PewDiePie has defended his stance on certain female Twitch IRL streamers amid a media backlash, discussing his previous labeling of them as “Twitch thots.” In a new YouTube video, PewDiePie claims that the presence of the women he refers to as “thots” (an abbreviation of “that hoe over there”) is hurting “actual, decent female streamers.” The YouTuber added that “not all of them, but a lot of them, are just interested in making a buck through parasocial relationships.”
Due to a recent article on Polygon interviewing Twitch IRL streamer Armouranth regarding her thoughts on the term “Twitch thots,” PewDiePie offered his thoughts on the controversy.”In my opinion, media a lot of times care more about throwing labels around and controlling ideas rather than fixing actual problems that they’re pretending to be fighting for,” the YouTuber told his viewers.
Speaking to Polygon, streamer Alinity discussed how “Twitch thot” is now being used by some as a catch-all phrase for female streamers. “I didn’t hear the term ‘Twitch thot’ until a year ago,” she said. “The first term I heard was ‘booby streamer,’ and that was attributed to all girls who showed some kind of cleavage during their streams. Then the term started being attributed to almost every single girl, regardless of how they dressed.”
PewDiePie Twitch Controversy: How the Perception of Twitch IRL is Different From the Reality
Twitch IRL is a contentious category on the streaming site. It essentially serves as a platform for long-form vlogs, with streamers filming their daily lives for hours at a time and viewers tuning in by their thousands to watch them. For a while now, there has been the perception that female streamers have used their physical appearance to gain unfair advantages over other streamers. Twitch released a policy update on “nudity, pornography, and sexual content,’ which includes a note on the attire that should not be worn by streamers. “Attire intended to be sexually suggestive and nudity are prohibited,” the blog post reads. “Attire (or lack of attire) intended to be sexually suggestive includes undergarments, intimate apparel, or exposing/focusing on male or female genitals, buttocks, or nipples.”
Despite this negative perception of Twitch IRL, the reality is that the category isn’t dominated by female streamers posting workout videos. According to TwitchMetrics, while Amouranth has been the most popular streamer of July so far, there has been plenty of competition from other streamers with completely different content. Travel streamer JakenbakeLIVE was the second most-viewed streamer, the Russian channel gnumme was third, and plenty more diverse personalities fill out the top list of current popular streamers.
While PewDiePie and a number of other commentators have placed a spotlight on Twitch IRL’s female streamers, the reality is that the category is filled with controversy on a regular basis. One of its more prominent personalities, Ice Poseidon, was recently banned from the site following a string of controversies, including his friends being livestreamed making racist comments in a restaurant and him being swatted while on a plane. While Amouranth may post divisive content, she certainly isn’t the only one to do so and to skirt the line of what breaches Twitch’s policies.
That the backlash against her and those producing similar content has stretched to many other female streamers is telling. While PewDiePie states that he is concerned by Amouranth’s streams as she impacts other female streamers by way of diverting negative attention to them, these criticisms are only leveled at these unrelated streamers because they are also women. Ice Poseidon’s policy-breaching streams weren’t treated as a reflection of all male streamers, so what’s the difference here?
Watch PewDiePie’s video below:
