Meet the Ball Smashers, considered one of the strongest all-women alliances in Big Brother history.

Big Brother 19: Why Don’t All-Women Alliances Ever Work?

Meanwhile, there are a bazillion bro alliances frolicking about.

Lily Herman
Jul 20, 2017 · 14 min read

Welcome to The Queue’s coverage of the 19th season of Big Brother, where I’m holding Twitter DM convos with a rotating panel of guests about the show and posting those chats online.

If you have questions about what Big Brother is, who Ryan is, or why you should keep up with this series even if you’re new to the show, click here.

This week, BB Twitter bae Ryan and I are talking about all-women alliances. Why? Because all-women alliances on this show never, ever, ever seem to work. For every one failed all-women alliance, there are 12 bro ones like Chill Town and The Brigade winning the game.

Is there a secret sauce that the women of these Big Brother seasons are missing? Let’s find out.

Lily: So, there’ve been plenty of alliances formed and broken over the 17 years of Big Brother, but the one type of alliance that seems to allude virtually every cast is the all-women alliance. In recent seasons, we’ve seen situations like Joey Van Pelt of BB16 trying to form a group of girls, only to be targeted and voted out first in the game. Audrey, Shelli, and Da’Vonne in BB17 formed an alliance literally five minutes after entering the house, and that crumbled by the start of week two. The only “successful” recent alliance was the Ball Smashers in BBOTT last fall, but I also say that with a few caveats. Meanwhile, successful all-dude alliances are the norm in every single season without fail. There’s an obvious question here: Why do women in Big Brother seem to have so much trouble sticking together when guys often don’t?

Before we jump in, I should also define what I personally think is a “successful” alliance. To me, it’s a group that intentionally votes together and doesn’t nominate one another if a member is in an HOH position for at least three weeks of the game. I’m setting the bar so low here because so few all-women alliances can even meet that threshold. I’m also hesitant to call a two-person partnership an alliance just because that’s based around only one bond between two people. (For example, Elissa Slater and Helen Kim worked together, but it was the two of them against a lot of people.)

Is there anything you’d like to add or amend in that definition?

Ryan: I really like this definition here, I would just add a caveat to the nomination clause, because pawns do exist, and sometimes it’s necessary to nominate an alliance member.

Lily: Ah yes, good point. So players from the alliance are only nominated by their own alliance if they’re in pawn position (meaning they also aren’t blindslided). So given this extremely low bar, why have barely any all-women alliances been able to meet this criteria?

Ryan: So first, I’d like to just put out there, that as a gay man, I am no expert in women, but I think the most commonly accepted belief is that all-women alliances tend to be unsuccessful because there are personality clashes that overpower logic.

Lily: I’d definitely agree that this is the most common theory. Of course, as the loud feminist on the internet, I have to believe this is sexist. However, there do always seem to be bigger/more personality clashes between the women than between the men every season. My overarching thesis is that this has more to do with the archetypes Big Brother casts for women than the notion that women in general just can’t get along.

Ryan: I would most definitely agree that the basis of all the failed women alliances lies with casting. They are looking for women who will start drama and create good television, and most of the time, they target other women to create this drama.

Lily: For example, producers look at is as a formula: Take two “hot bitchy girls,” mix in two “weirdos,” throw in a wildcard, find an older woman (maybe two), and presto! Pretty much every woman ever cast in the show falls into one of those four categories. On the flip side, while there can only be one or two bitchy girls, the show will have, like, four bros. Unsurprisingly, those bros get along and then form an alliance and have a solid voting bloc.

Ryan: They like to stretch “older” to mean anything over 30, but yes, these tend to be the four archetypes, with a “superfan”-lite female being a newer archetype that can stagger between a couple of these four common characters. But Lily, America loves bros! They are so great at the game, funny, and usually good looking, why not cast four?

Lily: Haha but the bros are so boring! I’d also argue the casting department looks for women who are antagonistic towards other women. This season, for instance, both Alex and Megan (before she self-evicted on Day 9) made comments on the show about not getting along with other women and being “guys’ gals.” Ugh, the phrase makes me cringe.

