Discrimination, or Why Ninja Thought It Was Okay To Tell The World He Doesn’t Stream With Female Gamers
I’m a hardcore gamer. I spent over eight years in the industry, was a pioneer on Twitch, and I play competitive games pretty much every night of the week, including ranked leagues.
I’m also female, which is probably why I feel like I need to present my resume of gamer legitimacy before I tell you why Ninja is completely full of shit.
This weekend, Ninja went on record during an interview to say that he never streams with women. For the non-gamer/non-streaming crew, Ninja plays a very popular game called Fortnite, and he broadcasts himself playing online via a platform called Twitch, and he is immensely popular with millions of fans and he makes a lot of money doing what he does. He’s great at it.
Ninja told the world he doesn’t stream with gamers for a couple reasons, chief among them, “If I have one conversation with one female streamer where we’re playing with one another, and even if there’s a hint of flirting, that is going to be taken and going to be put on every single video and be clickbait forever.” He went on to also explain this wasn’t about his wife or their relationship, but it was “kind of a respect thing” in regards to her that he doesn’t stream with women. To end his article with Polygon, Ninja was quoted saying, “The only way to avoid that [gossip] is to not play with them at all.”
As someone who has been harassed and had malicious rumors spread about her because of my work in gaming, I feel for Ninja. I really do. But his decisions impact the lives and livelihoods of everyone he touches. If he partners with someone to stream, he changes the trajectory of their career. He has that power.
And because women have vaginas, he will never, ever partner with them.
Breaking down Ninja’s quotes, here are his reasons for not streaming with women:
- Idiots on the internet would make videos that would make him look bad?
- Respect for his wife?
- All of “them” create gossip????
In the past decade, if you were paying attention to women in the workplace, you might have heard a bit about how women have trouble finding mentors because senior-level people are often male (because sexism) and those mentors won’t spend time with women outside of work (because sexism) which is the normal way for a lot of people to get mentored. Men in positions of power have explained why they will take male subordinates out for drinks and not females (because sexism) and this has created a serious problem for women who want to reach the highest levels of their career.
This is long before #MeToo, folks. This has been life for, well, ever.
And then #MeToo happened and a lot more people realized that sexism and harassment is all over the workplace. #MeToo gave women a modicum more safety and security and community when they decide to speak up or fight back when this reprehensible stuff happens to them. The downside to being able to take a stand when treated like trash or assaulted?
More men became aware that there’s a possibility that they might be called out for bad behavior — behavior they know they engage in or fear they might — and so more men decided to go on record and say that to avoid this, they were going to exclude women from their work.
This is discrimination. Excluding a population of qualified people because of gender is pretty cut and dry.
This weekend, I read a lot of internet conversations (among exclusively men) about how Ninja probably needed to do this because his wife was crazy jealous, or because women were out for his money, or that his decision was completely valid and anyone saying otherwise should stop trying to put societal benefits above personal safety.
And I wanted to laugh because otherwise I would have wanted to break these people — because they were the same voices who have, repeatedly, told me to stop being sensitive or stop being a victim or to understand I put myself in bad positions by taking publicly-facing jobs in gaming, and therefore agreed to harassment and toxicity and death threats and molestation and sexual harassment.
Key difference between me, the woman who streamed for a gaming company on Twitch and had to move house because men threatened to kill me over a product they didn’t like and Ninja, a man who streams games for a living and has decided to never play with women because he doesn’t want to deal with the gossip?
Right.
Here’s a quick pro-tip on how to handle women in a professional setting without being accused of sexual harassment or sexist behavior: Don’t sexually harass people or say sexist shit. There’s a world of edgy shit we can say and curse words we can hurl that aren’t sexist — or racist! And yes, the internet is a toxic cesspool and I seriously wish it weren’t, so maybe a kind word or a laugh or a piece of dust in your eye that looks like a wink might be turned into clickbait —but that does and has happened to Ninja already because people love to create drama and clickbaits so please, for the love of christ, don’t put this on women streamers — put it on the worst parts of the online community who perpetuate hateful rumors, no matter the subject matter.
Women aren’t ticking time bombs, and the #MeToo movement didn’t make mens’ lives harder — just like women’s equality didn’t make it harder for men to get jobs. It helped level our playing field and helped women climb up to be a little closer to the same starting line as men when we begin the professional race. All Ninja is doing here is closing off opportunities for women — and by going on record to explain his own internal biases and discrimination, he’s made it clear the kind of person he is, professionally. Luckily, there’s more of a safety net these days for women, and speaking out is something we — all of us, men and women — have an obligation to do when we see sexist behavior like this.
This isn’t a badge of honor. It’s cowardly, and close-minded, and outdated, and it’s sexist and discriminatory.
