09 Jun The representation of women in eSports
The introduction of eSports happened during the 1970s when the first official gaming tournament took place in 1972. Individuals competed against each other in a round of games of Spacewar. Stewart Brand, a 33 year old biology student from Stamford university was the first winner, however what he had in common with all the other contestants; was that he was male.
Men have been glorified from then until now in the gaming community. Since the introduction of women in gaming, there has been a clear pattern of sexualisation and incidents in the gaming industry that have not been highlighted.
There has always been a barrier between genders since the beginning of time. Meanwhile, during the upcoming popularity in the gaming industry with popular games like Fortnite, PUBG and Call Of Duty entering the field; this divide has only become more immense.
We have been taught from the start that video games is something we only see in a boys world. The target audience of game developers has always been men. The E sports industry does not take into account a female audience. This then leads to an automatic platform that favours what men want to see.
Graphics in certain online games see female characters represented with larger sexualised assets. This only increases the sexualisation of women not only outside of gaming but also in the games. Male characters are repetitively seen in armour, swords and knives and women are seen as almost helpless or just sexualised bodies, this has taught individuals from a young age the false expectations of genders.
Children are almost taught from a young through gaming and many other types of media like TV and film that females only have physical assets that matter compared to male characters who are portrayed as masculine and macho. We constantly see female characters in gaming with less of clothes and usually related to more boring storylines that include them being saved by the male protagonist.
Earlier games Like the Tomb Raider series where a female protagonist was introduced as Lara Croft was seen extremely sexualised through her body. Only until 2013 developers changed her character into the complete opposite; a character who appeared more similar to the characteristics of a male protagonist.
As these changes took place recently there is still discouragement. Females aren’t keen on playing online games or even considering joining the ESports industry due to it already being a male playground. There is a wide lack of female role models that female gamers can relate to you. When females join online games and see that their gender characteristics are only physical they tend to feel offended and don’t want to support this form of sexism.
Females aren’t given insight into this industry like males have had from the start. If female gamers felt more welcome then we would see a huge shift in more female players and not only 27% of females would account for the E sports industry.
As the gaming industry becomes more popular with female gamers, there has also been a pattern of hyper-sexualisation and representation of females in the ESports industry. From the beginning of time there has been a stereotype that women can’t play games and it has always been a male dominated industry hence why there is stigma around this topic.
Stereotypes that follow female gamers include bad at gaming, extremely sensitive, a lot of sexualised comments in extremes especially being left out in the gaming community just due to gender. Stereotypes do you have an affect as not only does this affect female players mentally and their self-esteem it also affects their revenue and being able to reach a point where they can make a living just like male streamers YouTubers and gamers.
It has been scientifically proven that there are no performance differences between male and female players yet this stereotype that males are naturally better at gaming is still at hand.
However, some females gamers do ignore the stereotypes but this then leads to more harassment and sexual abuse as they are constantly being pressured by male viewers. Women experience additional unnecessary obstacles just due to gender. 54% of females online where asked for a sexual favour.
Some stereotypes then turn into self fulfilling prophecies which leads females into thinking the only way they can make it even near the position of male gamers is to become sex symbols online. As they are openly being harassed, some female streamers subconsciously take this into mind and start acting out the things that they are being constantly told. Due to the constant sexualisation, some female streamers find the best way in making it to the top is giving the male viewers what they want. this then creates a cycle and things are taken the wrong way.
Extremely popular Fortnite mega gaming streamer Tyler Blevins or famously known as ‘Ninja’ recently issued a statement where he claimed that he will not play with any female gamers and has lived up to this. The reason being as it could be seen as disrespectful towards his wife due to sparking of rumours or fake news. With a platform as large as his him strictly having a no female player rule only creates more stigma around the situation, He made this choice to minimise harassment and avoid problems with his wife, however, this is such a small minor complication that doesn’t amount to the harassment that female streamers endure daily.
Ninja currently has 14.7 million followers on Twitch, the main streaming platform, making him the highest viewed player in the world. Ninja collectively has more followers than the top 25 female Twitch streamers combined.
