Twitter Analysis

Twitter as a Means of Understanding Sexism in the Twitch Community

I have chosen to conduct analysis of the Twitch community through posts from the social media site Twitter. Tweets, generally speaking, can act as a helpful sort of temperature check of the goings on of the Twitch community despite the fact that the discussions going on are necessarily, by nature of being tweets, not actually on Twitch. The primary reason I will use tweets instead of Twitch is because Twitch chats are temporary. Twitch chat logs are not publicly available forever except in instances where someone goes out of their way to screenshot or otherwise record them. Twitter does not have this problem. The tweets I have selected are mostly tweets surrounding and in reaction to specific relevant incidents on Twitch as well as a few stand alone tweets that are relevant in the discussion of sexism and gender-based harassment on Twitch. The tweets I will examine focus on the experiences of female and non-binary streamers as well as community and fan reactions to experiences and events.

Responses to Pokimane

Pokimane, a prominent female Twitch streamer, has been vocal about the sexist treatment she regularly receives on social media.1 2Comments on her tweets are frequently sexual and she has recently been a target of a deepfake pornography scandal. In January of 2023 a popular male Twitch streamer unintentionally shared a deepfake pornography website to his audience by forgetting to close a tab. This particular site was dedicated to photos and videos of prominent female Twitch streamers. Despite the fact that this incident was centered around the actions of the male streamer, many of the articles that covered it focused on Pokimane’s role as one of the victims.3 Not only does this situation showcase one of the many incidents of women streamers, and specifically Pokimane, being sexualized without consent, but it also has broader implications about the treatment of women in the Twitch space.

On October 30th, 2022, Pokimane shared with her Twitter followers that she had recently been able to pay for her parents’ retirement. This tweet received many positive replies congratulating the streamer on being able to provide care for her family. However, there were also a significant number of tweets responding to her that were less than positive, with many of them containing a similar sentiment, claiming that she did not actually pay for her parents’ retirement because it was her followers who gave her money through Twitch subscriptions, making the claim that her fans were the ones responsible for giving her parents the money. Similarly, there were a number of tweets with sentiments claiming that she did not earn the money that she put towards her parents’ retirement. Some such replies stated “W but you didnt [sic] work for it”(figure 1.1)—in this context “W” stands for “win,” meaning the user referred to Pokimane’s deed as a “win” or a good thing, and qualifying it with the claim that she did not work for the money—and “dont u [sic] mean WE paid for ur [sic] parents retirement.”(figure 1.2) Comments such as these are important in understanding harassment in the Twitch community as it relates to the notion of legitimacy. Furthermore, comments of this nature present a puzzling pattern—why be so hostile towards someone you find interesting enough to follow on social media?

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Another noteworthy response to this tweet was from an individual who noted that “when other streamers like Kai4 for example show how much they did for their family, they get praised by their community, on this community however you get discredited and say ‘we made that money u [sic] mean.’”(figure 1.3) Likely the moment that the twitter user is referring to is when Twitch streamer Kai Cenat purchased his mother a house in 2022. Instead of responses invalidating his earnings or claiming that fans were the ones who bought the house, responses were instead critical of Twitch for taking a percentage of the earnings (figure 1.4) since the money he used to buy the house came from a Twitch subathon,5 meaning that a certain amount of the money Cenat generated went to Twitch. This response points out the hypocrisy present in the responses to men who share how they are able to support their families in comparison to the response Pokimane received. For example, there were many responses that praised him and called him an inspiration (figure 1.5). The difference in response to Pokimane and Kai Cenat is significant because it illustrates a potential double standard for men and women in the Twitch community—why is it that Pokimane paying for her parents’ retirement was met with vitriol and Kai Cenat purchasing a house for his mother was not? Purchasing a house for a family member is relatively similar to paying for a family member’s retirement, so all else being equal, we should expect similar Twitter responses. This certainly isn’t to say that Kai Cenat should have been met with the same hostility, but rather it should make the harassment Pokimane received all the more apparent. 

This delegitimation of Pokimane’s work illustrates a common issue for women in the Twitch space: Women are not considered real streamers. The comparison between Pokimane and Kai Cenat in this context highlights the invalidation of women’s work by members of the community, a dynamic observed within other stereotypically geeky or nerdy contexts. These contrasting responses to Kai Cenat and Pokimane must be interpreted within the context that Pokimane is a historically overly-sexualized streamer. This supports Ruberg and colleagues’ argument in “Nothing but a ‘Titty Streamer’: Legitimacy, Labor, and the Debate Over Women’s Breasts in Video Game Live Streaming,” in regards to the harassment women receive and how it relates to their legitimacy on the platform.6 Furthermore, this instance demonstrates the larger fight for legitimacy women have worked towards in geek culture as outlined by Scott in her book Fake Geek Girls.7 These tweets illustrate the confluence of sexual harassment and role delegitimation that interfere with women’s opportunities in the Twitch space.

