Venus Calls Out the 'Misogyny' in This Season of 'Survivor'

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 4, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | April 4, 2024 |

We haven’t written much about this season of Survivor, so far, and that’s mostly because it’s been a bad season that’s only now beginning to get interesting. The first half of the season was largely dominated by one terrible tribe, Yanu, and the three terrible players it voted off, but mostly Bhanu, an actual soul vampire who dominated the first four episodes of play.

In the wake of this week’s merge, things are finally getting interesting because they largely pit two former tribes against each other, with the depleted Yanu tribe in the middle and holding much of the power. It’s an interesting dynamic where the three players from the weakest tribe are now in a position to dictate who goes home, at least in the short term.

In this week’s episode, before the official merge, there’s a random draw where basically seven players are pitted against the other six before they are all merged. The way the random draw broke down essentially put all of the physically strong players on one side against the less physical players, and it just so happened that fully five people in a planned six-person alliance — and all the members of Yanu — ended up on the strong physical side. It meant that, at the tribal council, they were all immune, which created an interesting and unique dynamic in modern Survivor, where typically, the remaining physical threats often become the first targets post-merge.

That may hold true in next week’s episode, but for now, the strongest physical players are not only immune but have formed a tenuous alliance, destined ultimately to fall apart once they turn on each other. In the meantime, all the players had to choose from among the more physically weak players to vote out this week. Of course, in the Survivor of the last ten seasons or so, the first people to be targeted are often those who otherwise might have the best shot at winning the game. It’s a weird reversal where mediocrity often prevails because the lesser players gang up on the better players, which paradoxically encourages stronger players to downplay their strengths, both physical and social.

All of which brings us to this week’s episode and a tweet from a player named Venus:

Venus was pigeonholed early on — in the first episode, in fact — as the pretty one and the “Parvati” of this season because anyone who is attractive is going to use their beauty to vanquish all the men because that’s what attractive women do. Obviously, because everything we ever learned about women comes from the Greek myths. In this week’s episode, with no major physical threats to go after, they had to choose other reasons to vote someone off, and the two names that surfaced were Venus and Moriah. (Spoilers below).

Moriah was targeted — and ultimately voted out — because she’s apparently the player with the most knowledge of the game, which makes her a big threat. I guess. Venus was targeted because she’s aggressive and outspoken, and — I guess — because those characteristics combined with being pretty make her “untrustworthy.” In some ways, maybe Venus should be flattered that she’s being targeted because she is a dangerous player. On the other hand, the reason why people think she’s dangerous is because she is pretty and outspoken, which are traits that do not make male players “untrustworthy” or big threats. Or gain a nickname like “Princess.”

I won’t make any bones about it: Hunter is my favorite player. He’s my favorite player because he’s smart, because he’s a good guy who turned down a career in medicine to be a teacher, and because, if he survives long enough, he may become the greatest challenge beast the game has ever seen. He’s also kind of hot, which weirdly doesn’t make him “untrustworthy.” Hmmm. But also, as soon as the players exorcise their misogyny and out Venus, they’re immediately going to go after Hunter because it’s clear he’s the biggest threat in the game.

Unless, of course, it was never about big threats to begin with.