Big Brother 18: Women Are Losing The Battle Of The Sexes

The elusive all-girls alliance appears set to repeat history as Big Brother 18’s early shot at a female dominated season appears to be slipping away before our eyes.

Big Brother 18's final five guys

After starting out with the first three eliminations featuring all male victims leaving us with an 8-5 advantage for the women we’re heading to a 4-5 disadvantage instead just five weeks later. I don’t see a recovery in the near future.

After Glenn, Jozea, and Victor walked out the door I was impressed that the ladies were holding strong and they saw this opportunity as well. There was even a Fatal Five alliance formed early to help take advantage of their numbers but it seems like ever since then things are crumbling as the men have ripped the numbers back away.

Starting in Week 3 Bridgette took over and under her reign as HoH we saw her close ally Bronte evicted thanks to Frank’s RK renom strategy and Bridgette’s failure to use her Veto that round. Since that week we’ve had Paulie, James, Paul, and now Victor as the controlling HoHs in that order. Or to sum it up, Paulie has been HoH for a straight month.

Along with those HoH’s we’ve had two guys evicted (Victor and Frank) and Victor returned to balance out the guys while Da’Vonne’s departure tied it back up to 5-5. With the expected departure of either Michelle or Zakiyah this week (with Natalie or Bridgette as a back up) the guys will have a leg up at 5-4. That works out to effectively four losses while the guys are right back to their numbers from Week 2.

I don’t get why the women won’t work together but they just seem to revolt at the idea. The Fatal Five alliance crumbled after Da’Vonne turned on Tiffany while Tiffany was trying to build a bridge to the Spy Girls (Bridgette, Natalie, and Bronte) for what could have been a complete sweep of all eight ladies fighting together.

Then when Tiffany was up on the Block against Paul we saw Frank send Bronte to join them and instead of the five women eligible to vote (2 were on the Block and 1 was HoH) banding together to vote out Paul they were making it all a decision between Bronte or Tiffany. Bye bye numbers.

The next week was the beginning of the downhill sprint when Paulie took over and we ended up with three women on the Block thanks to Paulie’s noms plus Tiffany’s renom of Da’Vonne. There went another woman.

Aside from sticking together to get out Frank over Bridgette we’ve seen petty confrontations by the ladies both direct and indirect. Michelle didn’t want to use the Veto to save Frank because she was jealous of Bridgette’s close friendship with them. Bye bye Frank. Then when Zakiyah knew Da’Vonne was being targeted this past week she kept her mouth closed and failed to warn either Day or Michelle. Though it’s not like Michelle would have helped Da’Vonne with that knowledge.

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116 Comments

  1. I only wish to one day enter the house, and school some chicks on BB history and start the ultimate girls alliance ever!!! A girl can dream…

    • Jackie Kellzo….I’ll remember that name…hope you can make the BB dream come true.

    • Sounds like Joey from BB16. You very well might be the 1st one out of the house with that strategy.

      • The difference between Joey and myself is that I would succeed at recruiting (lol), and I wouldnt go up to a guy in the house and admit that i tried starting an all girls alliance. There are ways to g about things, and she didnt. But thanks for your opinion!

  2. The only way a girls alliance will ever work is to offer each one a prize for making it work otherwise they just self destruct.

  3. I don’t mean this in an offensive manner, but even outside of the BB house I think at least as a trend women don’t tend to work as well together in consistent, long-lasting group settings. Maybe it’s a chemistry thing.

      • If those are the only women you’re encountering, you might want to take a look at yourself. While it’s often true that the type of women who self-select to be on reality television are not the most secure or independent, there are plenty of good women to be found in real life.

    • Women on Survivor work very well together mostly. The Black Widow Brigade is one of the most successful alliances in Survivor history. Parvati Shallow is considered the best player of all time by many. I just wonder why we don’t see stuff like that here

      • Survivor is harsh elements which isn’t always well suited for romance. Big Brother has tons of downtime which leads to flirting and showmances.

      • BB likes to cast divas whereas divas probably stay as far away from Survivor as they can … it’s too hard even if you just try to be a floater!

      • There were Survivor members who met and got married. I know Boston Rob Mariano and his wife both won in separate seasons! There may be others.

