"Survivor Amazon" -- Mars vs. Venus

The challenges will need to be something other than raw strength, to avoid giving an edge to the men.
Personally, I think the men will start out badly with a few clashing egos, but the troublemakers will get voted off first. After a few episodes I think the women will have a harder time getting along with each other than the men will.

I'm curious about that too, whether they'll adjust the nature of the challenges. It seems to me like they're usually a combination -- strength plus stamina, with brainpower occasionally (but not always) factored in.

I think it will be interesting what will happen with the cutie-pies who usually rely on some good will from the opposite sex. The swimsuit model comes to mind (the gals aren't gonna like her much I bet) but also the young actor/model who says his greatest accomplishment was reshaping his body or whatever.

And I'm just dying to know how the deaf girl will fare. I think it will be better for her to be among all women -- not sure.

many of the competitions have been seperated lately, skill, stregth, and brain benders so, I do believe they can successfully have the Mars/Venus thing going.
Great that they have a non hearing contestant, what a great thing they have done to have that happen! I havent looked at the web page or profiles but, I do remember its in the Amazon...I am particularly interested in how they get through this one, it should add some interesting tid bits...so should the whole one team pissing contest, one team hissy contest possibilities, while removing the romantic things...interesting.

I'm looking foward to watching the program. I think there will be issues on both sides. I think it will be worse with the women though, because women enjoy gossip much more then men. Women don't have a problem speaking what's on their minds, and seem to me more emotional then men.
(at least they seem to show it more)
The women will do whatever it takes to distract the men, (which won't take much) in order to get ahead. Hopefully the deaf woman will take the time to teach the others sign language, hopefully the rest of the women will be interested in learning.

On the first "Big Brother" the guy who was missing a leg wound up winning. Will the deaf contestant have an advantage in this game, because of other players hesitant to vote off the 'handicapped' player?

You know, Survivor being a staged production, the values are somewhat skewed. Nonetheless, i think human nature comes to the fore in the dynamics of the show. I've only ever seen one full episode--although i've stopped by now and again while channel surfing, and i'm sceptical about the degree to which it is scripted. But Sozobe's orginal question about which group will cooperate more effectively caught my interest--without any hard evidence, we have a general idea of how hunter/gatherer societies operated. Although men likely gathered side by side with the women (hunting is a dangerous, unreliable and unproductive means of supporting a group--it can only be relied upon to supplement the gathering), it is worth noting that groups of gathering women needed to cooperate well to take advantage of seasonal resources effectively, and groups of men on the hunt (in which numbers of women may have participated) definitely need to cooperate effectively not just for efficiency, but for survival as well. I would say the human legacy is that gender doesn't matter in determining cooperation.

Equus, interesting. My impression (I didn't watch much of "Big Brother") was that the one-legged guy had major medical debt, and that was part of the consideration, rather than his disability per se. ("Hmmm, I'd buy a little red corvette, he'd finally claw his way out of debt and have half a chance at a decent life... gee...")

But definitely interested in how the disability aspect will play out. I saw that she reads lips, but I bet she's going to miss a whole bunch of the incidental chat that makes people bond, and wonder what will happen with that. Her reaction to the inevitable exclusion will be important -- "I knew what I was getting into when I signed up, just make sure I know the important stuff" vs. a more petulant attitude. I bet petulant would get her kicked out, if slower than a non-disabled person with that attitude would. (There are other factors, of course, such as how well she does in challenges, how well she gets food, etc.)

Setanta, yeah, the human nature thing is what interests me. For sure it's not REALITY reality -- I don't think there's word-for-word scripts, but I know they do things like reaction shots out of sequence, choosing challenges that will favor (or disfavor) certain contestants, etc., etc.

I agree that each group will cooperate. I further predict that the groups won't hew to stereotypes as closely as some might expect. I.e., I bet there will be some gossip and backstabbing in the men's group, competition within the women's group, etc. I bet there will be more variety within groups -- the jock, the prima donna, the straight-talker -- than between the two gender groups.

Quoting from an AP article picked up by several newspapers: "The decision to turn the upcoming sixth edition of Survivor into a battle-of-the-sexes format apparently led to some interesting group dynamics, according to host Jeff Probst. 'The way they interacted together was very different,' says Probst. 'With the males, you had guys who couldn't help themselves from sort of establishing turf -- you know: "I'm stronger. I'm the leader." Meanwhile, the women just seemed to naturally bond a little better, and how that plays out over the series has a big impact.' Probst also noted that keeping the tribes divided among gender lines served to intensify the sexual tension. 'It just kept building and building and building,' he said. 'And when they (the tribes) did get together or when they would see each other at the challenges, it was like a mixer.'"

Cool, Tim, thanks. Yeah, that was another thing I was wondering about. There was some study about teenagers who grew up together in a Kibbutz -- even without blood ties, the daily business of living together served to de-sexualize the relationship. I noticed that in the housing co-op I lived in, too -- there would be all kinds of drama with each new influx of newcomers, but those of us who had lived together for a long time had an "ew!" kind of reaction. (Well, maybe that was just the doofus guys I lived with...)

So, I was wondering about that with "Survivor" -- it seems like most of the action has been early on, (Whatsername with the hat and Texas hunk) or false leads (Colleen [?] and blonde dude). But if they're SEPARATED, only see each other at the challenges -- oooh!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/13/DD230296.DTL

I'm in a Suvivor pool and my person is:
Christy Smith the Childrens Adventure Guide for the Deaf

As often happens, it comes down to the cocky, smart-ass, little twerp vs. the old guy Special Forces wanna-be - the soldier wins this time. Good show, Jeff Probst laying it on a bit thick - "you guys could be in real trouble!" Its only the first show Jeff. The ladies held their own, that's for sure.

Do you think the hearing-impaired girl will win husker? She might be a bit too nice for this game, but then again a couple of easy-going people have won on past shows.

I think its hard to say at this point, the previews for next week certainly look like they'll throw a twist into the girls camp...should be interesting.
Glad to see the gals win the first time out with a mixed game as well.

Deaf. Not hearing impaired.

But gawd I hope so. (That she wins.)

I over-identified, probably, but that was rather emotional for me; "this is what deaf people experience every day", uh, YEAH. I would have been more take-charge, which would have had its own drawbacks -- I can't STAND to be left entirely out of the loop like that. (Like when they all went off on their little mission and didn't bother to tell her where the hell they were going. Not to mention their midnight gab-fest -- she CAN lipread, just has to be able to SEE. My five least favorite words in the English language: "Oh, it wasn't anything important.")

I'm really glad she will be around for another three days, since they were so judgy based on the fact that she didn't participate when it was ****ing DARK (that really pissed me off), when she seems to be able to lipread well in other situations.

Did I mention that I probably over-identified? I've SO been there, though.

Sorry sozo - deaf, not H.I.? Thought people usually take offense to "deaf" these days.

No. (I am.) (Deaf.)

I knew that.

OK. Just to clarify. ("Hearing Impaired" is an especially odd breed of politically correct terminology, since the people it refers to prefer the supposedly "offensive" term. Plain ol' "deaf" is not only fine, it's preferred.)

Thanks for clarifying, sozobe.