Smashing through gender norms

冲破性别规范

VTubing does often get boiled down into a gendered game. People look at the overwhelmin success of women in the field, and a comment about how it’s all eye candy and no substance isn’t far from that gaze.

VTubing确实经常被归结为一种性别游戏。人们看着女性在这个领域取得的压倒性的成功，随之而来的还有关于它是如何只有视觉效果而没有实质内容的评论。

PorcelainMaid knows this plight more than many other VTubers. His male voice does cut through the visuals of his model. As much as it shouldn’t be a point of contention, it does lead to transphobic comments (something he takes great pride in quashing whenever they crop up).

人偶妹比其他许多虚拟主播更了解这种困境。他的男性声音确实他的皮套形成了反差。尽管这不应该成为争论的焦点，但它确实导致了反变性人的评论（每当这些评论出现时，他都会非常自豪地予以制止）。

“If you come into my stream and try to say gross things, it’s easy to take it and turn it against them and use it for my own content,” he laughed.

“如果你来我的直播上尝试说蠢话，应对它并把它利用为我的直播内容是很容易的，”他笑道。

"Why are you a man using a female model!?"Roasting turned wholesome, I'm kinda proud of this.
— Jowol | Marionette VTuber (@PorcelainMaid)
“为什么你一个男的用女皮？”回怼并把他们教育得更健全，我还挺骄傲的。
https://twitter.com/PorcelainMaid/status/1584987067758432256

“It’s not a traditionally male role for a very masculine person to be inside a feminine body. It says no to gender norms which is what I really like, and I like that I can be comfortable with myself and just be more open with my sexuality ⁠— more expressive."

一个很男性化的人在一个女性化的身体里，这不是一个传统的男性角色。我很喜欢它对性别规范说不，而且我很喜欢我可以感到很自在并对自己的性取向更加开放——更有表现力。”

“I’ve gotten a lot of DMs from people saying ‘you made me feel comfortable with my voice.’ Maybe it’s someone who is trans... maybe it's just someone plain uncomfortable and they're using a model that is different from one someone would usually perceive [with their voice].

"我收到了很多人的私信，说'你让我接受了自己的声音'。也许这是一个变性人......也许这只是一个普通的、不自信的、用着会被人认为是不贴声音的皮套的人。

“They don’t have to take sh*t from people because they can look to me and say ‘if Jowol can do it, I can too.’”

“他们不需要再在意其他人，因为他们可以看着我，然后说‘如果Jowol可以，那我也可以’"

On top of that, as women started thriving online, male VTubers struggled to take flight until the Luxiem branch of NIJISANJI EN exploded onto the scene. From the early days, Jowol noted it was only a natural reaction to feel a little jealous.

除此之外，随着女性主播开始在网络上蓬勃发展，男性VTubers一直在努力追赶，直到NIJISANJI EN的Luxiem分部在现在爆火。从早期开始，Jowol指出，感到有点嫉妒是很自然的反应。

“When I started, I had insecurities about ‘do people not want to watch me because I’m a man'",he mused. “But I realized no, that wasn’t a thing, and even if it was, why would I care? Those aren’t the people who are going to be watching you in the first place.

“我刚开始直播的时候，我会因为‘人们会因为我是男就不想看我吗？’而不安”，他喃喃自语，“但我意识到不对，为什么我要在意？那些人本来就不是你的受众。”

“I don’t want to use the word ‘male VTuber’ to describe myself. Yeah I’m a man and I use a Vtuber model, that’s it. When you start using gendered terms, you start creating a divide between yourself and other people and that seems really lame to do.

“我不想用'男性VTuber'这个词来形容自己。是的，我是一个男人，我使用VTuber模型，仅此而已。当你开始使用性别化的术语时，你就开始在你自己和其他人之间制造一个，这样做好像很无聊。”

“You have to just stream, and find your niche.”

“你只管直播，然后找到你的一席之地”

VTubing, as a medium, is a powerful tool for expression. There is really nowhere to be bound by the traditional gender norms of society. You can look how you want, and if you want to go the extra mile with a voice changer, sound that way too. It's why there's a massive trans community.(https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/vtubing-trans-creators-explore-gender-identity-safely-2008421/)

虚拟直播作为一种媒介是一种强大的表达工具。真的没有地方可以被社会的传统性别规范所约束。你可以拥有你想要的模样，如果你想用变声器再进一步，也完全可以。这就是为什么这里有这么大的变性人群体。

Fans might have preferences in what they want to watch, and that’s something Jowol acknowledges: “When you want to watch somebody who is male-presenting with a deeper voice, because that’s your preference, I can understand you putting on a label.