This only negatively accentuates the inclusivity in the gaming industry as Ninja has a multi million following of young adults and children that look up to him. Many of his fans follow and listen to the majority of what’s he says as they idolise him, hence why they could partake in the statement that he made and follow it.
Female streamers are only a small percentage however a large percentage of their comments on streaming platforms are mostly about their looks and not their skills compared to male streamers and YouTubers, the majority of their comments are there to praise their skills.
Female streamers combined make less than half of a small fraction of male YouTubers or streamers. The top female Esports player makes 3.8 million less than the top male Esports player.
Some big time streamers can make up to six-figure salaries from gaming, however we have not seen that figure with female streamers yet. Among the 100 top paid streamers not one of them is female every single player is male. This stems from the stereotypical traditional beliefs that created an initial divide years ago, men have had the upper hand since then compared to female gamers who have just started being accepted in the industry.
Female streamers find it extremely hard to break through the E sports gaming industry they are not taken seriously when they are trying to create a career but are only laughed at and don’t have the correct support system that most male streamers and YouTubers have due to the fact of their gender.
With there being a constant clash between genders in the Esports industry thousands of rising female players are affected at the lack of opportunities and almost fighting to get to where they are going.
This was up and coming female gamer Abby “Abs99” Carter’s experience. She is a 19-year-old streamer who mostly plays Fortnite and call of duty. She currently has 832 twitch followers and around 480 Instagram followers. There she strictly posts short clips of her playing Fortnite and other games in order to interact with her followers. She does not show her face.
“I started gaming when I was about 17 years old, I started playing Fortnite about two years ago when the game first came out meaning I was one of the first players”
Meaning she was on of the first Fortnite players, putting her in level with a lot of male players.
“I mostly Play Fortnite and call of duty those are the two games I started off with”
Random matchmaking games are also extremely popular as it allows you to meet new people who share the same interests as you. However, this comes with a price if you are a female gamer.
“Almost every day I play random matchmaking games and my friends aren’t online, majority of them are guys especially children who don’t take me seriously or just try and get to know me and what I look like most of the time I get asked what social media platforms I’m on and what I look like. It’s sad because most of them are being serious but then we have the ones that joke around and think it’s funny to mock me and not take me seriously, there are thousands of videos on YouTube of female gamers and streamers being harassed and I don’t feel like that precautions and measures are being taken”
33% of online comments towards female gamers are based upon intelligence alone. This leads to players like Abby to mute her mic when she realises that the player on the other side is abusive. Playing with a mic is a vital aspect of the game as she needs to communicate with other players.
“Its worse when I’m in a random matchmaking game by myself and I’m in a squad as there are three other people that could potentially even be friends and they just mock me.”
“Then there’s more inappropriate people usually teenagers who just wanna see what I look like I wanna see my body they ask me what my name is try and add me as a friend and get to know me beyond gaming”
41% of comments towards female games include profane language.
“Then we have more adult people who do actually pay interest in my skills and praise me but there is still an underlying sort of harassment. I still get asked a lot of the time how old I am, what my name is and loads of personal questions that shouldn’t be allowed in the gaming community especially if you’re in a game. I think it’s really inappropriate that people ask you where you live what country you’re from what state do you live in even I get that question a lot just to try and see if you’re willing to open up to them instead of just paying the game getting on with it.”
This is a form online stalking which takes up 13.7% of comments made towards female players. Extremely personal questions not only scare the person on the other end but it could also lead to extreme stalking.
“I would like to turn gaming into a job however it’s so hard because I take myself seriously but not a lot of people do.”
I spoke to Abby about how she feels about joining a gaming clan which are popular in the Esports industry.
“Majority of the people I play with are females, we have tried to make a clan but I would rather join one that is more known. I have applied to different game clans over my time playing Fortnite but as soon as they realise that I’m a female on the mic they automatically don’t take me seriously which just puts me at a disadvantage already. Sometimes when I do apply for clans I get asked a lot of questions when the point of the application is to showcase my skills.”
Gaming clans are the base of most gaming communities and are created to boost the following of streamers are mostly male dominated with leaders recruiting barely any females with them saying that no female players have applied to the clans seriously.
