Peripheral maker Razer let go a female streamer as part of their influencer program when she tweeted out some comments that the Brazilian version of the brand found distasteful.
GameRant is reporting that streamer Gabriel Cattuzzo was let go after she made the tweets on June 21st, 2019. It started when she said “I am riding the chat.” with the photo of her on a mechanical bull. Someone responded, “You can ride me anytime.” She retorted in now deleted tweets…
“There’s always going to be fucked in the head macho man to talk shit and sexualize women until the woman starts making jokes, right?” […] “And this is why men are trash.”
And with that, Razer dropped her.
They did so via a tweet on June 24th, 2019.
— R Λ Z Ξ R 🇧🇷 (@RazerBrazil) June 24, 2019
Buzzfeed translated the message, which read…
“We would like to make it clear that Gabi is not a spokesperson for Razer and has never been a brand ambassador. She was part of a team of influencers who were called upon to use and publicize the brand’s products.
“As gamers, we face every type of preconception and stereotype from the outset, and we will continue fighting so that this type of situation doesn’t repeat itself,” the statement said, adding that the company opposes any kind of “extremism.”
Dropping the streamer for saying “men are trash”, was met with the typical response from most media outlets.
Sites like the above-mentioned Buzzfeed tried running with the narrative that there was a misogyny angle at play because Cattuzzo was female.
Following Razer’s message, they explained that Cattuzzo also decided to take a break from social media due to “death threats”, writing in a Twitlonger post…
“My intention with this phrase was: Whenever I put something in which I leave 1% of a gap to be made a bad joke, a lot of men go there and do it. 90% of the comments are usually made by men If you do not go there and make a joke, congratulations, you are the exception and I thank you for that,” Cattuzzo writes. “The intention was never to be [misandrist], much less to curse ALL the men (even because, I said that there were exceptions). Please understand: I post pictures every day, and every day most of the comments are offensive or sexualizing something that neither has how to be sexualized (sic). There are [a] few men who comment on interesting things or non-offensive comments here on Twitter (and for these people I am grateful, are the exceptions that save my day). I do not usually respond to the person when [they] put something offensive, I just ignore or block and I follow life. But in that case and on that day, I burst and made the unfortunate comment, which was interpreted even more unhappily by many.”
The harassment angle was also taken by the Daily Dot, with a piece titled “Razer publicly shames female influencer who tweeted about being sexually harassed.”
In the piece the Daily Dot runs through the gamut of instances where it denigrates males and gaming culture with examples that they mock as part of the “gamers rise up” meme…
“Enter “gamers” into Daily Dot’s search bar and you’ll find countless examples of Men Online acting as if their gamer identities are on the brink of extinction. There’s the time men reacted in numbers with the “gamers, rise up” meme to a gay esports champion proudly proclaiming he was gay. How about when some gamers got angry that Mortal Kombat 11’s Jax ended slavery in his story campaign? When r/Games voluntarily shut down to combat its own toxicity? Incidents of harassment veiled as “trolling?” “Vagina bones?” Boner Culture?” The list goes on.
“Yes, the gaming community continues to struggle with all kinds of harassment and toxicity, much of it at the hands of men. And now a video game manufacturer is publicly shaming a woman for defending herself against sexual harassment.”
If Buzzfeed and the Daily Dot weren’t enough, TheNextWeb decided to get in their white knight digs as well, writing in a piece…
“If being a woman gamer doesn’t come with enough hurdles, we’ve once again seen the victim of sexual harassment become the villain who faces the most consequences.”
After everyone rolled their eyes at the fake news surrounding Overwatch’s “Ellie”, one would think that constantly harping from the sexual harassment train would be worn about as thin as James Charles’ lip gloss after an all-you-can-suck buffet at the Blacked.com ranch. Yet, they continue to pump out one unoriginal piece after another retreading over the same, tired old harassment narrative like a bad battered wife murder-mystery on Lifetime.
Also, had the situation been reversed and a male streamer said “women are trash!” there would have been calls from all the major media hubs asking for his head on a platter and for him to be fired and blacklisted from the industry. He would be cut from his brand deals and out on the streets giving out free lip-service on the corner of Sunset Blvd., faster than Eddie Murphy could blow his Beverly Hills Cop royalty check on the dames with dongs at The Abbey in downtown Los Angeles.
Anyway, I doubt Cattuzzo will stay down or out for long. I’m sure some company will ride in like a white knight to proclaim that they’ve managed a brand endorsement deal with Cattuzzo once she returns from her brief sabbatical that stripped her away from the not-so-wonderful world of social media.
(Thanks for the news tips FallDrift and Lyle)
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