BBC says the top-rating female gamer is 'trans player Scarlett'

[ChristinaXYZ]

Bringing this over from Ovarit, thanks to the OP there:

See at 1.58

www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-58466374

Even the Beeb used to keep the word female for natal women, but that is being encroached upon too now.

Also, according to the thread on Ovarit

"Also, 3 of the top 6 highest earners on the women's list are men."

ovarit.com/o/GenderCritical/41959/bbc-says-the-top-rating-female-gamer-is-trans-player-scarlett

I thought that was interesting, because they called them female, but also called them trans. It comes across as if they are trying to please both sides of the argument but basically pointing out that having called them female, the person isn't actually female. I agree it's not OK to use female for a TW or include them in a female list, but having said that, the report actually seems to take care to make you aware of the reality.

Of course equally it might just be that they're muddled and its' not thought through..

Why are there lists for male and female - it seems to me like an arena which shouldn't be split by sex anyway? Disclaimer: I know zip all about gaming.

I suppose it's just tracking who is earning money out of gaming and how it's mainly males. Though if they want to talk about women, they should mean women. Another example of how using gender identity to mean sex blurs the statistics that could show the effect of being actually female.

Yes, it's something that you'd think being male or female should make no difference to but then so is being a company director, country leader or engineer etc. There is a sex gap in these too.

The comments on Ovarit explain in detail how being female increases the challenges faced in becoming a professional gamer in a very easily understood way for those of us who aren't experienced in gaming.

Like so many other arenas, female gamers just aren't as common as male ones.

As a female gamer myself (much less so now I have kids), I never used to let other gamers know I was female (thus restricting my gaming to those where there was lower/text based interaction only), as once you did, you would inevitably get abuse/hit on.

These days I actively avoid online games actuall, preferring single player stuff purely because I just can't stand that feeling of really enjoying a game, then some bloke coming and harrassing me/causing trouble and making it a stress.

I don't see the point in splitting online gamers into male/female. In your online world you can be whatever you want to be,

It's the same in the comic book world. I went to a local Comicon and was pleased there were half a dozen women with stands. 3 of them were male. I do think gaming and comic books could do with more female input to get away from the scantily clad or demure feminine stereotypes in them. Women will push back against those more as we reject the stereotypes.

So, people with the benefits of better response times (as science is now discovering) are beating those with slower response times. But this is now hidden because those males can identify as women and hide that biological reality.

And that is not discounting the abuse that females get to deal with if they wish to succeed.

Nice.

Here are the screenshots for anyone who can't watch the video.

I would assume a female who was trans was a transman. Or at least I would have.

However I also assumed a lot of transwomen were gamers - as they seem to identify with grossly stereotyped female characters and violence, and their language is about trying to impose a fantasy on real world interaction.

I don't see the point in splitting online gamers into male/female. In your online world you can be whatever you want to be,

You can pretend to be whatever you want to be, but if you record people's gaming income and compare males with females (actual males and females), it will show you if females are at a disadvantage – irrespective of what they identify as or who they pretend to be.

Females are routinely disadvantaged because of either (or both) biology and misogyny. That is why feminism exists. Understanding the disadvantages is part of tackling them. If you can't record a sex-based disadvantage because you are no longer allowed a sex-based category, that undermines feminism.

If Scarlett is female then they are a TM.

I'm not accepting, at all, the appropriation of the word female. It's plain factually incorrect. The word woman has been officially handed over, which now means nothing more than nebulous vague mess of inspecific language, defined by male people for the benefit of male people and can be anyone of either sex.

Piss off with the grabbing and trashing the few remaining words male people will tolerate female people being allowed to have for themselves.

But I doubt they are, because a TM wouldn't call themselves Scarlet (probably)

But as well as that, the leader of the 'All female' team Cloud 9 white showcased in the video is also trans.

Note to MN and other watchers - this is a matter of public knowlege and the player concerned is open about their transgender status

Even the Beeb used to keep the word female for natal women, but that is being encroached upon too now

Isn't the BBC supposed to be neutral? They shouldn't be implicitly supporting this much contested theory, surely.

Have Ofcom received any complaints yet?

This infuriates me. I don't care about gaming, but if trans women are 'counted' as women for earnings stats, then we can do nothing about the gender (or more correctly sex) pay gap because the stats become meaningless.

This kind of reporting starts to normalise this way of thinking for other sectors, and the knock on impact is on low paid women across all sectors and income brackets. How can women ever reach equality if we're not even allowed to define ourselves as women?

It's not unusual when there is an imbalance between male and female players to split them, like in darts. There is no reason women couldn't be high level dart players, because because there are a lot fewer women, the best female players don't tend to be as high level as the best men.