Introduction by Martin Holmes
In four of the past five seasons of Survivor, a woman over the age of 40 has made it to the Final Tribal Council. Do you know the combined total of jury votes these five women received?
THREE.
Not three each. Three in total. Shocking, right? Four of the five lost to a man and in the case of the one that lost to a woman it was an all-female Final 3. In each case, these women were maligned and criticized for the way they played the game.
In September, CBS will air Survivor: Cambodia – Second Chance, and this season features two women over 40, Kass McQuillen and Kimmi Kappenberg, and three women in their late 30s, Kelly Wiglesworth, Peih-Gee Law, and Tasha Fox. How these women fair in an all returnee season will be very interesting to watch; especially in the case of Kass and Kimmi. Will they be able to continue the pattern of the over 40 woman reaching the Final Tribal Council? And if so, can they break the trend and succeed against their final competition?
Newest Inside Survivor contributor Josh Forward takes a deeper look at the treatment of the over 40 women in Survivor.
Survivor Women: Treatment of the Over 40s
by Josh Forward
As has often been repeated, Survivor is a social experiment. A pressure-cooker microcosm of society. So it’s not surprising that this situation fosters an environment where certain archetypes are assigned to the competitors, not just by CBS casting, but by the castaways themselves. One of the most common tropes is the role of the tribe “mom.” An older woman who cares for the tribe, is a shoulder to cry on but is generally speaking, not allowed to play a devious game.
Older women have always been given the rough end of the stick on Survivor; often early boots, their games are dismissed or are criticised for not obeying the rules that their allocated “mom” status pertains. Like society, it’s safe to say that sexism in combination with ageism put these contestants at a disadvantage.
Let’s crunch the numbers. The overall average age of Survivor contestants on Day 1, across all seasons, is 33.54. The youngest season average is Survivor: China with 30, and the oldest is Survivor: Nicaragua with 37.5 (even narrowly beating upcoming Survivor: Cambodia). The variation isn’t enormously different across most seasons. However, when we split the men and the women, in only seven seasons is the average age of women higher than that of men, and only slightly.
However, men can be on average six years older than the women in some seasons. By individual numbers, across all seasons, the total number of males over 40 is 76, and the total number of females over 40 is only 60. That’s an average of less than two per season. Older women are a perpetual minority in the game of Survivor. Without similarly aged tribemates in their gender, they must integrate themselves with younger tribemates, and in turn, their age and “mom” factor is only exaggerated. And Lord knows how much some people need their mother (just ask Rodney).
A surprising figure is that female contestants over 40 last longer in the game. Averaging at 9.25th place compared to their male counterparts at 10.36th place. It’s not a huge margin but is surprising considering the emphasis the show often puts on older, all American men. However, the main difference is how the placings are spread. The older men traditionally have no patterns to their placing; ranging from first boots to winners and evenly spread in between. The older women, however, tend to fall predominantly into two categories; either being one of the first three boots or making it to Final Tribal Council.
Considering how few older women actually play the game, it’s quite an achievement that Tina Wesson, Kim Johnson, Lillian Morris, Twila Tanner, Cassandra Franklin, Susie Smith, Lisa Whelchel, Denise Stapley, Sherri Biethman, Dawn Meehan, Monica Culpepper, Missy Payne, and Carolyn Rivera all made the Final Tribal Council. There are a few others too who just missed out by one torch snuffing.
On the other side there is Sonja Christopher, Debb Eaton, Maralyn Hershey, Patricia Jackson, Janet Koth, Tina Wesson 2.0, Wanda Shirk, Tina Scheer, Gillian Larson, Betsy Bolan, Wendy DeSmidt-Kohlhoff, Kristina Kell, Stacey Powell, Nina Acosta, and Nina Poersch who all were one of the first three booted. Almost 50% of female castaways over 40 were either very early boots or made it to the very end. Only Denise Stapley has managed to convert that Final Tribal placing into a million dollar cheque – and notably only against another woman over 40 and another man over 40.
It’s important to note here that Tina Wesson was actually 39 when she won Survivor: The Australian Outback, so she just misses this age bracket, and arguably won for appearing to adhere to her caring, lovely motherly role to the tribe; a role that has since been blacklisted from Final Tribals. In fact, these types are now likely to be voted out in fear of a Wesson style win. Crucially, the Survivor game has changed from the experience of Survivor where Colby took “worthy” Tina to the end of the game, to the game of Survivor where everyone on Survivor: Blood vs. Water voted out Tina the “threat” twice.
For the vast majority of these early boot women, the reason is simply they are too “weak” at a time where the tribe needs to win Immunity. The ones who make it to the end are either publicly perceived as “goats”, or have successfully managed to manoeuvre their way with strong game-play, but are criticised by the jury for not adhering to their tasked maternal nature. Recent seasons, in particular, have featured strong older women reaching Final Tribal.
Neat lady Monica Culpepper is an excellent example of how great game-play gets maligned due to her motherly role. Even beginning with Survivor: One World, she was one of the strongest competitors on her tribe, but it still wasn’t enough in a season where the average age of women was very low, and Monica was booted pre-merge.
