Cosplay and Monstrosity
During the amazing time of a convention, the fiction is alive around us. Not just because of the many plushies being sold and the excited fervour of other fans who surround us, but because of cosplayers. We see our favourite characters, get to take pictures with them, and even sometimes get to see them perform our favourite moves as they go across a stage.
Cosplay: A Research Reflection
Anthropology is supposed to be like Star Trek’s prime directive: observance without interference. But like how it doesn’t work out cleanly in Star Trek, it sure doesn't in anthropology either. We, as people, are like drops in a pool, little ripple effects that hit other ripples, and send new ripples from these shock waves. We influence the people around us even if we don’t speak to them - sometimes maybe expressly because we don’t speak to them.
Enskilment and Cosplay
But there are other less obvious skills involved as well. Character choice itself is a necessary skill, and one that involves a lot of different facets. Cosplayers discussed how so many different elements go into it: the abilities or finances they have at their disposal in comparison to how complicated the costume is, what costumes suit which environments they intend to wear it, and the personalities of the cosplayer in comparison to the character choice.
Cosplay and Communities of Creativity
While cosplay is something that may not be necessarily embedded in the everyday actions of wider society, and it can definitely be a form of resistance and subversion, it is not always like this. The wider cultural group, of course, can also be vastly different in different areas of the world, and yet cosplayers see themselves in cosplayers from a variety of locations, as described to us by Blake who found community in cosplayers even when in a different country - a different wider culture.
Cosplay’s Photo Performance
Like aspects of the costume the players pick up on as quintessentially that character, the poses and ways of styling a photograph also have to be quintessentially that character. It’s what cues the viewer into knowing what they cosplayer is referencing. Everything else about the character can change, but these small subtle cues allows the viewer to know exactly what they’re looking at.
Cosplay as Sympathetic Magic
Let’s use Sam’s cosplay as our example case. Sam is the one Sam wished to change - it was themselves, rather than someone else. Instead of using a doll, Sam chooses, instead, a fictional representation, a character they see connection to but that there’s still a separation from. But the connection needs to be actualised through the ritual action of the consecration of the doll - or, in the case of cosplay, an act of performance.
Fieldwork Reflection: Cosplay and Performance
I had heard from participants that being in costume meant that you were able to be less awkward than your normal self because you were able to be someone else for a few hours. I’m not sure if I truly felt that, but maybe it is, like my fieldwork journal said, because I wasn’t alive with it.
Cosplay and Pop Mythology
I think the most interesting aspect of this is in how cosplayers decide on the characters they will embody. When I was first figuring out my own cosplays, this was actually a really hard decision – there was a lot to think about. I like a lot of things, so how do I choose who to cosplay as? Cosplayers generally think of two factors when deciding on their character: the cosplayer and the location of the cosplayer.
Cosplay - Defined
But when I allow myself to be confused and complicated by the field – even my own field – I start to see how things can actually get a little weird. When it comes to “costume play” – where cosplay originates – there are actually quite a few different options, from traditional cosplay to historical re-enactors, to Nerdlesque performers, to drag, and even Halloween costumes. So how do I define these terms in my etic voice? How do we define the boundaries of cosplay?