Boards›Player Behavior

@Riot Sexism is Hate Speech and should be a Punishable Offense

Baroness Nashor·8/5/2018, 9:27:13 PM·38 votes·9,631 views

Hi, I've been playing since season 2 and I really enjoy the game. I also like the community and I've made a lot of friends through League over the years. However, there are, of course, a few toxic individuals that make some matches unpleasant. Fortunately, there is an option in-game to mute such players.

However, that does not address the underlying issues. Misogynistic behavior for the most part goes unpunished so there is no incentive for sexist players to stop their toxicity. They are pretty much free to harass and verbally abuse female players with no repercussions. I understand that it may be harder to detect sexism than it is to detect racism or homophobia, but it's not impossible. Sexism is hate speech just as much as racism and homophobia are and it should be punished to the same extent.

Of course I understand that the system will likely never be perfect, and there will always be hateful people working their way around the system, but all I'm requesting is that at least some effort is being made to address the rampant hatred towards women that is just tolerated by the community and Riot Games. And please do not refer us to the reporting system, because in the case of sexism, it absolutely does not work.

The issue has been ignored for years. Here's a post from a female player back in 2011 on the very same subject:

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=426487&page=1

Riot, please demonstrate that you care about your female player base and make an effort to address the issue of sexism in the game.

167 Comments

elo trash8/5/2018, 9:29:27 PM30 votes

the report literally says "harrassment" and "hatespeech/verbal abuse" pretty sure that includes sexism or any kind of being bullied/madefun of etc.... its not an instantly bannable offense like saying kys but it does mark there account....

[sg-lux-2]

Jo0o8/5/2018, 9:30:30 PM23 votes

My understanding is that sexism is already punished to the same degree as other hate speech. As with all punishments, our feedback of whether the system actually catches the perp is inconsistent, as is the system itself.

Gaming as a whole has a serious problem with sexism. In my experience, League actually combats it better than most other online communities.

That said, I'm quite sympathetic to your plight. I've actually warned female friends getting into this game to not use noticeably female names in order to avoid becoming targets, but it would be ridiculous for me to suggest that you, a veteran since season 2, should need to change your name in order to better fit into this community. There's always more for Riot to do, and I hope this thread and threads like it get noticed and acted upon.

SexySoapTurtle8/5/2018, 10:16:20 PM19 votes

I really hope that our next generation doesn't have to go through this crap. Its a fucking game. Grow thicker skin. There is a report button and mute button. Riot isn't going to manually ban people because they made a mean comment about you on the internet. If you got depressed by a comment a stranger made about you on a game. Then I think the problem lies with you. Specially if there is a freaking mute button. And I'm really not sorry to say that. If I didn't no one else would have the gull to.

As a side note, no one should have to change their in game name you're completely right. But I strongly doubt people are targeting you because of your name, and I find it highly unbelievable that you say nothing in game and people just harass you. If your name is ImAGirl34, then youre literally just begging for trouble. When I fuck up in league, I get harassed for it, I get called a retard, and a ton of terms I can't list here. But I don't go and call the internet police. I either mute, or toughen up and realize I'm not in grade school anymore.

You aren't a victim because you are a girl. Everyone gets harassed on league. Report or mute.

JoeAnarchy8/5/2018, 9:57:38 PM17 votes

can you give an example of sexist remarks that have been said to you? sexism, misogyny, misandry, and other typical "SJW" issues are hot button topics right now, but are also open to alot of interpretation. along with that, this is the internet, its not a safe space. League is infamous for its incredibly toxic playerbase, as well as people getting very heated and competitive.. also, if someone is simply posting their opinion, and it "triggers" you, like if a male player said "women aren't good at this game", well that would be his opinion, and as much as any of us disagree, he is allowed to voice it as much as you'd be allowed to say "men are bad at this game".. and i'm not trying to stick up for either side, simply stating a completely neutral fact, and asking for more information before i form an opinion on the post.

ModUlanopo8/5/2018, 11:50:56 PM12 votes

Good evening,

Just so everyone is aware, this thread is being heavily moderated. Please remain respectful of other posters and refrain from incendiary comments. Please also remember that discussing real-life politics and religion is largely forbidden. Please keep your posts relevant to League, the associated behavior systems or in-game experiences.

EDIT: I'm also issuing a warning that any argument that essentially boils down to "it doesn't bother or affect me, so it's not a problem" will be subject to strict scrutiny.

Thank you.

Frothy White Goo8/6/2018, 12:02:49 AM8 votes

[deleted]

Salson8/5/2018, 10:46:43 PM8 votes

So what did they say to you anyway? I've been called polish, so I don't think it can be worse than that.

