“I am officially retiring as a boobie streamer, or a titty streamer, if you will,” said Raihnbowkidz, a woman who broadcasts League of Legends on Twitch.
You might not know her; she has four million total views on Twitch and 11.2k subscribers on YouTube, which are comparatively low numbers these days. Last week, she uploaded an announcement video in which she explained why, after years of doing Twitch streams that prominently highlighted her breasts, she was going to give up her old schtick:
“To be honest, I’m just no longer happy with what I do,” she said. “I don’t have the energy to do it. I got to the point where I could no longer watch myself. And I feel like once you get to that point, where you can’t even watch your own material, or you don’t want to think about your own material, you’re no longer in a good place.”
Raihnbowkidz said that her “boobie streams” were causing her to focus on the wrong things, rather than the game itself. She worried that, by doing breast-centric streams, she was contributing negatively to the League of Legends community.
“My stream has just reached this point of, it’s not even a League stream, you know? My most successful days, I feel like I didn’t stream anything productive.”
Most of all, Raihnbowkidz said that being a “boobie streamer” was causing too much of a strain, both physically and emotionally.
“I would play ranked games on stream and I would lose every single one because I was just so focused on the fact that my fucking straps on my stupid push up bra were digging into my shoulders,” she said. “And I would look over at chat, and like every second comment is calling me a slut and a whore. It’s just not fun for me anymore.”
Raihnbowkidz uploaded a follow-up video as well, in which she gave a behind-the-scenes look at all the work involved in setting her old stream up. In it, she breaks down the makeup she uses to prep her looks and gives a sped-up view of of the typical 30-40 minutes of application it required. She also takes the time to talk about her uncomfortable push-up bras, and why they made her “[want] to fucking die”.
“I’m not saying that it’s wrong to do this,” Raihnbowkidz said, clarifying that she doesn’t want to condemn women who show cleavage while streaming. “If you are a female and you feel sexy doing this, all the fucking power to you, man. All the fucking power to you. I just wanted to explain to everybody why I personally am sick and tired of doing this, not comfortable doing this, nor do I feel like its right for me to do this.”
Over the years, there have been a number of minor controversies surrounding women on Twitch. Often, you’ll hear people accuse women on Twitch of being “camwhores/”. Their thinking tends to be along the lines that women are taking over Twitch and tricking swaths of men into donating money, where ‘real’ streams would focus more on gameplay. That fear doesn’t have much basis in reality: back in 2015, only a handful of women cracked the top 100 streams on Twitch, and none of them relied entirely or even mostly on mammary glands to get there. Style and substance do matter on Twitch, at least when it comes to the big leagues.
Smaller streams like Raihnbowkidz’s have it tough, and it can be difficult for an entertainer to find things that will set them apart. Thousands of people try to make it every day on Twitch, with many of them counting themselves lucky if they even get a handful of viewers, never mind money or sponsorships or internet fame.
It sounds like Raihnbowkidz wound up doing something she really wasn’t happy doing anymore, and now she’s course correcting. Raihnbowkidz’s story is most interesting to me because it pulls back the curtain on the work and sacrifice that goes into making yourself look good. People in our society scrutinise the hell out of women, constantly expecting them to look hot and fuckable while also insisting that they never betray the amount of work involved in looking “natural“. Every woman grapples with managing her makeup and appearance in one way or another. Those challenges are doubtless hugely magnified by streaming on Twitch, which is basically the same as signing up to be a TV broadcaster.
Navigating all of that — the shittier aspects of Twitch culture, suffocating societal expectations and the stress of pursuing fame — would be enough to make anyone’s head spin. There’s no one answer or best path for women who stream games, but I’m glad Raihnbowkidz seems to have figured out what will make her happiest.
Comments
55 responses to “Twitch Player: I’m Done Being A ‘Boobie Streamer’”
I don’t understand this story. You’re inducing sympathy for someone who transformed herself into a sex-object for attention? Sympathy for the “work and sacrifice” involved in that self-same transformation? Who are these “people in our society” putting this unbearable pressure on women to look like porn stars? It’s other women. Who exactly are you all trying to look like and for what purpose? You look like sad clowns to me.
I don’t understand this comment. It seems to miss the point and then blame women for something that is really a social issue affecting both genders.
