Comparing Female Talent on Esports Broadcasts
Yesterday a report came out about the workplace culture at Activision Blizzard, and how horrendously women were being treated there on a systemic level. By now, we’re all used to hearing complaints about sexism within our industry (and externally), but there was something especially haunting about what was said in that article. You can read the Bloomberg Law article about it here.
I’ve always been really careful about what I say regarding sexism in the workplace from a personal experience. On the whole, I think I’ve been very lucky to have really not experienced much, and generally I avoid conversations about being a ‘woman in esports’, because frankly, I’ve never wanted to be referred to as a ‘woman in esports’. It sort of makes my skin crawl a bit. When I did my male-dominated degree, I’d roll my eyes when they would talk about ‘women in physics’. I’m here for the in esports or in physics part. The fact I’m a woman in really fucking irrelevant.
However.
That does not mean I haven’t had some experiences that have been wholly exacerbated by the fact that I am a woman. As much as I hate to admit it, because I lowkey see it as a personal failure (interpret that as you will, I’m sure in and of itself it says a lot), there have been some things that have happened because I’m a female in esports broadcasting. So here’s an example that really pisses me off.
Pitting female talent against each other.
Okay. I want to first preface this by saying I am of the opinion that a broadcast doesn’t need a/multiple women on it. In the same vein, it doesn’t need a/multiple men on it. Over time it has, admittedly, become a bit odd to see talent rosters comprising just white men; mostly because these days there’s just such a variety of people floating around that the mathematical likelihood of white men being the only viable options is quite low, and it just seems a bit abnormal. But I’ve worked on plenty of broadcasts where I’m the only woman, and it just doesn’t faze me that much. As long as me being a woman isn’t made a problem (whether mine or anyone else’s), then I really don’t care.
Like most people, I also don’t agree with hiring people purely for their gender. But this is where a lot of people get it really twisted. Being hired solely for your gender, at least in modern esports, is monumentally fucking rare. And even then, I don’t think there’s ever been a case of just scooping up whatever woman they can find and putting her behind a mic.
However, a lot of salty people out there seem to be under the belief that if there is more than one woman on a broadcast, it is done for political reasons. Which is a pretty pathetic outlook, but one people hold nonetheless. And the problem for us is that it breeds this idea that, if there are multiple women, they ought to be pitted together.
It’s frustrated me more than I have ever cared to publicly admit. It’s normal for viewers to compare broadcast talent — naturally everyone has preferences and opinions on the performances of the people they watch. But there is a shocking pattern of women being overwhelmingly compared to each other — even if they don’t do the same fucking job. Holy shit. If you wanted to make it less obvious, at least compare people who do the same job. You’d find it much easier to mask your biases that way. ‘It’s not because she’s a woman, I just don’t think she’s as good as [only other woman on the broadcast].’ Come the fuck on, dude.
When people make it about your gender, you get worried primarily about gender. It’s easy to feel like you’re in some obscure Hunger Games situation where only one woman can make it through. It’s so easy for audiences to accept the novelty of a woman on their broadcast, provided it doesn’t encroach beyond that point. In my own experience, my happiest times have been in environments where my gender is not even treated as a consideration. And it goes both ways — just as I don’t want to deal with shit for being a woman, I also don’t want to be celebrated for being a woman. If people want to hold me in regard for representing women on a product, that’s their choice. But for me personally, I’m just there to represent myself.
Anyway, I don’t have some polished conclusion about this. This is something that’s irritated me for a while, and many other women in this same job role. In my personal experience, this isn’t an issue I’ve faced with any of my employers, but more so with audiences. I highly doubt there’s any quick fix to any of this, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t monumentally annoying. And whether you like or dislike me on your broadcasts, if your reason is shaped by my job and not by my gender, then I appreciate you.
