Twitch has updated its rules on nudity on the platform, providing specific guidelines for how much skin a streamer can show on air.
Depending on who you talk to, so-called “boobie streamers,” young women who stream while wearing provocative clothing, are either the downfall of streaming platform Twitch, or a boogeyman that allows misogynists to target women for being women. Twitch has struggled with its policies on nudity and what one can wear on the platform because of these two competing camps. While Twitch doesn’t want pornography on the platform, their community guidelines for nudity would often allow misogynists to rally against streamers they personally dislike, as well as women who weren’t doing anything even approaching inappropriate by platform standards or those of common sense.
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Previously, Twitch stipulated that streamers should dress to feel comfortable in a public place, like a mall. This didn’t help users who sought clarity on what they could and could not wear; different people feel comfortable in different kinds of outfits, and a pair of leggings and a sports bra can come across as functional, sexy, or both depending on circumstances and perspective.
Now the guidelines are very specific: streamers who identify as women can’t show their nipples or their underbust, and all streamers must cover their genital area, “extending from your waist to the bottom of your pelvis and buttocks.” All garments must be opaque—sheer clothing is not an acceptable covering. To the dismay of people who hate women’s breasts, there are no restrictions placed on cleavage. The new guidelines also allow situation exemptions to the policy, which include body art and breastfeeding.
Twitch has also updated its guidelines on sexually suggestive content to be more specific. The community guidelines now ban a whole host of explicitly sexual behaviors, including erotic dancing, simulated sex acts, and pole dancing with “a sexual framing.”
While these new rules add helpful clarity for streamers, and can be looked at when some knucklehead tries to mass report a streamer for daring to wear a v-neck T-shirt, dictating the amount of skin a person can show is just a weird way to think about a human body. Women are already under a huge amount of scrutiny from people who want to police what they wear and how they exist in a space. Creating very specific guidelines like this could turn out to be the equivalent of giving those people radar guns and ticket books. While Twitch is updating their policies, maybe they could take a look at the guidelines on gender based harassment as well.
