Thoughts On Cosplay Hate

There are many wonderful things about the cosplay world.  Like, for example, bringing a character to life.  Or the wonderful enthusiasm that almost everybody at a con has.  You can strike up a conversation with a complete stranger while standing in line, and most of the time, the conversation will continue heartily for an hour.  You’ve made a new friend.  But there is a dark side to cosplay.  There is a lot of cosplay hate.

One of the things I find the saddest about cosplay hate is that it can affect how we feel about our own costumes before the con even starts.  When I had finished sewing Ty Lee and was wearing it around the house, I thought to myself, “What should I say to someone if they come up to me at a con and tell me, ‘You’re too fat to cosplay Ty Lee’?”  And it upsets me that I’d even have to worry about that.  

Cosplay isn’t modeling.  I mean, OK, you get photographed a lot and have specific poses for cosplays.  But I am not a paid model.  I do this for fun.  Should it matter if my body isn’t perfect by the media’s standard?  Which, by the way, is a complete BS standard.

I think the most important part about cosplay is to be open and nice.  Everyone judges, but do so quietly.  Find the nice thing to say and say it.  

Maybe don’t care so much about crossplay and cosplaying different races or body types.  I mean, are you really going to go up to a HUMAN cosplayer and go, “You can’t cosplay Nebula.  She’s an alien.  You’re a human.  You should stick to your race.”?  No!  

Disclaimer: Not Me.

So why would you do that about someone being black/white/Latino/etc?  

We are dressing up as fictional characters!  What does it matter if they don’t have the same body type?  Am I really supposed to be a stick with disproportionate curves to cosplay….any woman in comics?  Come on, folks.  We’re dressing up.  How about we don’t hate and just accept?

Dealing with cosplay hate is like dealing with a bully.  Actually, it’s not “like” that, it IS that.  You can always come back with some smart retort, but that’s not necessarily going to get you anything.  Situationally, it could, but I wouldn’t recommend it for most people.  

If someone WERE to come up to me and say I was too fat for Ty Lee, which, as I said, is something I worried about, I’d figured I’d say, “I’d rather be a tiny bit fat than a lot a bit a ****,” but that wouldn’t be conducive.  

If you come across cosplay hate, just remember that you are awesome and these poor schmuks are so backwards that they can’t be happy with anything less than perfect, which you can be sure does not include themselves.  You are being passionate about a topic you love and harmlessly sharing that with others.  What could be more beautiful?

*I didn't create these memes