since this post got a lot of attention, i wanted to give some more clarity as to my feelings about league voice as a whole rather what i posted initially read if you're about to reply with: 1. just mute 2. man on man harassment happens too/happens more/it isn't just women getting harassed 3. women complain too much and women are ruining the space. no one else who is discriminated against is this loud. you guys are annoying! 4. just stop playing 5. misandry exists too! and you are a misandrist!!! 6. women should take this as a sign not to join a man's space next time! 7. other criticisms people have for me/things i forgot (me catering to men, me using the word 'incel', women who think this is a non-issue, 'go play a singleplayer game', this doesn't actually happen because i've never seen it happen) - conclusion if you aren't interested in nuance, this isn't your thread to read. if this is too long for you, don't waste your time on reading it i'd like to cover it in a way that works for all parties, without much uncovered. if you don't want that, just move on :P - 1. 'woman too dumb just mute and move on': we've seen this in a lot of games, where a playerbase becomes more and more reliant on voicecomms/where a playerbase is already reliant on voicecomms, eg valorant/most fps games out there. league is a communication-based game, heavily reliant on teamplay, and unfortunately muting all doesn't put anyone in the best position. with that, this post is coming from the point of being afraid of it becoming the new normal. inferring from the post, we have seen it in other games and we don't want it to happen to the game where we're finally heard. consistently. and when we're not heard? it's for other reasons that aren't our gender. it's because of something as simple as a champ pick, a role. you may want to counter this with: - 'but you're acting like all games are going to be like this?? 100%?? really?? sensitive woman' when there's a percentage chance of you getting harassed, inted, or sexualised because you speak in voice chat, and you take that chance? and you end up getting dogpiled for the rest of the match? that's not a chance you're going to take every single game. when you have to scan a lobby for 5 minutes to see if they accept women or not or not in order to speak? it becomes exhausting. this is a strong reference to the the common phrase: 'not all men, but always a man' it’s not all men, but the pattern is consistent enough that many women HAVE to anticipate it. it is not all men that are misogynistic, obviously. but it's enough for women to be afraid of. especially in the gaming space. which is why a lot of women will choose to mute and not use voice chat. which is my entire point. women shouldn't have to disadvantage themselves to play a game they enjoy, they shouldn't be expected to do all this work (voicechangers, name changes) to hide their gender in order to be able to enjoy a game. which is why i, and many other women are speaking out about this stuff. league has become a game where that anonymity and safety is still there, a game where it isn't mandatory to breach that. and voice chat is scary. the key word here, is 'shouldn't'. we know it will keep happening, we know that there's nothing that can be done in the long run to STOP MISOGYNY. that's unreasonable. no one expects that. but we are allowed to speak out about it, and people are allowed to be upset at this decision.. because we have voices. because so many others know how it goes in other games. people are allowed to complain, like many of you are about my post. all of you are vocal about the things you care about, so why wouldn't others be too? - 2. 'man on man harassment happens too/happens more/it isn't just women getting harassed': lots to cover so i'll section it out - man on man harassment happens too, it's not just women getting harassed!! stop acting like you're special both exist, the difference that i'm highlighting is what triggers it a man being flamed ingame isn't connected to centuries of social exclusion from many spaces. a man being harassed by another man is usually connected to skill, rank, strategical mistakes, ego problems, and the latter. it BEGINS with performance and skill, not about their gender. (this is not me saying that men don't get called derogatory things for being men, it is me saying that it STARTS with gameplay.) a woman being harassed due to sexism, is usually connected to gender, stereotypes, or being sexualised. it targets something personal, not their gameplay. (this is me saying that women get called derogatory things, STARTING with their gender, and gameplay on the underside. the difference is that one form of harassment begins at the start of the game, and one starts prior. our frustration starts when women initially have to dig themselves out of a deficit that's already dug for us, BECAUSE of our gender. i want to again clarify that this is not me saying that men do not have to prove themselves!! me saying things that women do does not mean that men do not have to do a similar thing. i am speaking from the standpoint of a woman, because these are my experiences, and many others! and.. women aren't acting like they're 'special' for feeling an emotion or two. when you are being discriminated against for something, especially consistently you usually react to it. if you want to use the argument that women are too sensitive, then idek. good for you! - it isn't just women getting harassed then, i'm super sorry that you're getting harassed, or that others are too. i recognise that others are hurt by voice, but in my post i was covering issues about misogyny. i can't be expected to cover every individual nuance. i also want to again clarify that me mentioning one thing, doesn't exclude others. i'm just covering that one thing. when someone speaks about apples, it doesn't mean that they're trying to say bananas don't exist :P putting this to more context, say if i saw somebody else getting discriminated against, for something other than being a woman. i don't think it'd be right of me to ask 'but what are your thoughts on women?? why do you hate women and why don't you recognise that women get harassed too????' - 3. 