Ryan: As avid fans, we know that most bros equal wallpaper. Sometimes they eat cereal and wear one of two shirts, but for the most part they are not extravagant players, with a couple of exceptions.

Lily: I see you there dragging a certain Matt Clines [from BB19].

Ryan: I can’t help it! He’s so pretty, but he’s soooooo boring! But to get back on point, every year we have these girls that say, “Oh no, I’m never going for an all-girls alliance.” It’s become the ultimate faux pas in Big Brother, and it has claimed many many victims along the way.

Lily: At the same time, it’s also been the thing that’s hindered many women’s games. In this current season, for instance, Alex is refusing to work with Jess over a dumb Cody beef from two weeks ago that’s irrelevant, when working with Jess would be one of the best game moves for Alex.

Ryan: Oh the ire that comes out of showmance drama! It really is such a let down, because Alex and Jessica teaming up would be the best for both of them, but the past weeks have deteriorated any semblance of trust Alex could place in Jessica. Both are at fault for this, but at least Jessica realizes her mistake and is trying to course correct.

Lily: Meanwhile, Dom is currently (as of tonight’s episode/feeds) throwing away her game and her relationships with several women in the house because of Mark, the biggest softboy ever.

Ryan: He’s EMOTIONAL, LILY. Now he’s going to cry about this again.

Lily: I don’t think every woman on the planet is tempted by men, but it seems like casting goes out of its way to find women who specifically want or are susceptible to showmances, again ruining the chances of all-women alliances.

Ryan: Dominique is another one of these strong, successful women, who seems to inherently mistrust other women, especially if they are equally confident.

Lily: Totally. Actually, I think this season has an interesting problem: Too many alpha women, whereas I’d argue a season like BB16 had too many beta women. I think Raven may be on the only beta woman currently in the game on BB19.

Ryan: This is SO TRUE. There are so many QUEENS as Twitter would say this season that all are jockeying for lead position that they seem to only step on each other to get a better position. Even today [on the feeds], Raven (who is one of our few beta women) was trying to throw Elena under the bus just so that she would appear as the better alliance member. Luckily, Captain Crunch stepped in to correct her.

Lily: Ah, Wallpaper Man saves the day! So building on this, I’d love to talk about some of the more “successful” all-women alliances the series has seen. Obviously, we have to start with the most recent finished season, Big Brother: Over The Top, which introduced us to the Ball Smashers, an alliance of four women (two sisters and two other people) that made up one “side” of the house. (Full disclaimer: I didn’t watch BBOTT in its entirety, but I have watched clips and episodes since then.)

Ryan: The Ball Smashers (or The Plastics), were actually a group of girls who said they did not want to be in an all-women alliance, but the way the house divide happened, they were brought together to team up.

Lily: I’d also argue that in a strange twist, Big Brother ended up casting four women that were almost identical in personality. Plus, two of the alliance members were sisters, which added an unbreakable bond that only two other pairs in BB history (the twins in seasons five and 17) had.

Ryan: I would say they had complementary personalities. Alex and Shelby were definitely more alpha personalities, while Morgan and Whitney (who later defected after she found out she was more or less sacrificed) were beta personalities. And really they balanced each other out really well. I think if the power did not flip so much in BBOTT, the four of them could have easily been The Final Four.

Lily: Well, the power was just so lopsided because of a certain returning player (but that’s none of my business, as Kermit would say).

Ryan: TWITTER, DRAG HER! I mean, yes Lily, continue.

Lily: So basically on top of their alliance have two of its members trust each other implicitly (more than any gameplay could bond them), they had an even split of two alphas and two betas. What other all-women alliances have been on the more successful side of things in the show’s history?

Ryan: We can all the way back to BB4, with the Girl Power group of Jun, Allison, and Erika. This is the most iconic, and one of the best all-women alliances the show has ever had. AND, none of these girls really liked each other, which made it that much better to watch!

Lily: So, who would you say were alphas, and who were betas? Also, these women were known for sort of wrapping the men around their fingers and then discarding them.