Her comeback in Blood vs. Water was well deserved, and she proved to be a total challenge beast once again, especially when it came to individual challenges. As a side note, in Blood vs Water, the three competitors who won the most individual challenges were Tina Wesson, Laura Morett, and Monica Culpepper – three women over 40. A reboot of Charlie’s Angels need look no further.
Monica managed to sit in a comfortable and influential spot all game. People who came after her (Kat) were sent packing at her handiwork. She changed alliances when she knew she was on the bottom, and made decisions separate to what she was told to do to enhance her own game. Come jury time, she was hammered for not being authentic, and her game and challenge beast status were dismissed.
Speaking of challenge beasts, in addition to those kick-ass ladies in Blood vs. Water, Carolyn Rivera won 5 individual challenges, Christine Shields won 5 individual challenges, Debbie Beebe won 3 individual challenges, and Kathy Vavrick-O’Brien won 4 individual challenges. Making each of them one of the top two individual challenge winners of their respective seasons. Stick that in your coconut and smoke it.
Kim Johnson, 57 (fourth oldest female contestant ever), also managed to win the crucial final two Immunity challenges in Survivor: Africa; leaving the fate of the three big, strong men, Tom, Lex and Ethan, in her hands. She was also crucial throughout the season in solidifying her alliance’s numbers, pulling in T-Bird, and had only one vote against her the whole game, and was on the right side of the vote each Tribal Council.
Ethan is certainly regarded as a worthy winner, but Kim Johnson played a strong and worthy game. Come Final Tribal she was torn apart by the jury and lost by the largest margin in Survivor up until that point. She’s one of the first people to be labelled a coat-tail rider at Final Tribal, and for that label to work against her so much. But if you look at her track record she was anything but. She worried at the beginning that if her tribe Boran were to lose more challenges, she would be voted off for being “weak”, and perhaps she was never able to shake that mentality.
In an older lady double act, we have Dawn Meehan and Sherri Biethman in Survivor: Caramoan. Two women over 40 (the only ones that season), both making it to Final Tribal, neither receiving a single vote. Cochran played a good game, but once again it’s the brutality from the jury to Sherri and Dawn that is puzzling (granted, Sherri’s Final Tribal performance was Dan-Foley-apology level terrible).
Dawn and Cochran were in a tight alliance from Day 1 and made all strategic moves together. Come jury time; Cochran was praised while Dawn was seen as an emotional, insincere traitor. The motherly role she was assigned was not adhered to. Sherri, on the other hand, was viewed as a coat-tail rider, despite being the power player in her original tribe, and then an underdog from the tribe swap onwards, in a game dominated by returning players. She worked her way into new alliances when she had to and outlasted many strong players. Too cold or too weak. These are the way older women are perceived.
Missy Payne is another example of a fierce competitor, and is one of the most obvious “mothers” to play the game as she was playing with, and protecting, her actual daughter Baylor, in Survivor: San Juan Del Sur.
In a game where power players were targeted quickly and their torches snuffed, Missy was behind each kill shot. Josh, Jeremy and Jon were all taken out on Missy’s vote; something no one else in her Final 3 can attest too. She is part of the longest lasting loved one duo in either Blood vs. Water season. She injured her ankle and didn’t have a moment of hesitation when she demanded to stay in the game. But come Final Tribal, she was annihilated by the jury, most of all by the infamous speech from Reed calling her the “wicked step mother”. Whilst Reed was likely trying to feel the spotlight on his face, Missy became the easy target as she was criticised for not being “mom” enough for the tribe. This has been skirted around by other older women at Final Tribal, but this is the time it was said most bluntly.
What exactly is it that makes the younger members of the tribe feel that they have a right to be taken care of by an older woman, purely because of her age? Would the same criticism be applied to a man? Of course not. It’s strictly entitled behaviour based on assigned roles. The fact that Missy is attacked for granting favour to her actual daughter over other strangers is actually laughable when rephrased. Of course she didn’t treat you like she did Baylor, she’s not your mother and has no responsibility to be purely because of her age. Wash your own damn spidey suit.
Missy is a kick-ass Survivor player, unfairly maligned by sexist, ageist criticism. Natalie deserved her win, but Missy didn’t deserve the treatment she received.
There are plenty more examples where this kind of unfair treatment can be seen. Kass torn apart by her fellow castaways for playing the game autonomously, Carolyn left out in the cold by the jury despite having strategic control over the game, Malcolm blaming Lisa’s motherly instincts for finding his idol poorly hidden in his shorts left on the line, Twila, Lillian – the list goes on. There are countless examples, from throwaway comments, to jury speeches mistaken for opportunities to audition for the Bold and the Beautiful.
The stats don’t lie, given the chance, women over 40 can outwit, outlast, and outplay as well as anyone can, but just aren’t given the credit they deserve.
