Twitch Apologizes For Attempt To Refer To Women as Womxn Following Backlash

Josh Berger |

Mar 2, 2021

Twitch has apologized for their attempt to promote Women’s History Month as ‘Womxn’s History Month’ following a wave of backlash from the LGBTQ+ community, excluding anything that doesn’t fit into their woke narrative, while failing to realise that this is, well, quite the opposite of being inclusive.

On the morning of March 1st, Twitch shared a short clip to their official Twitter account which unexpectedly, albeit unsurprisingly, revealed that the platform had decided to ditch the word “man” in “woman” when referencing their site wide celebration of Women’s History Month.

Alongside the clip, Twitch wrote a short message, noting that “March is Womxn’s History Month,” and asking users to “join us in celebrating and supporting all the Womxn creating their own worlds, building their communities, and leading the way on Twitch.”

Admittedly, the clip itself is pretty inoffensive, featuring a small handful of Twitch streamers who briefly explain some of the reasons why inclusivity is so important to them (while also amusingly attempting to promote the use of ‘womxn’ by pronouncing ‘women’ with a muffled ‘e’ sound).

In the clip, Twitch user JordinLaine mentions that “Womxn creators are shaping this industry in such a beautiful way, simply by being themselves,” while fellow Twitch streamer mmmkhayyy states that “I celebrate womxn on Twitch every day, by being the representation that I seek,” which is borderline adorable, considering that most video game players actually find representation by simply watching other people who also happen to play video games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiF8a_aSF6I

As per the popular streaming platform’s official website for “Womxn’s History Month”, it is stated that “Twitch is a place where creators can build their world and have their voice heard. And womxn are doing that live, every day,” committing to help women content creators to build their communities.

Interestingly enough, Twitch’s clip has been getting some mixed reactions from SJWs and those who do not buy into gender politics, making the replies to the clip posted above even the more amusing to read.

Outraged Twitter user @calicokritter makes quite the compelling point by explaining how this is actually offensive towards trans women, as the ‘X’ in “womxn” makes it seem like Twitch didn’t think they fit into the women category.

One user, @Silverwingprime, called the live streaming service out for “buying into every half-baked fauxgressive idea that dribble from the mouths of your overpaid diversity consultants.”

The most-liked comment in response to @Silverwingprime also brings up the similar issue concerning the use of the word Latinx, particularly during Hispanic Heritage Month, as @AcrobatMission asserted that they “really hate it when they call me “Latinx” when Hispanic Heritage Month or anything involving us rolls around.”

“That’s not how Spanish works and I don’t need to have words butchered like that to cater to me,” they added.

However, despite the company’s enthusiasm for their attempt to cater to the social justice warrior demographic (which, in actuality, alienated half of it), Twitch quickly deleted their initial post and issued an apology, explaining that they used ‘womxn’ in order to”use a word that acknowledges the shortcoming of gender-binary language.”

“After hearing directly from you, including members of the LGBTQIA+ community on Twitch, we will be using the spelling ‘women’ moving forward,” said Twitch.

“We want to assure you that we have, and will continue to, work with the LGBTQIA+ community,” the streaming platform added. “We’re still learning. Our good intentions don’t always equate to positive impact, but we’re committed to growing from these experiences, doing better, and ensuring we’re inclusive to all.”

It is almost poetic how pandering to specific groups never ends well for those who keep trying to hold the moral high ground, especially when said pandering is met with nothing by contempt from the very demographic being pandered to.

What do you make of Twitch’s apology? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!