Influencer calls out ‘misogyny’ in Survivor camp

Online entrepreneur Sophie Cachia has lashed the “double standards” applied to women on the hit reality series Australian Survivor.

Sophie Cachia is competing on Australian Survivor: Blood V Water. Picture: Channel 10

Online entrepreneur and self-made millionaire Sophie Cachia has called out the “double standards” applied to women on the hit TV series Australian Survivor and says she is not doing reality TV for the money or attention.

Cachia, 31, is taking part in Australian Survivor: Blood V Water which premieres on Channel 10 on Monday, alongside her sister Kate.

“To put it bluntly I don’t need any more money and I don’t need anyone to know any more information about my life, I live a public life online anyway,” she said.

“I did this for two reasons; to see how far I had grown and to see how far I could push myself.”

Cachia, who co-owns hugely successful Cachia sleepwear brand and has 265,000 followers on Instagram, called out as “misogynistic” the double stands applied to women on Survivor who employed the same ruthless strategies as their male counterparts.

“I have always been brave enough to be disliked for who I am rather than watering myself down to blend into the comfortable or cool group,” she said.

“But unfortunately that is such a huge part of Survivor game play and social strategy and it is something that I probably found the hardest to deal with, especially when confident, vocal females are for some reason still deemed difficult in 2022.

Cachia and girlfriend Maddie Garrick on Pride Day during the Australian Open. Picture: Fiona Hamilton

“While I have watched Survivor my whole life and it is an even playing field with men and women in the game, I did find at times, unfortunately like society, for it to be a misogynistic environment because actions I saw by men were applauded with mutual respect and handshakes and comments like ‘it is just a game, no hard feelings’, yet epic moves made by women were deemed untrustworthy and out of line, especially when it came to physically or strong strategy or practical play.

“The hardest part for me at times was going against my morals and going against those messages that I teach my children every day about authenticity, honesty, self worth, and equality, to play this game.”

Cachia said she was not on the show to impress anyone.

“This was a personal journey for me as a woman who had simply been lost for quite a few years,” she said.

“Going back I was suicidal back in 2020. I had become a mum at 23, married and divorced between 25 and 30, was experimenting with my sexuality and navigating my new life as a gay woman in the public space and then hit a really bad patch with depression and anxiety and facing suicidal thoughts in 2020.

“So this experience for me was nothing about going on a reality TV show. It was about challenging my capabilities and really seeing how my mindset has developed.”

She said she was not worried about being judged, disliked or underestimated.

“There will still be people out there who doubt my work, my career and my successes and there will be people who tune into Survivor no doubt purely in the hope of seeing me fail, but just by being on the show I have already won,” she said.

“I have been underestimated my whole life. I am continually trolled online about being full of sh*t whether it is to do with the success of my businesses or how many hours of the day I work.

“That is where my inner confidence comes in. Nothing I do in my life is to impress anyone, nothing I do in my life is to prove myself to anyone else, there are three people in this world I do things for and that is myself and my two children.”

Australian Survivor: Blood V Water premiers on Channel 10 on Monday, January 31.