The Rude People of CosplayLand

First, let me start off by dedicating this blog to the rude people of CosplayLand. Thank you for sucking so much that it inspired me to write a blog about you.

With AFO being so close and all, I've resorted to getting my cosplay fix by frequenting the cosplay blogs on such websites as cosplay.com and gaiaonline.com, seeing all the wonderfulness that the cosplay community is currently up to.

Or, in the case of the latter, just how mean some people can be to their fellow cosplayers.

Whilst on Gaia, after picking through the infinite "Who should I cosplay as?" threads (which annoy me equally as much, but more on that another time perhaps), I stumbled on this gem:

http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/cosplay-and-conventions/i-was-told-never-to-cosplay-again-because-i-m-white/t.42565019/

A thread entitled, "I was told never to cosplay because I'm white."

This thread is now deceased (thank god), but my experience with it continues...

When I originally stumbled upon this thread, sometime last year I believe, I clicked, read the girl's story and offered my words of encouragement and went on my merry way, thinking that would be the end of it.

Nope.

Some a-hole decided to use this thread as his soapbox to promote his rather racist views of who should and shouldn't cosplay.

Which basically boiled down to: asians should, everyone else "ruins it" and shouldn't.

Through several incarnations of himself, this guy proceeded on a good 7 pages of dialogue with the other, presumably non-asian, participants of this thread. In this exchange, he basically said that asians created anime and therefore own it entirely, only asians can represent anime and its affiliates, and no non-asians have ever made any valuable contribution to anime and its affiliates.

First off, I wasn't aware that there was a correlation between skin color and sewing ability.
Second, this guy was later revealed to be Indonesian, a country that I'm pretty sure has no claim to anime fame.
And third, this guy was not a cosplayer himself.

Overall, the presumable non-asian faction outwitted him enough that the thread was allowed to die. But this guy still really pissed me off. I mean, I knew that people like him existed, but I didn't really think that such an elitist point of view could be applied to cosplay, a hobby that is supposed to be fun.

--

My second example of bigotry, cosplay-style, is a thread that my friend showed me. I don't have a link however, so my explaination will hopefully convey the retardation of this particular thread.

Original post: Some girl (who regretably is a Florida cosplayer...) felt the need to share some clearly photoshopped images of cosplayers, which she dubbed cosplay perfection. Now, nothing against the people in said cosplay photos, as the costumes were really well made and their overall presentation of their character was really impressive. That being said, with these pictures, something was just...off. Their skin was just a little too flawless and the lighting was just a little bit...unnatural.

However, this wasn't even the part of the OP that got me. A little bit further down on the OP, she started to bash what she called "plus-size" cosplayers. What it basically boiled down to is that she said that anyone above a size zero shouldn't cosplay. She then cited such examples as Sailor Bubba, Man Faye, and a Jessie from Pokemon crossplayer (all obviously jokes) as the representation of bad/bigger cosplays.

Once again, I had no clue that there was a correlation between size and sewing ability either.

It should also be noted that once again, the good people of CosplayLand banded together to defeat this evil thread, pointing out that larger people can indeed cosplay and that the above-mentioned cosplays were indeed jokes and intended to be funny.

Now, I am mostly just pissed that I have to witness this chick's idea of good cosplay at AFO as she will be there, in costume. Yay me.

--

My third example of cosplay meanness is a little closer to home (although I didn't think it could get closer than the girl that happens to frequent the same cons as I do). This example comes from within my own cosplay group.

*shock* *dismay*
Yeah, I know, me too.

This is the same friend who was mentioned in the previous blog about cosplay.

We had another cosplay meeting this week where finally everyone was in attendance. While we were working on my Kagome, who was the most behind on her costume, this other friend (the one who doesn't sew) made a comment to her.

The dialogue apparently went something like this (I learned of it later):
Kagome: I really hope I don't mess this up (about her green collar part)...
Other girl: Well, if you do, it's your costume anyway...

Upon learning of this, I was furious to say the least. Not only does the Kagome sew (while the other girl doesn't), she was freaking helping her with the costume that she was working on, while working on her Kagome costume. I mean, how freaking rude can you be. I'm actually really glad I didn't hear this when it happened, because then the shit really would've hit the fan.

Grr...well I'm sure I'll have more things to blog about once we actually go to the convention, so more on that later...

-Kitty