eSports are growing in popularity at an incredibly fast rate, but they still have a long way to go in terms of being inclusive. Competitive Smash Bros. Melee player Lilian “Milktea” Chen has dealt with her share of sexism over the course of her Smash career, and in this TED Talk, she advocates a simple solution: talking things through and educating those who don’t understand why their behavior is harmful.
The crowd quickly goes from laughter to silence as Chen starts showing the kind of nasty comments she attracted within the Smash scene, like this one:
But she raises the important point that many people who exhibit sexist behaviors aren’t malicious—they just don’t realize the harm they’re doing. Though it may feel good to take down the malicious jerks out there, they’re not the ones who are likely to change their views and help build a better community—and world—going forward. If we can help the people out there who aren’t intentionally harmful learn the errors of their ways, we’ll do a lot more good in the long run.
(via Daily Dot)
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