Surprise, surprise: Not even Twitch’s biggest female streamers are spared from misogyny after a stream sniping incident
Three of Twitch’s biggest female streamers—Cinna, Emiru, and Valkyrae—are facing online backlash. Some social media users believe that they are at fault for getting attacked by a dangerous stream sniper.
The three streamers were at the end of their week-long “sis-a-thon” challenge at a theme park in Santa Monica Pier. A man, who was initially sitting down, asked for Emiru’s number. She politely refused the man. Cinna, worried for Emiru, called the man a stalker and placed Emiru ahead of her. The three women went to a nearby food stall. Despite being rejected, the unidentified man lingered nearby.
Since he wouldn’t leave, the women decided not to get food anymore and vacate the area. The man seemed to approach the girls again but was confronted by one of the assistants, Emily. She can be overheard saying, “How f— desperate are you?” Cinna called nearby security while both she and Valkyrae kept Emiru behind them.
The man charged at them and said, “I’ll f— kill you.” It’s unclear if the man was unarmed. All the women fled the scene and cut their stream short. In a follow-up video, Cinna explained that a worker sheltered them inside a store. They hid in a shed until the police came.
Existing as a woman is the problem
Instead of showing sympathy, several social media users accused the three streamers of overreacting to the situation. Some even speculated that the trio were merely engagement farming. One X user said, “Why are they milking this to the point it looks like they’re just putting it on for more extended views and to capitalize off of the trend of what transpired?”
Others were even less graceful and claimed that these streamers brought the situation upon themselves. This X user wrote, “No one was going to kill you. You spurred a guy on saying you could take him, he reacted verbally. Women poke a bear and then act like a victim.” According to the streamers, the man was rejected by Emiru, after which he followed her relentlessly and then attacked her group. If rejection is “spurring” a man on, then a woman can do nothing right.
Valkyrae, Cinna, and Emiru called the authorities. They ran away from the aggressor. They did everything correctly. Nevertheless, they were still blamed for the lack of security. Their staff was also criticized for doing little about the situation. In the eyes of these people, the problem is that they were women who decided to stream in public. Apparently, they should’ve been prepared for attacks since they’re popular on Twitch. What kind of horrible logic is that?
It’s not new advice—how many times have regular women been told to take self-defense classes to be safe from men? How often do normal women fear going out late, even in groups, just because people feel entitled to their bodies? Blaming these women for existing in a public space and then being attacked by a frenzied stalker is blatant misogyny.
Defending Cinna, Emiru, and Valkyrae
Thankfully, not everyone online is as accusatory. Fellow Twitch streamer Hasan Piker said, “By virtue of them just being women, people constantly whip up their drama drums over and over again.” Piker criticized misogynistic content creators for egging on microaggressions against women. Essentially, these small misogynistic comments feed into a culture of hatred against women.
Other streamers also reacted in support of the women. Streamer YourRage called obsessive fans “weird” and likened it to a sickness. Adapt angrily defended the women from online chatters who downplayed the incident. Pokimane also spoke up and accused social media users of victim-blaming the women.
Valkyrae eventually broke her silence and wrote online, “The fact that this man threatened our lives after being rejected while we were in a group, in public, and live on stream just shows the harsh reality women live in. This happens off-camera to women all the time.”
Some social media users also came out in support of Emiru, Valkyrae, and Cinna. Although misogyny is rampant online, fortunately, not everyone is blinded by hatred for women.
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