Survivor Gets Political

Survivor was rather dramatic tonight. I haven't watched it in weeks but it didn’t matter. Tonight Sue left the show so she could sue Richard for rubbing his naked penis against her leg during one of the challenges. She had a big freak-out before she left thanks in part to the surprisingly flippant host.

He waltzed on to the set and said with a huge grin on his face saying, “so, last week at the challenge it seems our friend Richard got sort of…inappropriate.” This was after Sue had been crying and yelling about the situation the whole morning. The way the host tackled the subject made it seem like he thought it was all a big joke.

Was it the network’s strategy to belittle the situation it so Sue would feel stupid saying anything? Or did they want her to throw a big fit for the sake of ratings? At any rate Sue totally lost it and swore a whole bunch and said she was leaving the show.

It came out later that everyone thought she was faking, apparently Sue is a sneaky one, and who isn’t bitter about Richard winning Survivor 1? The whole thing brought out everyone's ugly side as well as the whole ugly issue of sexual harassment. When Sue was gone all the other players celebrated, even if they were certain she was faking or just didn't like her, this somehow seemed really fucked up.

You would never think that the whole sexual harassment issue would make its way to a deserted island. If these people were real survivors it would be like Blue Lagoon with brothers and sisters having sex all the time or everyone worrying about who would get to re-populate the earth, but in fact this is realty TV, not reality, and these people are all Americans.

I’ve decided that the bottom line about sexual harassment law is that, regardless of whether some ladies take advantage of it, it's a good thing—or at the very least it’s something. I like to think that the fear of getting sued keeps most guys under control.

I guess it's sad that it's come down to this. It seems like people should be grown up enough to not rub their penis on lady’s legs and that ladies should not take every opportunity to sue all the time, but it's unrealistic to rely on people's sense of propriety. Hell, even the governor of California is a groper. The bottom line is that suing for sexual harassment is a way of not taking any shit.

Maybe Sue blew the whole thing out of proportion, maybe it didn’t really bother her at all, maybe she just wanted Richard’s money, but then again if she hadn’t said anything it would have been like she was accepting it, all of it.

Richard’s nakedness made everyone on the show and everyone in TV-land uncomfortable. Richard’s whole strategy was to be the alpha male, using his dick to gain power. It’s kind of awesome how Sue has subverted that, and even if she doesn’t win the lawsuit he is going to be really pissed that he has to go to court. You can’t be naked in court. I say Sue wins Modern Society Survivor. And who’d have thought--a trucker from Wisconsin.

Ps. In case anyone was thinking it, it makes no difference that Richard is gay. Everyone knows that gays can be the biggest misogynists of all.