The pre-merge portion of Survivor season 44, has begun with three tribes of six players. Unlike Survivor seasons 41 through 43, which had no swaps before the merge, Survivor season 44 featured the first tribe swap of the new era. In episode 4, a "journey" to Shipwheel Island shook up the game by forcing three players to swap tribes with one another.
Survivor's New Era Is Disproportionately Affecting Women Players
The new era of Survivor has seen a troubling rise in the number of women being voted out in the pre-merge portion of the game. In a tweet following Claire Rafson's elimination in Survivor season 44, episode 3, podcaster Dr. Amanda Rabinowitz highlighted on Twitter the stats behind the troubling trend, which showed that women have been disproportionately voted out before the merge. In 43 and 44, in which the players had already seen the new era format in 41 and 42, all but one player voted out before the merge was a woman. The week after Claire's elimination, another woman, Sarah Wade, was voted out of the game.
These stats show a major difference between Survivor seasons 41 and 42 and 43 and 44. Survivor films in back-to-back cycles, meaning the players on 42 didn't get to see the season before theirs and had no clue what the format would entail. However, the players on 43 and 44 saw the three-tribe/no-swap format play out in two seasons before their own. With these seasons having three small tribes, extremely physical challenges, and no tribe swaps, the players, for self-preservation, began targeting those they deemed as physically weaker and less likely to contribute to challenges, with women bearing the brunt of those perceptions.
Survivor's Three-Tribe Format Needs To End
In Survivor seasons 43 and 44, only one male player was voted out pre-merge. Every other player voted out, including every player voted out before the merge on Survivor 44, was a woman. The only men to be eliminated thus far on Survivor 44 have been Bruce Perreault and Matthew Grinstead-Mayle, with both leaving the game due to injuries. Although several of the new era women were voted out for reasons aside from challenge strength (like when Maddy Pomilla was "idoled" out by Brandon Cottom after attempting to blindside him), it's inarguable that the current format of the game is disproportionately favoring men in the early stages.
The combination of small tribes and physical challenges means that physical strength will always factor into tribal decision-making. Generally, this leads to athletic men being viewed as indispensable to the tribe, while women are regarded as physically weaker and, therefore, disposable. Although it's a small sample size so far, it's clear that women are being eliminated early at alarming rates in the new era of Survivor. Hopefully, the show can retool the format to address this troubling trend of imbalanced gameplay.
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.
Source: Dr. Amanda Rabinowitz/Twitter