Gaming has never been 'a space for the boys'. And people were never weird about women in games until recently when lefties started crying about it.

Girls were never into games in the mainstream because streaming hadn't been invented. It was a nerd hobby for nerds, until whores learned that sweaty socially inept nerds would worship them for playing games. Then suddenly girls playing games became mainstream. What a coincidence.

Meanwhile the nerd girls that have always played games started getting called whores. It's only been since the left infiltrated it that the whole 'scene' went downhill.