Having a couple of days out of the year to dress up, gather amongst friends, and enjoy the life of fantasy does not seem so bad. Cosplay, to this day, is still considered crazy by those who have not even experienced it. That leads me to believe that outsiders should not define a subculture because of two reasons, their lack of knowledge, and their lack of personal experience within that subculture.
Cosplay, is the activity of dressing up as a character from a work of fiction. At these events, hundreds, if not thousands of people, young and old, join together to celebrate, express and share the love for their favorite fictional characters from comic books, video games, television shows etc. When fans of sports dress up as their favorite players or teams, representing them by wearing jerseys or painting their faces, it is the same thing as someone dressing up attending cosplay. The main difference is commitment and creativity.
“In 2013, Linda Stasi published a review in The New York Post of the SyFy channel program Heroes of Cosplay” (Rawson 2345). Basing her opinions on the television show alone, she calls those who attend cosplay “confused” (Stasi 2345), and “weird” (Stasi 2362). She goes on by insinuating at the financial wealth of those who attend cosplay, saying that “no one seems rich” (Stasi 2362), and at the end of her article, she even explains to her readers that the folks who attend cosplay, “really want to be the fictional characters they portray” (Stasi 2362). It is not just what she says that comes across as rude, because I doubt that was her intentions by any means, but it is how she words her sentences. Although the word “weird,” for me personally, is a word of endearment, meaning nothing less then unique, I can not help but disagree with how she wrote it. Calling cosplay itself, and the people who attend weird and confused, based off the limited amount of resources for her research, came across as pure judgmental, and not in the good way. If she had substituted those words, it could have made a different impact.
As for cosplayers wanting to become the characters they portray, it is called acting, and they must do a damn good job of it. This reminded me of something a friend recently told me, which was that becoming emotionally invested in a book, tv show, or movie is pointless; it takes away from being able to make a clear evaluation on it. He made it out to seem like those who dive deeper than just the words on a page, or lines from a tv show were delusional. What he said reminded me of Linda Stasi’s article. In it, she seems to be a bit confused on who actually attends cosplay, and it came across as her also thinking cosplayers are a bit delusional. She admits that she is not quite sure what cosplayers do for jobs outside of the gathering, but it did not seem like she cared enough to find out.
I am not the only one who disagrees with Lisa Stasi’s article. The day after her review was posted in the New York Post, Elisa Melendez, a writer for the Miami New Times, wrote her own review defending cosplay and the people who attend. She writes “No need to wonder anymore ‘what these folks do to earn a living’; anyone from your dentist to that adjunct professor/ freelance writer over there (cough) can be a potential cosplayer” (Melendez 2362).
Cosplayers are everyday people having fun and showing appreciation towards something they find fascinating. Melendez wrote that “the article portrays the cosplay community as “confused” and “weird,” all while looking down its nose at those who might enjoy the creative pursuit” (Melendez 2362).
Another thing I disagreed with while reading Linda Stasi’s article, was her lack of understanding the creative aspect of cosplay. Melendez, who has been to cosplay herself, actually went out of her way to interview cosplayers and get more opinions other than her own. For Jonathan Stryker, a Miami area cosplayer, cosplay is “the ultimate art form. It combines make-up, sewing, painting, sculpting, crafting, designing, acting, etc.” If anything should be written about, when it comes to cosplay, it should be the amount of talent roaming through the areas. Stasi does inform her readers that cosplayers do, for the most part, create their own costumes, but that is about it. I would have liked to see more diversity out of her writing, a balance that could inform the readers her perspective while simultaneously informing them of possible good outcomes.
If I got one thing out of Linda Stasi’s article, it made me want to attend cosplay even more so. I did not even have to be told she had never attended or heard of cosplay; it was pretty laid out based off her lack of information. Melendez’s writing approach, however, came from both angles. She gave a good example when she wrote “Yes, cosplay is insanely time-consuming. Yes, cosplay is expensive. Yes, cosplay represents a subset of fandom that not everyone is into, that can be jarring to an outsider” (Melendez 2377). She then goes on by saying that although she has never seen Heroes of Cosplay, she as a journalist knows better than to jump to a conclusion based off of one show, and to educate herself thoroughly on the subject matter.
Although I disagreed with the lack of information gathered by the Stasi, the uneducated assumptions towards a group of individuals she had just recently heard of, her inability to further investigate her subject matter, and honestly just the wording of the article in general, I can tell she was not trying to be malicious. I hope this article can teach her a lesson about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. I would have respected the article a lot more if she had gone to a cosplay event herself, formed an opinion, and then wrote an article about it. This just goes to show that outsiders should not be able to define a subculture.