The pressure is that women feel they have to get their breasts out to attract male viewers. This woman has decided that she’s not happy with doing it and would rather be comfortable and enjoy her streaming instead of making it a chore.
It’s the kind of frustration that stems from nothing but one’s own problems.
that pressure shouldn’t exist but she is at fault for conforming to it also lets not pretend she is a victim here.
IT’S GREAT that she has decided to change her ways and be a better streamer that doesn’t cash out on her tits.
I have stayed away from twitch for a while because it started to turn into men having no chance whilst women got tons of viewers for showing there cleavage…that kind of ruined the site for me personally.
She was doing what was required to stand out and it makes sense she would do it…but in doing so she devalued herself and turned herself into a sexual object for the attention of the viewers.
All being said and done she is smart for changing and i respect her for not continuing to do something as repulsive as she was doing.
So, would you consider someone with Bulimia and Anorexia at fault as they too, are also conforming to what they think society wants?
It may be a simple marketing ploy but I still think she’s brave for deciding that she hates this and that she wants to do it on her terms and doing what makes her happy.
It can be hard as hell to try and swim against the tide, to decide that your happiness comes before your followers that are only following for breasts.
Sometimes admitting things is the hardest thing to do.
Sorry, I realised that I sound quite kurt. The first question is not attacking but I know it sounds a little that way. I just find that it is similar, just that the mental illness is taken to the extremes, but when does it stop being a choice and when do they become a victim? When they’re broken?
I don’t understand the comment and I also feel that the issue here seems to be that she feels that she NEEDS to get her boobs out in order to draw male viewers however female streamers should learn that – much like male streamers – getting a good supporter base is difficult. If you market yourself to people by selling your sexiness rather than the gaming content of your stream then your chat is going to end up being people who only follow you because of the sexiness.
If you go to her Youtube channel she just posted an anti-feminist video. It was beautiful.
why do you think this is news?
no one cares.
I care and in fact, I think it’s quite interesting. If you don’t like it, don’t click on the link or read the article, it’s a pretty simple solution.
Seconded. At the very least, this is insightful of issues within the current streaming community.
why did you reply to my comment then? if you dont like it dont comment on it!
take some of your own advice.
If you don’t think this is news, you don’t understand the social landscape of gaming today.
I don’t care about the game she plays, I don’t watch Twitch and until today I had no idea who she was. This is still news.
Why do morons open their mouths & think they speak for everyone else? Ah, yes, “morons”.
It’s news in the same way as http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12134223/Beloved-local-celebrity-bus-stop-cat-mourned-after-being-kicked-to-death-by-thugs.html
It’s relevant to a very small minority of people, and of passing interest to a few more, but that’s about it.
It had the word ‘boobie’ in it, and that was triggering for me, causing flashbacks to the last time I saw boobies, and filling me with an intense desire to see more. That’s why I clicked on the story, to be honest. I thought I might see some more boobies.
This actually seems to be apart of a growing trend in social media for women. That they can have a lot of attention for basing their identity around their bodies and have some success based around that, but is it healthy?
For me, as a viewer of streams, I look for the personality of the streamer. In my view, their no different than a TV host. You don’t need to show of your assets or even do your hair up. Entertain me by you being you.
That’s why I tend to like amateur or ‘reality’ porn, because it shows more of a woman’s personality. The sexual act is a mere prerequisite for me.
Wow, showing your age.
So… you go onto a news story about women feeling demeaned by having to show their tits for views and you try to justify your stance by saying that you prefer amateur porn because it has more personality than produced?
In actual fact, you aren’t there for the ‘personality’ you are there for the tits and boning.
So really you support the tits and not the person.
contradiction much?
I’m there for the… er… ‘tits and boning’… (as I said, it’s a prerequisite). No contradiction in saying I prefer the subset of ‘tits and boning’ where you can see more of a woman’s personality 🙂
How old do you think I am? 🙂
Furthermore, this article is not about ‘women feeling demeaned by having to show their tits for views’. It’s about why one particular streamer decided to stop. She didn’t only choose to stop because she was feeling demeaned. She also chose to stop because she felt it wasn’t productive and wasn’t contributing positively to the LoL community.
…and what ‘stance’ are you referring to in your comment?
You know what, i have no idea what or where i was trying to go with that.
I’ve re-read it half a dozen times and i cant even make sense of it.
