Pokimane reflects on “crazy” Ninja revelation after JasonR Twitch drama
Twitch: Pokimane / NinjaAfter struggling to get her head around JasonR refusing to play or stream games with women, Pokimane reflected on the time Ninja revealed he does the same thing.
On March 28, Tarik locked horns with JasonR on-stream over his decision to avoid playing games with women or letting them watch his streams. It blew up on social media and became a huge talking point.
Pokimane shared her thoughts on the situation, too. However, she also reflected on the time Ninja revealed something similar back in 2018 and said it’s “crazy” the backlash wasn’t on a similar level.
Twitch: JasonR“That was, hmm…” she said about JasonR’s take on the situation. “Did it sound like he essentially said that he has cheated on his girlfriend before, and that’s why he has to ban every single girl in his channel?
Poki admitted it was hard to speculate, but that was her take. “At the end of the day, it sounded like he said, ‘I f**ked up before, and because of that, my girl doesn’t trust me around other girls.’
“That cannot be a healthy relationship. That is a toxic coping mechanism. Like, if you can’t even interact with girls in solo queue, there must be little to no trust in your relationship.”
It reminded her of Ninja’s revelation that she believes flew under the radar. “Do y’all remember when Ninja said he doesn’t play with girls, and we all thought that sh*t was cool?”
Ninja said the reason was he wanted to avoid clickbait videos of him talking to other women being plastered all over the internet. He also insisted it was his own decision, not his wife’s.
Looking back, Poki was surprised that people seemed to let it fly. “Bro, what the f**k kind of brainwashing were we under? I lowkey don’t remember, but still, is that not crazy?”
She also thinks most people would react differently today. “At least now as a community, we’re like, ‘Hey, if you refuse to speak to girls or play with girls, that’s suspicious, that’s weird, and that’s not okay.’
Ninja revisited his comments in an interview with The New York Times in 2021 and doubled down on his take. “Accusations [of cheating] are what made me say that about female gamers,” he said.
“I was like, I’m going to do anything in my power to make sure that no one can even start a rumor or make YouTube clickbait videos. You know how to make that never happen? You don’t let it happen!”
However, he has softened his initial stance to a degree. “I still stand by not having a lot of alone time with a woman, in general, if you are a married man. I mean, they could be your best friend, that’s totally cool.”
“But if I randomly start playing with a woman no one knows, people will start talking. So if I am going to play with female gamers, I do it with a big group, so it’s not that one-on-one interaction.”