Streaming Inclusivity

I was at the Glitch Theater at the San Diego Convention Center during TwitchCon 2024, watching a drag artist dressed as silent Hill‘s Pyramid Head lip-syncing to a nu-metal song on stage. The crowd included a mix of big-name streamers like Central Commission and KaceyTron, as well as smaller Twitch affiliates and fans, and they all alive The third TwitchCon drag show. JuiceBoxx is a streamer and one of this year’s presenters, and her face is plastered all over the convention center. RuPaul’s Drag Race Superstar Trixie Mattel had a dressing room at the show where staff offered beauty tips and touch-ups, and at the Capcom party offsite, several drag queens walked around with their hair nearly brushing the bar’s ceiling. Attendees can display pronunciation pins on their badges, and nonprofits like TransLifeline have booths on site at the show.

TwitchCon 2024 was very gay, a testament to how the platform nurtures and supports queer creators and their fans—even in the face of some higher-profile streamers being banned for making defamatory comments from the platform. The company was once the only real option for live streaming, but now faces stiff competition from YouTube and more right-leaning platforms like Kick and Rumble, and it appears to be embracing the marginalized people who use its platform. I had the opportunity to speak with Twitch executive Rachel Delphin, as well as drag streamers Deere and JuiceBoxx, to learn how they use streaming to spread awareness, cultivate inclusive communities, and of course, serve women.

Creating a diverse space at TwitchCon 2024

The annual TwitchCon drag show is a great opportunity for streamers to showcase live performance skills that are traditionally considered the cornerstone of the art of drag. But for some, it’s their first time performing in person, and it can be daunting – the production values ​​are great, there’s a camera following them around the stage, several huge LED screens on the sides, and of course a Large crowds of people are watching. Fortunately, these people loud Full of love, chants, cheers, cheers, inspiring the performers to keep going with their exquisite vibes.

“My God doesn’t condemn gays,” the Los Angeles queen told us after lip-syncing to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” strutting and screaming in a head-to-toe rhinestone Princess Peach jumpsuit. Tharona Shade live League of Legendssaid that while she “gets trans hate every day” while streaming, she “proves it by playing the game and saying ‘I belong here.'” Smile Mortis, a horror streamer who does SFX makeup, Sneaking onto the stage during the aforementioned Pyramid Head cosplay, host JuiceBoxx yelled, “I’m excited!”

A variety of drag performers take to the stage to entertain us with burlesque (be careful not to violate Twitch’s terms of service), lip-syncing, and spectacular performances. The final performer is Jax RuPaul’s Drag Racereceived a standing ovation after performing an incredible athletic performance. As the crowd exited the show, they were grinning from ear to ear, excited chatter spreading among them—the space Do It felt quite warm, safe, and a little strange, and I was a little shocked by it. While the TwitchCon drag show is the best place at the convention to learn about the breadth and depth of the platform’s LGBTQIA+ community, the entire show was filled with queer people wearing cosplay or pride flags, defying gender norms, and Something else that exists – is itself an act of resistance.

“We’re a place that brings people together, but the reason people love coming here and coming back is because they know people,” Twitch chief marketing officer Rachel Delphin told me. We chatted about Trixie Cosmetics’ installation, and she told me this A K-pop dance class was scheduled for the weekend. “I think this is part of creating a space that truly reflects the people who love Twitch, which often breaks stereotypes about us and games,” Delphin explained.

For her and the rest of the team, TwitchCon means an extension of the community they’ve created online — one that, according to Delphin, “has rules” and the team is “very intentional about what it is and what’s not on the platform. allow”. “We never claimed to be a place of free speech,” she noted.

“The way we market ourselves is very intentional to make sure that when we tell the story of Twitch, we’re telling a truly diverse story that properly captures the people here and the type of content they want. Creating, And that atmosphere that exists in the service,” she insists. The content includes a rich cast of drag artists who livestream horror and comfort games in costume.

dragging and twitching

I’ve written about towing streamers beforeand how many people have turned to Twitch during the pandemic because they can no longer perform live in bars and nightclubs – the main way to make money in drag. Although JuiceBoxx was lucky enough to be a contestant on the Canadian version of Season 1 drag queen showcoronavirus restrictions and her early exit (“Spoiler alert, I quit first,” she told me when we chatted on the couch in the TwitchCon media room) severely limited her ability to grow her fan base. So, she turned to Twitch.

“I saw a lot of people starting on Twitch, and I was playing a lot of video games, and I was just so bored. Finally I was like, ‘You know what? I think I’m going to make this leap, I’m going to do this A little,” she said. That was in 2021, and she quickly reached membership and then partner status, providing higher monetization tiers for Twitch creators.

“I remember in the beginning I would make little posters for each live stream… I would promote them like a live drag show. I would sit for three to six hours playing these video games. I was really nervous at first, always was stuck. Then, as things started opening up and things started getting looser, I was like, can I be a boy?” Now, JuiceBoxx mainly works in drag, wearing wigs in live performances, and Paint your face and shave “from the nipples up.”

“I thrive on the stage, my heart is on the stage. So for me, Twitch is a way to be more connected to my fans,” she explained. “Twitch has become a really great place where I can have a really relaxed atmosphere with my fans and the community. You know, it’s like, ‘I’ll play on Wednesday, we’ll sit down, and I’ll talk to you. , hang out, and play as long as you want.

But for Deere, a drag performer whose face is plastered all over conventions, Twitch has been the perfect place to showcase her art, even from forward Pandemic. “I wanted an expressive vehicle for my drag… I wanted to be a drag queen, and I wanted to do it in a way that incorporated all of my interests—my interest in pop culture, Love things like fashion, makeup, hair, etc. But marry it with nerd culture,” Dill told me at the convention, wearing head-to-toe daisy prints like a 7-foot-tall Twiggy.

“I think drag can be brought to the forefront anyway – I don’t want to sound like I hate nightlife, but drag exists in nightlife because it’s too taboo to exist in the daytime… Change The pretense exists.

We discussed how the Twitch team wants the platform and conference to be an inclusive space, and Deere agreed. “My face is on the wall, but other people can walk in, and there are more cross-dressers… TwitchCon is cool and you can easily be yourself. Whether it’s quietly breaking the rules or loud and proud, everyone is there Be welcome here.

She continued: “I feel sorry for the homophobes because they must feel very, very, very, very uncomfortable. But they should feel uncomfortable.

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