History of Vote for the Girls (United States)

Development

Eleven years prior to the official launch of Vote for the Girls, Ava Zinn had launched two web sites--her flagship web site (currently known as AvaZinn.com) and INNewsCenter, a site devoted to discussing the television industry in Indiana's 10 markets (initially Fort Wayne and Indianapolis) that serve all of Indiana's 92 counties. Both were launched on November 1, 1999 while Zinn was a junior at Mississinewa High School in Gas City, Indiana. At the time of the launches of AvaZinn.com and INNewsCenter, Zinn had considered doing a reality-based web site similar to The Mole. In 2008, Zinn began watching American Idol and seeing the eliminations of female contestants from the seventh through the latter part of the ninth season, Zinn realized that she decided to do something about keeping female contestants on American Idol and eventually discovered discovered that Vote for the Worst essentially ruined American Idol.

Background

Previous Vote for the Girls logo. Used from April 28, 2010 to May 31, 2013

Vote for the Girls was started on Zinn's web site during season nine of American Idol after Zinn asked her friends on Facebook to vote for Crystal Bowersox following the elimination of Siobhan Magnus on April 28, 2010. After realizing, in Zinn's view that Idol is a talent competition that a girl can easily win, VFTG was started as a personal campaign of Zinn's on her web site. A Wordpress website was soon created by Zinn to help promote the movement, as well as a Facebook page, Twitter account, and YouTube channel (initially on Zinn's YouTube channel before moving to its own channel). After season 11 of American Idol, Zinn herself helped move the site to its own domain name to handle increased traffic, and VotefortheGirls.us as we know it was formed.

In all competitions, fans of the site are expected to vote only for female contestants (and in later seasons, included male-female duos, predominately and all girl groups since 2011 and approved male contestants since 2015) en masse with the Vote for the Girls moderators and to Zinn's high expectations to vote off the male contestants (later non-supported male contestants). Zinn demands that all males be eliminated at the earliest possible without regard to criticism and/or public backlash (meaning that fans of the site must vote for all remaining female contestants each week), introducing the possibility of an all-female finale, all-female final two, and/or a male-female finale or final two.

Zinn desires to complete every competition with a Vote for the Girls "victory", but performances by the male counterparts will cause her to call off the competition, if not end the competition with a Vote for the Girls "loss" or end the competition if there are no female contestants left in the competition, and discipline the moderator(s) that have chosen the male contestant that wins the competition with a "Punishment for Failure". Once the competition ends with either a victory or a loss, Zinn determines which moderator(s) (if not all) is the wining moderator(s) for the "VFTG Victory" or the losing moderator(s) for the "VFTG Loss" (Although there have been joint-winning moderators in the past (once in VFTG 2013) and there have been winning moderators even though a supported female contestant did not win (twice in VFTG 2014 (Ava Zinn with both Jena Irene and Christina Grimmie) and twice in VFTG 2015) (Ava Zinn with Valerie Rockey and Kellie Rock with DaNica Shirey)).

When the Moderators' Save was introduced in VFTG 2015, if fans of the site fail to support a female contestant to the Victory or all female contestants are eliminated before the competition's finale results with the moderator panel voting unanimously to spare the site a loss by declining the defeat. If the Moderators' Save is used on a female contestant on American Idol, The Voice, The X Factor, or Rising Star; the site will not declare a loss nor a victory and like any Vote for the Girls Loss, Zinn and the VFTG moderators are forced to support the female contestants in a make-up competition without the moderators facing punishment. However, if the Moderators' Save is used on a female contestant on So You Think You Can Dance or America's Got Talent; the site will not declare a loss and since they are make-up competitions, the moderators will not get any wild card or steal picks yet the moderators are faced with punishment (usually Beards for Breast Cancer).

Zinn is free to ignore these rules if she sees fit. She has frequently disciplined moderators during the competitions if a moderator's performance is abysmal, may override the provided picks with her own selection, or even declare a dual victory (as it happened twice in the spring cycle of VFTG 2015 on American Idol and The Voice with the respective male victories of Nick Fradiani and Sawyer Fredericks--both of them were supported male contestants--and the female victories of Jax Cole and Meghan Linsey). There have been times where VFTG moderators resigned for medical reasons or they may leave on their own free will; though the latter is not encouraged, their wishes are ultimately honored.

