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.

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.

Last night as Michelle cried about the blindside she told Zakiyah that she would have been willing to hide the truth from Day if someone had just told her too. Then when Michelle talked to Nicole she mentioned the 5 against 5 and Nicole roared “girl power!” Oh Nicole. She might be the worst offender of the group.

It was just last night Nicole pulled Corey aside and admitted the Fatal Five alliance was real and Michelle had fabricated an “AdvanceMen” alliance of supposedly all the guys, to distract others in the game. Nicole’s vault doesn’t even have a door.

Despite starting the game with a promise that she wouldn’t let a boy distract her from game this time that’s exactly what’s happened with Nicole’s game. She follows Corey around, wonders if he’s mad at her, and brain dumps everything she’s heard right to him. She’s not alone though as Zakiyah seems more interested in what her and Paulie’s babies will look like than alerting her close ally to impending danger. Then even Natalie makes comments to James that she’ll vote along with him in his decisions.

So what are the guys going to do? They’re pairing up and each looking for their own Victoria. Last night the guys were gathered in the Lounge and pointed out how they’ve each got one female ally singled out. Paulie has Zakiyah. Victor now has Bridgette. Paul has Michelle. Corey has Nicole. James has Natalie.

All five of these guys are working together in some level even though it’s not a unified force at all times or in all concerns. But when you look at the remaining five women they’re divided. Michelle doesn’t like Bridgette, Nicole talks poorly of Zakiyah, and Zakiyah and Michelle don’t trust Nicole.

One of these ladies could end up winning the Brigade’s Britney Award (BB12) as the last woman standing with a group of guys all looking to either pick her off or a Victoria Consolation Prize (BB16) and be dragged to the end. Of course that means the guys will look for who they consider the weakest, most easily beatable contender. Sigh.

Some of my absolute favorite past Houseguests have been women who take charge, win comps, and bulldoze through the competition. Hooray for the Danielles (BB3), Janelles (BB6/7/14), and Rachels (BB13/14) of the Big Brother world. It’s sad that we can’t find more of that or a group of women who enable each other to make that happen. At least not this season.

Do you think the men will pull off their plans to make a F5 of all guys? Could any of these ladies stop it from happening if the guys decide not to turn on each other along the way? Or maybe you’re enjoying watching the ladies’ advantage crumble before their eyes? Share your thoughts below!

Update: And just to prove my point, here’s Nicole this afternoon discussing why Natalie needs to go.