Will women survive the sexism of the season?

“Calling us machos, I don’t take it very well.” Stung to the heart, Frédéric did not hide his amazement during the last episode of Koh Lanta. Take him for an adventurer of misogyny, him? “In everyday life, I’m far from like that. I would be able to start the adventure so much that annoys me that I am treated as a macho, ”even warned the candidate of the red team in front of the camera. Ok, not macho the Fredo. But what can be called a strategy consisting in eliminating the candidates one after the other?

The subject was brought to the fore in last week’s episode. Laure and Maxine, the only two women spared so far in the reds, have finally opened their eyes to what has been going on for several days behind their backs. Are they right to worry? Asked Denis Brogniart. “Yes, we are not going to lie to each other, of course,” replied Arnaud without hesitation. “From the start, we found common ground with the boys,” continued Hervé. “Eliminating women has a macho side, perhaps, from an outside eye. What is not the case, it was done little by little with the affinities ”, pleaded Frédéric.

Women fired first

At the first council of the red team, Candice and Magali, both accused of poor integration in the camp, were in the hot seat. Aware of being in the sights, they narrowly escaped, thanks to an immunity talisman for the first and a secret weapon for the second. The “quits or double” drawn by the latter was unfavorable to Marie, who ended up with an automatic vote against her. It was fatal for him: the majority of his teammates voted in favor of his elimination. She left the adventure without Frédéric, who was also penalized by an automatic vote against him, not having to worry.

A sexist spring? “It’s just that Magali was close to the men and wanted to vote against one of the girls,” Marie replied. 20 minutes to explain his departure. I knew the boys were going to vote against me because it was easier. The girls’ votes went all over the place, everyone was a little stressed, that was the first piece of advice. “

Eliminating women during the first advice is quite common in Koh Lanta. And this for reasons as diverse as their age, their physical capacities or their character. In the opposing team, that of the yellows, the oldest Sylviane was the first to leave. “I knew I was going to be eliminated as I had lost the team to the immunity test. I am fair play, there is no problem with that ”, she assured to 20 minutes.

“A very masculine universe”

Among the reds, the second eliminated was Candice, almost unanimously. It is true that she was mainly the victim of a formidable stratagem scaffolded by Laure and Maxine having made her believe that she was out of danger in order to better eject her without her thinking of playing her immunity collar which could have saved her. To this lack of feminine solidarity is added the fact that Candice may have annoyed the ego of certain men by multiplying the advice on survival, her job … “I do not think it is a question of hurting the pride but more a kind of frustration ”, estimated the young woman during her elimination, acknowledging however evolving in a“ very masculine environment ”in“ the collective unconscious ”.

No question for her to see in her acolytes potential sexists. “It’s a very strong word. Frédéric, on social networks, is described as sexist, but it turns out that she is one of the people I have come closest to. He’s a guy with extra values, ”she says. If she was ousted from her team, it is, she believes, because it “is a little complicated to be taken for someone legitimate when you are the youngest and when in the collective unconscious you exercise an activity usually reserved, or rather more intended, for men. Which is precisely the definition of a sexist bias.

Very gendered distribution of tasks

The question of sexism, conscious or unconscious, is recurrent in Koh Lanta. Many do not realize the gendered division of labor in the camp: women count rice rations and cook, men hunt or fire – since the inception of the program, only one woman, Sara Tallon, has worked. fire. The season titled The war of the chiefs, broadcast in 2020, had been scrutinized by the High Council for Equality (HCE) as part of its inventory of sexism in France. In
The report, released last year, the adventure game is relatively spared compared to reality TV Angels and The Marseillais vs. the rest of the world, also taken into account in the analysis. The program is however mentioned in the paragraphs noting that “women are often presented as stupid” or highlighting “the denigration between candidates” or “the association of lexical fields of weakness and the feminine”. Observations of which we can find examples in “The secret weapons”, such as the condescension of several members of the yellow team towards Laëtitia or the treatment reserved for Candice by Laure and Maxine.

Nevertheless, the inventory signed by the HCE had made the producer Alexia Laroche-Joubert jump when it was published in the spring of 2020. She said she was “scandalized” at the microphone of Europe 1: “We can not not leave a report, which is partial and partial, which leaves something to be desired, undermine a reference program, which is watched by one in two children, with values ​​that make little girls see that when they want , we can and we win. She added that the winner of the season in question was Maud. It is also women who have won the editions distributed since: Naoil has imposed itself in Island of heroes and The 4 lands saw Alexandra’s victory.

“A small revenge on all the mockery”

The latter, however, deplored 20 minutes the “macho side” tending to express itself in Koh Lanta. “We summarize our victories [dans les épreuves individuelles] to the mind, as if it could only be that, because we are women, ”she told us.

In the interview given after winning her season, she insisted: “We women have taken a lot of thought on superficial things like the voice, the physique, etc. it disappoints and disgusts me. We should be beautiful and shut up, I think. However, when we participate in Koh Lanta, it is not for that. We came to show that we could be as strong as boys. They, as soon as they do a performance, are demigods, and us, there is always a criticism of something that has nothing to do with it, that counterbalances it. We are either not cool, or too loudmouth, or stressed, or strategists. Even if our performances are visible on the screen, these criticisms attenuate them enormously. It’s unfair, ”she proclaimed, believing that her victory was“ a small revenge on all the mockery ”suffered and saying she was proud to“ represent the fairer sex ”.

A liberating reunification?

If the candidates of Secret weapons do not hold – at least for now – such a discourse of female empowerment, things seem to be about to change on the side of the red camp. Laure and Maxine celebrated Magali’s return to the race and now seem to be intending to hold out against the men of the team. Male supremacy is all the more vulnerable as the time for reunification has come, and as Laure has a secret weapon supposed to give her an advantage for this crucial step. We will know what it is precisely in Friday’s episode, but the flame of the torch of patriarchy flickers severely.