The
“gender war” storyline has also produced
a microcosm of reality that highlights the different ways men
and women deal with inequality. Every episode has featured some
sort of drama about gender, whether it was the early challenges
in which the men fought the women for rewards or immunity, or
the more recent episodes post-merge which have focused on the
women’s alliance.
At
first the men came off as extremely gullible for believing that
Julie and Twila, who briefly joined their tribe before the merge,
would stick with them instead of the women, whom they had known
for much longer. Every vote since the merge has shown Julie
and Twila staying true to the women’s alliance, and the
men’s gullibility has given way to disbelief that women
would play this game based on gender. The men seemed to think
it would be inconceivable for the women to choose to ally with
other women rather than with them—exposing a mindset that
is typical of those in the culturally dominant group (in this
case, white men).
This has turned out to be a lot like real life,
where women (and other minorities) are forced to deal with gender
(and race) on a daily basis, and are much more willing to acknowledge
the fact that inequality exists. It is not coincidental that
Rory, the sole African American contestant and non-white man,
never doubted the strength of the women’s alliance.
Chad’s
somewhat baffled characterization of Ami’s influence as
“woman power” may not be too far off the mark. It
brings to mind the 1970s women liberation movement, with women
marching down the street with their fists raised demanding equal
rights—and the 1970s was the decade when many women did
break away from heterosexual society to begin utopic lesbian
separatist communities. Survivor: Vanuatu is far from
a feminist utopia, but the quest to finish the game with all
women has definite echoes of those goals.
But
previews of next week’s episode suggest that
the women’s alliance might be fraying, and although nearly
every preview dramatizes the “gender war,” this
preview also suggests that there is tension between Scout and
Ami. Although Scout was a leader of the women’s Yasur
tribe, acting as a kind of benevolent, folk-song-singing matriarch,
since the merge she has fallen in the shadow of the more charismatic,
and physically stronger, Ami.
In
Episode 10, Scout
began to fear that once all the men were voted off, she might
be early on the chopping block, so in order to avoid this outcome
she tried to recruit Twila into a new alliance with her, Chad,
and Chris. Although in the end both Twila and Scout voted with
the women to oust Chad, Scout’s actions suggest that she
isn’t willing to let Ami take over completely. Her failure
to sway Twila to her side, however, also shows that Ami’s
leadership is stronger than Scout’s. As Twila noted, Ami’s
arguments for ousting the men first, in order to prevent them
from winning immunity challenges, makes a lot of sense.
This
leads to the conclusion that Ami’s leadership
is based on more than mysterious gay powers. She understands
how to play the game, and she clearly knows how to influence
the players. Unlike most of the other contestants, Ami has never
been misleading or dishonest about her voting plans, and she
has consistently stuck to her word to promote the women’s
alliance. This could backfire on her later on, as several of
the contestants find her straightforwardness a little too blunt.
But
also, unlike most of the other contestants, Ami has never been
tempted to join the men in any sort of alliance. Her single-minded
focus on an all-female final four could indeed have a basis
in her experiences as a lesbian in a heterosexual world. It
would be silly to ignore the basic fact that lesbians have often
been at the forefront of feminist separatist movements because
they do not depend on men for sex.
This
does not mean that Ami is a man-hater—although there is
a danger of her being perceived this way by straight viewers—but
that Ami is probably more familiar and comfortable with all-female
spaces than are straight women. And while she has never appeared
to be anti-men (just anti certain individuals), she has also
never been portrayed as particularly interested in developing
friendships with them, whereas she has actively pursued friendships
with the women.
Given
that Survivor is a numbers game, it seems
unlikely that Chris will remain on the island for much longer,
unless he is able to consistently win the immunity challenges.
This means it is highly probable that the women’s alliance
will make it to the end of the game.
While
we may never know for certain whether Ami and Scout’s
sexual orientation had anything to do with the women’s
alliance, the fact that theirs was the first women's alliance
ever to succeed on Survivor raises some interesting—and
telling—questions about gender and sexuality, and how
those issues are perceived and related to differently by those
in the majority of society, versus those in the minority.
