Cons, Cosplay, Competitions, and Craziness (or, why is the fan community being so petty?)

For some of you who are not as rabidly geeky as I am, let me define a few things before I start:

Con - geek-speak for convention, usually centered around comic books, superheroes, scifi, or fantasy.
Cosplay - dressing in costume as a character from fiction.  It's like dressing up for Hallowe'en...when it's not Hallowe'en
Nerd - (From Wikipedia) a person, typically described as being overly intellectual  obsessive, or socially impaired (introvert).
Geek - (From Wikipedia) a slang term originally used to describe eccentric or non-mainstream people, with different connotations ranging from "an expert or enthusiast" to "a person heavily interested in a hobby", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[eciall] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual." (extrovert)

Okay, now those things stated, let's get down to the meat of this article:

If you are a SciFi (or SyFy as it has been re dubbed in recent years) Channel aficionado, then you may have heard of a little show called "Heroes of Cosplay."  I was quite excited when I heard that they were making a show about us geeks up have a passion for dressing up as our favourite characters.  Already I was a huge fan of the show "Face Off", where make up artists are given only a few days to come up with costumes and make up for characters that could be used in films.

However, I don't have cable since I got married as it's way too expensive here in town, so I have been NetFlixing everything, and Huluing when needed.  I figured I'd wait until SyFy released it to NetFlix and I'd catch up there.  Then one day my Doctor Who Cosplay buddy Matt Holden posted an article about the show.  He, too, hadn't had the chance to see it, but was disturbed by what he was hearing, and eventually went on to talk about it on the Journeys in Fandom Podcast page after watching the whole season.

Now I will admit, that I have only watched half of the first season, but what I did see also upset me as well.  You see, the show 1) really didn't know what it was focused on, 2) made cosplay out to be about entering in contests, 3) and missed the WHOLE POINT of what cosplay was originally about.

Cosplay started in Japan, I believe, and it was a fun way to become characters from manga and anime.  Over the past several years it has migrated its way across the world, and of course geeks looking for any excuse to become their favourite characters embraced it wholeheartedly.  Cosplay is about having fun, becoming a character you love, and interacting with other people.  I personally enjoy going to cons and other events in costume, and have been doing it since Star Wars Episode I landed in theatres.

This show is anything but that.  It's about stressing over your costume, trying to prefect it last minute, not enjoying the con, and cat fights over who's going to win each competition.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE costume contests, I've even won a few at a few places, which is super cool, but I don't make a big deal over it.  I make my costumes because I love the characters and have a passion for creating fun costumes, not for the sake of a competition.  If you have a desire to compete, awesome, but you should be going to cons for the fun of it in the first place.  If you are spending all the con working on your costume just to compete, you're got more issues than I can even begin to touch here.

And there is nothing wrong with gaining fame for you cosplay.  I know of several rising stars on the net who are becoming well known because they are just that good, not because they are looking for fame.  Sure it's probably nice to become known for what you do, but to do it for the fame, that to me is wrong.

Now some of these people were doing competitions to promote their business, and I don't really have a problem with that.  What I have issue with is 1) their attitude behind it, 2) they whined and complained afterward when they didn't win.  I personally have a small cosplay business that I started up, and have found different ways to promote it, and while it would be nice to gain attention perhaps through a competition, I wouldn't be upset that I didn't win if that was my reason for competing.  Just by having people see my product should speak for itself, and in the past, it has.

And the cattiness of these ladies!  Oh goodness, don't get me started.  For the most part, they gave SUCH a bad name to geeks everywhere.  Except of Claudia, of whom I was a fan of before hand (poor girl was SO different than the others featured on the show).  Some of the comments as well about who should and shouldn't cosplay really hurt, because, honestly, according to them, by all rights, most of the people who do cosplay, shouldn't be doing it, myself included.  

Then there was the sex appeal factor.  The very idea that you should promote your cosplay by being sexy angered me SO much!  Not that I am a feminist, but c'mon ladies, we wanted to be treated as equals 100 years ago, and now we are begging for male attention through our bodies?  What ever happened to just being proud of who God made you to be?  I can be attractive without showing off all I own.  A strong, passionate woman is very attractive my husband tells me.  And those cosplayers ladies who are strong and true to themselves are the ones people want to get to know better.

Over all, this programme showed me a side to cosplay that really stung my geeky heart.  I am so proud that God made me a passionate person, and that my geeky likes are an outlet for that passion, but seeing this kind of behaviour in the fan community causes me shame to even say that I'm a geeky girl.

So let's take back the title of geek and be proud of who God made you to be, and accept others who God made them to be.  Let's not judge and choose kind words and better attitudes.  Let's have fun again with cosplay!