xQc hits back at Twitch body-shaming accusations as VRChat controversy resurfaces

Brad Norton
xqc vrchat controversy

Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel has fired back at body shaming accusations after a 2020 VRChat broadcast resurfaced, arguing that no one gets to “pick and choose when they want to be hurt.”

Despite being more than a year removed from the VRChat-era on Twitch, a particular outburst from Canadian streamer xQc during this period has now landed him in a new wave of controversy.

A brief clip from an April, 2020 broadcast was called into question as xQc is seen describing a virtual avatar as a “big whale. Get that bi*** off the stage before it breaks,” he said.

16 months later and that engagement allegedly landed a new harassment warning on xQc’s Twitch account. Naturally, it wasn’t long before the outspoken streamer was defending himself once again.

“You get to choose from 100s of avatars. Why would you choose one that’s as big as an entire stage?” xQc questioned during his latest stream. “If someone says it’s big, why would you get hurt by that?

The streaming star continued: “Nobody in real life is as big as a stage. Why are you saying stop like I said something wrong?”

Thousands of Twitch fans tuned in live in an attempt to get their point across, explaining how his comments could be interpreted as “representing body shaming”. xQc replied bluntly: “No, no it doesn’t.” 

Doubling down on his earlier comments, xQc’s argument looked to call out double standards. “Why is it that if people call me a skinny, skeleton, stick, idiot, small man,nobody blinks an eye.”

“But once you say, oh wow, you’re big and fat… oh my god, I can’t believe it,” he yelled, impersonating a viewer taking offense. 

“Nah, you don’t get to do that.

“I don’t agree, f*** you dude, you’re dumb. You have a narrative and it’s clear, you have an agenda and you’re a moron. How about you go ride a bike.”

As the rant continued, the streamer clarified one thing: this new outburst wasn’t directed at “people that are bigger or have health problems,” he stressed. Instead he intended to target “people that justify [one form of body shaming] and not the other.”

“That’s the real problem,” xQc continued. “It’s either something you can do, or you can’t do. You don’t get to justify one and not the other. You don’t get to pick and choose when you want to be hurt and when you want to be hurtful.”

Although xQc’s behavior last year seemingly had his Twitch account flagged with a harassment warning, no further action has been taken by the Amazon-backed platform for now.

Certainly not the only recent action that stepped on the line, xQc is only days removed from a temporary DMCA ban, with a second potentially on the way.

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About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com