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Culture August 18, 2018
We weren't exactly invited to the LAN party.
You’ve heard before that it’s a man’s word. And men are unfortunately fighting like hell to keep it that way. Twitch is a community of gamers who record themselves playing favorite video games for fellow devotees to tune in and watch. Only the highest caliber players make it big streaming on Twitch. And some Twitch streamers are recently making as much as $500,000 a month. But the further we dig into this recent phenomenon the more clear an alarming but unsurprising problem rises.
Twitch streamers encapsulate the definition of ‘double standards.’ Women are a huge minority in the gaming community and therefore come face to face with a daunting amount of stereotypes and incorrect preconceptions. A quick Google search of “women Twitch streamers” has depressing results. On the first page there’s headlines like hottest or cutest girl streamers. There’s clearly a priority here and it’s not their awesome trick shots.
The only requirement for male Twitch streamers to achieve fame is to be good. It’s superficially a simple concept. Some of the most famous male Twitch streamers, Ninja, Dr Disrespect, or Shroud can all bring down the house in a game of PUBG or Fortnite. They’re arguably not traditionally attractive by societal standards. They’re good at their craft, so they’re recognized. It should be this simple for all.
Glancing through some of the top female streamers, like KittyPlays, Kaceytron, or LilyPichu, there’s one recurring theme. While all talented players, they’re also all beautiful. Being one of the big female Twitch streamers means spending an hour getting ready beforehand and being rated by your level of hotness. The job description for female Twitch streamers is to be traditionally beautiful. Otherwise, women often find themselves largely ignored.
The need for female Twitch streamers to be beautiful speaks to the larger cultural context of the gaming community. The definition of ‘Gamer Girl’ on Urban Dictionary is, “A whore who takes pictures of herself in gaming accessories or gaming related items such as low cut zelda shirts, poke bras, etc.” This is only one example of a litany of definitions on the Urban Dictionary page that embodies the rampant misogyny in the gaming community.
The abysmal misogyny continues via a Reddit thread showing a collection of comments proving this disgusting culture. User Hornet402 responds to a girl who feels she can’t stream because of her flat chest. “You could just show off whatever you have and it would probably still work. Pretty face? Sense of humor? That’d be good enough for me,” he commented. Further comments range from saying that women without big boobs are just not all that interesting to shaming a woman for trying to argue that she’s on Twitch for the gaming.
Articles about the ‘Hottest Female Twitch Streamers’ tells women that the only way to be successful as a female Twitch streamer is in the title. The argument isn’t that women don’t capitalize on this sexualization to make a profit. The issue is forcing all women under the categorization of “boobie streamers.” Even if they aren’t as skilled, male Twitch streamers are automatically considered real gamers. The community forces women to prove themselves to be a “real gamer” because the primary assumption is they’re not. One slip up, and you’re a cam girl whore.
Men are angry that women are entering into this male-dominated space. They’re constantly seeking to delegitimize their presence. In a recent Instagram post by @twitch celebrating Women’s Month, the comments are horrendous. User fuck.being.here’s comment sums it all up. “Twitch has turned into a whore infested shithole with retarded community guidelines,” he commented.
This rhetoric discourages women who don’t feel pretty enough or that their chest isn’t big enough from becoming a part of the gaming community. They’re afraid of the backlash, and of men commenting on their physical appearance. The video game space isn’t one where women feel safe or comfortable to even exist.
It’s 2018 folks! And women still aren’t allowed to experience video games like men do.
All isn’t lost. Polygon reports that Twitch teamed up with a charity organization in March 2018 to award grants to small female Twitch streamers, the Dream Fund Twitch BroadcastHER. This seeks to encourage all women to pursue their dreams of making it big in the gaming world. In an interview, streamer Tina Degenhart said, “But gaming is just another platform that we shouldn’t shy away from. The industry won’t understand how to treat women if we don’t show them how to treat women.”
There are many spaces in society that women are slowly beginning to insert themselves. The gaming world is just another challenge to overcome. We may not be welcome in the community yet, but we can still fight like hell to rise to the top of it all.
