https://www.cybersport.ru/other/articles/kibersportivnoe-metoo-kak-dvizhenie-protiv-seksualnykh-domogatelstv-izmenit-industriyu

In less than a week, several dozens of industry girls posted posts accusing some well-known players and commentators of inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment. This initiative acquired a spontaneous nature and became the reason for a wide discussion in the e-sports community about the attitude towards women, the permissibility of certain flirts and the boundaries of personal space.

The action was joined not only by people who suffered within the industry itself, but also those who just wanted to share a story about how they encountered violence in their lives. For example, a player in Dota 2 Brax admitted that in childhood harassed from the side of the grandfather. But the greatest emphasis is still placed on incidents that occurred directly within the industry. The loudest was the story with Grant GranDGranT by Harris, whom the girl accused of the fact that the commentator had drunk her in the bar and then took advantage of her condition.

These incidents forced the majority of media personalities, including in the CIS, to abandon the usual comic topics and focus on social issues that go beyond the industry. Now this promotion can already be called “eSports #MeToo.”

What is #MeToo?

The #MeToo movement formed in 2017 after an investigation was published in The New York Times that accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and rape. The hashtag itself appeared ten years before, but was not used in large quantities. After the Weinstein case, over a hundred more representatives of the entertainment industry were charged in the United States for a year. Some of them lost their jobs and fell into legal proceedings. Weinstein himself received a real term, was fired from his own company and lost his family.

Four more women accuse Harvey Weinstein of rape: https://t.co/QY1hxG8gSZ pic.twitter.com/ljhfkp1Sht

– Complex (@Complex) May 29, 2023

The movement had its own problems: its criticized by some famous european womenaccusing #MeToo activists of abolishing the presumption of innocence and demonizing men. Questions to the movement arose even among some feminists. For example, the creator of the hashtag #MeToo Tarana Burke, who helped victims of sexual violence recover from what happened, criticized what the action began to transform into. In her opinion, all the information hype in social networks sets off the internal problems of the victims themselves. The movement’s reputation was also spoiled by unfounded allegations that were not confirmed after internal audits.

At the same time, part of the criticism towards #MeToo was also rather ambiguous. For example, it was generally accepted in the Russian-speaking community that the #MeToo movement is “an initiative of exclusively young SJW activists (fighters for social justice).” However, according to the survey Vox publications, the campaign was supported to the same extent by women over 35 years of age, with more than 50% of them saying that #MeToo fully defended their rights and interests.

Largely thanks to the #MeToo campaign, now girls can more openly raise such a difficult topic for themselves. Journalist Farid Bektemirov notes that the Weinstein scandal changed attitudes towards victims of sexual harassment:

The problem has existed for a long time

Accusations of sexual harassment are far from a new topic for eSports. According to psychologist Ellen Hendricksen who investigated this problem in different spheres of life, the greatest chance to encounter such behavior is in that industry where the overwhelming majority of employees, including those vested with power, are men. In this regard, the e-sports industry could hardly have avoided incidents of sexual harassment.

For example, Overwatch has had a number of high-profile scandals over the past couple of years. One of them was associated with former Boston Uprising player. Jonathan DreamKazper Sanchez. As it turned out, the esportsman in the most frivolous style spoke with a 14-year-old fan. He was not shy about sexual hints and even sharing intimate photos, although he knew about the girl’s age. After this story, the club broke the contract with Sanchez.

Another Boston Uprising player noted in a negative light – Walid Mouffin Bassalwho drunkenly molested streamer girls at a TwitchCon festival party. The Korean player Yoon Fr3e Tae-In, who played in the Overwatch Contenders league, was also accused of sexual harassment. According to the victim, who at that time was a minor, the esportsman once undressed and molested her at night when she was sleeping, although there was no romantic relationship between them.

Similar stories can be found with a dozen more, if you look at different disciplines. But the audience from the CIS did not really pay much attention to this topic. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the Overwatch conditional professional scene is of little interest to anyone in our region. Secondly, in the CIS, media personalities rarely raise social issues, and therefore such incidents passed by our audience almost completely unnoticed.

However, now we are talking about a mass phenomenon, which showed that cases of sexual violence are not isolated exceptions, but, unfortunately, the formed system. In addition, this time a similar scandal touched Dota 2 – the most popular discipline in the CIS. Therefore, Russian-speaking opinion leaders drew attention to allegations of sexual harassment, which contributed to an extensive discussion in the community.

Community reaction

The attitude to accusations of sexual violence or harassment in the CIS and the West is different. But this does not mean that in the Russian-speaking community people a priori do not care about such cases or that they lack empathy for the victims. Rather, the fact is that most of our region does not share the principle that has gained popularity in the West – “believe all the victims.”