I thought you were mid teens to start with – i’m now aligning you at mid to late 20’s based on your response.
I mean really, who watches amateur porn for the ‘personality’ – that lasts all over 12 seconds before the skip to the money shot.
All i can think of is tits and boning.
Please excuse me.
You’d might be surprised by the quality of porn these days. ‘Amateur’ is somewhat of a misnomer. It can refer to anything from webcams to casting couch auditions to cfnm parties (see dancingbear.com for example).
And you’re right, no-one I can think of watches porn for the personality, but you can get a surprising amount of personality in porn. It pretty literally caters for all tastes 🙂
I’m all for her doing this. I also hope she doesn’t lose subscribers, but if she does, well, they’re not the type she wants to keep anyhow and she’ll find other, better ones anyhow.
I’ve had a gf once who used to wear pushup bra’s for a little while, she also used to use those awful ‘chicken fillet’ things, and during that course of time, used to complain about the physical pressure on her body and how uncomfortable it made her. So good on her.
I wear a slightly padded bra, but because it is comfortable, not because I want to impress anyone. Bras can be so uncomfortable. I’m glad that she’s decided that she would rather be her, then a pair of gaming breasts.
My ex used to hate it, but she also hated the stares she would get for almost appearing ‘flat’ in some clothing according to her, something I honestly never noticed. Kind of a ‘no win’ situation I guess. Something I’ve never had to contend with so I can’t make a judgement either way really other than to say I always thought she was beautiful. But when she was around the house she never opted for a bra, saying like you said, that they were a pain in the neck (and back) and really constricting.
The difference being, I also dated a much larger chested woman once who told me, that a really comfortable sports bra that was supportive was a gods gift to women. I really, really do not envy women having to contend with that issue O_O
Yeah, I’m fairly lucky that I’m a size that is comfortable and isn’t too big, or too flat. Larger breasted women have to deal with excruciating pain if their bra doesn’t fit them right. It can actually cause long term issues.
Add to that, when women with larger breasts do manage to actually find the right bra for them there are other problems that crop up. Larger bras are almost always more expensive (most I’ve seen are nearly double the cost of a “normal” bra) and they look like the bra equivalent of granny panties due to a lack of variety in prints, fabric type, colour, etc.
The sad part about this is that she will lose subscribers. Sure, they’re not the type of subs she wants, but every little bit counts. It’s just not fair on her or any other twitch streamer. I have to admit, showing the assets is an easy way in, but at a very large and uncomfortable cost. For me to start twitch streaming with the goal of getting somewhere with it, I’d have to be stupidly good at a lot of games or extremely fresh and funny. For a girl showing some skin, neither of those apply half as much to get some good ground in views and subs…I wish that wasn’t a thing. Not because being a male puts me at a disadvantage when starting streaming, but because I think a girl shouldn’t feel uncomfortable in the thing she loves to do because it has the potential to boost (nearly typed boobst there…lol) numbers.
I hear ya, and yeah she will and it sucks. Every bit does count obviously. My nephew subscribes to some *god awful* streamers. There’s one who plays Ark and insists on uploading a video *every single day* and they’re batshit boring videos, I mean really, really boring ones. Nothing fun, just a pure exercise in quantity over quality. Yet no doubt he’d refuse to sub here, because no boobs. I’ll check out her post-boob stuff and sub if she’s a good streamer. I’ve never been interested in the boob-gamers, because I don’t ‘get’ it personally, it doesn’t do anything for me. But I like Markiplier, I like a lot of others and if she’s good, I’ll sub to her too.
I actually rarely watch anything on stream…funny enough I’ve been in accidental stream more than watched. One of my mates I regularly play with streams most of his gaming, he’s got like 60 subscribers, but he does it to meet people and for fun.
She got the suscribers / wievers she deserved.
Fkn good on her – never heard of this woman before and do not watch any of her work. But it takes alot of self courage to buck the trend and admit to oneself when change is required if you’re unhappy. I wish her all the best in the future and hope that her star rises even higher by this new change in direction. Her fanbase will change to people that actually appreciate her hard work and talent from those that are just after a bit of t and a with their gaming streams.
Best of luck Raihnbowkidz – you’re setting a trend and pioneering a better pathway.
Pretty much this.
