Are women really too "emotional" when on their period?

          Women in sports has always been something that women had to fight for, but how about in E-sports? E-sports are basically competitive video games, which have been highly dominated by men. This leads to there not being as many women in the actual scene, but recently a professional player for Flyquest came out and said that women can’t play in the higher levels because of how emotional their period can make them. Which, sure, the fluctuating levels of estrogen and progesterone can cause some emotions, but is it truly detrimental enough to not play video games? The answer to this is an easy no, with the only case for when a woman may not be able to play video games is after giving birth, but that’s why many professions actually have time off for the woman postpartum. After giving birth women can go through postpartum depression that could affect their mental health negatively, but with the right support and breaks, a woman can recover (Clyde & Lawther, 2025). The problem is that many women are not given the actual support they need after giving birth, which can lead to the problems getting worse, however, a period is very different than giving birth. Blaming a woman’s period is just a common way of excluding women from many activities, and the latest just happens to be the E-sports scene. 

The player that made this claim was taken off the roster for the biggest E-sports tourney, but still holds a position on the team. A lot of players came out disagreeing and showing their support for women, but the truth is that there still is not a high amount of women in E-sports. In a male dominated field, there will always be these superstitions about why women can’t do something, but in the future, I am hopeful of a possible scenario that holds all genders competing at the highest level. 

Resources

Clyde, V., & Lawther, L. (2025). Paternal postpartum depression: emotional and social availability for women in the early postnatal period. British Journal of Midwifery, 33(1), 50–53. https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.12968/bjom.2024.0059

Kaya Yıldırım, İ., & Dirik, G. (2025). Targeting emotion in the perinatal period: a systematic review of emotion-focused and emotion regulation-based interventions. Psychology & Health, 1–34. https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.1080/08870446.2025.2572474