https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb8w98/gaming-company-razer-drops-streamer-for-calling-men-trash-says-its-hate-speech?utm_source=wptwitterus

The Brazilian streamer Gabriela Cattuzzo was recently dropped from Razer and announced "she is stepping away from social media after her personal information was posted online". Here's a summary of what happened:

Cattuzzo posted a picture of her riding a mechanical bull on Twitter, to which a guy replied "you can ride me as much as you want". Then, she replied to him "There's always an asshole to talk shit and sexualize women, even when the woman is making a joke, right? That's why men are trash." She later added that "non-shitty men are the exception". She then began to be harrassed online, including on a notoriously misogynistic and racist Brazilian chan, Dogolachan (whose founder was arrested last year for racism and death threats). An old video of her being rude to a viewer surfaced, and she apologized for it.

A few days later, Razer Brazil posted a statement on Twitter, where they affirmed that they wouldn't be renewing her contract when it expires next week, and where they first wrote the now infamous sentence "We have been since the beginning, as gamers, confronted with all types of preconceptions and stereotypes, and we will continue to fight so that this type of situation won't repeat itself." Cattuzzo apologized for reacting aggressively, but not for defending herself.

I've been following this story quite closely, so now I'm going to say what I've been seeing:

Some people dug in and found out that Razer Brazil's PR department is 100% comprised of men. Razer's statement has been receiving a shocking amount of backlash, with some of the most relevant gaming personalities in the country saying they will boycott the brand going forward. A lot of people have also been pointing out the hypocrisy by Razer's part, since they always act feminist in public events but fire a woman for responding to harassment, when men have said other equally questionable things in the past and came out unscathed.

And as always, there's the "#NotAllMen" crowd too. But those seem to not be as loud this time.

What do you think? Did Razer do the right thing?

I don't really follow Razer politics. In this scenario, they did the right thing but I'd say it doesn't absolve them of past mistakes.

As for the streamer, she should have a thicker skin since she's an online personality. All online personalities have to put up with shit like that. It sucks but hey, she's getting paid and doesn't have a real job ;)

This. You can't ask for equal treatment and then cry when you actually get equal treatment, both good and bad. Life's not a buffet where you pick and choose how everyone reacts to you. If someone is being a dick, you ignore them. Especially if it's over the internet where you can easily ignore their post among the flood of positive ones. You sure as heck don't condemn the entire group as being bad.

The sad thing is because the group being generalized is men, you have people who won't care. Just like they bring up the fact that the PR department is all men. That's a bad thing. Where if it was all women and they were firing a man that would be trumpeted as progress. Of course, if she had thrown in just one more descriptor, like black/Asian/Hispanic men (white would be fine, of course), the same group defending her would throw her to the wolves.

That which is equal is not different.

If a sponsor doesn't like the things someone is saying, they're within their rights to to not sponsor them. I'm not sure I'd have made that call in the situation, but that's their call.

Eh what she said was not nice but she was really mad and we all say things when were mad. Razer is a business and they don't want controversy so it makes sense that they'd drop her.

It makes sense on paper but it heavily backfired.

These are very sensitive/pussified times. Just dont say any groups are trash and dont make excuses.

If you can say men are trash than any group is fair game as well. Frankly, why not just call the people making gross comments trash?

Well if someone said the same thing about any other group they'd get dropped so fair is fair.

1. The Brazillian PR department being all men is not necessarily a big deal. Its certainly not the entire company and clearly they are open to working with women.

2. Responding to harassment is not the problem. A direct comparison would be a black person acting like an asshole so you mock the entire race. She should be smarter than that, but many people believe attacking men is acceptable.

3. If men have done similar things then maybe they should be dealt with retroactively. Especially if they were attacking entire groups. Unless we are just mad the potentially first example made was a woman?

4. Acting feminist doesent mean you have to treat women as infallible.