SweetieGames

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I’ve talked about the treatment of girl gamers on this blog plenty of times; it’s a topic that is coming up more and more even in mainstream gaming media. However, despite the amount of people discussing this topic, there is still a lot more work to be done to stomp the rampant misogyny in the gaming sphere.

Something that caught my eye recently was a tweet about a streamer, who was discussing how much money it costs to stream for a living. When someone else pointed out that popular streamer CaseOh just uses a webcam in his bedroom, someone else said that he was able to do this because he is a man. This was one of those moments that made me really think about the difference in expectations between male and female gaming content creators.

All gaming streamers are expected to be great at the games they play, but for women it feels like a real requirement. If they’re bad at games, they’re perpetuating the stereotypes about girl gamers, they’re clearly in it purely for male attention and nothing else, and they should go back to cooking/cleaning/other stereotypical female roles from a bygone era. I only ever see stream content from female streamers when they’re destroying misogynists at FPS games, or are extremely knowledgeable in games as a whole, far more than I’ve seen in the majority of male content creators. They have expensive looking, aesthetically pleasing stream setups, are expected to look presentable for the stream itself and be high-energy and engaging the entire time. It feels like there’s no room for error with female content creators. They have to give so much more than their male counterparts.

As much as I love seeing girls put misogynists in their place in battle royales, I don’t think girl gamers should have to create this kind of content to validate their place in the gaming community. There are plenty of men who aren’t the best gamer in the world who have huge followings, and women shouldn’t have to prove themselves through insane levels of skill to reach the same level. Of course, it is entertaining to watch someone who is really good at a game play it well, but it shouldn’t be a necessity from every popular female streamer.

Even when girls meet all of these expectations and look good, play well and have nice looking setups, they’re still sent abusive messages, have strangers treat them in a parasocial way or are even attacked when they appear at events such as TwitchCon. Having abusive messages sent or having fans act as though they are friends with a content creator happens with anyone, but its particularly bad among female content creators. Because they are women, they are not taken seriously when expressing concerns about these behaviours as it’s seen as the norm. The way women are treated by these people in online gaming spaces is not normal, online or in person.

Female streamers and gaming content creators should be held to the same standard as anyone else. This shouldn’t be a radical thing to say or a hot take, but somehow even in 2025, it is. I can only hope that there are stricter regulations in place across streaming platforms, game servers and in-person events that sets the standard of any unsavoury behaviour, whether that be belittling female streamers or being physically aggressive at in-person conventions, being completely unacceptable. Women are playing games because they enjoy them. Not to impress men.