Gamer girl calls out discrimination and abuse she's copped online

2023-02-28

‘Gamer girl’, 27, who makes six figures playing online calls out the abuse she cops from cruel ‘sexist’ men: ‘They tell women to get back in the kitchen’

Amber Wadham, 27, is a Twitch streamer and gamer from Adelaide
She claims to have copped sexist abuse from men and boys online
In Australia women make up 46 per cent of the gaming industry

A fed-up Australian gamer girl who regularly cops sexist abuse from men online says the discrimination and name-calling ‘needs to stop’.

Amber Wadham, from Adelaide, who goes by the gaming username ‘PaladinAmber’, has been gaming since her teenage years and is now a full-time Twitch streamer turning over six figures.

But the fun hobby turned career choice has come with a fair share of distressing downsides.

The 27-year-old says she’s ‘always experienced some level of sexism in this industry’, even though 46 per cent of Australia’s gamers are women.

Research shows female gamers are often has been booted out of multi-player games, not spoken to and are told to ‘get back into the kitchen’ by strangers.

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Amber Wadham, from Adelaide, (pictured) who goes by the gaming username ‘PaladinAmber’, has been gaming since her teenage years and is now a full-time Twitch streamer

The 27-year-old says she’s ‘always experienced some level of sexism in this industry’, even though 46 per cent of Australia’s gamers are women

When asked about the abuse she’s experienced while steaming, Amber said ‘there’s too many to list’.

‘When I first started playing as a teenager, we’d often play in teams of three or four and it was unheard of for one of those players to be female. I used to wonder why, until I would see female-identifying players booted from group games with abuse rallied at them from the other players,’ she said.

‘Since witnessing this, I just got into the habit of playing under aliases [a fake name] so people couldn’t see my gender.’

On one occasion the female group were ‘berated’ by men and boys who told them to ‘get the f*** off’ because gaming was a ‘boys thing’.

‘It’s really heartbreaking to see a space that I just love playing in and brings me so much joy, also be able to bring me so much resentment and sadness,’ Amber said, adding how the harsh words are also thrown at those who are non-binary or part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Amber has been able to rise above the vile behaviour and has amassed a combined following of more than 214,000 followers across Twitch, Instagram and TikTok.

‘I just remind myself that it’s not just me, and it happens in every industry. I think a lot of people who would agree with me when I say it’s not unique to any industry,’ she said.

‘You have to really be in your own corner and tell yourself not to let it live rent free in your head and to keep pushing on.’

‘It’s really heartbreaking to see a space that I just love playing in and brings me so much joy, also be able to bring me so much resentment and sadness,’ Amber said.

An experiment by Maybelline New York named ‘Through Their Eyes’ exposed some of the nasty comments women often receive in the gaming world.

Aussie gamers Joel Bergs and Andrew Warne each played a multiplayer game using a microphone that made them both sound like women, while Amber and Luminum watched in anticipation.

‘How long do you think it’s gonna take before he gets told to get back into the kitchen?’ Amber jokingly said.

At first there was silence as other male players thought they were battling girls, then they left.

Then barely five seconds into the next round, a male voice can be heard saying: ‘B****, shut your mouth’.

Others then jump in and say ‘Is that a female? Get back to your sink!’, ‘shut the f*** up’ and ‘I’ll f***ing talk however I want to talk to you’.

Results from the 2023 Bastion Insights National Gamer Survey revealed 83 per cent of female identifying gamers have directly experienced and/or observed offensive behaviour or language while online gaming

Of those surveyed 73 per cent would consider the harassment they receive online as severe, and 76 per cent of female identifying gamers feel harassment and discrimination in online gaming is unsafe.

Maybelline Marketing Director, Alexandra Shadbolt said the discrimination facing women, non-binary people and other LGBTQIA+ communities in Australian gaming is alarming.

‘Data from Digital Australia’s 2022 Report showed us that women over the age of 18 make up 46 per cent of Australia’s gamers, so we know female identifying make up a significant amount of Australia’s gaming space,’ Ms Shadbolt explained.

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