Top Chef Biased?

Tara Sophia Mohr says yes.

Fans of Bravo’s Top Chef know: the women keep losing.

Each season starts off with a roughly equal number of male and female contestants. All have been through the same rigorous selection process. Yet as the competition goes on, the women simply don’t perform as well as the men. Or so it seems.

A closer look reveals that Bravo’s Top Chef isn’t meritocratic at all. It’s strongly biased in favor of the men — for three surprising reasons.

She says (1)  bias is unconscious, (2) women are treated as sexual objects too often on the show, and (3) the solo competition dimension of the show works against women.