Heroes of Cosplay: I Must Rant About This
So it came to my attention that a show being featured very soon on Syfy called "Heroes of Cosplay". At first I thought this idea is a great way to show how us cosplayers work; how much we adore this artistic costume making/wearing hobby and how you can meet great friends, form relationships and so on in the community.
Judging by the trailer itself I liked it a bit. Then it suddenly went downhill. Instead of focusing on "average cosplayers" as I would say; it focuses on the "heroes" or more like "legends" of cosplay. No offense but these professional cosplayers are no "heroes", they're just cosplayers. Though according to the trailer it will be following the "hottest cosplay stars".
Seriously...
There is literally like one male cosplayer in the trailer; not a good start. Even on the show's official Facebook page I see nothing but what would be seen as "sexy & hot female cosplayers". Don't get me wrong these are very talented ladies and one of them I admire for her beautiful seamstress skills. Nobody average looking. ex, not professional, plus-size, modest costumes, younger people, families, groups etc seems to be in the picture just yet.YET. Now we already have the impression of this show is very much advertising itself based on this as we all know sexiness sells; and it sells well-and so do kickass well known female cosplayers that's for sure.
I watched the entire trailer and the competitions is what irked me. It gave off a Hunger Games or more like Battle Royale feel. Cosplayers must battle it out to win awesome prizes consisting of large amounts of money, merchandise and more! No...no this is not how we act. Some yes; but not all. Competition is only one part of cosplay, yet this show manages to make it seem this is 100% entirely what cosplay is about-trying to compete and be at the top of the game every single year at every single convention we can attend. It's great to win things, especially the prizes involved in these competitions; but I do hope this show focuses on more than just this.
Cosplay is can be cheap or expensive, stressful, challenging, artistic and tedious. Cosplay requires many skills from sewing to painting, sculpting to altering; the endless amount of words to describe what goes into our passion could continue onwards for days. We're passionate about our work, whether it's commissioned, store bought or made from our bare hands; we're extremely proud of being our most loved characters, animals or the strangest of creatures-or we simply love just having fun dressing up.
I really don't like this "be the very best" portrayal. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth already and it hasn't even aired on Syfy yet.
To make matters worse our community has now obviously been entered into the spotlight where media consumed by those who clearly don't do their research have taken time to write delightful articles about cosplay.
Take this article for example which was more agitating to read than I expected it to be.
The writer comes across as completely ignorant and has based this entire article she has written about cosplay on Heroes of Cosplay. How she worded things angered me and how she thinks us cosplayers are "confused" is an insult. Somehow she manages to twist the meaning of cosplay and makes it look weird, a waste of time, energy & money, comparing it to "child's play" and so on.
"It’s competitive costume-making and costume-wearing at comic conventions — events at which competitors-"
Stop. Right. THERE. This journalist has not even bothered in the slightest to research into this subculture and seems to have based it entirely on a reality TV show. As I mentioned before, we do not all compete and competition is only a part of our hobby. It agitates me to no end knowing people of all sorts are judging the community based on nothing beyond television and will only feed the drama cesspool.
"We aren’t given any in-depth knowledge about what these folks do to earn a living in the real world that enables them to spend every waking hour and dime on making costumes."
That's because it's none of your goddamn business on how we earn money to make these costumes. Our real lives stay at home once we come to a convention; how we earn our way through life and continue it stays there behind a closed door and for a limited time we're a fictional being once through those con doors; forgetting everything and having fun as it should be.
There is such a sarcastic undertone to the entire article it's unreal.
At least there has been a major reaction to this which is pleasing to see and greatly enough; here are the opinions of cosplayers with jobs who proudly stand up for themselves.
*Update: http://geek-news.mtv.com/2013/08/06/heroes-of-cosplay-cosplayer-reax/
With much thanks to Syfy, I can only imagine there will be various other articles like this to come, with negativity surrounding it all in future unless something magical happens and good things appear to change that.
I will watch the pilot episode, but I can not help but feel this will be damaging to the cosplay community as a whole because it only portrays what they feel people would like to see and not the true meaning behind it. Not highly damaging, but enough to cause a fuss. We already seem to be having a few problems with how everything is coming to light already...well done NY Post!