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Responses to Amouranth

On October 16th, 2022 popular Twitch streamer Amouranth revealed to her audience live on stream that she was in an abusive relationship. An important piece of this situation that seemed to have a great impact on public responses is that she had not publicly disclosed that she was in a relationship. This led to a large number of tweets in response to the situation stating things like “the saddest part about all this is the amount of money young men have given her who have convinced themselves that she’s available,”(figure 2.1) along with a slew of posts claiming that she was lying about her abuse, stating “am I the only one who feels this is so terribly staged?”(figure 2.2) This category of response is troubling. The implication that women lie about abuse is a damaging notion that can make it more difficult to be open about abuse for fear of not being believed. 

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In a similar vein, there were many responses to the situation that significantly diminished Amouranth’s abuse because of her occupation or took the opportunity to take a shot at Twitch for allowing the kind of content Amouranth typically made which tended to be viewed as having sexual implications. Some of these tweets included things like “this is what happens when you allow e-camming on your platform and ASMR hot tub streams, twitch,”(figure 2.3) and “I mean she’s a camgirl, I’m not expecting them to make brilliant decisions,”(figure 2.4) which places the blame for the abuse onto Amouranth herself, particularly placing the blame on her due to her engagement in sex work—she has an OnlyFans, which is likely what the users were referencing when using words like “camgirl”. This category of response is also troubling. These tweets not only are insulting to Amouranth, but also perpetuate victim blaming. 

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These responses to Amouranth exemplify Ruberg and colleagues argument in “Nothing but a ‘Titty Streamer’: Legitimacy, Labor, and the Debate Over Women’s Breasts in Video Game Live Streaming,” particularly showcasing examples of individuals attributing a woman’s success to the fact that individuals are sexually attracted to them. The tweets both blame Amouranth for her success—claiming that she is manipulative due to profiting off of others’ attraction to her—and for her abuse. This additionally upholds arguments made in Tran’s piece “‘Never Battle Alone’: EGirls and the Gender(ed) War on Video Game Live Streaming as ‘Real’ Work” that the work of women in the Twitch space frequently reduced to their perceived sexual appeal.8 Furthermore, these tweets uphold notions of sexual stereotypes in the context of victim blaming as laid in Howard’s “The “Normal” Victim: The Effects of Gender Stereotypes on Reactions to Victims,” such as the assumptions of respectability as it relates to sex workers, as well as the notion that women are often subject to blame for abuse they experience.9 These tweets also illustrate Payne and colleagues’ understanding of how rape myth develops, as the tweets contribute to victim blaming and the minimization of abuse.10

On the other hand, many other streamers tweeted responses to the situation both in support of Amouranth as well as condemning many of the negative responses to the situation. A common thread between the tweets from prominent streamers was a general condemnation of individuals who did not believe that the situation was real, stating things like “some of yall will do anything but believe women,”(figure 2.5) and “look at how the internet is reacting right now. and people wonder why women don’t come forward with abuse.”(figure 2.6) The overwhelming support for Amouranth coming from fellow streamers may indicate some positive movement in the community—explicit condemnations of harassment towards Amouranth from influential voices in the community shows that, whether or not Twitch viewers are making the space safer, many Twitch streamers seem interested in deterring hostility directed towards women, which could indicate positive change in the community. However, despite the positive responses from some community members, the majority of the tweets surrounding this situation perpetuate victim blaming or are otherwise discrediting of Amouranth, which illustrates some of the hostility women can face in the Twitch space.

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Responses to Twitch’s Ban on Gambling

In September of 2022, many prominent Twitch streamers called on the site to put a stop to allowing gambling streams on the platform. This culminated in Twitch banning live streams featuring certain gambling websites. There was a great deal of both community support and anger as a result of this new policy. The support largely came from a group of large streamers who had possibly influenced Twitch’s response after threatening to stop using Twitch throughout December, typically the most profitable month of the year for the site, if there was no action against gambling. However, there was a large contingent of fans and streamers who were displeased with the decision to end gambling on the site. Unsurprisingly, the unrest came from streamers and fans who engaged in gambling streams.11

This led to discourse on Twitter, and sparked a few tweets questioning Twitch’s decision to ban gambling as opposed to other forms of content that users thought could be deemed inappropriate. For example, tweets stated things like “wait, ban gambling but don’t ban hot tub streamers”(figure 3.1) and “soooooo what about all the whores on Twitch showing their body to young kids? Are none of these big twitch creators gunna [sic] talk about that?”(figure 3.2) Tweets like these claim that the response of both Twitch and the streamers who made posts calling out Twitch regarding gambling is hypocritical given that the site permits “hot tub” streams—a common genre of live streaming that usually involves women in bathing suits sitting in hot tubs or pools—due to the fact that a major reason that there were concerns about gambling had to do with the fact that the website allows users ages thirteen and older to make an account.