      • I still say it’s far more often a group of guys works together than girls. It’s just something I notice a lot in life is that guys tend to work better in same-sex groups.

      • Survivor has more range when it comes to women; older women, younger women, fans of the game. Thats why they have more success.

        Big Brother has fame whores and loose cannons. But they are pretty to look at at least.

      • I agree with you. Survivor seems to get a more eclectic group of women to be on the show. Not sure why BB can’t do the same. But as someone else pointed out the 3 month commitment may not be possible for many women and therefore limits the contestant pool.

      • What Parvati did was so impressive. She is an extremely charismatic person who comes off as genuine and charming in real life. I think her feat also required having other strong, independent women around her to lead.

    • I think this might actually just be confirmation bias; if you have an internalized stereotype that women are “catty” or whatever than I think you’re more likely to notice and remember “catty” groups of women.

      Anyways, I haven’t really noticed this trend among the women in my life, and three waves of highly organized, highly effective feminist movements also provide a good counter-example. ;)

  4. I was so hopeful at the start of this season. But then Day turned on the girls and then Nicole, Zakiyah, Brigette, and Natalie became puppy dogs to their boys. Ugh. What is it about isolation that turns their brains to mush?

    • Nicole and Day showed a lot of promise. After that I thought Tiffany may have been the one girl who might be able to play the game… but Paulie’s obsession took care of that -_-

    • Yah I agree Da’Vonne was the downfall of the girls this year. All she had to do was chill in the Fatal 5 and the 8 Pack, but she always wants to scheme so she created the problems between Tiffany and Frank and basicly turned all the girls against Tiffany. The fallout from that led to Bronte getting picked off by accident and Tiffany going as well. If she had just chilled Paul would of gone 3rd most likely and later the girls could of ruled, but Da’Vonne blew up everything. Just my opinion.

  5. So who’s the last girl standing? I hope it’s Lil Cabbage Patch Kid!
    So Big Meech can have another bawling session.

    • Me, too! But even besides the Big Meech tear tantrum, I actually have grown to like Bridgette … she’s not so conceited and she doesn’t talk BS for show in the DR.

    • I think it’ll be Nicole. She seems to be the Britney of this season.

    • Definitely rooting for the Cabbage Patch Kid for Final 2. I always cheer for the underdog! Go Bridgette!

  6. I agree with you so much! What happened to good playing, likable female players?

    It has to be a casting issue. Get some women who love the BB game (NOT girls like Michelle lol) and who are not concerned about getting a boyfriend or being an absolute drama queen. That’s a start.

    • Wait…you want women who actually understand the game and are actually willing to play it like Danielle BB3 and Danielle Donato?

      Good luck with that.

    • I read an article where production states that is the only age group that applies. I’ll do it but I would have to have on more clothes. There you have it, I’m disqualified. Lol

  7. If you want girls to play the game then you need to cast more girls that are already in a committed relationship so that they don’t fall into the showmance hole. I don’t really care if its a guy or girl I just like good gameplay and sadly for the girls so far they just aren’t doing it. The guys feel like the only ones really playing the game this year, so far at least.

    • And a lot of guys actually suck this year too, like Corey and Paul. In my opinion… It seems like these newer seasons start off strong and then they trail off toward the end. Derrick took control of BB16, Vanessa took control of BB17, and now it looks like Paulie’s taking control of this one. :/

      • I agree about Corey, but I’ll have to disagree about Paul. Paul and Paulie are the only 2 really playing hard. You have to remember Paul basicly came into this season not even knowing what veto is LOL. In my opinion he’s improved the most and is playing a really good social game. I realize he’s annoying to a lot of feeders, but in the house multiple people list him as the most liked. I think Paul is going to go against Paulie at some point soon, maybe not directly against him since I think he wants to go far with him, but maybe the order of the evictions etc. Corey/Nicole, James/Natalie, are in la la land. Victor/Michelle/Zakiyah/Brigette just know what Paul/Paulie want them to know. Those 2 guys are the only ones with the full picture of what’s going down this year.

      • I would vote Paulie over Paulie. Paulie runs the house but Paul is playing a much better game. If he would wake up and stand up against Paulie, he would get player of the season- MVP

      • You would vote Paulie over himself? I got what you meant, but still it was like when Da’Vonne confused Paul and Paulie when they were picking teams

      • I feel like years of watching the really aggressive players go out early has created a trend of weak and overly cautious players lately that make it really easy for the Derricks and Vanessas of the world to come in and dominate…

      • No, the issue is casting.

