I’ve been a cosplayer since 2016, and over the years, I’ve developed some strong opinions about the community—some of which have sparked controversy. I want to share these thoughts in the hopes of fostering open discussion and understanding:1. **Character Accuracy**: For the sake of authenticity, I believe cosplayers should aim to choose characters within their own race and age range. While body type isn’t as critical, I personally find it frustrating when character designs are vastly misrepresented—particularly in cases like Daenerys Targaryen or Slave Leia. This isn’t about exclusion but about maintaining the integrity of the characters.2. **Politics in Cosplay**: Cosplayers with significant platforms should be mindful about sharing political views. As someone with more conservative values (e.g., pro-life and a supporter of former President Trump), I feel this can create unnecessary division in what is meant to be a creative and inclusive space. It’s already apparent where many in the community stand, so I don’t see the need for constant political messaging.3. **“Valid” Cosplay**: While inclusivity is important, I don’t agree with the blanket statement that “all cosplays are valid.” There are certain boundaries that, if crossed, can be harmful or inappropriate—for instance, dressing as controversial historical figures like Hitler at conventions. This isn’t about gatekeeping but about ensuring mutual respect and understanding within the community.I want to emphasize that I respect and appreciate the creativity of all cosplayers. However, I do think that a balance between positivity and constructive critique is essential. The overly cheerful and “everything is perfect” approach can sometimes stifle honest conversations about standards and boundaries in cosplay.
>>10943272>shit everyone already knows who isn't massive faggot the blog post
>>10943272I kind of agree to a certain extent. I have questions tho (genuinely asking here). OP is talking about cosplaying within their own race, body type not being as important. First, race. I'm not talking about white cosplaying as black and vice versa, but in my case for example, I'm not white, not black, not clearly brown but not clearly light skinned either, not truly Asian nor Mediteranean passing, but just like a strange mix of everything. Who am I supposed to cosplay then? I'm too dark to cosplay fair skinned anime characters, but not dark enough to cosplay ones like Yoruichi. What the heck am I supposed to do then. I always strangely guilty for whitening my pictures in my photos, plus I know people will definitely see the difference IRL.I actually have worked a lot on my body to make it skinny but non-anachan level, take great care of my skin, avoid the sun bc scared af of UV damages, but living in a tropical country it's not like that'll make me white anyway (not trying to do that either). But in the end even though my body type is actually perfect for cosplay I know I'm no match for actually light skinned/asian passing girls, even though I've been cosplaying for longer than most people where I live.It's more of a rant than a criticism tho. Please discard this as a feels post
>>10943272the ''we live in a time where these milktoast ideas are consider problematic'' thread
>>109432721: I don't want to see old people cosplaying young characters unless it's for a gag and vice versa.I really don't mind seeing representations of characters but with a different body shape/size/color. I used to care about accuracy too much and could get genuinely annoyed by anyone I thought wasn't trying to do a good job, I still had that mindset in my early 20s which is pretty pathetic but being a legal adult doesn't necessarily mean being mature. Once I actually grew up my views changed. Anyone who is doing their best, is willing to learn, manages to have roughly the same vibe as the character (even though their cosplay is not super accurate), and is nice enough to hang with is doing fine imo.2: it's the (often unwritten) norm to keep politics out of hobby spaces in general, however I'm not going to dictate what anyone should or should not do with their e-fame. If anyone wants to broadcast their views I'm fine with that, it's always convenient when/if assholes make themselves known. 3: No-one, except edgelords, wants anyone to cosplay non fictional tyrants or genocidal maniacs that still directly or indirectly affect people's lives.The "everything is perfect" mindset some people have is present in a lot of creative hobbies, I find it annoying but I'm also not going to critique anyone's cosplay when they didn't ask.I manage my online experience now by avoiding spaces that are big hugboxes. I used to be annoyed when people would compliment anything regardless of the skill and effort. I thought this wasn't the way the world was supposed to be and people who are bad at something shouldn't be led to believe that they're great at it or have their delusions validated. I eventually asked myself why that bothered me so much, why should I care if people "know their place" or not? The opinions of people who say everything is great don't hold any weight anyway. It's like having a dog compliment your cooking when they would also gladly eat shit.
>>10943272Cosplaying as Hitler should be #1 protected right, specially in israel where it is needed the most
>>10943272I agree with all of those, when it comes to whining about politics in cosplay I’ve see both sides overly politicize and whine. Firstly and most obviously leftists regurgitating topic-of-the-day talking points via sharing IG stories of Palestine when they can’t even point to Palestine on a map, as well as halfassed sharing of stories about topics they have NO UNDERSTANDING OF, but because it’s what everyone else in the hugbox is mindlessly sharing they do the same. While blindly calling anyone who disagrees a Nazi and a Fascist without any deeper understanding of the connotation of what those words actually mean.I feel there’s also a growing number of whiners on the other side. Conservative cosplayers always tend to have this “woe is me” mentality about cosplayers because “so many of them don’t agree with me” and how they’re so “ostracized” in the cosplay community for their beliefs, for a party that says leftists are soft babies I’m seeing a LOT of special snowflakes on the right too. If all you share on your story is retarded regurgitated “this is what they took from you” Rhodesian memes or some Trump God Emperor meme from /pol/ I’m sorry bro but the she/they Mitsuri cosplayer with the huge honkers isn’t gonna want to talk to you. Especially since OP is pro life (which is retarded imo) you’d better expect to get a LOT of flak from women for this stance especially given the whole body autonomy angle. I own a lot of guns which is a pretty traditionally right wing belief, but I don’t shove them down everyone on IGs throats nor do I do it irl in every conversation, I make the occasional story about me at the range with friends with no underlying political notions and I’ve rarely ever gotten flak for it and on the rare times I did it was from some retarded shut-in UwU Sof Bean.