Vote for the Girls is somewhat rare of Idol related websites unlike VFTW and VATP, where VFTW (and less frequently VATP) promotes votes for the worst, most entertaining, most hated or quirkiest contestants chosen by a public vote and the moderators only critique about the competition. Ava Zinn describes VFTG as her philosophy, "Producers Have a Choice, Viewers Don't. That's part of the reason why INNewsCenter and Vote for the Girls have become my most successful web franchises." In earlier seasons on VFTG all decisions and VFTG picks fell under one person, Zinn, instead of a majority vote by the contestants until September 2014 when the America's Pick debuted. Additionally, Zinn has the power to override the basic format of the site, such as ignoring pick nominations from moderators (later seasons eliminated this aspect, yet since the site's sixth season So You Think You Can Dance and America's Got Talent are the only such times), or even opposed to the single winner format used in most reality talent competitions in favor of a dual-winner (one male and one female) used from So You Think You Can Dance's ninth and tenth seasons.

Rarely the site will have a look back at previous episodes (should there be no female contestants remaining in the covered shows). These have been rebranded as Classic Vote for the Girls, some with a false All My Children-like theme and the opening sequence for Classic VFTG parodies the open of All My Children from 1990 to 1995 featuring past Vote for the Girls picks. These shows are interspersed with commentary from Zinn herself, usually before, during, and after the episode. The first Classic VFTG shows aired in August 2013 with the Duets competition. although these shows can also look back at an entire competition as well. The first such episodes aired on December 9 and December 16, 2014 with the respective American Idol 10 and 11 competitions in place of seventh season respective semi-final and final results of The Voice.

The site has done six special episodes, titled:

1. Ava's American Idol Audition, aired January 20, 2012
2. Ava's Virginity Auction, aired July 11, 2014
3. 100 Women Picked, air date January 4, 2015
4. Kymberly Alvaraz: Buying Ava's Virginity and Shooting Khayla Chow, air date TBA
5. Vote for the Girls 5th Birthday Special, April 28, 2015
6. 200 Women Picked, air date Fall 2015
7. 10 Victories

Ava's American Idol Audition was dedicated to Zinn's own American Idol season 11 audition in Pittsburgh in July 2011, Ava's Virginity Auction was dedicated to Zinn's decision to auction off her virginity if a female didn't win and reaction to the announcement, public backlash following the site's first loss on The Voice, and media firestorm that soon followed.

"100 Women Picked," "200 Women Picked," and "10 Victories" are special episodes dedicated to these supported female contestants who had written to Ava Zinn with their stories on how the site allowed them to audition for talent shows themselves.

Style

The site's YouTube videos often feature screaming matches among the moderation panel, guests, and audience members. Using a large steel can for an ashtray, Zinn often chainsmokes during the site's YouTube videos. VFTG's fans are known as "LesbianDozers", patterned after the studio audience with lecterns decorated with the VFTG icon, from which Zinn's guests would go head-to-head against each other on their respective issues in later seasons.

Zinn's signature phrases "WGWG Commie" (in reference to the white guy with guitar that Idol pundits call and Communism), "Girl Hating Bastard" or "Girl Hating Bitch" (in reference to male contestants), and "Shush it!" briefly enjoyed some popularity in the contemporary vernacular. Zinn particularly enjoys making her guests angry with each other and often fans of male contestants angry with Zinn, which on a few occasions resulted in cyberbullying via Facebook and Twitter and physical confrontations.

Sounds

Often in many of VFTG's YouTube videos until the end of the site's fourth season, the sounds used on VFTG are also currently used on The Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune. A female contestant being declared safe and advancing in the competition is indicated by a ding (from Wheel of Fortune when a letter is in the puzzle), while a male contestant being declared safe and advancing in the competition is indicated by a buzzer (nominally used on The Price is Right, later a generic buzzer). However, if the next to last male contestant is voted off (leaving only one male contestant in the competition) or all female contestants in the competition are declared safe and advancing in the competition, the well-known "clangs" sound, also from The Price Is Right, is heard.

