[jwplayer nRNmFBgY]UK-based Rainbow 6 Siege caster ‘Geo’ uploaded a clip to Twitter on August 27 that showed her being griefed by a young, male teammate in-game — and she’s far from the only woman in the space who’s dealing with such behavior.
23-year-old Geo is a well-known personality in the esports scene, hailed for her professional commentary over competitive matches of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Siege, a 2015 FPS title that features an substantial current playerbase.
Despite her standing the game’s community, Geo is often the target of harassment during games, as shown by the clip she posted to social media that has fans seething in sympathy for the caster.
In the clip, a young, male player can be heard asking Geo, “Should I TK (team kill) you, or are you gonna do my dishes?”
“That’s a funny one,” Geo shot back. “Never heard that before.”
The harassment wasn’t just with words; after taunting, the teammate took out Geo’s character, causing the caster to throw her hands up in the air in frustration. “Team kill for being a woman!” she exclaimed.
That wasn’t the only harassment she received during the session, either, with another player continuously repeating her name over their mic as she attempted to play.
This shit doesn't offend me, it's just exhausting. I'm off the game for a few days. pic.twitter.com/GpvJ0zj8B7
— Geo (@geometric) August 27, 2020
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“He thinks he’s really funny, as well, you can tell in his voice,” she said of his antics.
Despite the disparity of the situation, Geo claims that she doesn’t find the sexism offensive; instead, she finds it “exhausting.”
“It doesn’t really matter who it is,” she wrote of the incident. “To have someone in your ear constantly going on and on about how s*** you are, how much you’re a ‘dumb **** or a ‘stupid b***’ if you die etc, grinds you down. And I won’t mute, because that eradicates accountability. S*** games today, man.”
I don't find the sexism offensive, just exhausting. But to be singled out every time I fuck up or die is hard on me. It's taken me a long time to even be okay streaming this game bc I'm so self conscious that I'm not that good at it.
— Geo (@geometric) August 27, 2020
Of course, Geo isn’t the only woman to have been harassed during online games, by far; Dexerto have covered multiple instances of such infractions at the expense of female players, as seen in the case of competitive Overwatch player and Twitch streamer Chassidy ‘Cupcake’ Kaye, who exposed egregious sexist abuse during a session in July 2019.
in case anyone has forgotten what its like to be a female who plays overwatch (: pic.twitter.com/PlrdRCapoj
— Aramori (@Aramori_OW) July 9, 2019
Geo’s case is the latest in a string of bad behavior that further fuels a need for change in competitive gaming spaces.