Ryan: Oh it was so wonderful to watch these women manipulate the men, some of whom were their exes. As far as alpha/beta relationships go, I think Allison was the clear alpha in this trio, but Jun knew when she could be the alpha and when she needed to be the beta. Erika, would be the beta of this trio, in my eyes.

Lily: So they too had a clear split where everyone sort of knew their place in the alliance. Any other alliances off of the top of your head?

Ryan: I would say so, and as the true floater she is, Jun floated around to what suited her the best. Another successful (mostly) all-women alliance was The Friendship (or Nerd Herd) in BB6. This is also one of the most hated alliances in Big Brother history!

Lily: That said, it did have two men in the alliance, Eric and Beau. Eric left before jury though. Beau aside, what do you think made The Friendship work even though America generally hated them?

Ryan: The Friendship worked because of Maggie. I haven’t rewatched BB6 since it originally aired, but I can remember Maggie being the glue to hold Ivette, April (Busto), and Jenn together because they were combustible group. Oh man, the fights between The Friendship and the Sovereign Six were so good. I need to add this to my list of projects. And I refer to April as Busto with love because she was my favorite of that group.

Lily: Would you consider Maggie an alpha or a beta? I never knew what to make of her, but I also watched the season years after it aired.

Ryan: Maggie is much more intentional with the way she played, that even though she was quite boring to watch and may not be your typical idea of an alpha female, but she definitely had a quiet strength to her. I definitely would classify her as an alpha to keep that bunch in line.

Lily: To this day, she’s a very polarizing winner in a weird way, mostly because so many people were rooting for Janelle.

Ryan: YAS QUEEN! Sorry! That’s just a natural reaction to Jedi Janie’s name.

Lily: I’d also add that The Friendship was an anomaly in terms of the racial makeup of its members since typically people who are similar (including in terms of race) tend to gravitate towards one another. The Ball Smashers was entirely white, while the BB4 alliance consisted of two white women and an Asian woman. The Friendship, if we’re including Beau in here, was three people of color and two white women. I’ll be talking more about this in my upcoming roundup on the elements of race and diversity (or lack thereof) in Big Brother, but it can’t be overlooked.

I’m personally thinking of during BB17 two years ago when Shelli and Da’Vonne had that random falling out during Shelli’s HOH reign in week two, and I remember her using some racially coded language (aggressive, dishonest, etc.) as reasons for not trusting Da’Vonnne and quashing their alliance. Obviously, however, Audrey was a lot of the reason that alliance crumbled.

Ryan: It is interesting to look at the makeup of a lot of these alliances. I think it is also interesting to consider where people are from, as three-quarters of the Ball Smashers were Southern women. And then there was Shelby.

Lily: Yep, geography is another huge one.

Ryan: Ugh, that was a hot mess. But interestingly Shelli and Audrey were from the same area, so one could say Shelli overlooked these qualities in Audrey but targeted these in Da’Vonne.

Lily: Audrey was also white in addition to being from the same area of the country, so that can’t be forgotten. Something else I think also helped these alliances: None of them were total competition beasts. I checked, and no one in any alliance won more than two HOHs. So there wasn’t a problem with someone being too big of a threat from a physical standpoint. With the exception of Whitney in the Ball Smashers who never won an HOH (and who we mentioned became disposable), every woman in each alliance won at least one HOH.

Ryan: This is actually a huge reason for me why all-women alliances are successful or not. A good alliance includes balance, so you need to have people who can win competitions, but not necessarily be a huge threat in competitions. And on the other end of the spectrum, you cannot be so bad at competitions that your alliance is easily picked off.

Lily: Similarly, you need people who are more the brains of the operation without being too threatening from a strategic standpoint; you also need people who can follow the lead of the brainiacs without becoming dead weight strategically.

Ryan: It’s a very fine balance, but the successful alliances tend to pull through on both fronts. Take Kalia, Porche, and Dani Donato in BB13, Kalia and Dani could both be considered strategic, but Dani is a HUGE competition threat, and Porche eventually made her way to a final two because she was perceived as useless, more or less.

Lily: I think another important piece of this puzzle is keeping it organic: You can’t be like Joey Van Pelt in season 16 who came in and basically announced her intention to create an all-women alliance. You have to let things develop naturally or put the alliance together when it makes strategic sense.

