Girls play games. This shouldn’t be news to us guys. Treating them differently because of their gender is never right – whether you think you’re being friendly or not.

I caught up with an old friend today who happens to be female. We met playing League years ago having added each other after a game to continue a flaming fest. We queued up for a Valorant game about an hour ago and immediately two guys jumped on my friend when they heard her voice.

These two guys began asking my friend for her name, Insta, Facebook and number and they wouldn’t let up. They focused on every little move she made and patronised her at every available opportunity. She played twice as well as me but got twice the criticism.

This happens to her eight out of ten games she plays. The comments she gets range from “what’s your Insta” to “get back in the fucking kitchen, bitch” and they’re all absolutely disgusting.

My friend got on Valo this evening to play the game we all love and chill with mates. She left in near tears after one game because a couple of guys from London who thought they were funny couldn’t treat her with basic respect, common courtesy, or decency.

I’m no social justice warrior, but we need to do better than this. Women the world over are the victims of everything from harassment to rape and murder because some guys objectify them and somehow look past the fact they’re normal everyday humans with dreams, hopes and fears – just like them.

It’s not every guy in the world, but it’s too many and any behaviour that keeps that divide alive, no matter how minor, is part of the problem.

For my friend and for girls more generally, think fucking twice before you decide to pick on a teammate because she’s a woman. It’s never funny when it’s the 50th time it’s happened to you that week and it all goes towards perpetuating the normalisation of women being mistreated.