Swiftalu · @Swiftalu_
27th Sep 2020 from TwitLonger
Problems with diversity in PSR
This post mostly was inspired by May's journal post, if you haven't read it you can do so here: https://maybreak.com/failing-to-find-a-blue-nidoran/
There's a lot to cover in that journal but I honestly agree pretty much everything May has written in there. What I am going to bring to light more is the fact that there is an inbalance of diversity in the PSR community. It's no secret to many women in the PSR community that it should be avoided and only interacted when necessary. But where does the problem even stem from? How does just being stubborn drive only women off?
I am here to talk about something I swept under the rug and kept between a few friends of mine regarding PSR because I didn't want to start something. With everyone speaking up I realize it was a mistake to not talk about it however, people should know what kind of damage their words have on others. I want to also make a disclaimer that I have talked to some people who were part of this situation and I hold absolutely no ill will towards them, in fact I think they have changed for the better after talking to them about my feelings. I want to express these feelings publicly in hopes that this may bring some awareness and possibly trigger some change.
In order to get to this situation I am going to need to start from the beginning, I started speedrunning Pokemon in October 2019 with Pokemon Red. At the time, I was very shy and didn't interact with many people but overtime in 2019 grew to become friends with a handful of people in the PSR community. I was a fairly small streamer and was treated with nothing but respect from others. I was helped by many people in the community and encouraged to improve which I was very thankful for. Eventually in 2020 I became very friendly with many people in the PSR community, I even ended up finding a small group of friends around the mid part of 2020.
After a bit more time I was able to apply for partner and after I got accepted, I was met with a lot of support from my friends. However, at the same time I was degraded for my gender among some of the PSR community, saying that my success and getting partner was due to me being a girl. My community was called "a bunch of simps" (Which led to me banning the term simp in my community), my hard work was downplayed, and I felt like a laughing stalk for not being a top runner but still getting success from speedrunning Pokemon all because I was a girl. I don't even use a webcam. I almost thought at the time this was normal with an inbalance but I realize this is incorrect, I attended a STEM university with a student population that was at least 85% male and never had these degrading comments. I understand that these people may be joking as being around for a year has made me learn a lot of people I interact with have very dry humor, however these jokes/comments were very hurtful and I don't think anyone in my shoes who is outside of the community would have agreed it was funny.
PSR has a major problem of making jokes/comments regarding women, which may seem funny to them and even some women do find it funny (I've found some of it funny too!), but sometimes it ends up being degrading and scares people off. I want to bring this to light, since I still see these comments every now and then.
Thank you for taking the time to read and listen to my voice.