As one of the longest active female streamers on Twitch, Imane “Pokimane” Anys has had to deal with all sorts of crazy fans and haters throughout the years. Some have tried to pry into her private life, while others have been sexist.
But despite that, and despite the fact she still experiences it from time to time, Pokimane believes the Twitch audience has come a long way since her career began in 2013, particularly in terms of diversity.
“It becomes more diversified every year, which I can’t say enough how much I appreciate,” she said during Episode 116 of the Trash Taste Podcast. The biggest change, in her view, has been diversity, which has improved how female streamers are treated.
To illustrate how much it’s changed, Pokimane reflected on how things were in the early days of her streaming career, including a shocking trend that was outright demeaning to female streamers.
“Back in the day, especially when League was always the most popular game on Twitch, what was running rampant was these videos talking about female Twitch streamers and cleavage,” she said.
“That was the thing. That was the clickbait everywhere. It was like this propaganda that spread and it was like, this is where you find girls with cleavage playing games.”
That trend didn’t last, which Pokimane is pleased about.
Sexism hasn’t been eradicated from the platform completely, but content creators talking about female streamers like that would draw criticism today.
Andrew Tate is a good example. He was banned from Facebook and Instagram after making derogatory comments towards women. YouTube followed suit, prompting him to disable his Twitch channel in response soon after.
Of course, there’s always room for improvement. But, Pokimane is grateful it’s not as bad as it used to be because the Twitch audience has evolved and become more diverse.
