Showing posts with label cosplay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cosplay. Show all posts
Friday, August 23, 2013

Cosplay – Fun or A Playground for Tyrants?

12:17 AM | Posted by Maureen | | Edit Post

Okay, cosplay. For those of you who are scratching their heads, I’m gonna try to explain. First, this is what wiki states.

"Cosplay - short for "costume play", is an activity in which participants wear costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea from a work of fiction. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture centered on role play. A broader use of the term cosplay applies to any costumed role play in venues apart from the stage, regardless of the cultural context."

So, it’s about dressing a part and playing with it. Fun? Well, I dress up like a pirate, but no particular pirate so…am I a cosplayer? According to one of my sources, no. I might be a semi-cosplayer. That’s fine, I’m good with that. I could say I’m dressing up as Miranda…or if I felt confident enough I could be Jack’s girlfriend in the last movie. If done very accurately, I might qualify as cosplay.

Though, since I am not the slender Penelope Cruz…I would likely be ridiculed and harassed by the royalty of cosplay.

This is where it can get nasty.

I’ve been watching the Heroes of Cosplay on the SyFy channel. It follows several serious cosplayers all over the country as they compete against each other for prize money and really nice ribbons. And they are SERIOUS about this. And one judge is part of this show, and she is radically serious.

Now, I enjoy watching the costumes put together and it’s entertaining to see the conventions they attend. (I gotta get to a comicon one day…looks insane! MY PEOPLE!)

But an episode this last week cast a shadow on the funness. A newbie to the competition, but not to the idea, came to compete. Chloe Dykstra. She was a kick! And competed as Lydia Deetz from the Beetlejuice cartoon. Along with a sandworm. (Loved the sandworm! Made from a bunch of kitty tubes and a lot of foam…)

Chloe is a rail thin tall woman, who hosts an internet show about all things nerd/geek. And she’s funny. The night before competition, she joins several serious cosplayers, along with a judge, for coffee. Where she is informed that it is frowned upon for someone to attempt a character whose body type they don’t resemble. So…no fat superman. In fact, if you think about it, no fat anyone. Because let’s face it, there are no fat characters in fan world. Men or women.

You could cover yourself completely, try a costume that doesn’t show yourself.

But Chloe objected, saying ‘what the hell, cosplay should be for fun!’ She was stared down, and considered a naive amateur.

Ah! Blood rose across the world and Chloe’s popularity is exploding. She stood up for US! I liked her on FB…as well as many, many, many others. A question I didn’t hear posed, which I wonder about…so…can you be a black superman? An Asian Luke Skywalker?

I don’t know, but I’m curious.

I could probably really get into cosplay…if there were someone I could portray realistically. I asked my source, ‘Bob’, if my lavender wig put in mind someone. He said, yeah, the female hero in KickAss. Probably with that? She’s tiny, she’s young…not a chance I could do it.

Maybe I could do her after she’s retired and taken up eating bonbons for a living?

*snort!

So, what is my point in this blog. Well, it’s Friday, so why be too serious. At the same time, I find the idea of being laughed off a stage, no matter how fabulous your production and creation…because you don’t fit the physical perfection of the character…disturbing.

Nerd/geekdom is facing a lot of internal conflict right now. Accusations of sexism run rampant. And are based on fact, trust me.

Growing times for the scifi/fantasty world. And it’s about time.

There are the strict gatekeepers for every enthusiasm. Be it writing historical, or dressing up like superman.

Do you know anything about cosplay? Have you ever been part of a group held hostage by the gatekeepers? Anyone else watched this show?
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