Streaming is a very challenging occupation in general.  It requires a lot of time and energy with very little security.  Even the most successful streamers can lose their success overnight due to taking a break or making a public mistake that angers their viewers. It is upsetting that it is even more challenging for women to even become successful streamers in the first place.  I find it interesting that there are many people out there who complain about the fact that some women become successful streamers by showing their body instead of actually playing games. But they don’t realize that the reason those women become successful is because there are people who want to see that. I feel like those who only view women’s stream to treat them like objects are the same people who go to other women’s streams expecting to see more of their body.  I feel like that is where the harassment comes into play.  Within the article “Nothing but a “titty streamer”: legitimacy, labor, and the debate over women’s breasts in video game live streaming” by Bonnie Ruberg, Amanda L. L. Cullen and Kathryn Brewster it states, “Yet, even as these commenters insist that their grievance is with how much (or little) these women streamers play, their language returns to women’s bodies. Breasts become markers of illegitimacy” (474).  When there is a conversation about female streamers it almost always ends up being a conversation about their body. When it comes to a male streamer, there is almost no conversations about his body or any other excuses for how he got successful.  Even if a woman streamer were to become successful, there will always be people who will question her success and attribute it to her body. Even the women who do use the platform for its purpose and are serious about gaming are harassed by people who expect them to show their bodies.

This issue around women’s bodies are also reflected in the games that people are so used to playing.  There are many games now that try so hard to create female characters and avatars to fit player cultural expectations about gender.  Female characters and avatars mostly now have specific physical parameters they fall into. Within the article “Revision of Queer Bodies: Modifications of Sexual Affordances in World of Warcraft” by Noel Brett discussed the evolution of character structure through the years.  It is clear that game designers are gearing characters toward what society believes would be the ideal bodies for both male and female.  Although these high expectations are represented for both males and females, I feel that females are the ones who are held to those standards more and are compared to those standards more.  I stream sometimes but I only really ever stream for my friends.  Even when I do stream, I never stream with a camera.  I have considered streaming more often, and maybe even building it up to stream more regularly and with a bigger audience but instances where women don’t get taken seriously or are harassed hinder my motivation to take streaming more seriously.  It is a shame that women have to take these things into account when streaming, and they can’t just engage in their hobbies free of judgement.

Works Cited

Bonnie Ruberg, Amanda L. L. Cullen & Kathryn Brewster (2019) Nothing but a “titty streamer”: legitimacy, labor, and the debate over women’s breasts in video game live streaming, Critical Studies in Media Communication.

Brett, Noel. (2018). Revision of Queer Bodies: Modifications of Sexual Affordances in World of Warcraft.