This girl's blog is starting to make my stomach turn and I'm only just beginning to read number 4!
Not to give this cos-play snob even more attention but if you are curious about the article I am ranting about here's the link – http://fanboynation.com/avoid-this-cosplay-10-costumes-to-ditch-for-the-2014-convention-circuit/. Basically she is listing what she feels are cos-play don'ts but is more like cos-play snobbery. There will always be the snobs and the judgmental folks and the bullies but that doesn’t have to stop you or me from being ourselves and having a good time. I take my fandom loving girls to cons when ever we can afford to go. Unfortunately so far it's not a lot but things can change. I love watching all the people dressed up as their favorite characters and strutting their stuff with confidence and frivolity. Posing for pictures and catching up with those who are dressed as the same character forming a spontaneous look alike club. In this group of amazing people are often people who are your average get along with everyone type person to the popular type person to the type of person who is normally rejected, called names, bullied and withdrawn. Yet here they all are equal to each other, complementing each other and even singing and dancing with no inhibitions to their favorite famdom tune together! So to read this article on what you should dress up as is actually rather disturbing. It's like the mean girl at school telling you in front of everyone that the new boots you finally got just went out of style yesterday and you are so out of fashion. Cons aren’t for people wishing to experience high school. It seems some folks don't quite get that. As a person who was raised in an artistic family and still living with artistic people today, (my kids are amazing) art is very important to me. I can't help but enjoy and appreciate all the art work that goes into the costumes people wear at the cons. And then there's the theater part of the arts. Many cons provide a time for skits and those skits can be so entertaining and funny. Not just the appointed time for skits though, many cos players do their best to stay in character. It's just a whole lot of fun. Ok, she (the author of the article I referenced) starts with Na'vi from Avatar, that would be numbered 10. She goes into detail about how difficult it is to pull this look off and to me any one who works that hard at a costume deserves some respect no matter how long ago that movie came out. 9 is Wolverine. Wolverine never goes out of style. I've seen quite a few well cut Wolverines and I must say I never minded, the view was always good. Even when the cos-player didn't have great muscle tone there just something about a guy dressed up as Wolverine that works. 8 is Black Widow. I have to admit, this one could be difficult if your going for the sexy version. But really, if you love Black Widow and want to be her for a few days, go for it! At the cons I've been too not everyone had what society thinks of a perfect bodies, but they wore their costumes and they wore them with pride and because of that they looked perfectly perfect. There's nothing wrong with Black Widow having a real woman’s tummy bulge. Sometimes it's nice to see super hero’s a little more realistically. 7. Deadpool. Somehow all the Deadpools I’ve seen pulled the costume off very well. She starts this one off saying, “Who could hate the alter ego of alliteratively-named mercenary Wade Wilson?” And that's where she should have ended it. 6. Harley Quinn and The Joker. Other then giving some back ground on where the character Harley Quinn came from I didn't actually see much about what's so wrong about cos-playing this duo. Maybe that's cause there isn't! 5. Daenerys Targaryen. Love her! Well, I guess if your only reason to attend a con and cos play is to stand out well then... But if your reason is to have fun, dress up as who ever the hell you want to be then do it. If it's the Khaleesi then by all means be the Khaleesi! 4. Elsa. Maybe the cold bothers you but you shouldn't let a little thing like an “Elsa army” get in your way. Wow, this girl is starting to remind me of the villeins in the fairy tales. It's nice she knows better then to steal a little girls fantasy but what makes it okay to steal an adults, as long as it's harmless of course. There's a lot of folks who couldn't afford to dress up as princesses when they were kids or they weren’t allowed to or were to embarrassed to and now they can! Yeah them! Go for it! Besides, Elsa costumes are so pretty! And what a great moral to the story taboot! 5. The Cast Of Adventure Time Oh no you didn't! I can hear MC Hammer in my head singing Can't Touch This for both this one and number 4. How dare she! I am really starting to wonder if she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth or something. What if someone couldn't afford a costume and had no costume making skills. Would it really be so sinful to dress up as a character like Fin because it was cheep? But really I get the impression from the Fin's that I've seen that the people dressed up as him really really like him. Either way, if you want to stop people from dressing up as a character because it's affordable then start a charity and donate costumes to low income cos-players. There ya go! Be sure to put my kids and I on you list of recipients while your at it. Thanks! Ok, sorry, I went off on a bit of a verbal rampage there. Don't worry, I’m back! Fin and Fiona are such happy-go-lucky characters I really don't see the harm in being swarmed by their positive attitude and even occasionally smacked by their lively green backpacks. No harm done, Come along with me, and the butterflies and bees, we can wander through the forest... Ok, I’ll stop. Next! 2. ANY Incarnation of The Doctor from Doctor Who Are you kidding me!!! I can hear MC Hammer again. She, herself even wrote, “Doctor Who has one of the most extensive and fiercely loyal fan bases on the planet.” And this my friends, it true. So why did she dare to attack it? Well, then again, why did she dare to attack any of it. Calling yourself a fangirl apparently doesn’t make one an expert on all things con and cos-play and certainly not an expert on life in general. I would think if one is a cos-play snob they would at least know to keep their negative thoughts about dressing up as the Dr. to themselves or their little group of fellow snobs. But to speak of it in public form is fandom heresy! And then there's her number 1, Slave Leia. I will admit, I haven't been to that many cons. So maybe I am missing something but as far as the ones I have been to there were far more Dr.'s and Fin's then Slave Leia's. Actually it was rare to see one and the ones I have seen seemed to not be having any trouble with wardrobe malfunctions. Still, if you do want to dress up as Slave Leia and you don't want a malfunction her warning is valid as far as that is concerned. But if you are brave enough to dress up as Slave Leia or for that matter Leeloo in bandages, I salute you! (No, “she” didn't mention Leeloo.) Out of fairness, the author commented in her comments area after being told off by several readers that she wrote this for folks who are trying to be center stage and not for people who are cos-playing for fun or the love of it. Maybe she isn't a mean girl after all. Glad she cleared that up. My point still remains. Don't let cons, cos-play and fandoms in general turn into snobbery and mean girl clicks. You all are beyond that. You are a culture of acceptance. Accepting yourself and others without judgment.
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