Gaming has, since its inception, been dubbed a masculine interest. Every girl who games has the same story of being harassed over voice communications or getting gatekept from their own favourite franchises. Most games having a male-dominated player base, combined with the famously toxic culture of online gaming, result in a lot of casual sexism for the smallest of reasons.
If it’s hard for many girls to even feel comfortable speaking in a lobby, imagine the difficulties that arise showcasing your face, voice, and gameplay to a live audience multiple times a week. Twitch chats can get ruthless, but it’s not only messages that female streamers have to worry about. It seems women are always held to a higher standard of behaviour than men are, and that holds especially true when an audience is -you guessed it- mostly men. Pokimane, the most popular female streamer on Twitch, has garnered ceaseless negative press for issuing a DMCA takedown notice of questionable validity all the way back in January 2019.
The video in question was a compilation of tweets between her and Internet personality Keemstar, which she later explained she thought was in her right to take down. She has apologized many times since then, promising she only wanted to quiet the drama, but even though it was now almost two years ago, people still cite this incident as their reason to harass her online and call her derogatory names.
Male streamers, on the other hand, get away with far worse, such as allegations of sexual misconduct or blatant video proof of them violating a game’s terms of services while streaming live on their respective platforms. The harsh reality is that the reputation of these online personalities is formed by the words of the communities they’re involved in -again, mostly male- who have more empathy for those most similar to them. Streaming is hard, but especially hard when you’re a minority within the space. So, here’s three amazing women who stream that you might not have heard of before (and who you should totally check out!).
- Valkyrae
-
Rachell Hofstetter, better known by her nickname Rae, got her start on Twitch by streaming Fortnite content during the height of its popularity and is known for her fiery personality and energetic clips. She signed to the gaming group 100 Thieves in 2018, and is well-connected with members of streamer collective Offline TV. She no longer plays Fortnite and has moved to variety game streaming on Youtube (and is REALLY good at Among Us).
- LilyPichu
-
Lily Ki, mostly referred to as her Twitch username LilyPichu or simply Lily, started streaming on Twitch back in its early days and rose to popularity through her League of Legends streams, drawing, and music content. Now a member of Offline TV, Lily is multi-talented (even venturing into voice acting!) and has a really positive energy during her streams, which are mostly about whatever games she feels like playing that day, or art classes involving her viewers.
- xChocoBars
-
Janet Rose (or just Janet) is a Canadian Twitch streamer. She’s famous for her bubbly personality, which never falters on stream even during the most tilting moments in games. She has great interaction with her chat, and plays often with her friends (two of which are mentioned above!). Though she got her start playing League of Legends, she’s recently been streaming a lot of her ranked climb in Teamfight Tactics.