The Need to Keep Cosplay Fun

​Written by Shae

Many of us nerds and geeks know about cosplay, and some of us actually do cosplay. The mad popularity of this has conventions now dedicated solely to it. People set up photoshoots dedicated to a single show or game. Thousands of dollars a year are spent on making costumes look absolutely perfect. You even have companies like Anovos who have actual licensing rights to produce screen accurate costumes and sell them.  But while we all love seeing these incredible costumes on display and celebrate them, is there a darker side to cosplay? It can't be all happy and smiles, right?

From personal experience I have seen the darker side of cosplay. This fun hobby has turned many a friend into a ball of stress and sadness. The need to have every detail utterly perfect has a huge impact on the costume maker. There's also a stigma on making your own costume vs. buying your costume. Many would argue that it's not authentic enough or good enough if it's bought. I've seen actual friendships torn apart by cosplay. The stress people will put themselves under to ensure their costume is perfect has often times been a major issue between them. Look at Jessica and Holly, famous cosplayers who stopped cosplaying together for a while because one of them took it too far.

The whole point of cosplay is to have fun. Dressing up can be nerve wracking enough, since you are bringing that costume out into public where other people can judge you. Being up for judgement is hard, especially when it concerns something you love. There has been a movement in the Cosplay Community where cosplayers of all shapes, sizes, colors, and genders have said enough to being called out for their body type or costume design choices. I've talked about CosPositive before, but I don't know if i went into enough detail. Cosplay has kind of had this heavy elite feeling to it for a while, and people seem to be fighting back against it hard. 

The reason we all cosplay is because we love that character, and we're geeky nerds. The CosPositive movement has spoken out against the wrongful treatment of any cosplayer for any given reason. It's a powerful positive message that says "have fun or don't do it" and I utterly adore that. If someone is making you feel bad for your cosplay, don't give them the time of day. If you're a cosplayer and you're doing this for fun, keep doing this. There's a sad truth that most things that become popular can have a tinge of negativity to them, but we nerds aren't putting up with that. Nor should we. This is our thing, and we should stand together for this. Where your costume comes from is nobodies business but your own. Who you cosplay is up to you. Above all, we all need more positive affirmation in our lives. So, let's keep Cosplay fun!

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