I wrote up a bunch but bleh. I dunno. Sexism has no institutional basis in games or esports from what I've seen. That's important to note and I wish that the author had gone into a bit more detail on it. She does make some good points regarding toxicity and the nature of the internet.

However, I can say for certain that I've received plenty of messages I wouldn't have if I posed a guy in video games. Having an effeminate name and cutesy avatar is enough to get me creepy messages on XBL/PSN from people I've never talked to and can't even remember playing with/against half the time. Sometimes it's not toxic whatsoever. Sometimes it's after the game. Sometimes it's some random person who probably found me on a common friend's list. Would I say that person is creepy, but not a sexist? I don't think so. By this metric I'm pretty sure we could eliminate every -ist or -ism from the dictionary and just replace them with "bad person being bad." Words do have meaning and implications, though, and it is important to be clear about what people say and discuss the likely reasons.

Final point on the article itself. Many - if not most - of the actual "journalistic" articles on misogyny/sexism in gaming are based in "common sense" and not much else. It is plainly stupid to say, "Females face sexism in video games online, therefore gamers are more sexist than the average population." Women face sexist slurs all across the internet. That doesn't make people who use the internet statistically more sexist than those who don't. That is a very silly point and another I'd appreciate being fought against.

P.S. Sorry if I missed any r's my keyboard doesn't really have a good r key right now. Rip reloading :(