- Ninja will not play with female gamers
- …to avoid rumours and online harassment of his wife
- Predictable backlash ensues
Ninja has revealed that he doesn’t play with female gamers, causing a limited but predictable backlash from certain elements of the media and online community.
Speaking to Polygon, Ninja said, “I don’t play with female gamers.” While there has been some speculation that this is because he wants to win, Ninja gave the alternative explanation of wanting to save his wife from online harassment and remove this element of stress from their lives.
“If I have one conversation with one female streamer where we’re playing with one another, and even if there’s a hint of flirting, that is going to be taken and going to be put on every single video and be clickbait forever.”
To anyone who has spent time on the internet at any point in their lives this makes a great deal of sense, and while there may be an element of futility in attempting to keep your personal life private for someone who livestreams for a living, we think this is an incredibly smart move from Ninja. With everything on the internet being amplified and exaggerated, if he feels that avoiding the intimate setting of speaking and playing with a woman repeatedly for multiple hours daily over weeks or months is one to be avoided, then that’s his personal choice, and it seems a reasonable and mature one.
Predictably, however, some strange accusations have started to emerge across various media, accusing Ninja of undermining gender equality, promoting segregation and ignoring women’s rights. We won’t link or repeat these statements in full as the people making them are obviously insane….
