BEAVERCREEK, Ohio — Local woman Skye Meadows, better known by her in-game display name TheValidValkyrie, has found gender affirmation in an unexpected place: the voice chat of early access MOBA shooter Deadlock.
“It was really weird,” said Meadows. “I was calling for support left in voice chat and one of my teammates just called me a bitch. Later in the game that same guy tried to 1v3 and asked if I was ‘too busy making sandwiches’ to help him when he died. It was annoying at first, but then I realized he was harassing me because I sound like a girl.”
Meadows has been an avid online gamer since middle school, and came out as a transgender woman in August of 2022, but didn’t immediately see the point of voice training.
“There was just a lot of other stuff on my plate. I had to buy a whole new wardrobe, learn to take care of my hair, and figure out hormones all in the space of like a month,” Meadows said. “My friends and family were all chill, so I didn’t really think much about my voice until about a year ago while I was playing Counter Strike. I’m used to getting called homophobic or racial slurs in games, so this is a nice change of pace!”
When reached for comment, Meadows’s teammate, a 15-year-old called x_MrMisogyny_x, had this to say:
“Girls are just worse at video games. It’s like, biological. When I hear a girl in my team chat, I try to make her quit, ‘cuz she’s just not supposed to be there. Gaming is for men, like me.” MrMisogyny had further comments, but was interrupted by his mother calling him downstairs for dinner.
Meadows hopes her newfound confidence in her feminine voice in online gaming will translate into real world gender recognition.
“I think this might finally get the pharmacist to call me ‘ma’am’ when I go to pick up my estrogen prescription!”
At press time, Meadows has expressed hope that she would be called female coded slurs in Valorant next
