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Why is being a woman gamer so hard? A look into the sexism on Twitch

So I’ve dabbled in a few different video games throughout the years. Back in the day I was playing World of Warcraft and I’ll admit openly — my PVP skills were pretty terrible.

It’s true. Although I didn’t have the right equipment and setup, it was no excuse for how abysmally I played my hunter during a one-on-one duel.

Yet, my WoW friends encouraged me to start a Twitch account. I remember one of them in particular saying, “BlackSesame, I’ve seen some players who don’t just suck, but they suck ass, and they’re still getting thousands of views.”

Now, what would drive a person who “sucks ass” playing games to get thousands of Twitch views?

According to some Twitchers, the answer is obvious.

The past couple days have been hot and heavy with debate regarding women gamers who choose to stream their sessions.

It started when streamer “Trainwreck” was slapped with a five-day suspension after his lame-ass rant went viral.

“This used to be a goddamn community of gamers, nerds, kids that got bullied, kids that got fucked with, kids that resorted to the gaming world because the real world was to fucking hard, to shitty, to lonely, too sad and depressing,” bitched the sponsored gamer, “Now it’s ran by the goddamn same sluts that reject us, the same sluts that choose the goddamn fucking cool kids over us, the same sluts that are coming to our community, taking the money, taking the subs, the same way they did back in the day- fuck that, I am the goddamn reality check.”

Well I, for one, can’t possibly imagine why those “sluts” chose another guy over you.

https://twitter.com/evepeyser/status/930542337251577856

After his display of butthurtness, the gaming community certainly reacted… Well, the way they normally would: Gamers are pretty pissed.

Although I believe Trainwreck deserves a much longer suspension for being lame AF, fellow streamers believe otherwise.

This issue actually came into light a few years ago, when Sky Williams, popular League of Legends and video-ranter posted a Youtube video called, “Dear Female Streamers,” that has since garnered over 1 million views.

To be honest, Sky made some (I repeat, some) pretty good points.

First, he points out the influx of cam-girls that have taken over Twitch.

Women who literally have their breasts or bottoms as cover for their videos, or who are simply on Twitch to make money and get views set a standard for the audience that female Twitchers attract.

“What about the female streamers that aren’t about that life… If another female is streaming, playing in non-provocative attire with her attention on the game, she will be subject to the same torment that you get when you flaunt your body. You are creating a standard for the female streamers who want to continue.”

These cam girls seem to make up the majority of females on Twitch. Sky talks about how this affects all female gamers, regardless of what you’re presenting in your Twitch videos.

“I was in Natsumii’s stream and she rolled up her sleeve to itch her arm and someone called her a slut… And they were serious!”

Female streamers have spoken up. Taken from Kotaku, a live show featuring popular female gamers went up.

The takeaway? Women gamers are beautiful and sometimes show off their skin, get the fuck over it.

On top of that, there are only 8 out of 100 women on the top of Twitch right now.

Take for example, MOBA Dota 2’s streamers page. Do you see any female gamers showing off their tits? ‘Cause I sure don’t.

Guess we’ll just have to wait for this one to pass.

As for Trainwreck — please, shut the fuck up.

https://giphy.com/gifs/l2QEeBfxkrteSwHoA