>>10943282>>10943286Based>>10943272>3. **“Valid” Cosplay**When people say "all cosplays are valid", they don't mean that cosplaying genocidal tyrants is is a good thing. They mean that people shouldn't be attacked for cosplaying the way they want to. >1. **Character Accuracy**:What integrity of the characters are you talking about lolI saw white people cosplaying Light, Taiga, black people cosplaying 2B and A2 and I don't see the problem with that. Are you trying to say that most people shouldn't be cosplaying as most anime characters because they're not Japanese?>2. **Politics in Cosplay**:I agree with this, but as someone else said, it's good when assholes out themselves.
>AccuracyNEVER do a lanklet if you aren't one, it'll always look wrong. Same with suit cosplays in general>PoliticsFor how much this gets brought up, it really doesnt seem like any issue. Especially since it's one of the only places that brings together both extreme left and right under one roof. Just another classic case of "You won't do shit." Passive aggressive status updates how you "locked eyes with that BITCH" or being an obnoxious contrarian don't amount to muchFor my own "hottest takes"The average shlub going off on any of the following A) not fun anymore B) everyone is cold / distant / mean C) it's OVER for real almost definitely feels this way cuz they're low energy and low effort. Not age, not costume quality or nostalgia fagging. They just expect they can rewrite an established rulebook, then pout when it failed. "No, 2 +2 is NOT FOUR, give me the real answer." That leads to the other>Costhots are more fun than the """real""" fangirlsIn b4 "it's an act." Well they're good at it, and being openly standoffish is hardly a better alternative. If you're into the social and party elements, it's not a contest
I've been cosplaying for a long time the most controversial opinions that I have are:>Cosplay is full of costume fetishists using pop-culture costumes for sexual gratification, which makes cosplaying for fun more harmful to the crowd that legitimately love their medium (for example, anime) and also people that don't share the fetish>A lot of popular cosplayers get artificially boosted by political activists to spread their ideology (I personally was being subtly recruited into this before I called the people doing it out)>There're too many "tourists" that enter the sphere due to the above two reasons, and feel entitled to shit on people cosplaying casually because they only see it as their fetish, or, they're "okay" targets because they believe the wrong thing
>>10944012Curious to hear the story about how you were artificially boosted to push a political agenda anon, I’ve thought this myself and seen a decent amount of evidence to support it but it’d be cool to hear someone’s firsthand perspective.
>>10944097I met some cosplayers through a mutual friend that always seemed slightly off about their interests in nerdy stuff. I just took it as them living deep innawoods for so long that they were basically deprived of anywhere to source stuff initially, but slowly, I came to realise they were super casual "fans" of all things nerdy, rather than, say, a hardcore otaku hard into anime, or a board gamer hard into trpgs. I was invited into what started as a really free Fagbook group that slowly started becoming more and more political. Eventually, I would be invited to "board game nights" and stuff where they would kind of probe at me to see where my politics are, and it was at those events that I was able to work out they didn't actually care about what they were cosplaying as. However, I did almost fuck the main dudes wife (she ended up cheating on him later with someone else), only I had a gf at the time so resisted. Anyway, the group slowly installed more and more radicalised people and was slowly pushed out "politely". I ended up just calling them all out as commies and blocking them online and forgetting about them in real life.I have similar stories involving other big name cosplayers in my country from around 7-8 years ago, and they're all kind of similar. Make friends, they try to convert you, you realise that what they're saying makes no sense and then everyone hates you when you call it out.Without trying to reveal who I am, I ran a somewhat successful anime blog and, while not directly asking, "random" things would be brought up that they think that I should talk about or cover.
>>10943272Another hot take: Unless it’s an actual character from a franchise, do any soldier or specops cosplays if you aren’t actively enlisted or a veteran. Historical soldier outfits are cringe but acceptable… but if you’re some 90lb lanklet or 300lb fatass who had to order a custom BDU because milsurp doesn’t fit your fat ass, don’t go around dressing like you’re one
>>10944203*don’t cosplay any soldiers or specops unless you’re a veteran. Retarded autocorrect
>>109432721. Nah. That isn't what we are going to do. I've been cosplaying for 27 yrs and I know the trends.Main media STILL caters primarily to 2-4 body types, a couple noses, 3 face shapes, and a short age range if you are female. Which is why the same 3 types of girls get popular because they look SO like Elsa, or SO like Jinx, or SO like Princess Peach. We've had 100+ years of media out there and just now we are starting to try other types of people. So no, we are not aiming to stay within race, age, or any of that. Make it well and make it look good on you are the only things I look for when people costume outside of the canonical look. Because media look was allllll about exclusion and we don't have to live that way. 2. Agreed. 3. Agreed mostly. The only validity issue I've ever had was bought vs.made. I used to not count purchased cosplay. But now I feel like we are all just playing dress up. It's not that serious.