There are hundreds of clans in the Esports, industry but the majority of them have no female gamers which then leads to female gamers creating female only clans since they’re always being secluded.
One of the biggest multi millionaire follower gaming clans ‘Faze Clan’ only recently recruited their first female Fortnite player. she goes by the name of E-Wok but she is still not as popular as their top male player TFue who has a Twitch following of 7.4 million. E-Wok only has 283k.
We also spoke on whether she feels the divide between male and female players and how there is a lack of acceptance.
“100% as of recently it has improved a little but I feel like we will never be equal. Gaming started off as a male dominated industry and I guess that they feel threatened that another gender has come and tried to make a living out of what they’re making a living out of.”
Abby also highlighted how difficult it is being an up-and-coming female Fortnite player and streamer in general.
“I face struggles almost every day it’s really hard for people to understand I do want to make a living out of this just like everyone else.
It’s even more difficult when you’re constantly being bashed about your gender and then people sexualise you when they see you on streams or YouTube videos. I’ve seen a lot of my gaming friends who are female experience this type of behaviour instead of them being taken as gamers they’re being seen as a body and looks.”
Not only does Abby experience personal harassment but when she is playing with her friends she sees the constant abuse they receive too. When they do play together and a random person joins it seems as they are more vulnerable when there are multiple female players but when they see Abby playing alone they are more confident to start harassment and sexual abuse.
Abby spoke about what she does in response to abuse and how it makes her feel.
“Most of the time I don’t speak because I’m worried about what the player on the other side has to say it’s always a thing where I feel nervous. When I do decide that okay maybe I do you wanna speak because it is part of the game, I still make sure that I keep my conversation minimal so it doesn’t seem inviting. I keep things short was just giving directions or telling my teammates where certain weapons are. In the occasion someone is harassing me I do turn their mic off so I don’t have to hear it and continue the game but when it is very extreme I do exit the game which is annoying because it affects my statistics online. Usually I will exit the game and report them and more most of the time I hear nothing back. Reporting the account only gives the person reporting satisfaction but nothing is happening on the other end. It me feel like less of a person even though we’re all ‘hiding’ behind a screen and an avatar, I still feel like we’re not the same and I’m somehow still being degraded.”
She also accentuated on why there will always be inequality between both genders, especially in the gaming community.
“Eventually there might more opportunities for female gamers but I feel like there would never be equality. I feel like it’s hard enough even finding opportunities for example when I do want to join smaller tournaments or look into joining a clan it’s a lot harder for me to even get the recognition I sometimes just get looked past”
We also spoke about the precautions and measures being taken by game developers and if there is enough being done about sexual abuse towards females.
“I expect there to be a lot more precautions being taken, like members of games like Fortnite or Call of duty being banned due to being asked personal questions, because they seem to take paedophilia and racial abuse a lot more seriously than sexism it seems this topic is a lot more tolerable”
71% of females put the blame on video game developers as they should be helping defeat this problem.
Due to the constant abuse, female players like Abby are being told everyday insulting and horrific language. It’s even gone down to rape threats and stalking. Hundreds of female gamers and specifically Fortnite streamers highlight how dangerous it is being a female on the Internet. Not only does this make the experience playing uncomfortable, it also limits them to rising in the ESports industry. In order to avoid harassment female players tend to block people withdraw from the game or even lie about their gender just avoid what comes with being a female gamer. 57% of females have experienced online abuse in games after revealing their gender.
Female games are constantly being attacked and if it’s not sexual abuse then it is bullying.
An extremely popular female YouTuber that goes by the name of “Pokimane” was mocked extremely online over her looks in her streaming videos. Pokimane has millions of followers, however, the only thing people online comment about is her looks as opposed to how she plays the game. Female YouTubers are always criticised over how they look and the only feedback they get is any thing but how good they are at the game.
Pictures of Pokimane actually went viral when she wore no make up in one of her videos and people online were quick to notice this. She became extremely insecure and stopped streaming videos and releasing content online due to the harsh criticism. People were calling her names and she was taken aback, this even affected her streams, views and money income just because people were criticising how she looks without make up. Ironically, most of the people that were bullying her were male viewers, if it’s not harassment about your body and sexual abuse it’s bullying about someone’s looks.
