Featured Image Credit: Xbox Game Studios
Topics: Halo
For as long as there’s been a crouch option in multiplayer games, teabagging has existed. I’m sure I don’t need to explain this one, but just in case anyone’s grandma is reading this, teabagging is basically gaming’s universal taunt - mash crouch while stood over a dead player’s head, and (assuming you’re playing as a male character) it looks like you’re dragging your nards across their face. Classic.
Some people find teabagging hilarious, others might find it a little annoying (generally those who find themselves dying a lot - just saying). However, as reported by Game Rant, a debate is raging over the internet at the minute as to whether teabagging can be considered to be much worse than a simple irritating taunt, but actually sexual assault.
A series of screenshots from a Discord conversation were shared by @JakeSucky on Twitter, showing a number of users discussing the topic: “We get into games where people think it is okay to [teabag] and that’s [sic] it’s funny, when really it’s sexual assault,” one user said. “Ugh we live in a gross world, I just want to help beautify it.”
Another user replied: “If [teabagging] is sexual assault [I’m] a repeated sex offender”, to which someone replied: “I mean it is sexual assault. If I do not consent and someone rubs [their] genitals in my face that’s sexual assault. I wouldn’t be proud of being a repeat offender.
“You may think, it’s just a video game,” they continued. “Well, I grew up with a large crowd of boys who did that for fun, all the time to other people [in real life]. It’s not funny. It’s disgusting.”
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I’m sure we can all agree that doing such an act in real life without someone’s consent is definitely an issue, but the debate seems to be raging on as to whether it should be considered to be problematic in games. Regardless, it seems unlikely to be a behaviour that’ll ever change in the gaming community.