This article has been updated to include a second apology and statement from Vertagear. Click here to jump to the response.

Gaming chair manufacturer Vertagear apologized today for sharing a sexist meme on Twitter. The image is a misogynistic one, with the "male" streamer's feed focusing primarily on gaming and the "female" streamer's feed focusing primarily on streamers. The message was quickly criticized as misogynistic and removed. [Vertagear stated, "Discrimination and prejudice are the exact opposite of what we want to create and completely jeopardize the values we stand for. Unfortunately, we were slow to realize our mistake and hurt many people with a tweet we recently made. We take full responsibility for the pain we have caused members of our community. We are committed to making things right and setting a better example for others to follow."

The tweet follows other recent offensive messages about women, which were still on the company's Twitter account at the time of publication of this article; a similar meme posted on June 28 depicted women and men as having different attitudes toward gaming, with the caption "Has a gamer PC." with the caption "Has a gamer PC." and an image of a woman.

New guidelines and further measures have been put in place to ensure that offensive tweets are not repeated, Vertagear said in a statement, adding, "While we want to continue to offer something for our fans to enjoy, we recognize that different people We will do our best to be more sensitive to the types of content that may cause distress and anguish to different people," Vertagear said in a statement. Going forward, every aspect of how we generate content will be reviewed."

While the first apology from the company failed to explicitly condemn sexist behavior against women in gaming, the second apology, seen below, addresses the issue more explicitly.

Already a common problem online, one would expect gaming companies to distance themselves from these inappropriate images and the larger, dangerous, and inaccurate notions they represent. After all, what message does this send to the women who are Vertagear's customers?

Sadly, these events are not only an offensive and rightfully outdated concept still in the general gaming consciousness, but also a "like" Vertagear either does not understand its role in spreading these ideas in a labor-saving, low-key meme, or it did not care until it was caught out.

Vertagear issued a second response late Monday, saying that the person who made the post in question is no longer with the company, but acknowledging that the message in question had previously been problematic and further apologizing for the incident Vertagear's full statement is as follows:

On July 18, 2021, we posted an offensive and offensive post on Twitter. While we did not intend for it to be perceived as sexist, nor do we condone such thoughts or actions, it was an unacceptable mistake.

Unfortunately, over the years, our social media content has included similar language and themes over and over again, and this is certainly not a pattern we can be proud of and needs to be corrected immediately to be more respectful of everyone, not just the gaming community.

Such behavior will never be tolerated in the future. As of today, the individuals involved in these postings are leaving our company. We regret this situation and are restructuring the way we do business at Vertagear, beginning with immediately increasing the level of gender diversity in all aspects of company operations, including oversight of all social media content.

Vertagear is working to create a more inclusive platform, work environment, and social media presence and will be instituting some additional protocols in the future to ensure these new standards are followed.

We extend our sincerest apologies to the entire community and to all those who have been offended by these posts. While we cannot undo our actions, we can and will do everything in our power to change for the better.