Kill the monster: how the LGTBI community is breaking stereotypes in video games

Tealyxo teases her wig, contours, slips

a form-fitting bodice, and completes the outfit with sweatpants and a pair of warm socks.

It may be that this Australian

, whose name when she turns off the camera is Ben Glover and is 30 years old, always bets on the divine on stage.

But in front of the webcam he opts for something as human as grooming himself from the waist up.

“Most of us Twitch

do it,” she confesses.

Tealyxo has changed the scenarios for

.

She has become one of the many

who have assaulted Twitch, a platform belonging to Amazon specialized in broadcasting live videos (that is,

), to combine his art with video games.

universe

and the

may seem antagonistic, but they start from a common place:

involves dressing up in a foreign personality, putting yourself in another person's skin, and video games consist of that.

In recent years this has been happening on

which are slightly tuned online games where

play a role, like in traditional roleplaying games.

Egoland, for example, is based on

.

The Tortillaland, the

. These matches are streamed on Twitch and viewed by millions of people. Players become actors, entertainment figures. What is asked of the

, beyond playing well, is to have fun. And the

are used to that. Perhaps it is this mixture of interpretation, artifice and sense of entertainment that has made them discover that the

world belongs to them.

Tealyxo has almost 7,000 followers on Twitch. Sometimes he transmits as

, other times he does it in a t-shirt and with his face washed. Combine the games with musical performances and talks. “Sometimes I do my makeup live, which gives the community a chance to ask questions and learn about

,” she explains to ICON. It combines the

of cross-dressing with the closeness of

. She's funny when she's wielding the mic, but ruthless when she picks up the ax in DeadByDaylight, I play

especially popular among the members of the group for its iconography of popular 80s horror film characters, also closely linked to LGBT sensitivity, mythology and nods.

“I like to think of myself as a variety

, which means you'll find me playing that game 90% of the time,” she acknowledges.

Ben Glover, a 30-year-old Australian, becomes Tealyxo, drag queen and video game streamer when he connects to the popular Twitch platform.

She is part of the

, a team of 95 Twitch

and

founded by Deere (a Twitch ambassador with over 50,000 followers).

“She created a team of incredible artists to conquer Twitch and show the world that

is more than just a bunch of sweaty, white, cishetero kids yelling at her computer for hours,” says Tealyxo.

She did it in 2019, but the real

landing would come a year later.

Twitch experienced explosive growth during the pandemic.

According to data provided by the Amazon platform, up to 13 million people broadcast live for the first time in 2020. This was even more pronounced in the world of drag.

When the lights went out, webcams became a lifeline for many, explains Tealyxo: “During the pandemic,

and

from all over the world turned to Twitch as a way to continue interacting with their community, organizing digital drag shows. ”.

This is what Dona Tarte did, a 25-year-old Irish drag queen who for security reasons prefers not to provide her real name.

She started acting in front of her webcam in 2020. She did it by combining her passions: video games, baking, drag and makeup.

Thus, on her channel, which has more than 9,000 followers, we can find her playing

, acting or organizing baking contests for charitable causes.

"When I started college I didn't have time for anything, so I decided to bring all my passions together in one place."

Tarte is a professional makeup artist and pastry chef.

She believes that, in general, the LGBT community has ties to the world of video games that go beyond

.

youth

during his adolescence," he says.

It happened to her.

She was bad at sports as a child, so she took refuge in games.

In her house there was always a machine offering to enter a pixelated world full of zombies and monsters that seemed, paradoxically, safer than her reality.

Dona Tarte, between 'Animal Crossing' and 'gender crossing'.

Dona Tarte acknowledges that the

community can also be "heteronormative and toxic".

“Especially in games like

or

”, he adds. The data supports it. 74% of adults who play online games have experienced some form of harassment or insults, according to a July 2019 Anti-Defamation League report. More than half believe they were targeted because of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation To the

Collective

it happened to them.

Five of its members were reported to the police in a few weeks, giving their address and assuring, in an anonymous complaint, that a crime was being committed in that house.

"We are working every day to make Twitch a safer and more inclusive space for everyone," explains Telayxo, "but change takes time and it takes a lot of people to raise their voices."

It is exactly what is happening.

The phenomenon of LGBT streamers spreads through Twitch and has reached our country.

The

gaymer

world arrives in Spain

The most colorful haunt on the Egoland platform is called Bar Conyote (yes, it sounds exactly like it sounds) and is run by Elvisa, the name that 36-year-old Álvaro Maldonado becomes. With more than 200 thousand followers, this

with a flowery wig and bushy beard combines humor, karaoke of anime songs and games. She has a solid past as a comedian on YouTube, where she has spent ten years uploading video tutorials on crucial topics: How to put kiwi on a sneaker, how to cough or how to miss a train. It is presented on Twitch asking that "let's enjoy video games as art, let's live between respect and love, let's talk about wonderful topics and let's lower the volume of the speakers in case I happen to play any game where I can get a scare".

Elvisa is the best-known face of the

universe in Spain, a neologism (born from the not particularly inspired juxtaposition of the words

and

that is, player) with more and more prestige.

Despite the fact that Twitch has an LGTBQ+ label specially designed for them (and that many put it on so that their audience can find them), most reject the labels.

They are passionate about video games.

Another example is Melo Moreno (32 years old), formerly known as Yellow Mellow.

She is

and

With close to 50,000 followers on Twitch, she has spent years defending causes she believes in, such as feminism or LGBT rights.

She is openly lesbian and willing to speak naturally on her channel, that is never the central issue when she is playing

or the aforementioned

.

She is a common trait in the

homeland

There is diversity at the controls, but this does not condition the content of the channel.

Nor is it something that she hides, as it used to be.

"I'm a fagot with an accent on the o, and if you don't like it, you leave," says Borja Zanon, 28.

Under the name ToboeArticWolf, he has been on Twitch for five years. “At first I didn't talk about my sexuality, I hid it, but I'm old enough now. I have adopted a

mindset .” Zanon mostly plays

and other

(as RPGs of the dungeon subgenre are called). It talks more about how to hunt dragons than plumophobia and ageism in dating apps between men. But deep down, that's what Twitch is all about: hunting dragons, racing cars, killing all your opponents on an island or surviving a zombie attack. "And being able to do it being yourself," adds Zanon.

Only 14% of gamers self-identify as

, a percentage that plummets to 6% in the case of women.

The figures were given by a directive from Electronic Arts, a video game manufacturer, ensuring that no one identifies with that label because today everyone plays.

However, a more critical reading is warranted.

Everyone watches movies and there are moviegoers.

Everyone listens to music and there are music lovers.

The problem is that the

label has been dragging a certain toxic connotation in recent years, a certain stale smell.

For this reason, the inclusion of new voices in

, of new sensitivities in a world too associated with a messy room with lowered blinds and a musty smell, can help change this perception.

As you read these lines, someone on Twitch is helping thousands of young people finish a difficult level of their favorite video game and kill the monster while quietly and naturally helping them to stop feeling like one themselves.

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