'women complain too much and women are ruining the space': this is a weird statement and not one i really have a decent answer to gaming being male-dominated doesn’t make it exclusively male. like good for you i guess? you're a man in a male dominated space, congrats. - 4. 'just stop playing': that's basically my point! many women, including myself, stopped playing games with like valorant, overwatch and cs because the harassment became too exhausting if you've played in immo 2, you'd get it so then... we stop playing the games we love because they eventually become reliant on voicechat, we start losing out on comms because of said voicechat, the game starts becoming less playable like it once was. my point is, some people want to keep playing the game and enjoy it. they dont want to stop playing because the game eventually becomes reliant on voicechat, like many other games, for 0. - just get used to it well yes.. we kinda have to get used to it to play? idk how to respond to something like this. i never said we weren't going to, i can still complain about something that impacts me. silencing/ignoring frustration doesn’t solve the underlying issue. "women being told to just stop playing is literal misogyny in the form of segregation, this applies to ANY group facing marginalization, and using that as a solution is just perpetuating the problem; and women doing it have internalized misogyny because they are so used to having to deal with it that they have just given up and accepted it, which is sad." - oomf - 5. 'misandry exists too!' refer back to the several times i said that me mentioning one thing doesn't mean that it's an attempt to actively exclude others :P - 6. 'women should take this as a sign not to join a man's space next time!' if someone believes gaming is inherently owned by a specific demographic, and if anyone else tries to indulge, they deserve to be actively discriminated against? we fundamentally disagree. - 7. addressing personal claims you cater to men! - i started actively posting on this app to begin with for my streaming stuff in october 2025. i post when i feel like i look good and i'm pretty sure a good 50% of my posts are making fun of people sending me weird dms - never once catered to male attention, i complain a lot about not having enough girls to follow! - i didn't realise how weird twt was to begin with so as a personal trainer, i posted gym pics. - i then received several dms from people asking for me to 'sit on their face', 'use my face as a rag', even people asking to buy my clothes! and i won't start on the people asking for feet pics. after this i stopped posting a lot of selfies here and i do the occasional pic when i feel good. no i don't want the male attention, but i won't stop posting if i feel good for some stupid small loud percentage of twt. doesn't mean i can't complain you said 'incels' ran to your post!! you called me specifically an incel!! - yeah, because believe it or not, some people who i've experienced before have 'incel' in their bio. if you aren't an incel, i wasn't talking to you? - it's a running joke in my silly little community that a lot of incels come flocking to my posts whenever i say anything.. because it's happened so often that it's a thing. if you think i'm calling everyone who disagrees with me wrong, then you're pinning me to some idea you already made in your head. i'm a woman and i think you're being too sensitive!! when this happens to me, i just stop playing!! its that easy!! - i don't think that the default solution should be that women remove themselves from spaces they enjoy. if the only way to avoid harassment is to leave, it's not really a neutral solution, it just shifts the burden. choosing to step away might work for other people, but i'm personally not interested in shrinking myself out of something i enjoy. i like competitive games. i'm not going to opt out of something i enjoy just to make it more comfortable for others you are manic and insane and you need to find a single player game because you can't handle the heat of competitive games!! - wat - i like competition! i also like fair competition as a man, i've never seen it happen! so it must never happen - you're not a woman.. so there's a big chance that you haven't been impacted by misogyny. and there's a pretty big chance that you haven't recognised it happening to another person in your lobby before. CONCLUSION yes voice chat will happen, yes it will cause good things to happen, but riot games needs ways to mitigate and punish the players that make the game miserable for women. fast. because i know how it was in val and i know how many players just kept playing afterwards, after reports and after tickets if there's anything else to be covered or asked i'm willing to talk about it in dms/replies of this post but if it starts with something inflammatory and derogatory i'll hide/delete and move on :P