粉丝们可能对他们想看的东西有偏好，这一点Jowol也承认： "当你想看一个表现为男性的，声音比较低沉的人，因为这是你的偏好，我可以理解你在贴标签。"

“But when you’re a VTuber and you’re putting that on yourself… it’s not as appealing to me personally. I don’t want to define myself as a male VTuber. I am Jowol, a sexy man trapped inside of a doll. I want to be open to everyone.”

"但是，当你是一个虚拟主播，你把它（标签）放在自己身上......这对我个人来说并不那么吸引人。我不想把自己定义为一个男性VTuber。我是Jowol，一个被困在娃娃里的性感男人。我想对所有人开放。"

It’s an awkward “hill to die on” in Jowol’s words, especially when other streaming spaces are heavily dominated by men. And for all the praise NIJISANJI’s Luxiem, as well as, get for giving a platform for male VTubers, it still proliferates a divide of the VTubing audience.

用Jowol的话说，这是一个尴尬的 "死亡之山"，特别是当其他直播领域被男性严重支配的时候。而对于NIJISANJI的Luxiem，Noctyx 以及Hololive的 STARTS 企划，因为给男性VTubers提供了一个平台而得到的所有赞誉，他们仍然扩大了虚拟直播观众之间的隔阂。

“I can understand why companies would make them gendered, but I really enjoy how NIJISANJI has been doing it recently where they will make mixed-gender Vtuber groups [in ILUNA and XSOLEIL].

"我可以理解为什么公司会让他们有性别之分，但我真的很喜欢NIJISANJI最近的做法，他们会推出混合性别的VTuber组合（ILUNA和XSOLEIL）。

“They’re only making the divide worse when they separate teams of VTubers by gender. I think we should specify on it less. We shouldn't look into it too deep. Let Vtubers be Vtubers, don't look at the gender, and let them stream."

"他们按性别划分虚拟主播的团队，只会让隔阂更加宽。我认为我们应该少区分它（性别）。我们也不应该看得太深，虚拟主播就是虚拟主播，不要在意性别，让他们直播就好。"

性取向不是坏事情你这个笨蛋。
虚拟主播是因为视觉设计而繁荣的媒介。通过角色设计表达性取向是一个在你的舒适区内表达你自己的一个绝好的方法。
只是不合你的喜好而已，不代表你应该反对其他人。

Keeping motivated after seven years

七年之后还保持活跃

For someone who has been streaming for seven years and making videos for even longer, PorcelainMaid is rather chipper. There’s a bit of a stereotype about streamers being jaded after chipping away at the craft for years. He’s far from that though.

对于一个已经做了7年直播并制作了更长时间视频的人来说，人偶妹是相当积极且快乐的。有一种刻板印象认为，主播在多年的直播过程中会感到厌倦。但他远非如此。

He’s competitive at heart, and seeing the VTubing space continuing to grow around him invigorates his spirit to keep pushing the next frontier.

他的内心充满了斗志，看到虚拟直播领域在他周围继续发展，他的精神也随之振奋起来，继续推动下一个领域的发展。

“You’re always happy with your community and you’re happy with what you have,” he reflected, “You always stay grateful and humble. But at the same time, you’re never satisfied with where you’re at, because there’s always someone above you. That sounds a bit competitive, but it’s in the nicest way.”

"你要总是对你的社群感到满足，你对你所拥有的东西感到满足，"他反思道,"你要总是保持感激和谦虚。但与此同时，你永远不会满足于你所处的位置，因为总有人在你之上。这听起来有点竞争性，但这是最美好的方式。"

The joy he has captured through VTubing and his little “roleplay” (not too much, though) hasn't faded yet. And as long as that spark stays alive, there’s no reason to think about leaving.

他通过虚拟直播和他的小 "角色扮演"（虽然不是太多）捕捉到的快乐还没有消退。而只要这星星之火还在燃烧，就没有理由考虑离开。

“I wouldn’t be where I’m at right now without VTubing. I’d be stuck, at a dead end, and depressed. In college I was not having a good time. Streaming was my only joy, and without that, I can’t imagine where I’d be."

"如果没有虚拟直播，我不会有现在的我。我就会被困在一个死胡同里，而且很沮丧。在大学里，我过得并不开心。直播是我唯一的乐趣，没有它，我无法想象我会在哪里。”

“This is the one thing in my life I wake up for, and it keeps me up every day. It gives me something to do."

"这就是我人生中为之醒来事情，它让我每天保持积极。它让我有事可做。”

“I just want to keep growing. I want to feel where I can comfortably be at the same level as my friends without having any inferiority complexes. I just want to keep stream and keep growing to the best of my ability and to keep growing my community to spend more time with more lovely people.”

"我只想继续成长。我希望能感觉到我可以舒适地与我的朋友们处于同一水平而不产生任何自卑感。我只想在我的能力范围内一直直播一直成长，不断地壮大我的社区，与更多可爱的人一起度过更多的时间。"

关键词：