Comic Conventions and Cosplay Shaming

Comic Conventions and Cosplay Shaming

Even though we're just getting through the holiday season now and the convention scene for the wonderful world of comic books and other nerdy stuff is in a state of Steve Rogers-ism till at least January. But recently there has been a lot of talk about cosplayers and their intent. Basically many creators and jealous males decided to call out women who dressed up as their favorite characters - characters which are normally designed by males and so the proportions in their body type are generally exaggerated to extremes - Big breast, thin waist, and tall - seems to be the body type.

So having these really huge breasted drawn characters that could really only exist in the comic world come to life in the form of female acting out Halloween costumes in July does lead to some problems. In many ways it makes it so that female nerds are mistaken for slutty dressed street walkers. Many nerds spoke out stating that these scantly dressed females aren't even "true" nerds, as if there was a gauge you could count someone's nerdom and fandom to a franchise or sub-culture.

On one hand, I do see what they are saying. by dressing this way, you do get a lot of attention. Though dressing up as ANYTHING at Comic con will have a high likelihood that you'll be stopped by many people and asked to have a picture taken of you and some random stranger. So it's not so much that it's because you're female that they stop you, but that you're representing a subculture that they enjoy.

Then again, there's situations like every moment of this video;



And that's when I just have to assume that it's not really the female's fault for dressing this way and "asking for it", as many people would say is the case. But the tail is leading the dog in this wag the dog scenario. If female comic characters were so sexualized, perhaps when fans of the franchise dress up in those costumes it won't automatically be lumped together with being sluts.

Or perhaps you should have some fucking self control in the matter and not let someone dressed in essentially their bra and some colorful feathers make you turn into some strip club patron. You're here to see the previews of next summer's biggest nerd movies, not to get a free strip show.

Blaming these cosplayers for asking for such treatment is like tossing out that "She shouldn't have worn that dress" in a rape situation. It's just turned into a "She shouldn't have only worn that chainmail" or "She shouldn't have cut a hole like powergirl". In short, it's all fucking stupid. Learn to, you know, respect someone regardless if you find their lack of proper clothing to be suited for the situation.