This is my first survival show—is it always this much of an insular boys’ club?

It’s because the gender ratio is even more of a total mess this time. Except for Yurisa, the women are newbies, and everyone else is already close because of their history on past survival shows. And it’s not like these people only ever formed all-male alliances before......... Jang Dong-min had MJ and Yoo Su-jin, Kong had Kim Kyung-ran, and there were Seok-jin and Si-won, Hyun-gyu and So-hee, and so on..... There were plenty of mixed-gender alliances too. This time the men are mostly veterans, while there are far too few women and they’re newbies, so they aren’t included. The casting itself is the problem.

I do think it’s a male-dominated cartel, though. Even on their first survival shows, there’s already a basic cartel among the contestants who know one another and know how TV works, and it’s usually made up of men. I’ve also often gotten that unpleasant feeling where they patronize the women just because they’re women—not saying they literally go easy on them—and I’ve seen how women who fit the ‘honorary man’ mold can slip into those male circles more easily. So I’ve even thought they should make an all-women survival show to develop female cast members separately and then increase their presence.

This isn’t really a gender issue. Nucksal was a newbie too, so he was left on the fringes with them, while Yurisa settled into Jang Dong-min’s alliance.