Sexism in the gaming industry is a huge topic that not many people acknowledge. Most people think that female streamers make it big because of their looks, and not actually their skill in the game. I think it’s important to realize that there is a variety of different streamers on platforms like Twitch, and each individual has their own charm. Some could be more entertaining than others, and some could have more in-game knowledge. But I don’t think it’s fair to disregard respect for big female streamers or content creators in this industry.
Great and timely topic. I would also hone in on the idea of "fake gamer girls" and the use of the word "thots" to describe women on Twitch who are framed as only using their attractiveness to get attention and revenue, and therefore they are accused of not being "real" fans. Here is a recent article I read on the topic: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/twitch-women-who-stream-say-their-biggest-obstacle-harassment-n1060016 – Emily Deibler5 years ago
Until I read your topic suggestion, I had no idea what a 'female streamer' was. Not being a gamer, this is a new world to me. So, I entered the term 'female streamers' into my search engine and the second highest result was titled 'The Hottest Female Streamers on Twitch.' It's from a website titled The Gamer. Here's the first line from the article: 'Not all Twitch streamers are created [e]qual: some are also insanely hot.' I think that proves your opening point very well. – Amyus5 years ago
Would definitely encourage at least a mention of Gamer Gate and the associated fallout. Women in any male-dominated industry experience a certain kind of social pushback, and using concrete examples will help illustrate the point. I would be very excited to read this! – Eden5 years ago
Very excited to read an article that explores this. – lilliankasulis5 years ago
I think it's fair to say that sexism against women in the gaming industries and fandoms are persistent issues, but I feel like the criticisms levelled at women streamers have little to do with "skill at the game." Indeed, the question is whether "skill at the game," has any bearing on the streamer's popularity to begin with. This makes sense for competitive gamers or speedrunners, but in the instance of the large market share of streamers who do "Let's play," style streams and so on and so forth, ultimately their skill level is irrelevant. PewDiePie is perhaps the most successful streamer on the planet, and their "Let's Play" of the Amnesia series that initially elevated them to prominence showed very little skill at all, and a lot of the streamer screaming and swearing in a comedic fashion to emphasise the horror of the game as well as provide a source of comedy. Therefore, the criticisms levelled at women streamers on such grounds can be assumed to be disingenuous. In the instances of streamers who for instance, emphasise cosplay, their aesthetic can indeed be part of their success but this does not make their success any less valid. – benjamindmuir5 years ago
In the past few weeks there has been running episodes of Bob Ross’ "The Joy of Painting" on the typical gaming site "Twitch." This site is usually used to live-stream games but started streaming these episodes on Bob Ross’ birthday. It pulled in 5.6 million viewers, which struck me as very odd. My boyfriend is a huge gamer and told me about this since I am an art student. I watched a few episodes and it was interesting to see how the episodes were reacted to, both in the views and comments. Even though the content was different, the comments were still very erratic and reactive. These two things don’t seem to have a correlation to me and I’d be interested to see some research and analysis on this topic.
Twitch chat frequenters are just a bunch of "memers" at heart, not only is Bob calming to even non-painters, but heck did he ever provide them a lot of memes! Kappaross – Slaidey8 years ago
