Imane “Pokimane,” a Twitch and Kick star, and Felix “xQc” got into a fight on June 27, 2023, after she talked about the struggles female content creators face in the streaming business.
When the Moroccan-Canadian celebrity did the same thing on her channel, a female streamer told Pokimane she was “way too terrified” to broadcast without makeup after seeing the community’s response. When xQc learned this, he appeared to dispute Pokimane’s claims by asserting that male content producers face “greater” criticism for their attractiveness. Added him: “Can I be honest, chat? Guys… maybe I’m not right about this. I see, by ratio, more male creators getting s**t on for their looks. For, like, the most, anything. Like baldness, scuffness, (and) garbage, by their own viewers, than I see it on to female creators. Wait, am I wrong about that?”
In a now-deleted post on the r/LivestreamFail forum, Pokimane revealed the “sad truth” about how the treatment she received from the online community has “deterred” other female content creators. This discovery was made by xQc 50 minutes into his broadcast. Pokimane remarked on a conversation she had with a streamer: “Girl, I will never forget. One time… I had a girl come up to me and she’s like, ‘Oh, I stream sometimes.’ She basically said she was like, ‘But… I’m way too scared to stream without makeup because I saw what people, like, did to you.’ And, I was like, ‘That’s so f**king sad!’ The whole reason I stream, like, I get ready is with me, is to show people, like, ‘Girl, this is normal.'”
In order to express his disagreement with Pokimane’s position, the former Overwatch professional interrupted the video. He asserted that because of their appearance, men content providers encounter “greater” hostility from their viewers. He claims that “every streamer” he has ever known has had their faces altered by the internet community: “Every streamer that I know of, in their entirety, all have pictures of them with pure baldness and dents in their heads, and garbage on their face, over and over again. Wait, wait, what do you mean not true? Look at any guy creators’ replies! It’s full of that! (The streamer looks at his Twitch chat) It’s a joke? Wait, I didn’t see what she said in the beginning.”
xQc brought up the most recent argument he had with Pokimane after watching the film once more and reading the comments placed under the reaction thread. To put things in perspective, Pokimane asserted that Twitch benefits financially from Kick because the Trainwreckstv-supported platform makes use of Amazon’s services. Dan Clancy, CEO of Twitch, later stated that the assertions were false.
xQc said Pokimane and Hasan “HasanAbi” had a “very big credibility shield” while retelling the scenario. Added him: “I mean, we’re at a point in life where he had the literal CEO of Twitch, come out on stream and quite literally debunk it himself! Guys, I think people gave her and Hasan a pretty big credibility shield, just to have the fact that we needed to get the f**king CEO to come out of his bunker to debunk it! For them to lose credibility. That’s how much of a shield that they get.”
