Survivor
4Despite Glen’s apparent disdain for the show, my wife and I enjoy it very much, and have for years. Last night’s thing was crazy. We had a discussion afterwards wondering if special permission had to be granted to air it, or it’s in-bounds given the contestants likely sign their life away for the duration of their stay on the island.
Either way, it was nuts.
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Interesting. I wonder if the show producers and stuff knew up front?
Haven’t checked the article yet.
@f00l I think the producers knew they would air it, but weren’t sure how to position it. The AP reported that CBS sought advice from GLAAD. It seems GLAAD provides media/PR services by “shaping the conversation.” https://www.glaad.org/blog/glaad-responds-outing-cbs-survivor-contestant-zeke-smith
@kshannon1
What I meant was, did the producers know during casting? Or did the producers know before the contestants were isolated?
@f00l According to the Probst interview I linked to below, the first time he was on the show, they decided they wanted him and then Probst learned that he was trans. Presumably this information was internally shared…
@brhfl
Bad scene, but everyone seems to have handled it decently to excellently. Perhaps we are actually, slowly, very slowly, becoming a better civilization.
I guess I hope Varner can come to terms with what he did and make something good about it someday.
And I really hope Zeke thrives. What a great take on life.
darn, i opted to stop watching survivor effective this season because the last couple seasons seemed boring. so much for trusting my gut.
Anyone who cares about this should take the time to read Zeke’s guest column on THR and Probst’s thoughts on some kind of EW recap thing that unfortunately autoplays some dumb video.
I read the former last night as I was falling asleep. I’m not here to shit on Survivor, but I genuinely don’t care about it and the article was a little clumsy (for me) to read because Zeke is so focused on the game. Which is cool in its own way, just made it kind of a tricky read for me.
Outing anyone is ridiculously fucked up and harmful, and this seems to have been done out of sheer pettiness. If Probst’s take is to be trusted, the fellow is not proud of his actions, but that… doesn’t fix things. It seems (and makes sense in such a cutthroat competition) that Zeke always knew this was a possibility, and he seems to have handled it very coolly.
Every individual must do what they must do to… erm… survive. I mean that in the broadest sense, but I guess it works on a few levels in this case. Cannot fault Zeke for being level-headed and willing to let water flow under the bridge. A part of me, though, feels a worried ache that such acceptance will somehow normalize outing, make people think it’s not a big deal. It can be very, very dangerous.
I guess if there’s anything positive to be had, it’s one more trans person in the spotlight. And a trans man at that. Transmisogyny is so virulent because all misogyny is so virulent, and on the rare occasion that the media is paying attention to transphobia, it’s thus generally directed at trans women. Which is super important, but there does seem to be some amount of incidental erasure of trans men in the process. If, again, Probst’s account is to be trusted, it seems Zeke didn’t want to come out largely because he just wanted to be a good Survivor player… not a good trans Survivor player. So it certainly shouldn’t have happened, but if the trans male youth now have someone to look up to on the TV, that seems like a good silver lining.
@brhfl - I felt compelled to find and watch the episode. It brought me to tears. Varner is a self-serving ignorant slime, extra pitiful when he tried insincerely to back-pedal his way out of the offense.
Zeke deserves credit for responding the best way he could, but I understand the concerns it raises. Especially in today’s resurging climate of intolerance.
I’m still in shock that Varner did that! Crazy episode.