Cosplay News: Cosplay Is Not Consent

Since this is a cosplay blog I decided to mention this current issue. in the cosplay community due to the affect it has on everyone who cosplays. The issue is not one that has recently started but just that it has been recently brought to light and this is the issue of harassment in the cosplay community.

This issue came into the light after Megan Marie - a cosplayer, model, and Community & Communication Manager at Crystal Dynamics (developers of Tomb Raider) - wrote about a cosplay harassment incident in her blog. This incident involved a male member of the press who asked her and a couple  of other Lara Croft (character of Tomb Raider) cosplayers an inappropriate question. This question ended up making all the girls uncomfortable. When confronted about the question the man tried to justify his action by implying that they were asking for that kind of treatment because of the
way they were dressed, which is a terrible excuse. No one chooses their cosplay on how flattering it would look to the opposite sex. People choose their cosplays because they want to be the character they idolize. Sadly, many characters (mostly female) wear slightly scanty outfits. However, it should be in everyone's right to wear whatever they want to wear and not be judge by it. And for the most part Lara Croft's outfit - which consist of a tank top, guns, and shorts(sometimes pants) - is not a scantily clad outfit and those women had no reason to be harassed for it.

Property of Marvel

Now this isn't the first time something like this has occurred. 6 months ago, cosplayer Mandy Caruso made a similar  blog post about her experience at New York Comic Con. She was cosplaying the popular heroine Black Cat when a Stan Lee fan club media group decided to interview her. The interview turned sour when the interviewers kept discussing the size of her breast. Furious and at the verge of tears, Mandy declined to continue with the interview and walked away. Sadly not many cosplayers are as brave as these women and are as willing to speak out as they are. Incidents like these probably have happened to hundreds of cosplayers but nobody has been aware of it. A worst case scenario would be that these kinds of incidents would push people away from wanting to cosplay, which is not something I want to happen. I know that for many, like me, cosplay is a way to be ourselves, fit in, and display our passions; for such a hobby to turn negative would be unfortunate.


But there is hope! Megan Marie's post hit the fan and all of a sudden there was an outcry for equality in the cosplay community. This caught the attention of the wonderful ladies at 16-bit Sirens who decided to start a photo project in order to raise awareness of this issue. And boy was it successful! They called is CONsent and it involves cosplayers at conventions holding a sign that reads "Cosplay ≠ Consent" After some of these photos started to spread on sites like Facebook and Tumblr many felt compelled to speak out about their experience. This really opened the eyes of many within the cosplaying community and they saw that even their own friends could be victims of harassment.

Videos such as the one above raised discussion about what types of actions are not ok when it comes to approaching cosplayers. If you look at the comment section of this video you can see the controversy that lies when dealing with this issue, since treating people by the way they are dressed is a social issue. However, even though the discussion still continues within people on the internet, the important people who run convention have also taken notice of this issue and are now using more stronger measures to ensure the safety of con attendees.  

Now people can feel safer when attending these cons. But the convention staffs aren't the only ones with solutions to this issue. YOU actually can play an important role. Your actions matter and how you choose to act at a con can affect the experience of another person. Therefore, try to be respectful of other people no matter what they are wearing. Also, you can help con staff by notifying them of people who aren't acting respectfully so that they can take care of it and ensure that no one at the convention feels harassed. 

To end this post I shall leave you with this funny yet helpful video about how to act at a convention. (even though the video doesn't state it, this applies to you ladies as well!)

                                          

Tell me what you think in the comment section below!