Dear Anime Boston,
I had a lot of fun this weekend, but seriously, some of the responses to a certain costume I saw were…well, I personally was disgusted.
Do you see this cosplayer right here?
This FLAWLESS person made this dress entirely. Themselves. Handmade, from scratch. I was floored when I first saw it and immediately asked for a photo, and have been awed ever since. The attention to detail and just the clear amount of work put into this gorgeous piece is absolutely stunning. Not to mention the fact that they’re totally rocking it and look absolutely stunning themselves.
Now, in case you didn’t know, this person is, biologically speaking, a male. (I’m not sure whether they prefer ‘she’ or ‘he’, so I’m simply going to use ‘they’. I mean no disrespect.) That doesn’t take away from the amount of work that they did, or how beautiful they look. It makes absolutely no difference to me, and I wish I could have spoken with them in more detail about their work (or at least caught their name!)
However, at the convention, the response was…pretty disheartening. Here’s this person, in a GORGEOUS dress, showing off their work and having fun like the rest of us…and I saw people literally glaring, laughing, and even had someone come up to me and ask “That’s a dude, right? Why’s he gotta do things like that?” To which I responded “Because they look absolutely flawless and deserve ridiculous amounts of praise and respect.” I myself received a disgusted look and a glare after that.
Even post-convention, I’m seeing photos pop up, and whereas I’m gushing about their work and amazing posing, I see things like this from the posters:
And no, I’m not blocking out names, because if you’re going to be a pigheaded asshole then you don’t deserve anonymity.
Why is it okay for girls to dress up as men and strut their stuff, but when a man dresses as a woman in a stunning ballgown and rocks it, it’s a big deal? If a female can dress as a male, then there is absolutely nothing stopping a male from dressing as a female, ESPECIALLY with this level of quality work and beauty.
It’s a ballgown, not a bikini. And even if it WAS a bikini, then who cares? If they’re comfortable wearing it, then let them be.
Moral of the story: Don’t judge people for their costumes and be a rude, pigheaded jerk just because it isn’t your cup of tea. If you can accept women running around in bodysuits and bikinis, or girls running around in full suits and ties, then you better plan on accepting men doing the same damn thing. Cosplayers are not there for your entertainment; they’re there to express themselves and do something that brings them joy. So stop raining on everyone’s parade and go be pissy in the corner where nobody gives a fuck.
An Attack on the Cosplay Community
Edit: This is not a discussion about how “stupid” these girls were to fall for a scam like this. It’s about it even happening. Whether or not anyone fell for this scam, it doesn’t matter. IT WAS STILL THE GOAL. In the case that a girl is sexually harassed in a real life situation, do you say, “WELL YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN DUMB”. No. So don’t do it over this. I have not seen evidence that anyone removed their clothes, but the fact that it was even asked for them to is messed up and insultingIt has come to my attention that recently there has been a scam going around, targeting female cosplayers who tend to wear sexier costumes. The user has been contacting cosplayers on different social media websites, tumblr, facebook, and deviantart included, stating they were from Cosplay.com and went as far as to use the site logo. They requested video interviews via skype, and according to people who were targeted, the user that was interviewing these cosplayers didn’t use sound or video during said interview.
Now, here’s where it becomes insulting to every single female cosplayer in the community.
At the end of the interview, the cosplayers were given a quiz on their character. If you got a question wrong, you had to take off an article of clothing.
I’m furious. This is another targeted attack on the female cosplay community, where people don’t believe attractive female cosplayers know anything about their characters
They attempted to make female cosplayer look stupid and like attention whores. I am absolutely insulted for every single female in the community who has had to deal with this!
The fact that so many cosplayers who were legitimately excited about giving an interview while dressed as a character they love, in a costume they hand crafted were fooled by someone who just wanted to try to make us look bad? No. This is not okay. Female cosplayers are targeted enough as “sluts”, “whores”, “not true nerds”, and have repeatedly been sexually harassed by men in the community who think they’re better nerds
The scammer had their deviantart removed, so I cannot track them down, but I know more than one cosplayer who was scammed and is absolutely mortified.
NOT BAD COSPLAY WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS. THE COMMUNITY WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS. If anyone every makes you feel uncomfortable during an interview, you leave that interview. You should never be told to take anything off. You should never be made to feel like you’re being sexualized, harassed, stalked, scammed, or anything else.
Here is the thread to report incidences, screen caps, etc about experiencing this event to coscom: http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=309404
If anyone would like to come to me with their account of what happened, either anonymous or not, you can email me at NotBadCosplay@gmail.com
If any videos of this end up showing up on the internet, I can promise NotBadCosplay and its followers will team together to make sure they are brought down. This sort of attack on the community is not acceptable. We are people. We love the characters we dress as. We love making and wearing costumes. We don’t to it to be oggled, sexualized, harassed, or bullied. PERIOD.
Tutorial: Cozy + super-easy to make binder for your crossplay
There is a huge variety of binding methods. This however, has proven to be the most comfortable, cheapest and easiest for me.
What you need:
A pair of body-shaping granny-panties (compression shorts??)
A pair of scissors
A sewing machine
Thread
Costs: 14€ for granypants
Time needed: ~10 mins
Step 1: Meet the grannypants
Here they are- in all their glory. The ones you should buy should be various sizes over your regular size to not sit too tight (I usually wear a 34/36 and bought a size 40/42)
Step 2: Make the ‘body’
You simply cut off the pants-part and take the belly-part…
…to try it on. Sweet.
Step 3: Suspenders
Paint on where you want your suspenders to go. In the front and in the back.
That’s the discarded bottom of our dear grannypants. Cut off the seams. We need them.
Very sweet! Now cut once more to get your suspenders.
Sew onto the marks you made on the backside of the body part, using a stretch-stitch. (That gross orange stuff is actually chalk, no need to worry)
Try on again and see how long the suspenders need to be. Fix, sew, cut off protruding fabric.
Step 5: Wear it
Now there is the inevitable soft-porn you were all waiting for, right? j/k. This is to demonstrate the flattening effects of the binder.
Stage 1: Bra (regular Cup B if you wanna know)
Stage 2: The new binder as worn beneath wide shirts or armor
Stage 3: For an even more flattening effect, you can double the effect by simply folding it over another time
Some advice:
I don’t know whether this will work for larger sizes as well! I only have this pair of boobies, guys.
Also please note that I am just wearing this for crossplay, which means, hardly 4 weekends a year. If you bind on a daily basis, I would suggest you to get a professional binder instead!
If you feel uncomfortable at any point or find it hard to breath in it, your binder is too tight and you are putting your health at risk which is stupid and you should just take it off, ok?
When you take on the binder, pull it all the way down, then back up so the tissue is pushed upwards not pressing downwards.
Also: English is not my mothertongue as you can clearly see… sorry about the uncountable mistakes!!
