The One About Streamers

An Essay

Some of y’all are parents and you need to lock in, especially if you have young boys. Andrew Tate is no longer corrupting your sons. He’s facing charges in like 15 countries and doesn’t really have the time anymore. It also isn’t Joe Rogan anymore, he’s far too busy corrupting your coworkers instead. The current source of the hyper-misogyny you might have experienced coming from the young men around you is entirely the work of streamers. The fans of these streamers spend an overwhelming amount of time watching them. As it stands, the average is 8.5 hours a week. For what amounts to a full work day, your sons are watching strangers live their lives. Much of which consists of them just hanging out and bringing random guests over to also hang out. Admittedly, this format can make for some fresh and engaging content. However, one constant across many of these streamers is the same: disdain for women and the desire to use them as content.

We’ll just start with the worst of the worst. Adin Ross is a paradox of a person. He speaks with authority on a number of issues, but he has no clear beliefs. He built a career for himself initially on being bullied by men. More famous or athletic men would come on his stream and make fun of him, be it his clothes, his appearance, or even his ethnicity. Later, he’d tout these men as close friends and use their status to boost his own. He’s also done this with highly controversial figures like Kanye West, simultaneously loving him and distancing himself from him based on public reception at the time. He’s feckless in many ways but no matter what hat he’s wearing, ball-boy or baller, he always finds time to harass women online.

Recently, a clip of him went viral in which he called Grammy-Award winning artist Doechii a bitch and an “industry plant” with “zero talent”. This is a man who also went viral for sniffing Andrew Tate’s chair on camera, but I digress. This casual misogyny is not new for his content and has ultimately been normalized for his fans. He’s built an environment in which men are treated with a level of deference while women can only be objects or obstacles. Like many streamers, he’s made a habit of siccing his fanbase on women, leading “hate-trains” against any who step out of line. It’s no surprise then that the deputized fans that participate in these campaigns take these attitudes into their classrooms and workplaces. How could you possibly separate the two when you likely spend just as much time in school as you do watching these streamers?

If you need to debase yourself like this for attention, it’s because you don’t actually deserve any.

Ross’ friend DDG similarly has built a career on the mistreatment of women. He started his career harmlessly enough, making content that mainly consisted of hanging out with friends and playing video games. If you can believe it, that’s how almost all of these streamers get their start. However, after achieving a modicum of success, DDG moved to LA and pivoted to making “Rizz” content. This is a form of content in which male streamers harass women in public and try to “rizz them up” i.e., convince women to engage romantically or sexually with them. In a society that has tied young men’s worth in part to their sexual prowess and desirability, this content was extremely popular and DDG made an even larger name for himself. Today, you might have heard his name in regards to his long-suffering, infinitely more talented mother of his child, Halle Bailey. Recently, Halle was awarded a restraining order against DDG after providing proof of his abuse to the court. However, this has proved beneficial for his career as he’s experienced an explosion in name recognition, the only thing that matters in a field like this.

Even the largest streamers aren’t immune from this behavior towards women. The largest streamer, Kai Cenat, recently hosted streamer university, a weekend long academy in which smaller streamers could gather together and learn how to expand their platforms. Despite being well-meaning, the entire weekend descended into chaos as it was clear the streamers were intent on doing stunts for attention rather than learn anything. DDG was invited as an instructor and over the course of the weekend coined a new, sexist way of addressing women. Referring to his new suspected girlfriend India love as “my ball” as it seemed that other notable streamer Duke Dennis was interested in her (I have gained nothing from knowing all these names). Kai also makes a point of bringing women on to his stream as jokes. Often they are made to look sexy or make fools of themselves just so they can continue to be invited back. From rappers to only fans creators to other streamers, all of the women are content but none of them rise to the level of regular or partner. What makes it insidious is that Kai isn’t as outwardly misogynistic as some of the other streamers but the underlying culture of sexism persists because there is now no way to remain a top streamer without it.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the largest “political” streamer on Twitch, Asmongold. There’s no way around it, Asmongold is really nasty. Besides the roaches crawling all over him and the dead rat he’s admitted to keeping around for shits and giggles, he’s made a name for himself lamenting the lack of “attractive” women in video games. This has spiraled into full blown conservative dogma, often picking fights with leftists and cheering on the unimaginably cruel ICE separations we’ve seen explode across the nation. If you want to understand where this outsized conservatism is coming from in young boys, his stream might be a good place to start.

I’m not saying to prevent your sons from watching streamers. Honestly, you can’t. Their hold on the culture is too strong. But you should know who your kids are watching when they come home and lock themselves in their rooms. When your children tell you who they’re watching, knowing what kind of content those creators make can give you insight on ways to intervene. And We NEED parents to intervene. Desperately.

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This was such a labor to write. Not because I don’t care but because talking about this actually makes me itch. How did we get here? Where people don’t even need to watch TV for culture but are instead being radicalized behind a screen while watching other people sit behind a screen. It’s embarrassing actually. But anyway share this with friends and family. Despite how their respective fanbases treat women I’m not worried about any pushback. I’m a small fish in a big pond and besides, fans of streamers are NOT reading Substack essays let’s be real.