Survivor 51 broke a longstanding record in episode five, with six women voted out in a row for the first time in the show's history. Surprisingly, the fan base has been more understanding of this trend than usual, noting how hard this cast has been playing, and that the women have proven to be much bigger strategic and social threats overall than the men. However, there has been a great deal of discussion around the decision made by Jelly Loblack, who brought the conversation to the forefront again in this episode, after previously mentioning in the premiere that she did not want to vote a woman out first. For better or for worse, small tribes force players to make very difficult decisions, as we saw on the dwindling Savu tribe, where there were two members of each starting tribe, three of whom (Jelly, Devin Way, and Ori Jean-Charles) were a part of the early "helicopter" alliance that formed on the beach day one, leaving Alexis Levine as the odd person out. But Jelly felt conflicted. She wanted to keep her agreement with the other Black players in the game to work together, but she did not want to send another woman home either, and with only three other players remaining on her tribe, her desires were at odds with one another, as she could not save both groups. She ultimately chose to stay with her original alliance, which was a very reasonable, strategic decision. Voting out Devin would have risked alienating Sharonda Cox, the remaining member of their alliance not on Savu tribe, as well as Brady Booker and Mike Pinsky, who were closely aligned with both Jelly and Devin on their original Toka tribe. Voting out Alexis meant nobody would be upset with her, and she maintained her position as the most insulated person on her tribe, as it appears both Ori and Devin would vote for each other over Jelly if they went to tribal again, leaving her as the decision maker. It also gives them an opportunity to shield the helicopter alliance from detection, by claiming Devin used his extra vote to send Alexis home. In contrast, keeping Alexis in the game would have left Jelly vulnerable to being voted out, as Alexis had every incentive to discard Jelly over her original tribe member, Ori, who has somehow been excluded from any conversation around this vote, despite being a key decision maker, no doubt in part because the show neglected to share his opinion on who to vote out. Jellly has become the scapegoat for the Alexis vote, but without Ori, it only becomes a tie, so the fact that Jelly seemed to weigh the decision heavily implies that Ori at least indicated that he was open to keeping Alexis over Devin, as it would not have been a plausible option for Jelly at this vote otherwise. But, as is often the case, the blame has fallen solely on Jelly's shoulders, as she is the woman who had a say in this vote, and expressed a desire to keep more women in the game, although that was not in line with the ultimate choice she made. While this is one of the more egregious cases, considering that it should be very easy for someone who understands the value of keeping more women in the game to also understand the value in keeping Black players in the game, especially considering that there are still fewer Black players in the game than women, unfortunately, female contestants facing backlash for choosing to prioritize their game over female solidarity is a longstanding tradition in the online Survivor community.
When Chrissy Hofbeck played on Survivor 35, she was lambasted by fans and her fellow castaways for choosing to align with the men over the younger women after the tribe swap, even though the path she chose took her all the way to second place, and very well could have resulted in a win if not for the fire-making twist being forced on the players at the last minute, depriving us of what would have been the first and likely last final three where any of the three finalists could have had a chance at the win. The close alliance that she made on her starting tribe with Ashley Nolan, who became one of two jurors who cast their vote for Chrissy to win, apparently held no weight. The fact that the men she chose to work with were JP Hilsabeck, one of her original allies on her starting tribe, who was a strong, loyal, and trustworthy ally, and Ryan Ulrich, who was a member of an opposing tribe, but chose to send Chrissy an idol that would guarantee her safety at the first tribal council (which there was good reason to assume she needed, considering she vomited at the challenge in front of the other tribes), also held no weight with critics. Chrissy was a woman in the game, and an older one at that, in Survivor terms, and therefore had a moral obligation to work with the younger women on her tribe, even though they had very little to offer her in the game, compared to the male alternatives for elimination on their tribe. Several years later, Karla Cruz Godoy faced similar personal attacks and hate, with online fans pushing a narrative that she hated women, and was disproportionately voting them out of the game, even though her actual track record showed she voted for men more often than many of her fellow castaways.
Even previously well liked female players are not safe from the fans' ire in this regard. After finding herself on the bottom at her first tribal council, and saving herself with a successful shot-in-the-dark play at her third, Mary Zheng became a major fan favorite and underdog that fans were rooting for on season 48. Although she entered the swap with no true allies, quickly become the last member of her original starting tribe standing, and was in no position to be turning down allies, as soon as she found an opportunity to ingratiate herself and ensure her safety by working with David Kinne, she faced major backlash online, with her popularity scoring decreasing by fourteen percent in the weekly poll that the Survivor Fact Checker runs on Instagram. In this case, there was not even a female alliance that she had the opportunity to join, but declined-- she just did not make the move fans wanted her to make, but fans used feminist sounding language to make the criticism more legitimate, suggesting that she was interested in David romantically, and trying to seek his approval. While the circumstances of the backlash were slightly different, as there was more to the dynamic of the season than men and women working against each other, it was similarly indicative of the entitlement fans feel to tell women how they should play the game.
It is understandable that fans enjoy rooting for the underdog, and are therefore often overjoyed to see an alliance of all women viciously blindside the men, one after another. But even on the rare occasion when a women's alliance does win out, only one of the women in the alliance is able to ultimately win the game. Starting a women's alliance worked out great for Parvati Shallow, but the rest of the Black Widow Brigade's members still ultimately lost, and Eliza Orlins was not even included, becoming the first member of the jury. Kim Spradlin may have won playing one of the most dominant games in the history of the show, with the help of her all female alliance, but they did not share similarly in her success. Alliances only succeed as a group when at least some members are making decisions that ultimately cost them the game. And judging a player for choosing not to work with an alliance that does not give them the best chance of winning is unreasonable and unfair, especially considering how quick fans can be to judge players who do stick with an alliance that the audience can see does not benefit them, if the audience happens to be rooting against that group, such as when Laurel Johnson chose to go to the final three with Wendell Holland and Domenick Abbate on Ghost Island, or more recently, when Mitch Guerra chose to stick with the group known as the honor and integrity alliance on 48, even though both players frequently voiced a willingness to potentially make a move in confessionals.
As much as fans may think it is feminist to vocally want to see women do well, when female players face pressure to work with the other women on their tribe regardless of what is best for their game, it only makes the game more difficult for them to navigate than it is for their male counterparts, making it more difficult for them to win, if they cave to the pressure. Men get to make the moves that are best for them, while women are expected to make the moves that are best for all of the women on the beach, putting men at an advantage. Survivor is not a game for the greater good. It is a game in which lying, backstabbing, and deceiving others is not only allowed, but encouraged. There is a large cash prize that only one person takes home.
While many feminists, including myself, have been highly critical of the trending mentality deemed "choice feminism" which considers anything a woman does as a feminist act, as long she makes a choice, Survivor is not a feminist game. Feminism is a movement seeking to liberate women as a collective group, which requires solidarity to succeed (hence why the movement has unfortunately made virtually no progress in recent years). Survivor, by contrast, is an inherently individualistic, competitive, dirty game. Because it is a social experiment, there can be circumstances where the willingness of the players to put the game over their real life morals are tested, such as on Island of the Idols, when Janet Carbin chose to vote out Dan Spilo even though it was not the right move for her game, because she heard that he was repeatedly touching the younger female contestants in ways that made them uncomfortable, and felt that protecting them was more important than her shot at winning the million dollars. But when it comes to decisions that strictly regard game, it is impossible to uplift others without hurting oneself. Every person who signs up to play is there for themself, and succeeding at the expense of others' failures is an inherent component of the game. Expecting women to make choices to help other women get further in the game rather than making the choices they believe will give them the best chances of winning is completely at odds with feminist values in this context, as there is no opportunity for collective gain, and it hurts, at best, all but one of the women as individuals.
While such thought processes would be more understandable if going to the end with other women was necessary to win the game, that has not been the case, especially in recent years. Unlike Big Brother, where it took until season eighteen of the show for a woman to beat a man sitting in the final two chairs, women on Survivor won the vote over a man at final tribal council on season two, six, and eight. In the new era, five of seven female winners sat next to two men at tribal council-- only Savannah Louise sat next to two women, while Rachel LaMont sat next to a man and a woman. Survivor is hardly a feminist utopia, but it is not necessary by any means for women stick with other women to succeed, and in many cases, it would not be the right move to do so. And if women do not have to stick together for any of them to have a fair shot at winning the game, then it is unfair to expect them to do so solely in the name of "girl power."
After being announced as the winner of Survivor 46, Kenzie Petty said "I've always continued to give back to everyone else, and I finally took a chance on myself, selfishly. This is the most selfish thing I've ever done... It's very hard for me to have a selfish venture, for me to own something, and that's what this was... I came out here for me. It's really one of the first times in my life I have done something for me." So often in life, women are expected to put others before themselves. Older sisters are expected to look after, and in some cases, help parent their younger siblings, even when they are just children themselves. Female children are expected to become caretakers for their parents as they get older, wives are expected to prioritize the dreams and careers of their husbands, and mothers are expected to always put their children first. For many women, playing Survivor is a rare opportunity to truly put themselves first, not only in asking their families and friends to make any sacrifices needed to allow them to go on the show, but in being able to make choices in the game that consider only what is best for them, regardless of the wants and needs of those around them, or viewers at home. While it can certainly be nice to see women working together, women, like men, are people, and some people will always get along much better than others. A woman getting along with and working with a couple of men better than she does with a couple of women is not indicative of how she feels about or works with billions of people in the world who happen to belong to the same gender. Women are often considered unreliable narrators of their own lives-- share a story publicly about having a negative encounter with a man as a woman, and you will inevitably have strange men coming out of the woodwork to create a fictional narrative justifying the behavior of a man they've never met to suggest you misunderstood him and were actually the one in the wrong. To support female contestants on Survivor, we must give them the space to trust their own judgement without facing backlash. Every player makes the best decision they can for their game with the information they have, and their current mental capacity, considering the ways in which lack of food and sleep, combined with stress and paranoia, impact anyone's decision making capabilities. Unless a player's words or actions indicate that they have a bias against women, they should be free to work with whoever makes the most sense for their game without judgement.
When the historic Cookout alliance got all six members of their group to the final six of Big Brother, ensuring that the show would have the first Black winner in twenty-three seasons, a sentiment expressed after the fact was that they wanted to accomplish their goal of an all Black end game, insuring that one of them would win, so that future Black players could feel more free to play their own game, and in an ideal world, people from all marginalized groups would feel that liberty. While marginalized people may choose to play together after bonding over their similarities, just as white players do every season, it is a choice rather than an obligation. When straight white men are the only demographic who are free to play their own game without having to worry about representing for a community, or working with other players primarily out of a sense of obligation, it puts them at a distinct advantage relative to their opponents. While it remains to be seen if Jelly made the right decision, or if she will continue to stick with the entirety of the helicopter alliance for the rest of the game, prioritizing her alliance with the other Black players over keeping one more woman in the game at the expense of her closest ally was her choice to make, and hers alone, and it is a decision that she clearly gave very careful consideration to. The show itself may be television produced for entertainment purposes, but it is ultimately on the producers to create a compelling final product-- not the players, who are fighting for a life changing amount of money. And if we cannot trust the judgement of a smart and accomplished woman when determining which move is best for her game, can we really consider ourselves to be supporters of or advocates for women at all?