Is Survivor Getting Mean?
Seems to me that lately the bar has been raised on "mean" for Survivor. It probably would not be as obvious to me if I were watching it alone, but watching it with my sister's kids makes every depiction of bad behavior all the more painful to watch.
At eight pm on a Thursday, it is kind of family hour and yet we are hearing phrases regarding female dogs and "ghetto trash" thrown around as much as geeks throw around "douchebag" in a flame war about their computer platform preference.
You have Russell (the oil company owner) who is trying to prove what? That lying and cheating will get you far in the game, and so far, he has proven himself to be correct. But at what expense? He walks around referring to females as "dumb" until one sizes him up and so she has to be removed because he is threatened by her. Threatened because she is not adhering to his idea of what his alliance should contain: stupid females.
Secondly, tonight we had a challenge whereby Jeff finally had to remove a contestant named Ben because he was clearly taking cheapshots at another contestant, also named Russell. Thing is, once it was done, and their team lost, Ben was not apologetic at all, instead blaming Jeff for having "sissy rules." Ah, dude, there are rules of Survivor, you don't play by them, you get kicked off the tribe, you do not get to pass go and collect $1,000,000. The guy is a jerk and should be booted for that attitude. He probably will be.
Third, another talking point of tonight is once again an African American female, Yasmin, being disrespected because a white man tackled her in the game. If this the real world, women and men would not be in a mixed gender team, but these are Survivor tribes. Do you really want different rules to apply to you, that no one of a certain gender can tackle you because you are a black female? This is a game where a million dollars is on the line, this is not a friendly game of doubles on a Tennis court. If you did not want to be put in the position of being "disrespected" you should have opted out of the challenge and let a woman who can handle the challenge to take the field.
Even more silly was the part of the game where Yasmin entered the opposing teams camp and begins acting like a "consultant" from a fortune 500 company looking to make changes and be the answer to their tribes ills. Nothing is more uninviting than someone who is officious. It was funny as well when she wanted to talk to Ben in private only to speak to him so loudly that the rest of his team could easily hear the altercation.
Yes, it is high drama on CBS on Thursdays and lately Survivor is pushing the envelope in a lot of areas. I look fondly on the old days where people actually had some sort of ideal or agenda that would show the best of humanity in playing a game rather than to simply augment the drama and seem to drag contestants to new lows in what they will do for a chance to become part of a higher tax bracket.
At eight pm on a Thursday, it is kind of family hour and yet we are hearing phrases regarding female dogs and "ghetto trash" thrown around as much as geeks throw around "douchebag" in a flame war about their computer platform preference.
You have Russell (the oil company owner) who is trying to prove what? That lying and cheating will get you far in the game, and so far, he has proven himself to be correct. But at what expense? He walks around referring to females as "dumb" until one sizes him up and so she has to be removed because he is threatened by her. Threatened because she is not adhering to his idea of what his alliance should contain: stupid females.
Secondly, tonight we had a challenge whereby Jeff finally had to remove a contestant named Ben because he was clearly taking cheapshots at another contestant, also named Russell. Thing is, once it was done, and their team lost, Ben was not apologetic at all, instead blaming Jeff for having "sissy rules." Ah, dude, there are rules of Survivor, you don't play by them, you get kicked off the tribe, you do not get to pass go and collect $1,000,000. The guy is a jerk and should be booted for that attitude. He probably will be.
Third, another talking point of tonight is once again an African American female, Yasmin, being disrespected because a white man tackled her in the game. If this the real world, women and men would not be in a mixed gender team, but these are Survivor tribes. Do you really want different rules to apply to you, that no one of a certain gender can tackle you because you are a black female? This is a game where a million dollars is on the line, this is not a friendly game of doubles on a Tennis court. If you did not want to be put in the position of being "disrespected" you should have opted out of the challenge and let a woman who can handle the challenge to take the field.
Even more silly was the part of the game where Yasmin entered the opposing teams camp and begins acting like a "consultant" from a fortune 500 company looking to make changes and be the answer to their tribes ills. Nothing is more uninviting than someone who is officious. It was funny as well when she wanted to talk to Ben in private only to speak to him so loudly that the rest of his team could easily hear the altercation.
Yes, it is high drama on CBS on Thursdays and lately Survivor is pushing the envelope in a lot of areas. I look fondly on the old days where people actually had some sort of ideal or agenda that would show the best of humanity in playing a game rather than to simply augment the drama and seem to drag contestants to new lows in what they will do for a chance to become part of a higher tax bracket.
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