Eternal Torment8/6/2018, 3:04:26 AM7 votes

While, yes, I agree with the general message you are trying to appeal here, There is one thing that needs to be debunked ASAP. The word Mysogyni. Flaming in League of Legends more often than not does not come from a conscious or subconsciously rooted belief that the male is superior to a woman, it comes from trying to find something to pin the blame against. Women on LoL for the most part receive flaming on the same level males do, the thing however is you should never play the "i'm a woman" card in any argument. Why? Because ANY argument that deranges from the topic, or incites a desperate measure of attempted self-defence (Which btw is bullshit because texting is not actual fighting, thus there is no self defence, there is only engaging offense) is just going to backfire on you miserably because you are showing people your wound spot and expect them to not harm it out of respect, but what actually happens is you ask for it and then are highly surprised it happened to begin with.

When people want to piss of a woman out of any reason at all, they mostly refer to sexism as the tool of use because it works. It is effective at pissing people off. It is rarely, very rarely ever a case of actual mysogyni. That, however, does not stop me from agreeing that the initial message here is "Sexism needs to be addressed tighter" to which I am ready to agree with. However, if that is to happen then the victims must also pay respect to every motive in the spectrum of action, not just the one that sounds the worst.

La Mataviejitas8/5/2018, 10:03:27 PM7 votes

[{quoted}](name=Baroness Nashor,realm=NA,application-id=ZGEFLEUQ,discussion-id=UnRU3BwI,comment-id=,timestamp=2018-08-05T21:27:13.384+0000)

Hi, I've been playing since season 2 and I really enjoy the game. I also like the community and I've made a lot of friends through League over the years. However, there are, of course, a few toxic individuals that make some matches unpleasant. Fortunately, there is an option in-game to mute such players.

However, that does not address the underlying issues. Misogynistic behavior for the most part goes unpunished so there is no incentive for sexist players to stop their toxicity. They are pretty much free to harass and verbally abuse female players with no repercussions. I understand that it may be harder to detect sexism than it is to detect racism or homophobia, but it's not impossible. Sexism is hate speech just as much as racism and homophobia are and it should be punished to the same extent.

Of course I understand that the system will likely never be perfect, and there will always be hateful people working their way around the system, but all I'm requesting is that at least some effort is being made to address the rampant hatred towards women that is just tolerated by the community and Riot Games. And please do not refer us to the reporting system, because in the case of sexism, it absolutely does not work.

The issue has been ignored for years. Here's a post from a female player back in 2011 on the very same subject:

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=426487&page=1

Riot, please demonstrate that you care about your female player base and make an effort to address the issue of sexism in the game.

The only way, this "Misogynistic behavior" would even be plausible, was if you entered the game, and yelled out "Hello all, i am a female gamer, isent that rad"

Jeanne fan club8/6/2018, 12:10:22 AM6 votes

My username used to be 9 tailed waifu, which is pretty feminine even though I'm a dude, but in that time I never experienced any sort of harassment whatsoever, In fact, I probably received 5000 rp worth of skins from strangers. I understand that being flamed is really shitty, because frankly we have all been there. I've seen other people with feminine usernames be harassed, whether its because they were a girl or because they were feeding I don't really know. The problem I'm seeing with this is that people will only really be flamed if another player thinks they are doing bad, that's not to excuse any type of harassment, but to give causation to it.

People might be using specific words to flame people with feminine usernames because they know it will bother them, whereas if the person has a non-feminine username they default to the regular toxic word choices. The game is toxic in its very design, where other players can easily determine your rank as a player, where people will flame because they have a different idea of how to play the game, where 5 people with different strategies are forced together to try and win. When someone does not pull their weight its really easy to get frustrated at them.

If the harassment is unprovoked then yeah, they definitely deserve to be punished for that regardless of if its against a woman, minority, or any one else for that matter. There isn't a question there. But if its sparked because of under performance then I'm not sure if anyone should be punished because its just normal to be upset at someone who is the perceived reason why they are losing their game.

I'm kind of scared that if riot do implement a harsher harassment policy then its going to end up blurring the lines between hate speech and general negative attitude toxicity. If someone is under performing and gets flamed, its just considered toxicity, but if they happen to be a female or minority does it instantly become hate speech? Its what happens in this grey area that bothers me when it comes to this issue.

Back to word choices. A lot of general toxicity uses words that devalue other groups of people. They don't actively go out and call those groups by their slurs, and many of them have no biases against those groups, but they use the slur because its a powerful word and they want to bother someone who is ruining their game in their opinion.

IDK the answer to this issue, Id rather have a system that doesn't word police at all than one that punishes people when they don't actually mean to offend certain groups of people, and they are just frustrated at the way someone is playing

POMÆ8/6/2018, 2:59:47 AM5 votes

Who is that Riot Sexism guy and why should he be punished?

Ash Lockheart8/6/2018, 1:15:58 AM4 votes

Just down vote this poison. We already hear enough of it on all media platforms, and it has already been dismantled. No reason to have it up on league of Legends.

YerroFever8/6/2018, 4:08:02 AM3 votes

I report sexist comments when I see it but honestly, I do see racism and homophobia punished more frequently than I do sexism... but I also run into sexism a LOT less.

I think it should be punishable but that's just me.