Rebecca's Thoughts

originally from The Battle for Glory: esports, TV, and media I like (and don’t)

1Up is a movie more about pseudo-feminism than it is esports. I think a lot of my sentiment towards this movie can be found in Chi Ngo’s essay The problem with #GirlPower. Ngo talks about Neoliberalism Feminism and the idea of what women are worth and how that contributes to feminism and commodification. Ngo talks about Catherine Rotenberg, the person who originally coined this term, and layouts the basis for this idea.  

“[Neoliberal feminism] encourages individual women to focus on themselves and their own aspirations” so that “feminism can be more easily popularised, circulated and sold in the marketplace… [neoliberalism feminism] is an unabashedly exclusionary [space]” that falls short of critiquing race, class, and privileges as well as misogynistic social and structural systems in place. 

Ngo furthers this claim by saying “neoliberal feminism celebrates empowerment and confidence as an individual pursuit, and when girls cannot feel confident or empowered, it is their own failings.” Rotenberg states that “there is nothing about [neoliberal] feminism that threatens the powers that be.” 

I don’t want this review to feel like a take down of a “chick flick” because I think most of the time movies that are categorized as such are often diminished and devalued for the fact that they are made for women. Historically, cultural objects loved and cherished by young women are devalued or dismissed and I don’t want this review to seem like I am doing that. I just don’t think it’s a particularly good movie, and the number of sexual innuendos, vagina jokes, and general vibes are just not great and make this movie feel more regressive than it should. Unlike other movies in this genre, 1Up is also major cringe. Like this movie feels like this SNL sketch and that isn’t a compliment for either of the pieces of media 🙃.  

I know I haven’t talked about the plot of this movie yet and that is because its like every other #girlboss movie to ever exist. The Wikipedia synopsis for the movie reads as following: 

Vivian “V” Lee is a competitive gamer whose impressive skills have landed her a college scholarship and a place on the Betas, Barrett University’s male-dominated team. But when the Betas’ captain Dustin tells V she’ll never be a starting player, it’s game on. Joined by her best friend Sloane, and under the guidance of her coach Parker, V forms a fierce all-girl team to band together with one common goal: level up to the nationals…and take down the Betas! 

This movie plays out like you’d expect and there is nothing left to the imagination. And thus, I will make a bullet list of things I didn’t like: 

• Outside of the plot, the characters and their dialogue feel like they were written by people who have never talked to (a) a teenager, and (b) a person in their entire life.  
• I think the teacher guy is supposed to be played off as a joke, but it doesn’t hit and is frankly kind of annoying and trite.  
• Also, V is a terrible person and makes all of the conflicts in this movie feel frustrating and unnecessary as there is already very little to the movie to begin with.  

• Its all a Mercedes Benz ad?! 
• The swatting situation happened but nothing else happened. Like this is a serious thing that can happen to people but it was very much brushed off and not explored pass it happening.  
• The dialogue, and the use of the word gank.  
• The game they seem to be playing looks like a lesser cool version of Smite which is ultimately a lesser cool version of League of Legends. Also, I am convinced the video game voice guy is the same voice guy in Smite.  
• Someone on IMDB said that this was the “Pitch Perfect of video games” and frankly I think this description is insulting to the movie Pitch Perfect but also at the same time it is very much the vibe 1Up was going for. The only problem is that they missed the mark, and this movie feels like the anti-Pitch Perfect.  

I don’t want to disparage the real-life misogyny that can be found in esports by making fun of this movie. It is very much a real thing and is something deeply underrepresented in this movie. According to a survey conducted, almost half (49%) of British female gamers have suffered abuse online, rising to 75% among those aged 18-24. Of those affected, 80% said the messages they got were sexual in nature. Over half (52%) of women said they felt worried about harassment. Additionally, in a survey of 4,000 gamers, half of whom were women, over a third (35%) of female respondents said they had received violent messages in the past. Of the women surveyed, half said they had felt uncomfortable while livestreaming due to hate received from other players. Just under a third (31%) of female players have also lied about their gender and remained anonymous as a result. 

Outside of harassment, women in video games and esports are generally not treated seriously. They are seen a lesser, not talented enough, and that their achievements are never their own. In a Forbes article, a pro Hearthstone player, Slysssa says playing professionally is often a “heartbreaking” blame game: “I’ve been accused of cheating numerous times; pro players on the scene have even claimed I’ve co-opped with male gamers.” She goes onto say that “one of the most frustrating things is having someone undermine all the hard work, endless hours, and constant sacrifices that I made to succeed and be in a position where gaming is my career. It’s a constant thing that ‘she’s only getting viewers because she’s a girl,’ or ‘she’s pretty good… for a girl.’ Any support you show another male streamer is because you’re ‘interested in them.’ Any guy you play with is immediately your boyfriend.” 

These are very real problems that women face in esports and playing video games in general, yet this movie does almost nothing to address the problem or add to the conversation. Like, the other teams 8-Bit play in the movie have girls on them, and they seem to be doing well and have the ability for teamwork. It seems that the Betas at Barrett University are just dicks and terrible people. This makes them almost comical, and their misogyny played as more of a joke than a proper struggle. At the end of the day, I think the movie 1Up feels vapid, out of touch, and maybe [hashtag] Girl Bossed a little too close to the sun.