Why no lesbians on Twitch, unlike TikTok?

I've been casually watching some of the popular Twitch streamers since the end of last summer, when hang-out places were shut down and when the platform became taken over by a non-video-game video game (Among Us), inviting those of us who aren't video game junkies to pay attention. (It's more of a board game or party game.)

I've mostly watched Pokimane, Talia Mar, and Wolfabelle, who are all good at Among Us, whereas others I tried to watch weren't that good at it or didn't say much to their audience. That game involves 10 players at a time, so I've become familiar with dozens of other streamers who have been regulars in the same lobbies as Pokimane and Wolfabelle.

And then there's Twitch's sidebar of popular streamers currently doing their thing, which I've clicked through now and again just to see who else, and what else, is big on the platform. I don't watch compilations on YouTube of streamers, but I do occasionally click on suggested brief clips.

So while I don't know who the indie / obscure ones are, or what tiny sub-cultures may exist, I've got a decent overview of what the scene is like.

One of the most striking things about Twitch, especially compared to the best platform for content today -- TikTok -- is the total absence of lesbians and lesbian-themed content. They both use an audio-visual medium, they both focus on "slice of life" and hobbies and lifestyle themes. They're both dominated by people born in the late '90s and afterward (creators and audience alike). They both eschew social-cultural conservatives. So what gives?

It's not that there are no homos on Twitch -- seemingly a majority of the guys are gay, whether openly or closeted or actively bearded by the female streamers. (Since the stakes of celeb status are lower on Twitch than in Hollywood, though, the gay and his beard barely keep up appearances, and the gay will even "jokingly" flirt with the other guys present.)

There are trannies and other male gender-benders, not to mention furries, among the popular accounts.

And a fair amount of the girls are bi or bi-curious.

But actual lesbians? Nowhere to be found. Some may be hiding it, and lesbians are not flamingly obvious like gays are, but their presence is nearly invisible compared to that of gays, trannies, and bi girls.

It's not that lesbians are shy online -- they're all over Tumblr and TikTok, and are visible to a lesser extent on YouTube and Twitter.

Twitch is an extreme case of being by and for the "girls and gays" crowd, which includes the fast-living and more degenerate straight guys who are looking for the fast-living straight girls who prefer gays as their bffs. Bi girls are closer to gay guys than they are to lesbians (fast-living, promiscuous, wild-child types). There's very little of the "lads and lesbians" crowd, which includes the tradwife-sympathizing straight girls who are looking for the more wholesome and slow-living straight guys whose interests overlap with those of lesbians (home cooking, arts & crafts, outdoorsy activities, etc.).

The only one who's pinged my lezdar is Talia Mar, who is bearding a more popular gay streamer. Pokimane and Wolfabelle are both bi or bi-curious, though. (I know: "you're not bi, you're just a girl born in the late '90s.)

By far the main category of content on Twitch is video games, and that means a more juvenile crowd. The main difference between gays and lesbians is the direction of their developmental life-stage disorder -- gays are stuck in the 5 year-old boy stage (ewww, girls are yucky), whereas lesbians are already in the peri-menopausal stage (ugh, sex? let's just move in together and cuddle).

Naturally lesbians are less interested in juvenile pursuits like video games, so they mostly avoid a platform centered around them. That goes for the "lads" in the lads-and-lesbians group as well. Juvenile pursuits will attract gays, bi girls, and immature straight guys, and that's exactly who makes up the Twitch population.

The other major content category is titty streamer (rarely, a booty streamer). It doesn't matter if she's playing video games, cooking, lounging by the pool, dancing, working out -- the point is showing off her body and getting thirsty guys to give her money somehow. I'm still unclear how they make their money -- through donations on stream, using the stream to advertise their Only Fans account, etc. But the few times I've given these channels a view, the name "Dubai" has popped up several times, so I assume some are using it as the front-end of a yacht girl escort service.

Lesbians, being peri-menopausal, are post-horny and don't resonate with these thinly disguised appeals to desperate horniness. It's not just that the target audience is male, and lesbians are female -- bi girls are fascinated by girls who are dancers, fitness trainers, strippers, and the like, and would most definitely make out with them or more. But then, bi girls are not peri-menopausal like lesbians, so they still have a strong sex drive. Mainly, though, the target audience is immature straight guys, for whom this is like the Victoria's Secret catalog to a middle schooler, letting them feel less pathetic than if they consumed outright hardcore pornography (and less severely punishable by their parents).

I'm not sure Twitch could start promoting streamers who could expand the audience to include lads and lesbians, since its branding is so extreme in the "immature urbanite bugman pod-life" direction. The streamers and their chat non-ironically and approvingly refer to themselves as degenerates and degens. Lads and lesbians would want to see somebody stream activities taking place outdoors -- having a picnic, going on a camping trip, gardening, vintage-hunting at thrift stores, etc. Or if indoors, something homespun and craftsy rather than outsourced and mass-made -- cooking, sewing, home maintenance, car maintenance, etc.

By now, the Twitch brand is entangled with the various food delivery app brands, which prevents home cooking -- one of the most appealing activities for the lads and lesbians group -- from becoming a major content category. You're supposed to tap your phone and wait for a foreign slave to deliver your overpriced fast-food bag, not transform affordable raw ingredients into a finished meal using kitchen tools. (Twitch bugmen won't even fry their own eggs or brew their own coffee.)

I don't think live-podcasting would make a difference either. Sure, lesbians have takes like everyone else does, and dish them out on take-based platforms like Twitter and YouTube. But streaming for hours on end, on a regular basis? That's way too chatty and gossipy and spotlight-seeking to appeal to lesbians. Just like the recorded podcast and the daily talk show formats, it would be far more dominated by gays than lesbians.

Observing their near total absence from the most bugman-branded podlife platform has only solidified my view of lesbians as the most wholesome and respectable of the non-hetero population. And likewise my view of TikTok as the coolest platform out there right now.