On February 28th, Yaya Han wrote a post on her Facebook account that read:

“Maybe if I made a FB page about my boobs some of you can separate the kind of comments you post here. I appreciate you all being here but sometimes I think some of you forget I am a human being with feelings.”

Lately, whenever a female cosplayer shows off a new cosplay outfit, somewhere in the comment section a post would appear about the cosplayer’s “physical attributes.” And when I say “physical attributes” I mean “bewbz.” And it’s everywhere. And it’s not just their female friends joking around with them. It’s strangers.

I asked a few cosplayers if they received inappropriate responses to their cosplay photos online. Here are some answers:

Krystal MewPuff: LOL, all the time. They basically speak about my assets (which is to be expected due to the nature of my costumes). But sometimes they go a bit far and speak about what they would like to do to me in the bedroom. Brittany Vetrino: It has been the norm for awhile. I have noticed it for me and my friends. I mean sometimes it’s just us being jerks to each other, which is fine because we are all friends, but when someone random does it it’s just rude and annoying. “Yes, we do have boobs, like every other female.” BetZilla Cosplay: Yes. Most of the time it’s about my chest. Things like asking if they’re fake and commenting on the size of them. Some comments talking about how they’d “do” (or another term for intercourse) me (or the character I’m cosplaying).

If such actions in the real world would land someone in deep trouble, why would anyone think it would be acceptable online? When it comes to the art of cosplay, are some people subconsciously (or consciously) just seeing sex? Where did these perceptions come from?

Could the mainstream media be partially blamed for this? If you are looking for non-cosplay sites to look at cosplay for its artistic merits. you may be disappointed. I googled* Yaya Han to see what pops up. At first, there are a lot of positive Yaya Han articles but those features are published by cosplay-specific sites. As I was checking to see what non-cosplay articles had to say about Yaya Han, I found “Yaya Han and her Nice Boobs, I Mean Catwoman Costume!” and Sexy Cosplay of The Week: The Unnecessarily Huge Honkers of Yaya Han. Yaya Han sarcastically mentioned about creating a page just for her chest. Unfortunately it seems that other sites have already done it.

Does mainstream culture confuse the art of cosplay with fetishism?

“For sure! The average Joe just sees a hot girl in a comic book costume and nothing else. He doesn’t see the hours she spend sewing and drafting, the wig styling, the perfect makeup she practiced over and over, or the time she spent at the gym so she could look good in her costume! All these schmucks see is just fap-fodder. They just see the finished product, sexy or not, and not the art behind it all.” – BeckyTaka Cosplay “I am sure some guys do think it is a fetish, and for some of us it may even be, since you find the strangest fetishes out there. As to why they act so boldly online, I think they think it’ll impress us. And it’s something they would never have the guts to do in person. None of those guys would ever come up to me at a con and be like “You so sexy, take it all off.” But they do it with the safety of the internet between me and them. Will those lines ever work on me, or really any other costuming girl? No. But that is just part of what we do and what we deal with when we put on the costume. I mean, it is a compliment in a very crude way, and a lot of people are just socially awkward and don’t think about it or understand that is not what should be said, and that we aren’t impressed.” – Brittany Vetrino

I continued to ask cosplayers if they feel geek websites, that aren’t cosplay-specific, portray cosplay fairly.

Krystal MewPuff: Well, that personally depends on the videographer. I feel that cosplay is becoming a popularity contest. But it is fair to an extent. Some people can have outstanding costumes but if they aren’t good looking they are often overlooked. Ichigokitty Cosplay: I think that generally the media puts a sexual spin on it. There’s so many “top ten hottest cosplayers.” I often see a lot of sites that list the “best” cosplayers, but a lot of the costumes they feature are store bought or sexy/skimpy and not actually amazing craftsmanship. It reminds me of those halloween “costume contests” where the girl with the sluttiest costume wins.

The Portrayal of Women in the Media

Spare two minutes and watch this trailer for a documentary about the exploitation of women in the media.

There’s a lot of information in that two minute trailer. I don’t want to go off topic too much, but there are some points you need realize about ourselves, the media and our culture.

1) Women are being used by the media to be objectified and sexualized to influence you to buy a product, watch a program or in this case, view certain websites. “It’s a vicious circle.” Cheryl Wild, cosplayer, wrote when I asked her opinion about this issue. “If we didn’t want it there would be no demand for it. But the more we see the more we want. It’s sad, but true. Do I think it’s ever going to stop? No. It’s written in our DNA to want sex and anything that stimulates us sexually. If the industry had more main characters that looked like decent respectable women, then we wouldn’t have this problem. But we don’t because the majority of comic/anime/manga readers are male and sex sells.” Ichigokitty Cosplay writes, “I just think that America is obsessed with sex; sex gets attention, sex gets readers, more views, and that’s probably why these websites try to portray cosplay in a sexual way as opposed to a creative way.”

2) No matter what attire cosplayers choose to wear, no one should be debased verbally. “I’m a person of a certain body type,” writes BetZilla Cosplay, “and I feel most comfortable dressing up as characters that resemble that. Not only that, I also tend to relate to and like the personality of characters in that ‘curvy’ stereotype. I want to be pretty. I want to be attractive. And I want to cosplay as characters I love. I don’t think that doing something that I love, and choosing characters that I like, should warrant some of the comments I receive.”

3) Men, be aware that the media is targeting you hard to buy their products through images of violence and sex. You are more than beasts. Before a tragedy happens, organization needs to be made. Males need to teach one another that objectification is wrong. Call out your friends if they are verbally irresponsible, either online or off the computer.

The Definition of Cosplay

There needs to be concise definitions of what cosplay is. Wikipedia calls it “Cosplay, short for “costume play,” is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea.” I always thought that cosplay was assuming the identity of a character by creating the exact replica of the look by hand and doing your best to act like that character. I feel that this must be addressed as soon as possible. Why?

Because sooner or later, the mainstream media is going to wake up, corrupt, and take over cosplay. Ten years from now, magazines like Cosplay Gen and AstorCos will be replaced at bookshops by Bikini Cosplay magazine. Cosplay fetish books will replace Cosplay In America on shelves. Cosplayer Nation‘s TV pilot will be turned down for another cosplay show hosted by plastic people who are pretty to look at and make good puns but don’t know a needle from a thread. For those of you who think I am wrong about this possibility, that I’m being overdramatic… I hope you are right. I really do.

This isn’t an anti-porn or anti-men post. If a model wants to dress semi-nude with anime influences then that is her right. My points are this: Women need to be respected. Cosplay as an artform must be protected and preserved.

*Please note that with Google’s new policies that your search results may differ from mine.