Indiana “Froskurinn” Black (30) was a commentator for the European and Chinese leagues of League of Legends for 6 years. Now, she has a new job in the USA. There, she called out sexism in gaming during a live broadcast. Her emotional statements received a lot of applause.
This is Froskurinn:
- The 30-year-old American was closely associated with League of Legends for years. From 2015 to 2021, she hosted live streams from various LoL leagues, especially from China and Europe. The coverage Riot Games provides for LoL is considered world-leading in eSports. LoL is years ahead of other eSports titles, and Froskurinn was an important part of the broadcast team.
- In 2021, she announced her retirement from LoL. She moved to “G4”, which is a video game channel in the USA. It originally existed between 2002 and 2014 – after a long hiatus, the channel made a comeback in November 2021. G4 is roughly comparable to what was “GIGA” in Germany years ago.
- In her new role, she hosts gaming shows, voices scripts that are heard in gameplay videos, and works editorially.
“It’s dehumanizing”
This is what she says now: In the show “Gaming Grievances” on January 11, the host called out sexism in gaming.
She said that when she joined G4, she was incredibly happy to do something she had watched as a child, but every time G4 is talked about now, it’s mentioned that she is not as “fuckable” as previous hosts:
Somehow, the idea has come about that you can say how hard you jerked off to a woman and that it’s a compliment. It is not! It is dehumanizing and it’s weird! Women are not there for you to look at something pretty.
Indiana “Froskurinn” Black
In a nearly 4-minute speech, Black elaborated on how unfairly and separately women are often treated and criticized. She is repeatedly interrupted by applause and encouraging shouts to continue and tell “the people” during her speech.
Froskurinn says that in one video, she reads another person’s script. For the part of the script she reads, she is heavily criticized. Her male colleague, who reads the other half of the same script, receives no negative comments for it.
She says that this behavior only shows people’s underlying prejudices. They ruin her day and at the same time exclude women from gaming:
How about we resolve to be kinder to each other in 2022 and to question ourselves more? We can also enjoy the fact that people work hard to produce free content. If you don’t like it, just don’t watch it.
Indiana “Froskurinn” Black
Besides an obvious sexism, where people simply say they hate all women, there is also an underlying sexism in gaming.
As an example of this “not-so-obvious sexism”, Froskurinn specifically mentioned the statements by Duncan “Thorin” Shields on Twitter about women in eSports. This has been extensively covered on MeinMMO.
This topic resonates massively
What is the reaction? A clip from the video has already garnered over 1.1 million views.
The reactions to the video show that the topic polarizes:
- On one hand, there is a lot of applause for Froskurinn’s emotional statements. People say: “Finally, someone is addressing the elephant in the room.” Others praise that Froskurinn comes out and find it “refreshing” that the whole studio stands behind her.
- However, there are also critical voices that say the host would use this discussion as an excuse to suppress legitimate criticism of herself and the channel’s formats. Everyone gets “shit” on the internet; it’s not just women.
The topic of sexism in gaming is a recurring discussion for us at MeinMMO and sparks major debate. An article from about a year ago received over 150 comments:
“What color is your thong?” – Twitch streamer reacts perfectly