        BB casts very formulaically. They cast 1-2 big time fan characters, and at most 3-4 ‘strategists’ (these can overlap). When they cast a return player (even a dumb one), then tend to take up those strategist spots.

        The rest are brought on based on how they look and act. They want some beautiful people, preferably horny ones. They will cast at least one gay guy, at least one black person, and anybody who does not tick off any of the above needs to be an outsized personality.

        The result is a cast where half the people have never seen the show, a bunch just want to get famous, and almost no one knows how to play.

        Its not just the women. The guys may be taking over right now, but aside from Paulie and maybe James, none of them are particularly strategic

      • This seems like an astute analysis. Good point. Though you forgot about the “old man” token character ;)

      • Sure she didn’t have Derricks perfect game (her emotions got in the way of that) but she still ran the house for the most part. If fact I enjoy watching Vanessa’s game a lot more because I feel like she had to do a lot more maneuvering than Derrick did.

  8. Da’vonne is pretty much entirely to blame for a women’s alliance not gelling this season. She turned on Tiffany for no reason, and from that point on it was irreparably broken.

    • Nicole was the snitch of the group and wanted Da out for a few weeks now because she was intimidated by her presence. Nicole is the one to blame because she was up Paulie’s behind and told him everything.

      • True, but wasn’t that after Day turned on Tiffany? I’m pretty sure it was. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t remember Nicole turning on Day until after she blew up the fatal five and started trying to get Frank to target Tiffany…

      • Day said what everyone was thinking about Tiffany. They also wanted her out because she was an emotional loose cannon

  9. You lost me at “Hooray for Rachels”.

    As for the women losing the battle of the sexes, despite a week 1 women’s alliance, for the most part, most of the women have no idea they are fighting one.

    Somehow none of them have noticed that the boys are more loyal to each other than them.

  10. Girls are too catty and that’s why their alliances never work. The fatal five alliance I thought would of been strong but Day screwed that up. I think Nicole and Corey trust each other 100% and that’s why they tell each other everything.

      • She has told him about the Executive (or whatever the name of that fake alliance was)? He will not tell her just how close the guys are.

    • I wonder if Casting just needs to limit their pool to more BB fangirls, first of all. I think/hope fangirls would be less inclined to such detrimental behaviors.

      For another thing, I would hope that Casting stops (if they do) urging girls to get into showmances. Stop telling this one she will be America’s favorite/girl next door or that one she’ll be the hot one or that one SHE’LL be America’s favorite/whatever. I have not confirmed they do that but I suspect it just based on the cookie cutter personalities for the girls this season.

      Oh and Paul saying they told him he probably would be gone week 3 for his personality (outrageous rock star type, I guess). It just seems like they are casting a scripted show instead of a reality show. The social experiment is lending itself to dating habits of 20 somethings.

      Hey if the 20 somethings give us good game (strategy, no showmances, gamesmanship), I have no problem with casting youthful, heavenly bodies. I just HATE these showmance-friendly games they’ve been casting and people who “just want to make jury” drivel.

      • I agree. I’ve read that physical appearance is big with casting females. God forbid an ugly,intellectual, super fan that knows how to play the game, applies.

      • I agree. I wish the entire cast would be fans. Instead of scouting for like you said a scripted show. And I think there will always be showmances. I guess when you’re together 24/7 and you’re attracted to someone it would be hard. Look how some of them have worked out. I love Jeff and Jordan. But even if they’re in a showmance keep playing the game. That’s where I think Nicole is playing the game even though she’s with Corey. She does a lot of game talk and is in a strong alliance with the guys. I just hope they don’t take her out before some of them go. I think they should only cast people that try out and quit the scouting.

      • Agree LG. I cannot believe there aren’t a few fans applying who are hotties. As long as you have a few for eye candy/ratings/whatever, fine. Don’t need a house full of them.

  11. BB needs to cast people in the age group of 30 to 40 or even 50, that are married and need the money. Believe it or not, there are very attractive women and men in that age group to look at on camera. I think that age group would play a serious game for the money. Enough of these young people getting on BB for the 10 minutes of fame and the pathetic showmances!

