Culture

Drag streamer reads Elf Cosmetics to filth after disastrous, ‘offensive’ Twitch make-up stream

Elf Cosmetics ELFYOU

ELFYOU stream. (Twitch)

Beauty brand Elf Cosmetics has been slammed for a Twitch stream that lacked diversity.

ELFYOU claims to be the first gaming beauty brand, “empowering female gamers and content creators”.

The stream, on 9 May, featured Twitch streamers Loserfruit and Autumn to promote the brand and give away voucher codes.

The brand is “committed to inclusivity and diversity” in order to combat male dominance in the streaming world.

However, the stream has been heavily criticised for failing to represent the wealth of diversity on Twitch.

Throughout the stream, the speakers referred only to “females” who game, rather than the more inclusive term “women”, and ignored trans people, non-binary people, drag queens or men who may want to wear make-up.

Non-binary people were eventually mentioned, but only in passing. 

There were also comments in chat calling for the brand to include more women of colour in their campaign, as they focused solely on white streamers.

However, these comments were completely ignored. What’s more, a lack of moderation in the chat meant there was plenty of racism and misogyny.

Clips of the event include the two white streamers discussing the difficulty of finding the correct makeup shades, without referring to a diversity of skin tones.

What’s more, brands such as Gamer Glam Cosmetics have already been working in the gaming and makeup space – Elf are not the first.

The focus on gaming also ignores the wealth of other streamers on Twitch who stream different types of content.

Since the stream, many streamers have taken to Twitter to voice their disappointment.

In a long thread, drag queen streamer Lucille summarised many of the issues of the stream.

“Honestly, @elfcosmetics, this Twitch stream was incredibly offensive. All joke aside, the fact that you couldn’t find not one single Black woman, focused only on WOMEN (despite the fact that more than just “females” use makeup), and didn’t prepare anything is embarrassing,” reads the first tweet.

“You literally are purposefully ignoring the Black streamers in chat who have asked for more diversity. You didn’t have a mod to protect the chat.”

After the stream, streamer Fassfy (who has partnered with Elf) was criticised for pulling up Twitter accounts on stream of those who spoke out against the brand.

Many other streamers have since spoken out against Elf, creating more of a discussion than the event itself.

Elf Cosmetics failed to respond to a request for comment.

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