Words: Mio Farrenden

On the December 16 2020 the phrase “Simp” was banned on Twitch. The word actually became popular in the 80s to describe a man who is “soft” or “sympathetic” towards a woman, however the term is now used to describe a man that regularly comments, donates, or otherwise interacts with a female streamer on Twitch. But why has it been banned and should it continue to be?

The baseline as to why it has been banned is basically that it is a rather unnecessary insult regarding something that only serves to help someone. But the true reasoning is way deeper than that. 

Consider this: you’re a man who regularly shows up to a streamer’s feed, you regularly donate since you really like this streamer, and you like to show your support in the comment section. Everytime your tag pops up on the stream someone chimes in with “SIMP!” You feel degraded, unappreciated, and generally insulted. This happens every single time you show up to a stream for weeks. Are you going to continue go as regularly as you did before, if at all?

It’s not uncommon for the answer to be no! Who would want to keep attending a stream where you get bashed incessantly just for showing up? 

This leads to people choosing not to attend streams they would have otherwise, not donate to streamers that they would have otherwise, and not giving genuine interactions to that streamer. This isn’t only an insult to the man you’re calling a simp, it damages the livelihood of the streamer he watches. 

The term is also sometimes used when a guy is being particularly creepy or overtly sexual towards a female streamer as a way to call them out on it, but it’s definitely more effective to just call them as they are: a sexual predator. They’ll get away from that stream much quicker than if they were called a simp, guaranteed.

So, the TLDR to this is that ‘simp’ damages streamers’ income and therefore yes, it should continue to be banned. 

And just so you stay safe in the comment section, other newly banned words include ‘incel’ and ‘virgin’, so avoid them if you don’t want to get banned from Twitch!