However, other female YouTubers and Esport streamers were also there to defend her and stick up for Pokimane when comments were being made.
As soon as her male dominated viewers didn’t see something that they liked they turned against her.
There was also another incident towards Pokimane that was planted all over Esports news. Some saw this humorous whilst others said this only vocalises how severe sexual abuse is in the industry and the polluted minds of male children and teenagers. She joined a random game with a supposed fan on Fortnite and was only sexualised throughout the whole game. This then blew up and people started criticising the boy who sexually abused her just due to her being female. Meanwhile, other fans who were on the boys side came to his defence saying that she shouldn’t be wearing low-cut tops, heavy make up and even took it as far to showing skin in her streams. They claimed this only attracts the wrong attention.
Fortnite didn’t do anything about this and this behaviour has been continued all over online games where females will just be sexualised, attacked and targeted just for playing a game.
I also spoke with Jordan Pham, a male gamer who has been in the Esports industry for a while also, he is also an ambitious player who has spoken up about the harassment that female players encounter. He goes by the screen name “JJksp”.
Jordan started gaming a couple of years ago when CSGo was big. He then started playing Fortnite and Minecraft.
“I mostly play Fortnite now and make videos on YouTube and sometimes stream on Twitch. I have just over 2000 subscribers and 1000 Twitch followers.”
I questioned him about gaming clans and whether he has come across any females in any clans also. He emphasises that the only way for females to come together in the Esports industry is to create their own tournaments their own clans and even sometimes the own communities just to build a foundation for themselves
“I actually am in a clan, I’m in a clan with my friends and we make videos together. I’ve never applied for any clans only because I would rather play with my friends as we do play together every day. I’ve never come across females in gaming clans only because of the male culture. I think it’s really immature that they think not having any female players makes them stronger and more tight knit. We’ve never had any females try to join our clan but if the opportunity does arise will be sure to take it as serious as anyone else applying.”
Jordan also sees the divide between males and females in gaming, he has spoken about this in multiple streams and has even taken it to social media to try and raise awareness about this ongoing issue. He also finds it important to communicate with female streamers and provide support that they don’t get in the community. He plays with many female gamers and makes sure their comfortably is key.
“Male players do get a lot more recognition sadly only because they’re not ‘new comers’ it’s like they automatically accepted. I feel like most female gamers aren’t as comfortable but not because of them, but because of the people around them. They don’t give them help or allow them to be comfortable in this industry”
As Jordan is also an up-and-coming gamer, we spoke about how he has barely any struggles or obstacles in pursuing a career in the Esports industry.
“I’ve gotten thousands of followers over my course of gaming especially with the support of my friends and the clan that I’m in it’s easier to make it out of the smaller bubble and into the bigger world of Esports.”
The median of followers for male streamers reaches just over 2.3 million compared to female streamers who totally average a following of just over 595k.
He also feels like the divide between genders will not improve as expected.
“I feel like as long as men are being implanted from young that women are supposed to be sexualised and parents are teaching their children that sexism is okay the divide will stay the same. Maybe in time it will improve but this all stems from what people are taught and their values.”
He blames the sexualisation of females and gender equality on traditions that dates back years.
“Male children are taught from a young age to sexualise women or if the child has seen the father abuse their mother or sexualise people around them in the family and outside of the family, it leaves an implant on the child’s brain and he will just release that into the gaming world and in life in general”
Jordan relates to real life gender inequality issues and how it is projected through gaming also.
“It’s really sad that this is the world that we live and grow up in but as long as sexism exists the divide between female and male gamers will also exist.”
We also touched on what he expects of the future ESports industry.
“I expect a lot more females, especially because there are so many things and opportunities for men like tournaments and groups and the community in general is male dominated it would be nice for the Esports industry, gaming platforms and social media platforms to focus some of the activities on females and make sure that they’re also getting recognition maybe even promote female gamers a lot more. Even talk about these issues a lot because hiding from the fact that there is a divide also creates more of a divide because hardly anyone is speaking up about it.”
