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Love Island fans come to Rebecca's defence after 'slut-shaming' by trolls

Rebecca Gormley, 21, is a contestant on Love Island
Rebecca Gormley, 21, is a contestant on Love Island

Love Island fans came to the defence of Rebecca Gormley following Wednesday’s show.

The 21-year-old model, from Newcastle, was criticised by online trolls after revealing she’s had sex with ‘20-30 men’ to newcomer Ched Uzor.

As the hashtag ‘Rebecca is 21’ started trending on Twitter with negative comments about her admission, women and men came to her defence and called out those who were outraged by the number.

The original exchange began when Ched told the Geordie contestant he was apprehensive about telling his crush Jess that he’d slept with 40 women.

Rebecca then reassured him, saying “that’s not even bad”, before revealing her own ‘body count’ number and making it clear that she wasn’t embarrassed by it.

Given Ched’s similar admission of having slept with lots of people, viewers called out the sexist double standards in the tweets.

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One fan said: “If she was a guy we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Stop slut shaming, it’s boring, sexist and so outdated.”

READ MORE: Love Island's Jess failing when she tried to flirt is all of us

Another said: “People are so shocked that Rebecca is 21 and has slept with 30 people but don’t give a f*** when one of the boys is the same age and has slept with 50-100 people, such big sexist double standards.”

A third added: “Anyone having a pop at Rebecca for being 21 and having slept with 20-30 guys needs to have a word with themselves. If that was a guy there would be nothing said.”

READ MORE: Taylor Swift opened up about being slut-shamed and the double-standard for women artists

Of course it’s not the first time the ‘body count’ question has come up - it’s a regular feature of the reality show, and earlier in the season the boys all revealed the number of people they’ve slept with.

Flo Perry, author of How To Have Feminist Sex, said: “Sleeping with more than the average number of people - that’s seven over a lifetime in the UK - shouldn't carry moral judgement.”

She told Yahoo Celebrity UK: “Sleeping with many people can be a positive life experience. It can deepen your understanding of your own sexuality, show you that no two human bodies are the same, improve your confidence, and most of all be really fun.”

“One night stands and short term relationships can add value to your life and give you happy memories, and as long as you use protection, it's a much lower-risk hobby than skiing. No need to buy ugly trousers either," she said.

Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2.