Additionally, when a "Vote for the Girls Loss" is declared, the Wheel of Fortune (later Scrabble) buzzer and the "Losing Horns" fanfare from The Price is Right is played when a male contestant wins the singing competition or the last female contestant is eliminated from the competition. Conversely, when a "Vote for the Girls Victory" is declared, the well-known "clangs and whoops" sound, also from The Price Is Right, is heard, when the last male contestant is eliminated or a female wins the competition. Beginning in VFTG 2015, Aloe Blacc's The Man and Sugababes' Here Come the Girls are used for the respective losses and victories, with the latter being used since VFTG 2014.

On several occasions, a "Vote for the Girls Bankrupt" is declared, the "Bankrupt Whistle" fanfare from Wheel of Fortune and the "Losing Horns" fanfare from The Price is Right is played when Ava Zinn's primary pick is eliminated from the competition.

Beginning with The X Factor season three four chair challenge, many of the VFTG sounds remained in use. The Wheel of Fortune ding remained when a female contestant is saved and advances in the competition while the buzzer sound from Scrabble is used when the male counterpart is saved and advances in the competition.

Holly Everman commented that when the site moved to its current domain, VFTG wanted to use more sounds to make it more livelier, as was noted in the only season of Duets. After Olivia Chisolm was eliminated on July 5, 2012 (but later posted on YouTube in August 2013), the site began using the stopper sound from Scrabble when a VFTG Pick is eliminated. Additionally, Chisolm's elimination also left Bridget Carrington as the last remaining female in the Duets competition, which is indicated when the third stopper sound from Scrabble was used.

On July 15, 2012 (later posted on Ava Zinn's YouTube channel and on the VFTG YouTube channel in August 2013) Bridget Carrington was eliminated from competition and had Zinn been watching the program that night on July 15, 2012 marked the first (and only time thus far) time since Vote for the Girls launched when a female contestant is eliminated from the competition with no female contestants remaining before the finale, the competition ends, which is indicated by the well known buzzer sound from Pathfinder/Trivia Trap after three tries (later Stopper sound) when the team did not answer correctly and the losing horns.

Additionally, Everman commented that during American Idol's 12th season and The Voice's fourth season, there were no sounds indicating Lazaro Arbos and The Swon Brothers, whom were the last remaining respective male contestants on American Idol and The Voice--that will be indicated. The only thing close to a sound indicating in the event the last male contestant left in the competition was background music throughout the episode was similar to a contestant spinning "The Big Wheel" in The Price is Right $1,000,000 Spectacular for the potential "Vote for the Girls Victory" in the succeeding episode. Otherwise, the Wheel of Fortune Speed-Up round music is used. On December 3, 2013 the site began using background music indicating the potential VFTG Loss.

During VFTG's fifth season premiere, the sound used for one male left in the competition is now indicated by only vowels remaining from Wheel before the finale and the second to last letter revealed from Scrabble on the semi-finals of The Voice, The X Factor, or American Idol Top 3.

Prior to the 2014 revamp, there were two occasions in which all of the female contestants were saved by the public votes before the males for a Vote for the Girls Clean Sweep. For the VFTG Clean Sweep to happen, all of the female contestants must remain intact and/or have the highest votes by the general public before any of the male counterparts. The first such VFTG Clean Sweep happened on March 28, 2013 with Lazaro Arbos, Burnell Taylor, and Devin Velez landed in the bottom three on American Idol, Zinn commented "Never before in the history of Vote for the Girls has there ever been a clean sweep." The sound used for a VFTG are the well-known "clangs" sound, also from The Price Is Right accompanied by a contestant winning the Crossword round on 1993 revival of Scrabble. However, if all female contestants have the highest votes and a male contestant is eliminated, the normal VFTG win (indicated by many dings accompanied by a correct guess in the Crossword round on 1993 revival of Scrabble.

The previously used sound effects from earlier seasons used in other scenarios remains in use. One critic of the site said VFTG is more reminiscent of a game show than a web site.