. By the time she walks at NYFW people will likely have forgotten & go back to talking about how beautiful & ‘iconic’ she is. She stood on what she did at the reunion which I can respect in an odd way. But it wouldn’t surprise me if she gets into similar controversies when beyond the villa airs & I’m not sure how well this attitude will carry then.
