Long cosplay community rant

therainbowcosplayer:

As much as I love cosplay and going to conventions, I’m honestly terrified of the general community. It has been touched by the toxic grip of Tumblr’s version of “Social justice”

“You can cosplay whoever you want.” unless you’re thin or white.

“Don’t sexually harass or assault cosplayers.” oh, a male cosplayer was sexually assaulted? Well, now he knows how us women cosplayers feel.

“White cosplayers are so annoying.” but don’t say anything about black or POC cosplayers being annoying or negative.

The cosplay community has become a community of double standards. They say you can cosplay anyone you want unless the character is a minority, they say that all cosplayers deserve positivity unless they’re white, that you shouldn’t body-shame cosplayers but it’s perfectly fine to do so if they are thin, etc. The “true canon” of the character doesn’t matter unless you’re white / thin and trying to cosplay a character that isn’t.

The reality is that as a community, we are people at the end of the day. No matter how much we desperately so wish, we are ourselves, not the characters we cosplay. As such, we aren’t a list of traits that are in the characters that we love. Cosplay is fanart in a physical form, you won’t be ignoring the “true canon” because we can’t rapidly change our body types, shapes, etc. without the use of makeup and theatrical props and if you want to use makeup and theatrical props to look as accurate as possible, go for it. 

At the end of the day, most cosplayers are just regular people with regular lives who want something to do as a fun hobby. Why are so many caught up on people hating them because they don’t fit the “true canon” of their character by people too pale, too dark, too fat, too thin, etc.? Hell, I don’t even fit the “true canon” of any characters that I cosplay because I’m short, black, thin, and have big tits with no ass.

At the end of the day…

If you want to be a White Storm, go for it.

If you want to be an Asian Magneto, go for it. 

If you want to be a Black Psylocke, go for it.

If you want to be a Hispanic Hestia, go for it.

If you want to be a fat Wonder Woman, go for it.

If you want to be a thin E-Honda, go for it.

If you want to be a woman Varus, go for it.

If you want to be a man Tristana, go for it.

Any character you want to cosplay, at the end of the day, is a character. Their “true canon” won’t change just because you didn’t fit the image or appearance of that character. Not one single character “belongs” to a group of people like a piece of candy or personal object. How a character looks will not, and never will change how many people can relate or enjoy that character even if you don’t fit what people say that character “belongs” to. If someone doesn’t like your cosplay because you’re too thin / too white / too black / too fat / etc. then that is their problem, their negativity to deal with because I can assure you, changing for them won’t make them like you or accept you.

I’m tired of all the hate and double standards in the cosplay community. I’m tired of people in the community preaching about love and acceptance yet turn around and make fun of or mock other cosplayers for the color of their skin, weight, height, gender, etc. If you want to mock other cosplayers for being too thin/too pale/too dark/too fat/etc., I won’t stop you. Do it. However, don’t expect others to respect you and don’t get mad when other cosplayers do the same thing you’re doing, just to your identity group or the other side of the coin because you did it to theirs. It’s called Karma and it’s a two-way street.

At the end of the day, cosplay whoever you want, regardless of what you look like and regardless of the characters “true canon” because I can assure you, how you cosplay / what you cosplay won’t change the character’s canon or “take them away” from a group of people one single bit.