Masked Singer voting patterns & women

[theskyispink]

Spoilers if you haven't caught up yet...

Has anyone been watching the Masked Singer and noticing that the audience consistently votes against female performers?

So far the first three contestants to have been eliminated are women. In almost every audience vote during the show, the man has won.

Tonight culminated in two of the best singers (both clearly female) being in the bottom two, whereas every single male participant (and one, Dragon, who no one can decide is male or female) was voted safe. In other words, out of the five performers, the only two obviously female singers were in the bottom two.

This is a show where contestants wear giant costumes to disguise their bodies. Yet somehow it's the women who sing well who still, for some unidentifiable reason, end up in the bottom, over men who really can't sing at all.

It's meant to be a daft light-hearted show, but so far the audience's anti-women vote has happened in every single episode and it's really harshing my mellow, man.

Episode 1:
Alien - risk - OUT
Swan - risk
Dragon* - win
Sausage - win
(Two male performers - win)

Episode 2:
Harlequin - risk
Seahorse - risk - OUT
(Four male performers - 3 wins, 1 risk)

Episode 3:
Sausage - risk
Swan - risk - OUT
Dragon* - safe
(Two male performers - safe)

*Note: The panel is split on whether Dragon is a woman. I've included them here otherwise the numbers would be even more depressing.

So there have been seven audience votes in total. Out of those seven, a woman has won twice at most (depending on whether Dragon is actually a woman).

I know the show's a bit of nonsense and doesn't deserve much analysis, but I just find it ridiculous that even in costume, dressed as a sausage or an alien, women still don't escape this constant sexism. Is it love for men or hate for women? Both? Either way, I don't find it enjoyable seeing talented women being overlooked for average men every single week. I don't want a dose of blatant sexism with my light entertainment, thanks.

This is clearly the issue that's really going to divide FWR.

I wonder if they get a say on the costume.
I also wonder if they film the non singy bits or does a double put on the costume and act it out.
Obviously very important questions for feminism.

@TheBuffster

I wonder if they get a say on the costume. I also wonder if they film the non singy bits or does a double put on the costume and act it out. Obviously very important questions for feminism.

One week they made a point of saying that some of the extra bits had been filmed using stand ins- presumably as an attempt to say they were following lockdown rules. I suspect they all are because there's no need for the singers to travel to the remote filing locations when you can't tell who is in the costume anyway.

I honestly think the votes aren't just for who is the best singer, but also the performance and how much of a mystery who the person is.
If you have a professional singer it stands to reason that the audience are more likely to recognise their voice and guess who they are. Which I'm fairly sure is what has happened so far.
As PP said, the singing is secondary to the mystery of who is behind the mask. Wouldn't be much of a series if we had them all sussed by the second episode!

Been happening in other voting shows for decades. Women may win sometimes, but are consistently voted out in larger numbers at the beginning at least. Think BB, I'm a Celeb, etc etc.
I have never been able to work out why, especially since it is younger people that tend to vote more, and prob younger women too.
I have concluded, maybe wrongly, that there is quite a lot of women, voting aginst women.

Broadly speaking I often think it's nit just sexism, it's sexism + ageism.

I can think of a number of celeb shows where older men have done OK or won.

Debbie McGee aside, I'm struggling to think of many older women. And certainly none that look their age.

I thought the same as you OP.

@NonagonInfinityOpensTheDoor

3 out of the first 4 contestants who were voted out in season 1 were men. Does that say anything? I personally don’t think it’s that deep and / or there are other factors at play.

It’s an entertainment show primarily, that doesn’t necessarily correlate the best singer going through. Personality through the costume goes a long way, the “cheekier” and more outgoing a personality the more people want to see them around. Compared to Badger, Swan was a bit boring and unforgettable. A better singer but boring. The costume probably has some influence too. I really hated Swans costume, it annoyed me so I wanted them to go. I think there are more outstanding factors at play affecting audience votes (which is limited due to massively reduced audience numbers).

This.

The Blob is for it next week then as everyone thinks they know it is Lenny Henry.

I have been banging on about this for decades, since early BB. I think it is just as much of a manipulation of the audience as the performers. Producers play games with the audience / voters with what they show and how they show it, particularly the commentary.

Wasn't there an interview with Sophie Ellis Bextor where she knew the jig was up because they all agreed who she was (but it got edited out of the show), may be some merit in the pp who said if they suss who you are not much point keeping you in.

I don't know why the panel are so sure Dragon is female, they have agreed that it's someone LGBTQ.

Dragon stated in the VT that they met their boyfriend on stage, it could be Matt Lucas, I haven't heard him sing apart from when he mimicked Shirley Bassey.

DH thought that one of them was jamerqui (misspelled, I know) I can't remember if it was dragon though.

The dragon I’m thinking is Katharine Ryan who’s a big supporter of the LGBTQ community.

I’m not sure about the sexism but do know that the series was filmed last autumn/winter and the “audience” are mainly members of the crew. So whoever said that once the judges guessed who the singers were, they were voted out, could well be right!
I also know at the final of the series that members of the crews’ families were allowed into the audience, so there were more people to vote for the winner.

Tbh you have to have a pretty enclyopeic knowledge of b to z list celebs to guess them.
I am pants at it.

I know people who were in the audience of this series which was filmed back in September/October time. Due to Covid restrictions there were only limited ticket availability. Some may have been crew members on some shows but that wasn’t the experience of my friends. They are asked to vote for their favourite performance and the lowest voted singers sing again and the panel decide who to get rid of. One thing they did say which may partially explain the voting is that the sound is terrible in the studio and everyone sounded like not very good singers including the professional singer who was unmasked on their show. They said her performance was very poor and sounded off key and very strange. On seeing the show on tv they were amazed how much better everyone sounded...

Now does that mean that the acoustics were terrible.
Or that they were all bad and got touched up post production.
Who knows?

@TheBuffster

DH thought that one of them was jamerqui (misspelled, I know) I can't remember if it was dragon though.

I did watch an episode on catch up. Was it Badger that they were guessing might've been Jamiroquai? I had a look on Google and it looks like one of the founding members died. I thought Jamiroquai was a guy, was it a group? 😳

Well they were guessing JT so if he's dead it's a very bad guess. I don't think he is though. Had a few substance abuse problems but Wikipedia says present.

Jamiroquai was a group, but is often used by people to mean Jay Kay, the front man, much like people saying Blondie when they mean Debbie Harry.

I have no idea what criteria the audience bases their vote on. It's not meant to be a straight singing contest and if I was voting, I'd go for the singer whose identity I wanted to know first. Quality of costume definitely helps. Swan's was impressive but a bit weird. Alien's was recycled from Justin Hawkins's last year. Badger's is the best and I think he'll stay in much longer.

I think Dragon is Michelle Visage.

@TinselAngel

This is clearly the issue that's really going to divide FWR.

My daughter thanks that dragon may be Bianca Del Rio.

You’re right though, 2 really amazing singers in the bottom 2.

My daughter thinks Dragon could be Sue Perkins. Definitely someone from the LGBTQ+community. Which these days could frankly be anyone.

I reckon the dragon is Courtney Act and the Badger is James Toseland. Sausage might be Alexandra Burke.

There's a well-known phenomenon on these kind of shows that the audience are likely to favour the performers near the end (as they have forgotten the earlier ones by the time it comes to vote), and the last slot of the night is sometimes referred to as the "Pimp slot" (which is not very feminist). It could go some way to explain last week's vote - Sausage and Swan were early in the running order. I think sexism might be a factor but not the main one.