When I first spoke with The Beast Games producer Charles Wachter about gender dynamics in the show, I pointed out something striking from the early episodes: the men were the ones begging others to sacrifice themselves, while the women were the ones volunteering. Wachter responded that, over the course of the season, men and women responded equally in these high-pressure situations.
Now that we’ve reached the final episode, I’m still seeing trends that suggest otherwise. When helicopters arrived, a man chose all men to go with him. When faced with a classic trolley problem, a man chose three women to be eliminated. When the ten remaining contestants had to decide how to divide a million dollars, the women assumed they would split it evenly, while the men argued for a greedier approach. Even in the penultimate episode, the men were the ones behaving selfishly. Ironically, thanks to two men in the final ten who were dishonest, more women than men ended up in the finale. But those women had been the ones prioritizing integrity and social cohesion from the beginning.
It’s not that moments of male altruism don’t exist—one man, who had lied his way into the final, immediately stepped up to potentially sacrifice himself. But does Wachter not notice the broader pattern? He sees instances of generosity from men but doesn’t seem to acknowledge the overwhelming trend of how gender influences behavior in this extreme social experiment.
This question of social dynamics and moral decision-making ties into a theme I’ve been exploring in my upcoming anthology, Where Connections Lead. As an editor reading submissions, I’ve already noticed that stories written by men often feature dead women, either at the start or the end—another reminder of how gender influences storytelling. Wachter himself recently endorsed Where Connections Lead, which only strengthens the link between the anthology’s themes and the choices people make under pressure.
Whether in fiction or reality-based experiments like The Beast Games, how we navigate relationships and ethical dilemmas reveals profound truths about who we are. It makes me wonder if I will see a Beast Games inspired interpretation of the anthology theme!
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