Maybelline New York wants to raise awareness about gender discrimination in gaming with a new campaign. To do this, the company equipped two men with voice changers so that they would sound female in an online shooter. Even in 2023, the experiences are shocking.
The US cosmetics manufacturer Maybelline New York claims that 83% of Australian gamers who identify as female have become victims of abusive behavior online.
The problem has been known for years, but there is no improvement in sight.
Maybelline is taking the path of raising awareness with its new campaign. They want to draw attention to how severe the problem is with the campaign “Through Their Eyes” and create more awareness of what is really happening.
For this purpose, the company has released a video and sent two male streamers (JoelBergs / DrewD0g) into an online shooter, but gave them female voices. Afterwards, the two men spoke with two streamers who identify as female: PaladinAmber and Luminumn.
The two men are shocked at the end of the session; you can watch the video here:
How did the gaming go? The video shows clips of several shooter sessions and partially shows the reactions of the fellow players with whom the male streamers are confronted with their female voices.
It starts harmlessly with silence. One of the streamers finds this odd: “I’ve never had people not respond to me.” Sometimes, players leave the match without comment as soon as a female voice is heard in the chat.
The video does not show all reactions completely, censoring many statements. But there are also things to hear like: “B***h, just shut up” or “Go back to your sink.”
Some players reacted aggressively to resistance: “I talk to you the way I want to.”.
What were the men’s reactions? They were shocked by the experiences. After the sessions, the four streamers sat together and exchanged their experiences.
One of the male streamers asked: “Why do you even keep playing?” PaladinAmber replied: “Because I love it and I think that’s why we all continue.” Luminumn added: “The only way to get through it – is to surround yourself with people who really support you, who really love you.”.
Several months ago, a similar experiment was conducted in the shooter Valorant: 3 Twitch streamers impersonate women in voice chat, shocked by the reactions: “It takes away the joy of playing.”