As much as I like boobies like the next guy, I’m getting sick of women on social media taking photos of basically their boobs, instead of posts for the reasons I followed them in the first place (eg. Cosplay creations, artwork, etc). I’ve started to unfollow a number of people that basically state “I did a thing today” and they’ve taken yet another pic of cleavage; I’m also sick of the derogatory comments too from trolls and overstimulated individuals.
Women who take photos like you describe and then ‘complain’ with something like, “I’m so sick of guys staring at my boobs!” are particularly special.
So special in fact that I think they should be singled out by a bolt of lightning, or at least just slapped.
If don’t care if you want attention, but at least have the guts to own it.
Good for her. I understand that there’s a lot of competing twitch streamers out there and, as the article says, smaller channels need something that gives them an edge. It’s a shame that for many female streamers that edge by default is “show as boob as possible” which will always overshadow their gaming talent, personality and charisma.
Good on her for realising what was happening and doing something that made gaming/streaming fun again for herself. I have tried to find good female streamers on Twitch but most of them are either too focused on their routine, or just aren’t interesting to watch because they lack the same energy or engagement with the chat that the more social streamers have. It also doesn’t help that a lot of their chat tends to be made up of guys either hitting on them or acting like white knights unnecessarily making it difficult for them to engage with the viewers.
Good for her!
I sell gaming consoles for a living and I have to say that people tend to take my advice/opinions a lot less seriously when I wear a shirt that shows a bit more of the girls. Have legitimately had customers ask to speak to a guy.
Can’t imagine the pressure of having to be camera perfect and have the girls all perky and on show all the time
Same! It’s the worst. I’ve had guys make the most awful disgusting comments about me to my male managers while I’m serving customers or vacuuming and it’s just gross 🙁
I hope your managers have told them that it’s inappropriate and that they would no longer be allowed to shop there.
When I worked at Maccas, I had a guy who kept asking me really weird questions and would always show up when I was working. I told a manager that it was making me feel uncomfortable and they did something about it. If he came in, I would go in the back and only come out when he was gone.
…that is sketchy as fuck :/
Yeah my managers are pretty on the ball. Hilariously the one who got all the comments while I was vacuuming (in a skirt, for the record) is my now-boyfriend and he went absolutely off his nut at the guy. I have not seen that particular customer in the store since…
that’s honestly really weird…i mean if you were showing to much cleavage (to the point your going out of your way to show your boobs) then its 100% understandable they would rather speak to a guy (in my opinion because personally if someone was showing to much cleavage i wouldn’t be able to talk to them i would feel very off and uncomfortable )but from what your saying that isn’t the case…
That would get annoying real fast to get that whilst wearing acceptable clothing that is not super revealing.
Yeah, I wholeheartedly embrace promo shirts now, they’re freebies and they’re standard cut so they only show off the games printed on them and it doesn’t matter if I ruin them at work hahaha. Only “revealing” clothing I’ve ever worn to work has been V neck tees, rookie error, won’t happen again
And it’s not always guys who make these remarks, I often have mothers come in and walk past me to talk to a guy, the guys I work with are great about it, they usually act dumb and refer to me for every question the customer asks when they see that happen.
Having the girls out wouldn’t help my credibility at all in these situations though
Sometimes having boobs is a girls biggest obstacle
wow a V neck tee!?
That’s tame as hell…not sure who gets offended by that.
Sorry to hear you have such a hard time that’s honestly unfair.
Personally your boobs should only be an issue in the workplace if your wearing a shirt like this
( i just picked the first image that shows my point well that i found on google)
https://ioneblackamericaweb.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/kmichellepr.jpg?w=504
And a V neck is no where near that.
To be fair, I have so much fun with it when the guys play up being a dumbarse to make a point and have my back. I probably shouldn’t enjoy my moral superiority that much
But hey, thanks for the support, now if only everyone were as cool as you 🙂
thank you and well i hope you don’t have to put up with idiots like that anymore but knowing people you will :/
Unfortunately it seems likely
At least it’s good for a laugh….
Self-righteous men, who’ll happily ogle at the half-exposed breasts while calling the owner names and epithets for showing skin have always struck me as petty envious. I’m sure that they resent the fact that being male means you cannot double up (or better) your income simply by a choice of clothes.
To be fair, it’s not always men calling them names, not that I know exactly what the case is on Twitch, but I’ve known women who will call other women ‘sluts’ just for showing their body off.
