Female streamers often have to deal with harassment on and off-stream, and Imane “Pokimane” Anys is no different.
Twitch’s biggest female streamer is no stranger to harassment. She recently dealt with hate raids and has now opened up about a scary offline situation she dealt with.
It’s no surprise that Pokimane is recognized in her daily life. She has over 8.9 million followers on Twitch and another 6.7 million on YouTube. But encounters with fans aren’t always requests for selfies for Pokimane. On February 10, Pokimane was left so afraid she actually had to run away from two men.
Pokimane took to Instagram to share her story. She explained that she was walking to her friend’s house alone when two men started yelling at her in a parking lot. One of them started singing “Happy Valentine’s Day to You,” which already had her weirded out. But she responded, “You too.”
But the situation only grew more inappropriate from there. One of the men said Pokimane could be the “milk to [his] cereal with that skirt.” The men started singing a more sinister song this time around, singing that they wanted to “see what’s under that skirt.”
In response, Pokimane ran away.
The situation was definitely scary for Pokimane, who was alone and in a vulnerable situation. She decided to use that story as a lesson for male followers who may be reading her Instagram Story. While she initially shared the story because it was “cringe,” Pokimane felt it was a way to spread awareness of a sadly common situation many women face.
“Please don’t be that guy. It pissed me off that he thought it was okay and funny to yell those things to me. Likely because I was alone. His friends didn’t say sh-t either,” Pokimane said.
Pokimane’s community rallied behind her with support, which she thanked them for. She said that she hopes her community will stay safe and “look out for your friends.”
Permanently banned Twitch streamer Jidon “JiDion” Adam decided to send his fans to harass Pokimane’s chat during a stream in January. The toxicity got so bad that Pokimane had to end her stream early. After the incident, JiDion continued to make fun of Pokimane and encourage his fans to harass her on other social media platforms.
The harassment led Twitch to permanently ban JiDion from the streaming platform. While Tyler “Ninja” Blevins joked that he would talk to his people at Twitch, JiDion has since apologized to Pokimane and accepted the punishment. The harassment has died down for Pokimane since then but she is still calling for Ninja and his wife Jessica Blevins to apologize for their part in the drama.
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