User:RiannaNguyen/Women and video games

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'Women and video games. Throughout the years, the relationship between women and video games has always been a concern within the community. For years women were seen as overly sexualized support characters, along with the negative connotations of girls playing video games. Even though video games have been around for decades, there is still a negative relationship between female gamers and the video game community. In the early 90s, there were a majority of female gamers, yet they were unrecognized by the majority that played games. Games companies had always focused on the idea that only boys play video games while girls play house or dolls, but by the year 2010, the rise of female gamers became more interested in video games; up to 40% are female gamers. Although the number rising of female gamers is increasing, the negative connotation is still the same, mainly associated with sexual harassment, sexism, and how female character are portrayed. These are some of the main problems that most female gamers occurred in games; even though they are also the same ratios of contributions in the video games industry, there have not been any changes to the idea that girls can play video games too.

Women in competitive gaming
Competition in the E-sport industry is a significant income for gamers; just like any source of job income, women tense to make less than men. In 2020 there are 48% of female gamers from the US and Asia ( according to GOOGLE and Niko Partners), yet they are only making 0.05% of what men would make in competitive E-Sport tournaments. Top males earn over $7mil, while top women would earn $420k in competitive gaming. Women that considered to be the top league in video games would often accuse of cheating,

Women in the Streaming industry
Twitch and YouTube have been the most considerable streaming servers for many gamers, including women involved in the gaming industry. Although female streamers are treated much differently than male streamers, viewers often sexualize female streamers than seeking skills in video games. Many incidents occurred on Twitch (a streaming platform) that caused sexual harassment toward women simply because of their gender or what they wear; this also includes the number of times when female streamers constantly asked for sexual favor or even called out sexual slurs.

Male behaviors toward women
Sexism plays a significant part in the interaction between male and female players; they often do not get treated equally. Male players were often praised or supported in games, while female players were harassed. When guys players find out they are playing with girls, most guys will grieve their games or dodge, although that would be the least disrespectful action to do in games. There are multiple encounters that female gamers go through in games. Most toxic guys would continuously make sexual jokes or harassment toward women; these are surface interactions that many female gamers would encounter.