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COSPLAY

                                             August 5, 2010
                                             April  8, 2012

   "why do people cosplay?"

   A random question I've seen around,
   that I thought I would try to answer.
                                               DANGERBABY
   Dangerbaby frequently complains about
   the evident lack of creativity on
   display by most cosplay efforts.
   Many of them aren't even making
   their own outfits-- you can just
   buy pre-made ones easily enough.

   And even if you were showing some             I once watched an old
   excercise in craft in making your             documentary about
   own, it's all by definition very              cosplay, where a
   imitative, a matter of duplicating            Japanese woman about
   a media image as precisely as                 to attend a convention
   possible.                                     in costume remarks:

                                                 "I hope I fit in!"

                                                      An American goth-punk
                                                      hitting a night-club
                                                      might very well feel
                                                      the same, but it would
                                                      be strange if they were
                                                      willing to admit it.

                                                         (Are you trying to
                                                         "fit in" or "stand
                                                         out?"  Or fit in
                                                         by standing out?)




    My take is that, I
    personally wouldn't go the        One scheme I like is to
    route of dressing up *just*       invent your own manga/anime
    like some media image             character and begin dressing
    (though I suppose I might         like that character.
    dress in the *style* of
    some media image).                             You might then actually
                                                   try to produce some
     But I'm not as disturbed                      comics about your
     by the evident lack of                        invented character.
     individual creativity.
                                                            Or you can leave
                                                            it as a completely
     (a) I think that a sub-culture                         fictitious fiction
         can be engaged with a                              and see if anyone
         creative enterprise, even     In other words,      notices.
         though it's individual        I believe in
         members are engaged in        cultural evolution.
         making very small steps.
                                                   The otaku subculture may be
     (b) The individuals involved,                 a creative entity taken as
         from their own point of                   a whole, and that entity
         view strike me as people                  may include the various
         engaged with daring,                      support industries that
         courageous acts.  They're                 supply the ready-made
         breaking from the mainstream,             Sailor Moon wands and
         and finding a place where                 Bleach swords that allow
         other, unusual impulses are               the least creative
         sanctioned.                               consumers to play the game.


                   BEATNIK_59


Taking one case, what do you see here:

  [ref]


The evident insecurity, the conflict
between exhibitionism and shyness.                 (She would look
                                                   better if she
   A head in a turmoil of strange impulses         learned to work it,
   and rampant insecurities, and yet this          to project a sense
   is someone engaged with the world,              of confidence, of
   trying to find an outlet, a way to work         being comfortable
   with what she is, a group of people who         in her own skin.)
   may understand what she is.

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