Kaitlyn ‘Amouranth’ Siragusa, one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, has criticized the oft-repeated claim that it’s easy for “pretty” women to become popular and successful streamers.
Despite numerous female creators rising to prominence in recent years, 2021’s quarter one stats have proven that women are less likely to receive high viewership than their male counterparts, on both Twitch and YouTube.
While Valkyrae, 100 Thieves streamer turned co-owner, has received a colossal 12.2 million views in the first months of 2021, the highest of all women, she still sits pretty far down the list overall.
Fellow streamer Amouranth has highlighted how difficult it is to gain prominence on either platform – despite “trolls” who think it must be easy for women.
In a series of tweets on her personal account, the Twitch icon discussed the difficulties associated with being a woman in the streaming industry. Specifically, she hits out at people who look at the top 50 female streamers and deduce that “all you have to do is look pretty to succeed as a girl streamer.”
Describing this as a “logical fallacy” Siragusa notes that “it actually implies that looking attractive is not the only requirement but a pre [requisite] or baseline.”
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“Survivorship bias aside it’s probably harder for the average girl, and it says nothing about the pretty girls who cycle out and don’t “make it” as streamers. But no one wants to talk about that.”
She continues, “if ‘failures’ become invisible not only do we fail to recognize that missing instances hold important information, but we may also fail to acknowledge that there is any missing information at all.”
Unpopular opinion: trolls love to look at the top 50 female streamers or take a glance at the top of the directory and conclude “all you have to do is look pretty to succeed as a girl streamer”
On its face this is a Logical fallacy
It actually implies that looking attractive
— Kaitlyn (@wildkait) April 14, 2021
invisible, not only do we fail to recognise that missing instances hold important information, but we may also fail to acknowledge that there is any missing information at all.
— Kaitlyn (@wildkait) April 14, 2021
It’s enlightening to hear her perspective on the ongoing debate, sparked by the “hot tub meta” particularly. Some streamers have suggested that this new ‘meta’ has created an ‘anti-women sentiment’ on the platform.