5 Feet of Fury

I’ll Take ‘White Women’s Problems’ for $500, Alex: My NEW Taki’s column

Comments should be hardly at all “JOOOOOO!”-y!

Even devoted fans of the show have complained for some time that a) there aren’t enough women contestants, b) there haven’t been enough female winners, c) the questions are “gendered” (this “boomer-feminist” analyzed over 1000 questions to prove it), and d) Alex Trebek is a condescending sexist pig.

These issues are being raised once again because, as I write this, Julia Collins has won 18 games in a row, raking in U.S. $391,000. That’s the third longest winning streak in the show’s history. (Ten years after his appearance, Jennings still tops the list at a staggering 74 consecutive wins.)

To no one’s surprise, Collins’ triumph has led some feminists to whinge about all the other women who’ve failed to make it this far during the show’s multigenerational run. Others have countered that women are doing much better on Jeopardy! of late. Either way, the experiences of a tiny number of females are once again being imbued with Some Kind of Meaning.