Good morning, Readers!
An Egyptian woman in men's attire. Snagged this image from haaretz.com. Click for link.
So... last night was cluster fuck of a night. My usual streaming platform, Twitch, was having issues. I could not connect. My audience could not log in, let alone view my page.
Instead, I decided to stream on YouTube, but kept it to farming collectables . It's the first time I've ever done that. I prefer using Twitch, as it's a friendlier platform for creators so far. It was great! I had a lot of fun, and there were some new audience members who showed up for a chat. They were lovely folks, and it was good fun.
I might stream on YouTube a little bit more in the future. We'll see.
Anyway, at several points in the stream, I was asked if I was a bloke.
I'm not insulted. I think it's funny as hell. And that's why I mention it. Because it's hilarious. I also think that a bit of bias is at play here. But more on that later.
My voice is normal, I think? Perhaps it records at a deeper register? I mean, I don't have a high, girlish voice, but it is, at least to my mind, at least feminine... even when I'm swearing a blue streak.
That's where the bias comes in. Look, we're all aware of the problem of misogyny in the gaming world. It's why I have a policy of not gaming with anyone I don't personally know. I've had problems as a woman gamer.
And you hear the angry subset of male gamers who yell boldly about all those "fake gamer girls," as if women can't possibly enjoy gaming the same way they do. Gaming is for guys, y'all!
So I honestly think that was part of it. Not that the askers are horrible misogynists, of course. They were actually lovely. But the atmosphere around gaming lends itself to assuming a gamer (whose face you can't see on screen) is male. When the voice doesn't jive with the assumption, people end up confused. Hence the questions.
While the assumption is troubling, and constraining - the attitude that girls don't game is what kept me from gaming for so very long (and when I decided I wanted to do it regardless, it took forever to get the money together for a console).
Still, thinking about it makes me laugh, so I'm not sorry it happened.
For those interested, if Twitch is up and running tonight (it was as of this morning), I will be streaming again, this time actually doing missions, instead of just farming collectables.
For now, though, I must go through some Welsh lessons.
Ciao!
Instead, I decided to stream on YouTube, but kept it to farming collectables . It's the first time I've ever done that. I prefer using Twitch, as it's a friendlier platform for creators so far. It was great! I had a lot of fun, and there were some new audience members who showed up for a chat. They were lovely folks, and it was good fun.
I might stream on YouTube a little bit more in the future. We'll see.
Anyway, at several points in the stream, I was asked if I was a bloke.
I'm not insulted. I think it's funny as hell. And that's why I mention it. Because it's hilarious. I also think that a bit of bias is at play here. But more on that later.
My voice is normal, I think? Perhaps it records at a deeper register? I mean, I don't have a high, girlish voice, but it is, at least to my mind, at least feminine... even when I'm swearing a blue streak.
That's where the bias comes in. Look, we're all aware of the problem of misogyny in the gaming world. It's why I have a policy of not gaming with anyone I don't personally know. I've had problems as a woman gamer.
And you hear the angry subset of male gamers who yell boldly about all those "fake gamer girls," as if women can't possibly enjoy gaming the same way they do. Gaming is for guys, y'all!
So I honestly think that was part of it. Not that the askers are horrible misogynists, of course. They were actually lovely. But the atmosphere around gaming lends itself to assuming a gamer (whose face you can't see on screen) is male. When the voice doesn't jive with the assumption, people end up confused. Hence the questions.
While the assumption is troubling, and constraining - the attitude that girls don't game is what kept me from gaming for so very long (and when I decided I wanted to do it regardless, it took forever to get the money together for a console).
Still, thinking about it makes me laugh, so I'm not sorry it happened.
For those interested, if Twitch is up and running tonight (it was as of this morning), I will be streaming again, this time actually doing missions, instead of just farming collectables.
For now, though, I must go through some Welsh lessons.
Ciao!
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