    • Even if they weren’t good looking for the camera.. it would be nice to see real hard working people, rather than kids living with their parents who, as we could by Paul’s house, don’t need the money. I would gladly watch a 40 yr old who is not there for the 15min who actually needs the monew.

    • Part of the issue is that most people in those age groups usually can’t get over three months off of work without having to quit compared to shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race which only require a little over a month of commitment. Also, Big Brother is aiming for “Summer fun” rather than a more serious tone (like their older seasons) which generally leads to casting a young demographic.

      • Yes, I just started watching about 6 yrs ago, I think. My summers of fun leave me with wondering if Evil Dick was let go because he was high…his daughter and that other girl doping the food and making people sick….Rachels Hello Bitches…..Jeffs clown shoe……Jeff and Jordan…..Brendan and Rachel…… and Sickeningly Bros over hoes.. of corse theres more but its all in fun for me:)

      • OH, and I’ll never understand why those two girls got away with putting drugs in the slop and putting Jordan in the hospital without getting kicked off the show.

      • Dick left the show because the show told him that in the pre-show medical exam that he tested positive for HIV

  12. I miss the the Danielles (BB3), Janelles (BB6/7/14), and Rachels (BB13/14), and even June, of the Big Brother world.

    These high school girls are too ridiculous. We have a girl jealous because she had a crush on a boy who decided to befriend another girl. We have a girl who is smitten by a Christmas boy who is playing her but who cares, he is the hottest guy evvveeerr! Rather than empower her other female counterparts, she encourage one than an emotionally abusive boy is niiiccce and really likes youuuu. The summer-camper woke up too late and is attached to a boy who is afraid to “get blood on his hands”. Then we have the saddest of them all, Zakiyah! (It is sad to write about her.)

    • Right, Meesh….Wahhh
      Bridge…chirp chirp, for any man
      Z and Nat……whatever he says
      Nicole…….Duh
      Yeah right, OK girls lets work together to see if one of us can win a half mill

    • I agree with your statements, but there are a few quick corrections. Rachel was on BB12 &13. She was NOT present for BB14. Also, the proper spelling of Jun Song’s (BB4) name doesn’t include an “e”.

      • Thanks for the correction… Rachel any season, any show was annoying but she played the game especially when it affected her Brenden (however you spell it). And she liked someone that liked her back.

  13. thinking bridgette, paul or victor to the final four will give paulie the upper hand in the finals

  14. I didn’t realize that there were as many girls left as boys and these dummies are able to take over this game if they chose to. If victor nominates at least one guy, that’s two less guys that are able to vote.

  15. Victor at least stood up your Paulie with his decision to keep Bridgette. Hopefully he will stand strong. That is when the divide will show. Each guy will want to protect his “girl”. Let’s see who wins the battle. I hope they remember that which ever female leaves he will be the odd man out

    • For sure. I think Victor wants Zak out for that very reason. She’s not only annoying but in Paulie’s pocket. Bridgette is the sweetest so I’m sure he’d put up Natalie if need be.

  16. Im so sick of meathead DUMBASSES like Paulie running this show. Can I please just get another Danielle Reyes, Janelle, Rachel, or even Vanessa(cried too much but was a good game player :p)?! Like, I just NEED a strong female to show these other chicks that you don’t have to hand your game to the damn boys every season. Hopefully BB19 this autumn will give us a strong female, because I’m tired of the Paulie kind of guy sitting pretty every single week!

    • You do a disservice to the others by including Rachel on that list. The last thing we ever need is another Rachel.

      • Yes, she acted like a bitchy little toddler on the show on BOTH of her seasons, but to deny her gameplay is completely moronic. She was a comp beast! And her childish antics are what MADE her seasons IMO. Would you rather have 8 Victorias in the house that sit around all day handing the game over to the boys, or would you rather have a houseguest that, while acting like a child, at least knows that she has to play for herself?

      • I don’t much care that she was bitchy. Yes, makes her annoying, but the bigger problem was that she was an idiot with no idea who to play.

        She won 2 HoH’s her first season, and got out MONET and KRISTEN. Imagine if Zakiyah won a comp, and that is what Rachel would be like. That’s right, going after Bridgette, not the boys.