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These tweets illustrate a generally hostile view towards women within the Twitch space, exemplifying the same kind of name calling and generalizing that Ruberg and colleagues note in “Nothing but a ‘Titty Streamer’: Legitimacy, Labor, and the Debate Over Women’s Breasts in Video Game Live Streaming Legitimacy, Labor, and the Debate Over Women’s Breasts in Video Game Live Streaming.”12 They also inform a misogynistic view of demonizing women’s bodies and expressions of sexuality—“you painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting ‘Vanity,’ thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure.”13 These tweets exemplify the view that women who are sexual are in some way manipulative for being paid by individuals who find them sexually attractive. 

Other Notable Tweets

There are a few other tweets that are not connected to any specific situations that also illustrate harassment or negative comments in the Twitch community. Analyzing tweets that are not connected to a larger situation are important in illustrating that these kinds of responses are not limited to community-wide events, but rather, these comments are commonplace and can happen at any time. The harassment that women and non-binary individuals experience in the Twitch community is constant, it is not contained to isolated incidents or solely sparked by noteworthy events. 

One such tweet comes from a response to the Twitter account ValorINTEL, an official account dedicated to reporting news related to the popular video game VALORANT. The ValorINTEL account tweeted asking their followers which popular VALORANT streamer their followers plan on watching that weekend, including an image with various popular VALORANT streamers including professional VALORANT players as well as casual players. A Twitter user responded “is kyedae a ‘valorant’ streamer? i think shes [sic] just tenz’s girlfriend streamer”(figure 4.1) referencing the inclusion of popular female Twitch streamer Kyedae in the list of VALORANT streamers, diminishing her own popularity due to the fact that she is in a relationship with one of the top professional VALORANT players. The ValorINTEL account responded to the user stating that Kyedae, at the time of the tweet, was the second highest viewed Twitch channel in the VALORANT category in the week prior. This particular tweet exemplifies the fight for legitimacy that female streamers face—even though Kyedae was one of the most viewed VALORANT streamers at the time of the tweet, the Twitter user still questioned her legitimacy and inclusion in a list of popular VALORANT streamers, diminishing her accomplishments because of who she is. This example, as is the case with many of the other tweets here, illustrates Ruberg and colleagues’ arguments about the difficulties women streamers face in their fight for legitimacy, as well as Scott’s argument that this holds true for women in many stereotypically geeky communities. 14 15 In a similar vein, these tweets showcase more generally the treatment women receive in male-dominated industry. McLaughlin and colleagues highlight in their 2012 study, “Sexual Harassment, Workplace Authority, and the Paradox of Power,” that women experience greater amounts of harassment in male-dominated industries and found that women in positions of authority are also more likely to be targets of workplace harassment. 16

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Another one-off tweet I would like to discuss comes from LoveCity, who is a trans non-binary Twitch streamer. In this tweet she notes that despite the fact that she includes her pronouns (she/they) prominently on her streams, she is very frequently misgendered—experiencing someone utilizing incorrect pronouns for her or otherwise referring to her by a gender that she is not—by both Twitch viewers and fellow streamers nonetheless, making a joke that perhaps they should plaster “she/they” in big white text many times over the entirety of their screen (figure 4.4, 4.5, 4.6). This is an important tweet in understanding the treatment of non-male streamers on Twitch because it illustrates an issue that gender non-conforming individuals face—sexism is certainly not the only issue when it comes to harassment and discrimination on the platform and within the community. Furthermore, she goes on to express how frequent misgendering is “exhausting” and deters her from “wanting to interact with anyone [other content creators] ever.” (figure 4.7) This sentiment is significant because it illustrates an unequal labor that non-binary streamers must engage in when streaming. This also speaks to a larger issue that trans and nonbinary individuals face. As Galupo and Pulice-Farrow note in their piece “‘Every Time I Get Gendered Male, I Feel a Pain in My Chest’: Understanding the Social Context for Gender Dysphoria,” misgendering can be frustrating and can trigger gender dysphoria among trans and nonbinary individuals. 17

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Conclusion

Overall, the examination of tweets related to Twitch is helpful in witnessing and understanding sexism and other forms of gender-based harassment that women and non-binary streamers face within the Twitch communities. Furthermore, in many cases, the tweets illuminate double standards that women and non-binary streamers face in comparison to their male counterparts. The examination of these tweets illustrates issues non-male streamers face within the community, such as delegitimation victim blaming, slut shaming, and misgendering. These examples illustrate and highlight the experiences of women and non-binary streamers within the current Twitch community. Furthermore, these social media posts support previously established notions surrounding gender and harassment.

