Date of Award

8-1-2021

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of English

Content Description

1 online resource (ii, 75 pages)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Laura Tetrault

Committee Members

Erica Fretwell

Keywords

Gender, Pokimane, Streaming, Twitch, Video Games, VTubers, Sex discrimination against women, Women-owned business enterprises, Sexual harassment of women, Video games industry, Feminism and video games, Women video gamers, Video games for women, Agent (Philosophy)

Subject Categories

Rhetoric

Abstract

The streaming community is large and varied, with the most popular streamers playing video games daily for audiences of tens of thousands of people. The community is well known for its exclusion and harassment of female players and streamers, despite demographic information showing that most player populations represent an even spread amongst men and women. This study analyzes two case studies in female streamer agency: the first is an IRL streamer named Pokimane and the second on the female animated streamers called VTubers. Specifically, it shows how Pokimane disrupts gendered harassment and how VTubers ignore harassment and perpetuate stereotypes that lead to harassment of IRL streamers. The research was completed by reading supplementary texts and analysis of videos and streams. The results show that while Pokimane exerts her agency, it is locked by her privilege and limited by her gender, and while VTubers are able to resist some of the effects of harassment their agency comes at the expense of IRL streamers like Pokimane.

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