Tag: streaming | A Banana Peeled

Tag Archives: streaming

Let me entertain you

Posted on July 9, 2022 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

I was talking to K yesterday and we got on the subject of what I want to do with the rest of my bonus days. I’m working on some writing projects, but that’s not unusual because I always am. I’m also toying with doing video. I hate the idea because it’s so not my medium, but writing is dead and I have to adapt with the times.

I was mentioning how I’d said on Twitter once that I was thinking of streaming from my couch, Shadow on my lap, as I drank my coffee and surfed the internet. This was years ago. I actually had a few serious ‘I would watch that’ responses, which floored me. I mean, it shouldn’t. There are mukbangs, ASMR, people reading out loud, and a bunch of other stuff that is just basically watching a person existing.

Which, ok, fine. But it’s still weird to me. I mentioned this to K and she said she could see it (with me). She reminded me that I had acted in my twenties and that maybe because of that or something else, but I had a presence. I immediately jumped in and said, “I have charisma.” I know it. ‘ve known it since I was in college. But because of what I’ve seen my father do with it,

It’s hard for me to see it as a positive, but these are my bonus days. If I can’t do something differently now, then when? My brother has been saying for a long time that I should use my charisma for good. Not to mention my ability to read people.

I’ve been on a kick of feeling myself (literally and metaphorically). I tweeted Lizzo’s Good As Hell video (live from Glastonbury) because that’s my theme song for this year. Yes, I’m late in the Lizzo love, but I got there eventually. Someone on Twitter told me that his ex was jealous of his friendship with me. Like, it actually became an issue in their relationship. That floored me because I’m not particularly flirty on Twitter. Yes, I will talk about sex or my as or whatever, but it’s not as if I propositioning people. Also, I don’t do pictures. At least not at that time. I have posted a few selfies post-hospital, but mostly with my mask on.

I thought it was really wild that his girlfriend at the time had an issue with us being friends, but when I told K about it, she said she could understand. And it reminded me of when I was in college, I was friends with a lot of guys. Back then, I was into the cool chick meta for many reasons. One, I liked ‘guy’ stuff much more so than ‘woman’ stuff. Two, I wanted to be accepted by guys. Three, It was a way to hang out around the guys I liked without being threatening. I could be one of the guys and laugh at them about the other silly women. At some point, though, I realize that I was only there on sufferance and if I ever slipped in my behavior, I would become one of those ‘silly girls’.

The Politics of Art

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Minna Hong • 0 Comments

So, I love to write. A lot. Prolifically. Garrulous. It’s the equivalent to a chatterbox who cannot keep her mouth shut. I can’t keep my fingers from banging away at my keyboard, and I have many broken keyboards to prove it. In fact, this one (on my laptop) is on its last legs, and I should replace it pretty soon. The problem is, people are reading less and less. Rather, they’re reading less of actual longform pieces and novels. I’m old woman shaking my fist at the clouds, but I also acknowledge that it’s probably not going backwards any time soon.

What’s the new big thing? Videos. Streaming. It’s all the rage with the kids these days, an it’s something I’ve thought about doing myself. The problem is, first of all, I hate the way I look on camera. Now, of course, I could stream a game without face-cam, but from what I’ve seen, you get more views with the face-cam on, especially as a woman. Which, therein, is my second issue. The world of video games is still a man’s world with a very bro-y culture. I don’t watch streams on Twitch (except Ian’s! twitch.tv/eenbou) because the chats are fucking toxic. I don’t use that word lightly, but it’s sadly true. Anything over ten viewers, and it’s ‘fuckbois’, ‘faggot’, and ‘i’d fuck that ass’ all the damn time. There’s a streamer I did watch occasionally when he wasn’t too big yet, and I already felt not included by dint of being a woman in my forties. I watched a vod of a recent stream, and he’d changed from being low-key and lovable to low-key and ‘fuckbois’, and it really disappointed me. I’m not naming him because it’s not him–it’s the ethos of chat. I’m stil working on my Theory of Dudes in which the more dudes you have in one place, the grosser the culture becomes.

Anyway, I watched a podcast with four female streamers, and they were emphatic about not being just boob jigglers, but one of them is known for that, and another is known for being bro-y in her chat. They were all young and conventionally pretty, which is another double standard for women who stream. Dudes can be any age, shape, size, or look, but the women have to be young, not fat, and hot. In addition, most of the female streamers are even bro-y-er than their male counterparts as a way to overcompensate. It’s the same with streamers girlfriends/wives. They put down women, make sexual innuendos, and are pretty jerky. They also feed into the stereotypes of the nagging wife, which is annoying as hell as well.