I'll remain extremely in doubt for now, or more like skeptical, but I will watch the entire series; somehow. I'd love to see how some of the costumes are created; I've always been intrigued by seeing these things.
Judging by the trailer itself I liked it a bit. Then it suddenly went downhill. Instead of focusing on "average cosplayers" as I would say; it focuses on the "heroes" or more like "legends" of cosplay. No offense but these professional cosplayers are no "heroes", they're just cosplayers. Though according to the trailer it will be following the "hottest cosplay stars".
Seriously...
There is literally like one male cosplayer in the trailer; not a good start. Even on the show's official Facebook page I see nothing but what would be seen as "sexy & hot female cosplayers". Don't get me wrong these are very talented ladies and one of them I admire for her beautiful seamstress skills. Nobody average looking. ex, not professional, plus-size, modest costumes, younger people, families, groups etc seems to be in the picture just yet.YET. Now we already have the impression of this show is very much advertising itself based on this as we all know sexiness sells; and it sells well-and so do kickass well known female cosplayers that's for sure.
I watched the entire trailer and the competitions is what irked me. It gave off a Hunger Games or more like Battle Royale feel. Cosplayers must battle it out to win awesome prizes consisting of large amounts of money, merchandise and more! No...no this is not how we act. Some yes; but not all. Competition is only one part of cosplay, yet this show manages to make it seem this is 100% entirely what cosplay is about-trying to compete and be at the top of the game every single year at every single convention we can attend. It's great to win things, especially the prizes involved in these competitions; but I do hope this show focuses on more than just this.
Cosplay is can be cheap or expensive, stressful, challenging, artistic and tedious. Cosplay requires many skills from sewing to painting, sculpting to altering; the endless amount of words to describe what goes into our passion could continue onwards for days. We're passionate about our work, whether it's commissioned, store bought or made from our bare hands; we're extremely proud of being our most loved characters, animals or the strangest of creatures-or we simply love just having fun dressing up.
I really don't like this "be the very best" portrayal. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth already and it hasn't even aired on Syfy yet.
To make matters worse our community has now obviously been entered into the spotlight where media consumed by those who clearly don't do their research have taken time to write delightful articles about cosplay.
Take this article for example which was more agitating to read than I expected it to be.
The writer comes across as completely ignorant and has based this entire article she has written about cosplay on Heroes of Cosplay. How she worded things angered me and how she thinks us cosplayers are "confused" is an insult. Somehow she manages to twist the meaning of cosplay and makes it look weird, a waste of time, energy & money, comparing it to "child's play" and so on.
"It’s competitive costume-making and costume-wearing at comic conventions — events at which competitors-"
Stop. Right. THERE. This journalist has not even bothered in the slightest to research into this subculture and seems to have based it entirely on a reality TV show. As I mentioned before, we do not all compete and competition is only a part of our hobby. It agitates me to no end knowing people of all sorts are judging the community based on nothing beyond television and will only feed the drama cesspool.
"We aren’t given any in-depth knowledge about what these folks do to earn a living in the real world that enables them to spend every waking hour and dime on making costumes."
That's because it's none of your goddamn business on how we earn money to make these costumes. Our real lives stay at home once we come to a convention; how we earn our way through life and continue it stays there behind a closed door and for a limited time we're a fictional being once through those con doors; forgetting everything and having fun as it should be.
There is such a sarcastic undertone to the entire article it's unreal.
At least there has been a major reaction to this which is pleasing to see and greatly enough; here are the opinions of cosplayers with jobs who proudly stand up for themselves.
*Update: http://geek-news.mtv.com/2013/08/06/heroes-of-cosplay-cosplayer-reax/
With much thanks to Syfy, I can only imagine there will be various other articles like this to come, with negativity surrounding it all in future unless something magical happens and good things appear to change that.
I will watch the pilot episode, but I can not help but feel this will be damaging to the cosplay community as a whole because it only portrays what they feel people would like to see and not the true meaning behind it. Not highly damaging, but enough to cause a fuss. We already seem to be having a few problems with how everything is coming to light already...well done NY Post!
I'll remain extremely in doubt for now, or more like skeptical, but I will watch the entire series; somehow. I'd love to see how some of the costumes are created; I've always been intrigued by seeing these things.
Nice post - I agree with you.
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