Footnotes

  1. Wessel Minnie, “Pokimane Slams Sexual Clip Creators: ‘There’s Truly No Saving People,’” Ginx, January 24, 2022, https://www.ginx.tv/en/twitch/pokimane-sexual-clip-creators.
  2. Saahil Angelo Periwal, “Pokimane Opens Up About Online Sexual Harassment , a Day Before Taking Her Month-Long Break,” Sportskeeda, August 10, 2020, https://www.sportskeeda.com/esports/pokimane-opens-online-sexual-harassment-day-taking-month-long-break.
  3. Callum Patterson, “Twitch Streamer Atrioc Gives Tearful Apology After Paying for Deepfakes of Female Streamers,” Dexerto, January 30, 2023, https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/twitch-streamer-atrioc-gives-tearful-apology-after-paying-for-deepfakes-of-female-streamers-2047162/.
  4. Referring to Kai Cenat, who was at the time the most subscribed to streamer on Twitch.
  5. A subathon is a type of Twitch stream in which a user incentivises viewers to subscribe, or “sub”, typically by having certain goals at specific subscriber counts or by adding a certain amount of time to a clock for every sub, and streaming until the clock hits zero.
  6. Kathryn Brewster, Amanda L. L. Cullen, and Bonnie Ruberg, “Nothing but a ‘Titty Streamer’: Legitimacy, Labor, and the Debate Over Women’s Breasts in Video Game Live Streaming,” Critical Studies in Media Communication, Vol. 36, no. 5 (2019).
  7. Suzanne Scott, “Interrogating the Fake Geek Girl: The Spreadable Misogyny of Contemporary Fan Culture,” in Fake Geek Girls: 22, eds. Jonathan Gray, Aswin Punathambekar, and Adrienne Shaw, (2019).
  8. Christine H. Tran, “‘Never Battle Alone’: Egirls and the Gender(ed) War on Video Game Live Streaming as ‘Real’ Work,” Television & New Media, Vol. 23, no. 5 (2022).
  9. Judith A. Howard, “The ‘Normal’ Victim: The Effects of Gender Stereotypes on Reactions to Victims,” in Social Psychology Quarterly Vol. 47, no. 3 (1984).
  10. Diana L. Payne, Kimberly A. Lonsway, and Louise F. Fitzgerald, “Rape Myth Acceptance: Exploration of Its Structure and Its Measurement Using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale,” in Journal of Research in Personality no. 33 (1999).
  11.  Michael Gwilliam, “Twitch Bans Gambling Sites Including Stake and more Following Streamer Backlash,” Dexerto, September 21, 2022, https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/twitch-bans-gambling-features-after-streamer-backlash-but-theres-a-catch-1937092/.
  12. Kathryn Brewster, Amanda L. L. Cullen, and Bonnie Ruberg, “Nothing but a ‘Titty Streamer’: Legitimacy, Labor, and the Debate Over Women’s Breasts in Video Game Live Streaming,” Critical Studies in Media Communication, Vol. 36, no. 5 (2019).
  13. John Berger, “3,” Ways of Seeing (1972), 51.
  14.  Kathryn Brewster, Amanda L. L. Cullen, and Bonnie Ruberg, “Nothing but a ‘Titty Streamer’: Legitimacy, Labor, and the Debate Over Women’s Breasts in Video Game Live Streaming,” Critical Studies in Media Communication, Vol. 36, no. 5 (2019).
  15. Suzanne Scott, “Interrogating the Fake Geek Girl: The Spreadable Misogyny of Contemporary Fan Culture,” in Fake Geek Girls: 22, eds. Jonathan Gray, Aswin Punathambekar, and Adrienne Shaw, (2019).
  16. Heather McLaughlin, Christopher Uggen, and Amy Blackstone, “Sexual Harassment, Workplace Authority, and the Paradox of Power,” American Sociological Review 77, no. 4 (2012).
  17.  M. Paz Galupo and Lex Pulice-Farrow, “‘Every Time I Get Gendered Male, I Feel a Pain in My Chest’: Understanding the Social Context for Gender Dysphoria” in Stigma and Health, Vol. 5, no. 2 (2022).