While there is a certain logic to your thinking, it’s still blaming the victim. Is a black guy primarily at fault if he gets killed because he shows up at a KKK rally? Is a woman primarily at fault if she gets sexually assaulted when she shows up at a frat party dressed in a bikini?
It’s one thing to question the judgement of those people, but it’s another to place the primary blame on them.
It would appear that Zeke at some point opened up to Varner. We have watched Suvivor for years and saw both last season with Zeke and this season.
Zeke has appeared shirtless several times in both seasons and when that came out at tribal council you could have knocked me over with a feather. My point being that baring Zeke being completely naked (I have no idea whether Zeke has had any surgeries or not) there were no physical indications that he was transitioning.
Whether Zeke told anyone last season or not, I have no idea. But it would seem that he had gotten close enough to Varner to tell him.
So one could argue that Zeke’s mistake was not just going on a reality show, but also opening up on something so private.
But if you trust someone, at some point you will open up and create actual bonds.
Varner broke that trust by sharing something that was very personal. And since he said “why haven’t you told anyone that you are trans” it would indicate that Zeke let Varner know that no one else knew that information.
I have read Zeke’s article about the situation and he does not make any statements about what CBS offered him, or if he had any choice but to let it be aired.
Ultimately, Zeke might should have been more cautious with the information, but if he felt Varner was a true friend, I can see where he would be more open. Varner should not have broken Zeke’s trust.
CBS might should not have aired it, but once the genie was out of the bottle, it would have taken a great effort to keep it contained.
I have never seen Survivor, but I have been following this story, and I do watch a lot of other reality TV.
My impression from everything I have read is that this was mostly orchestrated by CBS. They knew from the very beginning that Zeke was transgender. It seems clear to me that they invited him back for a second appearance in the hope that he would be outed (or out himself) and that the network could then portray itself as enlightened and LGBT-friendly. To what extent they manipulated Varner into doing the outing is not clear, but based on their statements, interviews with the host, etc., it seems obvious that they were well-prepared for it and intended it to be a key storyline in this season.
This would be tough to decide without watching the whole season, or knowing what happened. They finished up filming months ago. How did this effect the rest of the season? What did Zeke himself want?
Yes. . . but not a live broadcast.
Undoubtedly Varner knew he was saying something that could be seen world-wide. But the ultimate decision to air it world-wide was made by CBS.
Real estate agents are independent contractors. Companies cannot “fire” them. However, they can return their real estate salespersons’s license to them or to the state’s real estate commission at any time, with no explanation needed or given.
Unlikely. Zele was a very good player, and it totally makes sense to have invited him back independent of the whole trans thing. Since you didn’t watch the show, you couldn’t know that (emphasis added).
I’m wondering if, had the trans person objected to that outing scene been aired, if CBS would have agreed not to air it.
I apologize for assuming earlier that Zeke had opened up to Varner. I knew I did not recall that Zeke had said any such thing to Varner, but assumed (wrongly) that he had and that CBS had not shown that interaction to make the tribal that much more impactful.
If that is the case, then Zeke is not to blame as he was just playing a game and just like life, doing his thing.
Yes, putting himself out there in the public eye for the show enhanced the risk, but if you read his article, he states that from the first time he saw Survivor that became a goal. Something that he wanted to improve himself physically to prove to himself that he could compete on such a difficult stage.
I know nothing about this, but as mentioned upthread, CBS claims to have consulted with Zeke about the episode.
[QUOTE=CBS]
After the tribal council scene in last night’s Survivor was filmed, we consulted with Zeke Smith and with GLAAD in advance of the broadcast
[/QUOTE]
No mentioned is made of whether he had veto power, but for all we know he gave them permission. Do you have any evidence to the contrary?
It may well be that Zeke would have been invited back independently; however all of the media response coming from CBS reeks very strongly of “I am shocked to find gambling in this establishment.” They are practically salivating over his outing. There is no way that they didn’t anticipate and plan for it, even if they may not have specifically orchestrated it.
They consulted with Zeke extensively and at no time has he said he objected to the airing.
Attempting to hide this would have been worse.
I get that. But we live in a probabilistic world, and the probability of your being outed (for whatever - sexual identity, crimes you’ve committed, religious beliefs, how you acted from 17-19 years of age, whatever) increases when you appear on a TV show where you talk about your lives, make alliances with people based upon commonality of identity/interest, etc.
