Offft, last night’s Married At First Sight episode was a doozy and a half. Welcome back to MAFS Lessons, the only class you’ll enjoy attending. Today’s lesson is all about slut-shaming and it involves Stacey, Michael, David and Hayley.
If you love Married At First Sight, make sure you check out this episode of It’s Been A Big Day For…
Here’s what you need to know, Hayley is partnered up with David, and Stacey is partnered with Michael. There was a cheating incident at a nightclub involving Hayley and Michael, with all the drama unfolding as they talked about it at the dinner party. What proceeded is a pile-up on Hayley from David, Michael and Stacey. And while Hayley is at fault here, she doesn’t deserve to be attacked from all these people and is definitely a victim in her own right. Let’s unpack this.
He-Said-She-Said: Hayley vs. Michael
When Michael stood up at the dinner party to give “his” side of the story, the narrative became a he-said-she-said situation. Hayley had previously gone to Stacey to tell her of what had happened, while Michael tactically waited until he was at the place that would have the most dramatic effect. Michael denies ever kissing Hayley, before following it up with “I can’t remember exactly everything that happened that night.” Regardless, he admits to cheating in one form or another. While Michael potentially doesn’t remember what had happened, the result of this he-said-she-said debacle put doubt in the credibility of anything Hayley said and painted Michael in a relatively, positive light.
Slut-Shaming: Hayley vs. Stacey
After Michael finishes his monologue, Stacey goes off at Hayley. She yells across the table, “Why were you even out with my husband, alone? I was home with my children in bed at 10 pm.” And you know what, that’s fair. But then she says, “No one here is ever going to trust their husband around you now,” to which Hayley replies, “He’s no better than I am,” which is very true. Hayley seems to be copping all the blame from this situation when Michael is very much at fault here too. Stacey then says, “You have no respect for me, shut up” and “You’ve just ruined a relationship, yes he’s a dickhead and he parties, you were encouraging vulnerable Michael.” The keyword here, vulnerable. Now, now, let’s not get it twisted, Michael is not vulnerable, even the other participants can see. Yet another situation where the cheating woman cops the blame but the cheating man gets off scot-free.
The Pile On: Hayley vs. David
Then comes the most stomach-churning revenge in tv history. At the dinner party, it is revealed that after hearing of Hayley’s actions, David takes Hayley’s toothbrush, dips it in the toilet and scrubs the bowl clean. Now, I don’t know about you, but I think David is a literal psychopath. Sure, Hayley did a shitty thing, but she didn’t deserve that. There are very few people in the world that deserve that.
Now, let’s be real, Hayley did a shitty thing, and yes she has every right to cop a yelling from Stacey. But Michael is very much to blame here. He’s not vulnerable, he’s a manipulator of emotions. And David, well, David needs to get out of this experiment because I am literally done with anyone that thinks that that prank is in any way okay. From now on, let’s try and not focus on blaming the woman because it takes two to cheat and this situation is reeking of 50’s sexist bullsh*t.
If you haven’t done your MAFS homework, make sure you catch up on previous lessons. So far, we’ve learnt about gaslighting, why adults still need supervision, how to meet people in a socially acceptable way and also how crappy friends can ruin a relationship.
Always be in the loop with our snackable podcast breaking the biggest story of the day. Subscribe to It’s Been A Big Day For… on your favourite podcast app.