Holly BrockwellEditor of Gadgette, a female-focused tech siteTuesday 14 Aug 2018 3:28 pm
This week, prominent games streamer Ninja stated that he wont game with women in case it causes problems in his marriage, and female gamers everywhere rolled their eyes.
This might surprise some men out there, but women gamers arent actually trying to wreck your marriage. Theyre not interested in getting into your pants. You know what they want? To game. Just like men.
To be fair to Ninja, he does seem to know this. His explanation for his decision isnt that he thinks the women of gaming are trying to get with him – its that his fans think they are, and that causes drama in his marriage. But hes still wrong, because his solution isnt to re-educate the men, its to ban the women.
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This is particularly disappointing because with his platform, Ninja is in a perfect position to make a real, positive difference to the still depressingly sexist world of Twitch streaming.
With so many young men looking up to him, he could have made a statement about women in gaming. He could have elevated them, normalised them, played with them exactly the same way he plays with men, and made inter-gender matches so everyday that they arent even worth his followers commenting on.
Instead, hes taken the Mike Pence route and implied that men and women cant do things alone together without shenanigans, and thats so misguided, it makes me wonder whether he spent more than a minute thinking it through.
As a bisexual woman, if I adopted the same rule as Ninja, Id have to ban everyone: Im attracted to men, women and everyone in between, so thatd leave me precisely no one to game with. But I wouldnt need to do that because my relationship is stable – my partner wouldnt believe some random commenter saying I was bedding someone just because I streamed with them, so why would Ninjas wife?
Its incredibly arrogant to assume that just because Ninja is attracted to women, those women are attracted to him and trying to get something other than a win out of playing against him. What about all the female gamers in happy relationships? What about the lesbians? And for that matter, what about the gay men – are those banned from Camp Ninja too?
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The fact is, a small segment of gaming fans are vocal trolls who ruin it for everyone else, and the solution to that isnt to capitulate to them.
The vast – and often silent – majority of male gaming fans would have absolutely no problem with Ninja playing women, and would probably welcome it. Contrary to how the trolls make it seem, most gamers DO want women to play – in fact, they want gender to stop being a factor at all. Its often women who are accused of making issues all about gender, but in this case, its pretty clear who cant see past the chromosomes. Its an XBox, not an XYBox, for goodness sake.
As editor of a womens tech site, Im pretty familiar with the nastiness that occurs in dedicated fan communities. Shortly after launch, we had to close our comment section because of all the rape and death threats, mainly on female-authored game articles. But we didnt stop commissioning those articles – that would be punishing women for mens actions. We kept publishing them and eventually the outrage (mostly) died down. If we all changed our behaviour to kowtow to misogynists, there wouldnt BE any female gamers.
Like many people, I respect Ninjas right to make decisions about his life and career. But as a prominent gamer, he has some responsibility towards the community that made him, and its disappointing that hes not willing to stand up for the women in that community. Im still hoping hell change his mind, invite female gamers in, and tell anyone who doesnt like it to go play with themselves.
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MORE: Female gamers split over Ninjas stance on streaming with women
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MORE: Ninja responds to criticism after saying he wont stream with women
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