        She has no gameplay. Winning comps alone is not gameplay. BB12 was fun in spite of her (and won by an alliance of guys). BB13 was a complete trainwreck of unwatchable awful.

      • Disagree completely, but because I have a laundry list of things to do this evening and can’t spend time arguing, let’s agree to disagree. :)

      • An opinion cannot be incorrect, sweetheart. But by all means, think what you’d like! :)

      • Why is it whenever someone says look at Cory, its he needs pills, blah blah. But no one could look at Rachel crying her way thru two seasons of BB and two seasons of Amazing Race and see that girl needed professional help?

      • I must have missed the outpouring of sympathy for Corey.

        It is dumb to cast someone with ADD and deny his meds (or rather, manipulative), And equally so with Rachel’s ‘issues’.

        In neither case do I care. They are both HGs Id rather not see again.

      • She cried her way thru 4 seasons of game shows, and made out quit well I might add, but lets not fight.
        You not like, me like period

    • I’m hoping we get another Jordan. Strong and social but without the crying and drama.

      • Honestly…no. Jejo is definitely THE sweetheart couple of BB, but Jordan’s gameplay sucked. Idk… just me, clearly, that feels this way. Most people can’t separate their personal feelings of houseguests from said houseguests gameplay. I feel like I’m the only one that can. As I replied to someone else, Rachel (BB12 &13) acted like a child, but at least she was a comp beast. I didn’t like her personally, but to deny her gameplay isn’t fair or reasonable.

      • Nah, just the worst people.

        Jordan’s first season was the worst structured with terrible twists, and her second was the height of production interference, and neither had great casts.

  17. I know odds are slim, slimmmmmmm, but I’d love a Victor/Bridgette finale :)

  18. In a nutshell, here is the problem. Women are by and large interested in showmances. Men are focused on the game and that $500,000. Of the men, James is the only one not focused on the game and is more interested in his showmance with Natalie! Even Michelle in her talk with Bridgette, acknowledged her jealousy over Frank! Attention: Chris Harrison of the Bachelor, Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise, we have some live candidates from Big Brother! I think they showed up at the wrong studio? They were looking for ABC and ended at CBS? LOL

  19. Why do so many girls think it’s a good look to play the airhead, little girl with pigtails, innocent act? Nicole, Natalie & Bridgette all do that. And Zakiya, with her Paulie obsession, has not played the game AT ALL. Then there’s Michelle, who admitted making game decisions based on jealousy. Ugh. It’s too bad Tiffany had that emotional & paranoid side, because at least she wasn’t annoyingly fake.

  20. Call me a dreamer, but I’m hoping the DE brings a power shift, and, yes, by that I mean I want Paulie out. Since James is the only one that could pull that off, I’m sorry to hear him say he’d target Vic and Bridge. Please James use your b@ll$and not your Paulie brown nose if given the chance!

    • I’ll bet he’s not really thankful … gonna put him in a real corner … are you a man or a mouse?

      • I love James, wish he would win buuuttttt, gotta admit he’s just been squeaking along. Going after Vic and Bridge bad idea I say. He probably would have wanted the 5k

      • He said you better be my best friend. Nicole is worried that James and Nat are america’s favorite.

      • James said this is the eviction you would put someone up that you couldn’t have voted out. I think this may have woke him up.

  21. Although im no fan of them, Amanda (BB15) and Vanessa (BB17) were good players too.

  22. It really is sad that this group of girls is more concerned with if a certain boy likes them. Not all girls are like this! And to make matters worse, this is a girl bashing group of guys. Again, not all guys are like that and I’m sure these guys aren’t sexist IRL but the way they talk about cutting these girls one by one is so disheartening. Its disappointing from a game standpoint AND society in general.

  23. OMG, i love it! Brigade’s Britney Award! Exactly what I was thinking. The beginning of this summer, it seem like we were promise a woman would win. I was rooting for a strong woman to win. Still crossing my fingers for Michelle. Alright, I’ll cross my toes for Nicole.

  24. Maybe if they thought about things other than BOYS they’d actually have a shot. The most important thing to the girls in the house is their showmance, the most important thing to the boys is winning the game.

  25. Because women turn on each other every season is why we won’t ever see a female alliance work long term and a women won’t win big brother again

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