The reaction to the story of Grant GranDGranT Harris showed that even more conservative gamers in the CIS believe that the commentator’s act is terrible and does not belong in the industry. For the most part, this is due to the fact that Harris is one of the few who immediately fully admitted his guilt and announced his resignation from eSports. Other stories have caused much more controversy and controversy in the community.

Gamers reacted very ambiguously to accusations Andrew Zyori Campbell from ashnichrist streamer, who stated that the commentator used his position to achieve sexual intercourse. V1lat, for example, offered to take a look to this story on the other hand and noted that in e-sports there is a problem with “groupies ”- by girls who specifically try to get into the field of view of professional players in order to further take advantage of this for themselves and their channels on Twitch or Instagram. At the same time, Volochai noted that fight with sexual harassment in the industry and talk about similar incidents necessary.

Yana b2ru Khimchenko condemned men who, as in the case Zyori, trying to establish a romantic relationship in a similar way, taking into attention is paid to the fact that some girls are ready to “put their dignity lower than the opportunity to hang out with names.”

Alliance Manager Maria Gunina said that the right decision when considering such controversial issues is supporting a girl without trying to lynch a guy. She also recalled the presumption of innocence.

Some representatives of the Russian-speaking community also wrote their twitter satires with satirical accusations, which, among other things, reminded everyone that in this matter the main difficulty remains the unprovability of a number of accusatory statements.

The community expressed concern thato current promotion mayturn into a witch-hunt, where any popular opinion leader can be unprovenly blamed for anything. The International Dota 2 Champion Sahil UNiVeRsE Arora also called not to poison people, even if in the past they behaved inappropriately.

When discussing stories of sexual harassment, users most often had one question: “Why did the victim keep silent about this for N years, and now decided to tell?” Joining such an action is clearly much easier than telling your story in isolation from the rest. In addition, psychologists note that sometimes it takes a long time to recover from such incidents. Sometimes even after years of recollection of experienced sexual abuse can lead to anxiety and depression.

According to journalist Farid Bektemirov, in the case of Grant GranDGranT Harris, the girl’s late statement is also related to the fact that e-sports is a male industry in which the audience will initially be more skeptical and negatively inclined towards such accusations.

It is likely that the gaming community for a long time will not be able to fully get rid of skepticism in relation to stories of sexual violence. However, it is worth trying to abandon at least stereotypes that each such incident is by all means an attempt to snatch a hype or take revenge on a former acquaintance. For a woman who has experienced sexual abuse, this is always a very personal and painful topic. Putting yourself in her place in this case is impossible. Therefore, the best thing the community can do at such a moment is to show at least a little empathy for the victims.

What cybersports #MeToo can lead to

The implications of the #MeToo movement, formed in 2017 in Hollywood, were mixed. On the one hand, the prison sentence for such an influential person in the industry as Harvey Weinstein is a vivid precedent, which probably reduced the ardor of those who allowed themselves to be unworthy of actions. On the other hand, in the USA, #MeToo quickly acquired a political color and attachment to Donald Trump, which made the split in society between conservatives and liberals even more noticeable, and the positions of both sides more radical and irreconcilable.

Something similar is likely to happen now in e-sports, but without the Trump factor. One of the main negative trends after a series of such accusations will be a rise in the level of toxicity in the community towards girls, whether it is streamers, commentators or just ordinary fans of e-sports. At times, part of the community was biased towards them, but now it can become even more negative.

Strange as it may seem, one of the consequences of the #MeToo movement was a drop in the level of confidence in such stories, including by women themselves. A year after the start of the action in Hollywood A survey by The Economist revealedthat attitudes towards victims of sexual harassment in American society have worsened: the percentage of people who believe that such stories create more problems than positives has increased. We will encounter the same effect in eSports. Distrust of the victims is likely to increase with each new charge. However, this does not mean that the action itself will not bring results. According to journalist Farid Bektemirov, criticism of inappropriate behavior is what changes the perception of the world and public mood. For example, Harvey Weinstein justified his behavior by growing up in an environment where aggressive sexual advances were the norm. Such actions break old stereotypes about the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

On the other hand, false accusations that can destroy careers and lives become the main defamatory factor of such actions. In all stories of the current #MeToo eSports, the community’s leading judge will be the verdict. If we look at the professional scene of Dota 2, it’s unlikely that Valve will want to take responsibility and thoroughly investigate each charge. Therefore, the process will be regulated, as in the case of conditional commentators or analysts, by the employer, who may find it more convenient to quickly get rid of the employee or hush up the story, but certainly not start a full-scale internal investigation.

Sexual harassment is not a problem in one particular eSports industry, but this does not mean that it should not be tried. If you close your eyes to such incidents, they will not disappear, but, on the contrary, will occur even more often. I understand that the vast majority of gamers in the CIS are skeptical of such stories. However, in this case, it is publicity and public A discussion of sexual harassment can help avoid new similar incidents. The fact that our community even started discussing such a topic already indicates that e-sports as an industry is growing and gaining self-awareness.