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Sexualized culture on livestreaming platforms: a content analysis of Twitch.tv

nature.com

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Re: Sexualized culture on livestreaming platforms: a content analysis of Twitch.tv

#21

Post by sickofparadox »

jacknews wrote: post #2

It seems obvious to me that there are more 'sexy' female streamers than male. You could argue that they are 'forced by the market' to be more sexualized. Or you could argue that they are taking advantage of the market and using sex to sell. I mean the whole thing is asymetric, you can't expect men and women to behave in exactly the same way, they have different needs, desires, and affordances.

The obvious solution then is to force the marketplace to crack down on sexualization, even the playing field so to speak.

Re: Sexualized culture on livestreaming platforms: a content analysis of Twitch.tv

#22

Post by Spivak »

This entire thread is missing what the study is actually saying.

> Based on these criteria, the top 10 videos were selected from the daily world ranking within the selected categories during 32 consecutive days. Within the Videogames category, the three most popular clips of each day were selected (n = 960) and within the IRL category, clips from the subcategories JustChatting (n = 320), ASMR (n = 320) and Pools, Hot Tubs & Beaches (n = 320)

Anyone focusing on the idea that women are sexualizing themselves or that most women on Twitch are just softcore porn / taking advantage of lonely men / whatever the narrative is today misses it entirely. This study is saying that of all the women on Twitch, the overwhelmingly male audience chooses to watch the ones that sexualize themselves. This is a study about Twitch's mostly male-viewerbase and who they choose to watch, not a holistic sample of female streamers.

You can't measure this by popularity for the simple fact that the women who play games on Twitch are far far less popular than men who do. And any woman who cultivates an audience of primarily other women will be an order of magnitude less popular than that.

Re: Sexualized culture on livestreaming platforms: a content analysis of Twitch.tv

#23

Post by zinodaur »

cm2012 wrote: post #3

It's really funny to me that because Twitch started as a game streamer, most of its ads are from big "clean" consumer brands. But usually there's (edited) 3x as many people streaming the softcore porn "Just Chatting" section as any individual game. The only reason Twitch still has these kind of big advertisers is because they havn't noticed what the platform actually is. I actually like Twitch as it is, I think it se…

> usually there's 10x as many people streaming the softcore porn "Just Chatting" section as watching games.

This isn't true - e.g. right now the Just Chatting category has 380k viewers, while e.g. Valorant by itself has 180k viewers, let alone the rest of the gaming categories.

I wish they did a better job of partitioning twitch between the two though - twitch uses its recommendation engine to try and push Just Chatting streamers on people, with no way to opt out

Re: Sexualized culture on livestreaming platforms: a content analysis of Twitch.tv

#24

Post by jacknews »

sickofparadox wrote: post #21
jacknews wrote: post #2

It seems obvious to me that there are more 'sexy' female streamers than male. You could argue that they are 'forced by the market' to be more sexualized. Or you could argue that they are taking advantage of the market and using sex to sell. I mean the whole thing is asymetric, you can't expect men and women to behave in exactly the same way, they have different needs, desires, and affordances.

The obvious solution then is to force the marketplace to crack down on sexualization, even the playing field so to speak.

Sure, but why stop at 'sexualization'.

Surely mere good looks, for either sex, are an unfair advantage, or ripe for exploitation.

An attractive, comforting voice?

What about having something interesting to say?

Re: Sexualized culture on livestreaming platforms: a content analysis of Twitch.tv

#25

Post by jacknews »

zmgsabst wrote: post #20
jacknews wrote: post #2

It seems obvious to me that there are more 'sexy' female streamers than male. You could argue that they are 'forced by the market' to be more sexualized. Or you could argue that they are taking advantage of the market and using sex to sell. I mean the whole thing is asymetric, you can't expect men and women to behave in exactly the same way, they have different needs, desires, and affordances.

There’s also an overlap between porn and streamers, eg Indiefoxx.

til

Re: Sexualized culture on livestreaming platforms: a content analysis of Twitch.tv

#27

Post by thomastjeffery »

NikolaNovak wrote: post #6

This is a sensitive topic, but an important one. I would like to engage in discussions, apologies in advance if any of this offends and makes people uncomfortable. I will try to learn and be respectful. First minor point - 3 million daily viewers worldwide is WAY less than I thought twitch has. We keep talking about gaming becoming mainstream, but 50+million people watched friends finale in USA alone. Twitch is not a…

> "The sexualized representation of women in the media shapes gender attitudes, dehumanizes women, and legitimizes violence against them"

Nah, that's total bullshit. Dehumanized by sex? That's literally what made us human!

Immodesty is not violence.

Re: Sexualized culture on livestreaming platforms: a content analysis of Twitch.tv

#28

Post by bequanna »

COGlory wrote: post #8

Everyone is focusing on the fact that there are more sexualized women streamers than men - that's an obvious conclusion though because men are far more motivated by sexualized women than vice versa. The interesting thing to me in this article is the amount of women streaming that are sexualized: >However, the majority of women (71.4%) wear attire ranging from moderate necklines to bikinis or minimal clothing and use…

> Porn is generally the least interesting thing a female creator can do in the attention economy and it just reinforces existing gender stratification.

This thinking is just divorced from reality.

Generally, women are able to use their sexuality to their advantage more so than men.

This is not new. The research here is not novel. We’re discussing something that 99% of the world intuitively knows and is basic human behavior.

Re: Sexualized culture on livestreaming platforms: a content analysis of Twitch.tv

#29

Post by geraldhh »

wjholden wrote: post #12

I don't really see the contribution from this study. The paper looks fine: quality writing, ample research, statistics are probably fine. What I mean is I don't see any non-obvious insight here. Also, I think this study would have been much more interesting on more generic video sites like Instagram or Tiktok, which (I assume) have more balanced creator and viewer populations. I don't personally take Twitch seriously…

couldn't agree more.

maybe be starter for more elaborative studies, given the citation festivities within, or just a jab at amazon.

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