Not that I condone the name-calling whoever it comes from, nothing wrong with someone wearing whatever they choose to, whether it be covered up or showing off some cleavage.
That pushup bra was not necessary.
The internet being overloaded with DD imagery purely by average volume has unfortunately skewed perceptions that bigger = better/more popular, which is sadly why this person went down the pushup path.
They are some great big bangin’ bappers! Love her honesty about how uncomfortable it is, she seems down to earth. I think there’s a dark side to both, there’s nothing wrong with having boobs and there’s nothing wrong with not having them out. Not everything is societal patriarchal demonoid shit women don’t need to labelled whores for having their boobs out. Boobs dont turn every male wild either I find them more relaxing than stimulating.
– Starts streaming
– Probably gets compliments on looks, subs go up
– Wears a semi revealing top, subs go up
– Puts on makeup and goes through a routine, subs go up
– Time passes, annoyed at comments, bra hurts, too much time wasted on makeup regime, can’t focus 100% on games cause of internal distractions…. ultimately its unfulfilling and a change needs to happen
– Decides to focus 100% on gameplay, back to normal attire and just being a “normal” person
Don’t see why people have a hard time seeing the transitions here. Sure she’s not changing the world with her streams, but good on her for identifying that something was bumming her out and changing it.
She’s bound to lose numbers but thats ok, some of those were just tuning in to see her breasts anyway…. I would assume a lot will stick around, so at least she has a solid subscriber base to hit the ground running on her relaunched channel.
Good luck !
It’s a pretty clear story, people are just appropriating their insecurities.
Good for her coming to this realization.
But I do think it’s sad that our society revolves around sex appeal in every form of media imaginable. And though I am glad for this woman deciding to not go down this path anymore, I also can’t overlook the fact that she was originally giving into trying to win viewers via sex appeal.
So I’m kind of like the first comment at the top (that got down-voted) – I’m half sympathetic towards her (and other female streamers like her) but also not. It was her decision to venture down this path, and yes there would’ve been pressure from her viewers and what not, but would you honestly want viewers who only care about your physical appearance? She could’ve just worked on building up a viewer base who adore her for who she is, and the content she provides, rather than for someone she tries to be.
It’s great that she’s out of this now, but again, it was her own doing.
Yep agreed, it’s not like she went to the effort of putting makeup on, wearing those tops/bras for no reason…. the reason was subs. Like she says “power to her” for doing it… also power to her for recognizing that she probably won’t hit her end goals if she stayed on that path.
I don’t have “sympathy” for her if she loses subs, it’s 100% expected. I will sympathize for her because she will no doubt continue to get called names, harassed and probably not taken “seriously” for a while until she loses her previous image and proves herself on a level playing field with other streamers. Good luck to her !
“Productive”? HAHAHAHA! WTF? Streaming games is absolutely an unproductive narcissistic/voyeuristic activity whether you have boobs on show or not, man or woman.
Wow… way to focus on the wrong thing.
And yet, many people make a decent living out of it. Would you do it? No, you are either unwilling or incapable. So it’s an specialised occupation that requires specific skills and mindsets, just like any other job.
Yeah… Regardless though, boobs or no, it’s “unproductive” either way.
What I’m saying is that basically “boob-streamers” are the same thing as the regular kind, she’s not making any real change at all, the story is utterly pointless.
I hate this whole issue so much. Almost every comment is shaming someone in some way. Why is it good on her for changing her mind about this? Would it be good on her if she started the other way and decided to try getting her boobs out a bit more to attract viewers? If not, why not? Saying she is doing the right thing by ‘covering up’ now is still making a judgement on someone based on their body.
I think it’s enough that she wasn’t happy doing it, and I hope she will be happy with her changes. She may lose some viewers, and that’s fine too, those people aren’t bad people for enjoying the show before.
I just can’t wait until we can all play and watch however the fuck we want without being judged. If a pretty girl wants to put her boobs on display to attract viewers, more power to her. When I’ve been a first date I spend roughly 100 x the amount of time I normally spend getting ready to go out. I pick the shirt and shoes that make me look my best. Luckily, I don’t have to wear uncomfortable clothes to do this, but if I did I would. I don’t see anything wrong with applying the same principle to attract viewers.
She went back to being a Boobie Streamer.