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This is a fantastic article, thank you all for bringing the topic to the surface – I did NOT expect the brutality to come Dawn’s way the way it did, especially from Brenda, who seemed all but bitter. Dawn and Cochran, much like JT/Stephen, made decisions together, but Cochran got most of the credit.
Granted, Dawn made more promises and was so cuddly to people that they felt much more betrayed by her than Cochran, so I still see Cochran winning, but not by that big a margin. Sherri I love, but know she had a destructive final tribal. And Monica C *did* seem very fake most of her season, as if to say she went behind a tree and said “oh my god these people are pathetic and I hate them” after every somewhat heart-warming story or conversation she had with them. The cameras didn’t show anything like that, but it seemed it was hard for her to come completely out of her husband’s shadow.
Denise had something the other two finalists didn’t have a lot of – psychology training, and the ability to understand *why* people did what they did in the game, how they perceive others, and how they want to be perceived (even if that’s not *how* they’re perceived.) I think she both pandered, but also was brutally honest with the jury on her moves and the game as a whole.
Hopefully some older ladies can break ground in S31 and S32 and take home the gold – we need to even up the gender winner ratio, a legends/all winners season currently only has 12 different women winners to choose from.
This is a fabulous article! The older women of Survivor are so often expected to fall into the category of maternal, emotional mother, but the same expectation never falls on the older male players.
Very well said, indeed.
this is very good article yes.
i tip my hat to you.
tip tip.
Clapping! Excellent article. As a woman over 40 who’s seen every episode of all 30 seasons, I find myself getting more and more annoyed with how “older” females are viewed and treated. I’d have to check the demographics, but I suspect that many diehards are more similar to me than the 20-year-old males that advertisers still aim for. (Anyone heard of baby boomers, who tend to be loyal to products and TV shows?)
Every time I think of Dawn in particular, my blood pressure goes up. The cyberbullying she experienced after her second time was unreal! I was stunned when “I” got bullied on sites for defending her. Something is very, very wrong with certain viewers.
The reaction to Carolyn, too, surprised me. She played a fantastic game, won challenges and what does she get in the end? Nothing. Not even a second chance, which she deserved far more than a couple of other women now in Cambodia.
Society is sexist enough, but geesh. “Survivor” (I’m talking to you, Jeff Probst) doesn’t help the image of women who aren’t 25 and gorgeous — not that any show has to do anything but entertain — but I sure as heck wouldn’t want to tick off viewers in such demeaning ways.
It’s refreshing to read some real about our favorite reality show. Kudos! And all of my female pals in my FB Survivor group are cheering, as well. But we are all over 40, so there you go…
Very interesting article and quite a good read. You make some VERY valid points. Out of the 5, I feel as if Carolyn was the most robbed. She had a great gameplay. Finding the idol without a clue, and have a good strategic gameplay, and knew when the right time was to play her idol. Not to mention her alignment with Mike. I think the issue was she was seen as being on the level of the blue collar men and Will, which hurt her gameplay. People that went out earlier in the jury saw her as cold and distant. I don’t think that was totally her fault though. I never got why Monica was hated on so much. I do think she falls under the category that you stated. Ageism and she was an easy punching bag too. I never saw her as fake, just a bit irritating at times but she played very well her season. Dawn and Sherri to me earned their fates. Sherri was great on the original fans tribe, but after that she just seemed to fade in the background and her bad relationships with the amigos came back to haunt her. Plus, non of the favorites were aware of her game play pre-tribe swap. Dawn though, I believe is a genuinely good person, took on that mother role and formed so many motherly like relationships that when she back stabbed people like Brenda, it hurt much more. Then with her emotions out of sorts, people just saw her as a fake bitch. I think she got out of hand with her betrayal, and should have backed off the mother role. Though as you stated, she went into it labled that way. I have to totally disagree with Missy. Your right, Baylor was her daughter. Missy though outright wanted to be the mother of the tribe, but often was very unfair to the other tribe members, by give Baylor extra good. She was very demanding to everyone and constantly kept complaining and letting her daughter act like a brat but went off on everyone who brought it up. I think her getting annihilated at the FTB was justified. Other than that, I agree with the cases for Carolyn, Monica, and many other females that have gone far but been castrated for not being the “mother” type when she is there to play a game just like them. I just think some gladly took the role and tried to use it as their strategy, but failed when they tried to play differently. I.e. Dawn.
In a secret scene of Philippines, Denise said she did not want to be portrayed as a mother-figure. She left Lisa to do all the “motherly” thing (like hanging cloths…………found idol, LOL). She talked about her kid, her family and built friendships with older castaways(who took her to the end), but to the young crowd, she was this hardworking, likeable lady playing a masterful game. Only Malcolm secretly called her his “Jungle mom”:). Her exceptional social game allowed her to earn trust quickly and build temporary(not too tight) alliances, even when she flipped on them, they did not felt betrayed. On the other hand, the jury saw Lisa as this Church lady crying every other day, didn’t know what she was doing.
In her bio, Carolyn said she wanted to play just like Denise. I think she did a great job, but well…..sadly, I guess being called “Mom C” all the time just didn’t do one any good in the end.
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