An advert for the new series of an Australian reality TV show featuring a man who wants to be obeyed and respected by his partner as the "alpha male" has led to accusations of sexism.

Released by Channel 9, the fifth series of the show Married at First Sight, billed as "Australia's biggest social experiment," will launch in January 2018.

Read more

The show uses various matchmaking methods to pair up complete strangers to get married, then follows their relationship. After several weeks, including a honeymoon, the couple must decide whether to stay together or go their separate ways.

Dean, the participant featured in the advert, is seen and heard discussing what he wants from his relationship - including bringing back the traditional alpha male role which has been "lost" in Australia.

He said: "It's hard to say without sounding sexist but I like a girl that is a girl – she's girly and knows that I'm the man and I'm in charge.

"Also I want someone that listens to me. I want to be the alpha male and she needs to respect me as the man. I think that's a traditional role that still exists in a lot of other countries in the world and Australia's lost that.

"A lot of guys are afraid to be men now and they're just getting whipped by their women. I don't agree with that, I don't know what that's happened, I want to bring it back."

The advert concludes by saying Dean wants to be loved, honoured... and obeyed.

The clip received a huge amount of backlash after it was posted on the show's official Twitter page on Thursday (14 December). It was accused of representing 1950s values, of being complicit in the problems of misogyny and sexism faced by society, and dubbed "straight out offensive", "insane" and "tone deaf" in today's world of the Me Too movement.

Writer Angela Cunning said: "It is very irresponsible and dangerous for commercial TV networks to effectively turn misogyny and mistreatment of women into a palatable play for ratings. Women deserve better. We *need* better."

See some more reactions below:

Australia