Rafi
And so, what motivated you to try out streaming in the first place?
Atiqah
For me, it's really the social aspect because I really enjoy interacting with people. I get bored easily if I play a game all by myself. I was also considering streaming professionally. Facebook was the testing grounds. But then I realize it's a lot of work and that you need the right equipment. I actually bought a microphone to see if it's something I wanted to get into. But now I just have a good microphone and no plans to stream further. I realized it is too much of a hassle. I just ended up streaming casually with my friends on Discord. I'm a female gamer, right? One of the reasons also for picking it up was that I wanted to kind of normalize female gaming, and I thought that as a female hijab donning gamer, streaming was a very obvious way of putting myself out there and attempt to get more females to be interested in gaming.
Rafi
Yeah, and to break the various stigma of female gaming? It was something I made a note of, as one of the things that we could possibly talk about? Do you face any kind of stigma, playing games as a female gamer, whether in your circle of friends or in your family?
Atiqah
I'm thankful and I will say that my family is quite supportive. They've never stigmatized this part of me before and they are actually very okay with it. But I do have friends who sometimes make comments like how I have so many guy friends and only hangs out with guys and things like that. And these are comments from my female friends, and I guess you could consider that as just passing comments. I don't think it's meant as an insult and is just meant as a joke. But I think like when you make these kinds of jokes, it also reflects the kind of beliefs that you hold on to right? You're basically pointing out that gaming is not common [for a female] and why is she doing it... But sometimes people would also react in a pleasantly surprised way when they find out that I am a female gamer and they'd think that it's cool. It's not just bad stigma I suppose. It can also be seen in a positive light even though it's not common. But definitely I would say that even now it's quite obvious that people react to it as if it's not common [for female gamers].
Rafi
And also, even within gaming communities itself... Do people you game with pass off that kind of remarks? Such as this misconception, that being a female gamer, you would definitely bring the team down and things like that? Do you face those kinds of experiences?
Atiqah
From my own experience... I can't use my experience to generalize everything of course. But I do know that there are some guys who assume that a female gamer is not as skilled as a male gamer. But my experience so far has been very positive. I've never experienced that or at least the people I've interacted with don't have that kind of mentality. Rafi Yeah. I guess also you mentioned the fact that a lot of female streamers nowadays and hopefully that has shifted perspectives a bit. And that people are not still fixed with the idea that female gamers should stick to cute games like cooking games... Atiqah But now that you're bringing that up, something just came to mind. Even though there wasn't the experience of feeling like I'm less skilled, there's still some kind of stereotype to what kind of character a female could play. If you play a shooting game, they would assume that since you're a female, you would take the healer or the support. But if you're a male, you would take a tank or like damage role, there is some kind of stereotype for that also.
Rafi
So it's still rooted in some sense to the archaic idea of female roles in society...
Atiqah
Yes, like we're supposed to be the one who's caring, or we heal people who take damage, because we're automatically considered the nurse, which is like a traditionally feminine role.
Rafi
And there's also the fact that, even though female game streamers are increasingly getting more recognized, only a certain typeset of female game streamers are getting that. And these would be streamers who would dress in a certain manner or portray themselves as cute/kawaii or something along those lines...
Atiqah
Yes, definitely. And I think recently there's that term that has surfaces: simp queen. Have you heard of that term?
Rafi
I'm familiar with the urban slang of simping 27 and being a simp... Maybe you could elaborate?
Atiqah
I'm not too familiar with it myself. I just heard about it in passing. But I know that there's this pink haired female streamer, who's name I can't recall, who recently sold her bathwater — like the water she bathed in — on Amazon and people actually bought it. People buy it because they're a simp for her. She's considered a simp queen. I think one of the things that she does is she streams her games and what she's currently playing, but she dresses very provocatively, and she dresses in a way that appeals to like...
Rafi
The male gaze?
Atiqah
Yes, the male gaze. But I think she's representative of one of the popular female streamers that you mentioned. Like the dressing provocatively and all that....
Rafi
But I'm sure at the same time she's very good and skilled at gaming?
Atiqah
I have not seen her stream actually so I can't confirm or deny that.
Rafi
Is this a local streamer?
Atiqah
Oh, yeah. Let me look it up. She's not local. She's called Belle Delphine. Okay, now I'm not even sure if she games or not... She's quite popular because she streams on Twitch perhaps? I'm not so sure..
Rafi
I think you should give it another shot. Your streaming... I think there's a potential for it to dispel the idea that gaming is a 'bro' thing that only guys can do...
Atiqah
And at the same time to go against the typical idea of how a popular female game streamer should look like...
Rafi
Right, diversify the pool of female streamers...
Atiqah
I'm not saying what she's doing is bad per se but it's just what is popular now.