So play the odds, don’t go on Survivor, and keep your secrets safe. One can seek secrecy. One can seek fame. But, long-term, achieving both at the same time is unsustainable.
Accusations of exploitation, irresponsibility, and flat-out conspiracy abound, but the victim they’re ostensibly defending is not speaking out against the network, the show, even the perpetrator. (“Forgiveness does not require forgetting or excusing his actions,” Smith said of Varner.) Rather, Smith continues to celebrate “the honor of another day playing the world’s greatest game,” reflecting on the painful growth Survivor has ordered of him. That producers consulted with Smith and groups like GLAAD signifies a genuine effort to get this right, anyway—to use an awful incident to help bring about change.
*From the moment the episode was filmed nearly 10 months ago, the “Survivor” producers had been consulting with Mr. Smith about how best to handle airing the incident, which included a strategic media rollout and working with Glaad, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights group, before the episode’s broadcast.
“The idea of not airing this never came up,” Jeff Probst, the show’s longtime host and an executive producer, said in an interview. “Zeke never asked for that. While he certainly did not have a hand in editing the show, Zeke and I have talked for nine months.”
*
Now yes, maybe if Zeke had asked then not to air it, they might have pointed to a clause in Zekes contract and showed it anyway.** But that’s not what happened. **
A point we’ve missed here so far is that Varner has stated that he assumed Zeke was out to his family, friends and co-workers, and he thought he was only outing him on the show. As it turns out, no, Zeke wasn’t out, even to all of his family. He moved before he began transition and found all new friends afterwards, and wasn’t out to most of them.
Another point is that, even during the tribal councel (where, to be fair, Zeke has a million dollars riding on being perceived as a reasonable guy), he said he was okay with this. It’s not what he wanted, and it’s not how he wanted it to come out. He said he wanted to be known as “Zeke the Survivor player” rather than “Zeke the Transgender Survivor player.” There’s been the Deaf Survivor player, the Guy with a Prosthetic Leg, and the First Openly Lesbian player. I can’t remember any of their names. I’ve watched both of these seasons and agree that Zeke is a great player, and as other people said at TC, I’m glad I got a chance to seem him play without this knowledge so I can see what a great guy he is, even if he is a sports geek.
And, yeah, Varner only outed Zeke to a set-full of people. CBS outed him to millions. They would have had to bludgeon their video of the TC into something they could show if they wanted to keep it a secret (for example, there was no dramatic “everybody goes to cast their vote” sequence like usual; instead, Probst just asked them individually if Varner was toast and they agreed, so off he went). They would have also required every single player to modify their play style so they didn’t talk about this, and it would have created a huge secret that nobody’s talking about in the middle of the season, just at the time when everybody starts talking about deep strategy and trust issues (which is kind of exactly why Varner brought it up in the first place…). It would have been possible to do, but it would have made the rest of the season suck horribly, because it would have been wildly confusing to the viewers and players, and it would have thrown off everybody’s play style.
That still doesn’t really justify you putting him at the top of your blame list. He wanted to play survivor so he played the odds. He specifically said, and I honestly believe, that he just wanted to be known as a Survivor not the trans Survivor. How far would you push this logic? Don’t go into professional sports, politics or that big job at the office? Because then it’s your own fault when someone else outs you?
It’s a reality TV show. The entire purpose of the genre is to exaggerate human differences. If you don’t want your reality broadcast to the world and your differentiation highlighted, don’t participate in reality TV shows and sign reality TV show releases.
Zeke had to make a number of conscious decisions to put himself in this situation - it’s not as if appearing on Survivor is something that occurs by happenstance. You have to work for it. He knew full damn well that there was a slight possibility that his secret gets outed - the fact that he may have discounted that possibility doesn’t make it any less real.
If I don’t want the fact that I cheat on my taxes highlighted, the safer play is to not apply for jobs at the IRS. If I have secrets that I want to keep from the rest of the world, maybe it’s best to put aside those “Survivor” dreams and try for “Let’s Make a Deal” or something.
So, is it a woman’s fault if she goes to a frat party dressed in a bikini and gets sexually assaulted? I’m OK if we ignore the legal aspects and just talk about the moral aspect. Is it primarily her fault or primarily the fault of the guy who assaults her?