On 17 October, popular streamer Emiru - real name Emily-Beth Schunk - was hosting a meet and greet for fans at Twitchcon when a man approached her, pulled her into a hug and attempted to kiss her. The man was pushed off by a member of Emily’s personal security team. Nobody from Twitch intervened.
The incident was filmed and later uploaded to social media, leading many to debate the safety of women at conventions and the measures that organisers should be providing in order to ensure the safety of their guests. Twitch issued a statement on the 18th in which they announced that “The safety and security of all those attending TwitchCon is our highest priority” and that they “immediately blocked this individual from returning to the TwitchCon premises, and they are banned indefinitely from Twitch, both online and in-person events.” In response, Emily issued a response. Most notably, she disputed Twitch’s claims of removing the perpetrator:
“In Twitch's statement, they said that the guy was immediately caught and detained. I'm sorry, but that is a blatant lie. He was allowed to walk away from my meet and greet, and I didn't hear he was caught until hours after he attacked me, and it felt like this only happened because of my manager pressing for it, not because Twitchcon staff present thought it was a big deal.”
Her statement also makes reference to Twitch staff joking about the event immediately afterwards, before announcing that this will be her last ever Twitchcon. Emily later reiterated these statements on a stream on the 19th, where she also mocked the idea that an indefinite ban from Twitch is a punishment at all, considering the individual can create a new account with no consequence.
A recurrent theme in the conversation surrounding what happened to Emily is the size of her platform compared to her treatment. Emily is one of Twitch’s top performers, bringing thousands in revenue to the gaming platform yearly. If one of Twitch’s top performers is supplied with such inadequate safety provisions, her attacker is only caught because of a fan recording, and had her experience lied about by the organisers themselves - what happens when smaller female creators, who don’t have the money for personal security or the following to vouch for themselves, are harassed, assaulted or worse?
What happens when smaller female creators, who don’t have the money for personal security or the following to vouch for themselves, are harassed, assaulted or worse?
As women continually step into and make names for themselves in the traditionally male-dominated worlds of gaming, fandom and geek culture, conventions and similar events do become safer for all women in attendance. However, events like these draw attention to how far away these spaces still are from achieving true equality for their attendees, and remind us that women’s safety must be at the heart of planning consideration for events like these.