Ryan: El Cuatro. Such a strong name.

Lily: Jun, Erika, and Allison came together towards the end to start taking down the men. As you mentioned, they totally hated each other, but they understood why their union was necessary.

Ryan: When it comes to playing Big Brother, your alliances need to have one of two things to be successful: 1) A genuine, organic bond. These people naturally get along, they play well together, and will probably go to the end with each other. 2) A common agenda. If you can think solely about the game, and see what players are good for you, you just make it work. I can say this is why Shelli, Da’Vonne, Audrey failed [as an alliance]. It was formed 5 minutes into the game, and they were not on the same page in the game.

Lily: Exactly. There’s also zero reason for an alliance five minutes into the game. But many women often end up needing to take the second option when it comes to other women in the game, and they don’t do it due to pride.

Ryan: This is SO TRUE, and it is so frustrating! One example of this is Christine in BB16. She really needed to get on the same page as Nicole, but once she came back in the house, she wanted to appease the dudes in the house instead of bettering her game. An opposite, unsuccessful attempt was Elissa and Amanda in BB15. They hated each other, but Elissa realized it was better for her game to keep Amanda, and she voted that way. But Andy was one step ahead and it made her look guilty.

Lily: Ah yes, Andy the rat floater. BB15 was also weird because it had a lot of woman strange duos (like Elissa and Helen or Elissa and Amanda) but also that bitchy semi-all-women alliance of Gina Marie, Aaryn, and Kaitlyn. I’d say the Blonde-Tourage is the worst of faux women alliances.

Ryan: BB15 started out great for the women, because they were able to rally together and get out the strong alpha men before jury, but as soon as jury hit, it was like an anti-feminist movement in the house.

Lily: To this day, I don’t think we can say we’ve had a season that was a great breakout for feminism or women empowerment. So flipping to this current season, which groups of women who are left (we’re assuming Dom is being evicted tomorrow) do you think could make a good all-women alliance if it was a perfect world? Do they fit our model of mixing alphas and betas along with competition winning balance and strategic chops?

Ryan: Honestly, the only female alliance that I would like to see is Alex, Elena, and Jessica. I think all these women are alphas in their own right, but I think it would be similar to Jun in which they know when to be an alpha and when to be a beta. But Alex still hates Jessica, so this will never happen.

Lily: Agreed. Until there’s a day where Jess saves Alex’s ass and Alex is forced to reckon with the fact that an enemy can be an ally, they’re not coming together in the foreseeable future. I could see Elena working some of her verbal voodoo on Alex at a critical juncture in the game to make her see the light though.

Ryan: Under the right circumstances, it could happen. I think as long as we still have Marlena, it will be hard to achieve, as Elena will feel loyalty to Mark. I feel like this is counterproductive, but I would love this awesome all-women alliance to form and take out Raven.

Lily: Oh god, I would have so many mixed feelings about that because we both find Raven incredibly annoying. Raven has been spinning a web of lies with all the women though, so I wonder if there’s ever a point at which she gets caught.

Ryan: I’m not sure even if she’s caught, it will matter. She’s really hamming up her ailments so everyone is full of sympathy.

Lily: Haha I’m not so sure, but that’s for a different convo. Any last thoughts on all-women alliances?

Ryan: I am a champion of female players in all competition reality shows. I always want an all-women alliance to form and dominate because women are so underrepresented as these “legendary” players. I would just like say that I will always hope for the best when there is a potential all-women alliance, but remain realistic. It takes a special recipe of women who can balance competitions, social perceptions, pride, and strategy to become successful. Every year I hope this could be the year we have the next great group of women!

Lily: I’d say to conclude for those who scrolled to the end for a wrap-up, great all-women alliances have a mix of alphas and betas who contribute an equal amount physically and mentally. Additionally, because the women cast on Big Brother often have complete opposing personalities on purpose (thanks, producers), if you’re in the house, you’ll have to check your ego at the door and work with women whom you don’t personally like but who can further your game. Yo, $500,000 is worth it.

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Lily Herman

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An entertainment blog that does what it wants.

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