Jordan also told me about his experiences in seeing sexual harassment towards females in the game industry and what he has seen himself.
“It happens on multiple occasions, I’m pretty sure that the majority of people join random games almost every day and it’s very rare to come across a female gamer but when it does happen other people on the chat will start making comments and asking questions about the female gamer. I do understand it’s curiosity but it comes off as harassment as well . There have been many times where I’ve heard uncomfortability in the female gamers voice but she’s just trying to play.”
He has also told me about times when he has spoken up about sexual harassment during games, sticking up for the female player.
“Another thing I’ve also experienced a lot is if the other players are male, usually if the female player is better than the male for them to be like ‘look a female player is better than you’, as if that is a compliment to the female.”
Jordan then took it to social media to describe what had happened in one of the games he was in.
“There was an incident where I was in a random game and this exact thing happened, they spoke down to the female player and made it out as if her being skilful was a shock whilst they laughed and with their friends saying things like ‘look a girl is better than you’.”
Male players like Jordan are aware of the divide are trying to push boundaries and create more inclusivity for female players.
Women only account for up to 5% of the E sports industry however male player still find a way to complain about the coming together of the female gaming industry.
There are countless comments saying that it’s unfair that women are creating all female clans and all-female tournaments when tournaments world wide are open to both male and female gamers. This only shows how serious the issues are as it has come down to female game creating all female communities due to the seclusion that they have experienced.
Some male gamers even took it far to say that this only widens the gap between male and female gamers. Females are creating all female tournaments and all female clans
And this has seemed to spark controversy as the problem initially was females not being equal to mail gamers and now they have cherry picked this and created a problem in saying that this is not discriminatory against male players. Female players then hit back and said if there was no divide to begin with, it wouldn’t have led to this.
Abby also explained how potentially participating in an all female tournament and joining and all female clan lessens the chance of outside harassment and abuse that they would receive as the majority is from other male players. 3 in 4 Female players eventually block or report male individuals that abuse them online.
Promising Fortnite streamers like Abby have had to make this decision. Instead of trying to join male dominated clans and tournaments she has become a symbol of awareness in the female gaming industry who focuses on breaking barriers by building a foundation for female players just like her.
This all originated from the abuse that led to this. From thousands of comments on female streamers videos to cyber bullying, It has become apparent that the only way out to try and become female dominant in a male dominated industry.
Some say the gap has improved, with a lot more female players joining and creating the right communities for themselves. There may be more female players online and more female streamers on YouTube breaking boundaries, however this still comes with abuse and sexual harassment. 35% of Fortnite players are female which we have seen a huge spark in even though this does not amount to the whopping 65% of male players who do earn an immense amount more this is still an improvement. As long as sexism exists, sexist comments will barely decrease.
Women are underrepresented in the Esports industry. With the rise of female gamers comes abusive comments in order to put off this new dynamic of female players. From missing role models to sexualised female characteristics, this change needs to begin from the homes of children and gaming developers. The lack of gender diversity is only widening the gap of inequality in gaming. If game developers continued what they did from the days of the Tomb Raider 2013 change and continued to create more female protagonists and switching gender roles then people will start taking it seriously. Even until now some Fortnite female characters have large assets and even have those assets move in a provocative way during games. The target audience of Fortnite and the majority of players are 12 to 13-year-olds who are being taught subliminal sexism through gaming. This then kickstarts the potential beginning of toxic masculinity. Gendered harassment then goes from simple graphics to actual bullying online towards female gamers. Male gamers like Jordan are creating a better change in the community, it is a big step for male players to come forward and also realise the abuse that is happening in the Esports industry. This does show positive improvement and steps being taken to conquer the division, it is now in the hands of game developers to implement the same values of individuals raising awareness for harassment and sexism towards female players. There needs to be more being done in the ESports industry from both genders to accentuate the real problem. Whether this be through short documentaries or interviews with female players on these huge multi million dollar platforms. Instead of just promoting new games, the promotion of the missrepresentation of females in the Esports industry should be a priority.
