Desperation of Cosplay

~Saiyuki - Journey to Lahti, Desucon Frostbite 2017~

Sanzo: Anniilaugh / Gojyo: Kizzy / Hakkai: Rorune / Goku: Wooditus

How does the media in your home country treat cosplay? Are they informed? Do they do their research? Do they even care about cosplay?

I’m preparing a talk on the relationship between cosplay and media, and though I am approaching the subject from a Finnish perspective, I’d love to know how things are in other countries. The talk itself will be in Finnish, but if there’s interest, I’d be happy to turn it into a video series in English sometime later this year.

If you have a cosplay [side]blog that is exclusively (or almost exclusively) costume progress/photos/tutorials, tell me its name! It doesn’t matter what skill-level you’re at or what fandoms you’re in or anything; all we care about is that the blog is very “on topic”/cosplay-focused. 

I want to fill our dash with lots of cosplay progress. We will check out and likely follow whatever we get :) 

Recs are good too.

Us cosplayers, especially in this age of social media, are kind of almost forced to put ourselves and our work out there for everyone to see. No one’s actually forcing us to do it, but peer pressure is not just something teachers and other adult humans tell you about to stop you from doing stupid stuff.

We share things online with our followers, because on some level, we want someone to tell us that we’re actually achieving something. 

If we truly only made stuff for ourselves, we would be more than happy to just look at ourselves in the mirror and snap a selfie. But instead we share our stuff with complete strangers - or “followers” as we often refer to them, like we’re some bizarre cult leaders, standing in the middle of a crowd, holding up a photograph of a half-finished costume and yelling “Behold! I have created a thing!”

And so we put ourselves out there, we share pictures of our faces and our costumes, or pictures we’ve taken, or videos we’ve filmed. We do this for a multitude of reasons, and whether it is because we’re really proud of what we do or because we’re seeking validation, or maybe even looking for constructive criticism, one or more of the following things is bound to happen:

No one says anything.

We’ve all been there. You post something you’ve made, or thought about, or seen, and you get a grand total of one like from that one strange person on the other side of the world who never comments but always likes everything you post. And that’s it. You feel like the metaphorical tree, falling all alone in a forest with no one to see or hear. Do you really exist? 

There’s not actually much to say about this, ironically. Your work just didn’t really impress anyone, or Facebook really is being weird again with the whole reach thing, or you posted at a time when no person on the planet is online. It’s not a big deal, either way, because you like what you made, right? You wouldn’t have posted it if you didn’t, right? It’s not like you’re only posting stuff to see those magical numbers go up and the “Person X liked your page” notifications to pop up, right? RIGHT? 

… Either way, it’s not the end of the world. Trust me.

Someone says something negative. 

You worked so hard to make something and a person on the internet doesn’t think it looks good. Or thinks your face looks squished in. Or that you’re an attention whore. And it hurts. You worked hard on this stuff. You wanted to share your work and someone decides to throw poo in your face. How is that fair? Didn’t they teach manners in whatever school this person went to?

Now, I’m not saying this doesn’t suck. I’m just saying that it doesn’t necessarily suck as much as you think it does. If multiple people constantly bombard you with completely uncalled-for negative comments, that’s called bullying and harassment and that truly is a vile, evil thing of them to do, and I don’t think anyone could really just shake it off (and now I have Taylor Swift playing in my head; thanks, brain).

There is, however, the occasional disconnect on what is a negative comment and what is actual constructive criticism. And I do realise that saying this makes me sound like a seagull of the worst kind (I mostly lurk, fyi), but bear with me.

See, someone saying you’re ugly and that your costume sucks? That’s a negative comment. The best way to reply to it is probably not to do it at all. Just ignore it. Really. If you don’t want to look at it, delete it. The comment brings nothing constructive to your life and it’s your page/blog/whatever, so do what you like.

Someone saying they don’t agree on a choice you’ve made while making a costume or telling you your face doesn’t work, is sort of on the line between “douchebag” and “has a point but lacks social grace”. Because they’re at least making an effort at being specific about what they don’t like, but they’re not exactly offering any tips on how to improve on it. They are, however, sort of starting a conversation, which offers you the perfect opportunity to ask them to elaborate. Which in turn means they’ll either actually provide you with their insight on how to improve your work, or they’ll just bugger off because oh sweet lord, someone noticed their grumbling.

Someone saying they don’t agree with a choice you’ve made and offering alternative options for doing what you’re doing is, actually, if only vaguely, constructive. Someone telling you you face looks squished in but that you could be able to work around that by getting better at the whole make up thing is a rather blunt way of giving feedback, but it’s feedback nonetheless.

It’s your choice what to do with this vaguely and barely constructive commentary, really. If you’re not into it, it’s perfectly reasonable. If you, like me, were trained by the forces of blunt criticism (I have a degree in journalism, our feedback sessions were brutal), you may choose to take whatever bits of information you find hidden under all the salt in these comments and use them however you like.

Someone says something positive. 

This is the goldmine. The treasure at the end of the rainbow. The basket of kitties and a litter of puppies. A group of fluffy little ducklings all happily waddling about, and doing that adorable little tail wag thing that makes your heart melt (seriously, it’s the cutest thing ever ok). You post something and someone tells you it looks great! You look great! You did good! Good job you! You did stuff! You’re great! Or at least kinda nice! Go you!

Positive comments are nice, I’m sure we can all agree on that. However, I do think that in a weird way, the same rules about a comment being constructive apply to both positive and negative comments. It’s nice to hear someone thinks your work is nice, but there’s not really all that much you can do with the information other than feel pleased for about five seconds. 

Obviously we prefer hearing nice things to hearing mean things, that’s only human, but the information value in “you’re so pretty” and “you’re so ugly” is equally low. But we’re still only tempted to delete one of these comments, and even if we do, it’ll probably haunt us for days to come, when the other one is forgotten pretty much immediately. 

Should you really care, either way?

What you do with the commentary revolving around your work is entirely up to you. Your reactions do say quite a lot about you, though I’m not arrogant enough to make assumptions on what, exactly. If you truly are looking to improve your craft and aren’t just out there to seek approval (which is totally fine, by the way, as long as you don’t claim otherwise), you should definitely learn to listen. 

Because, like one of my journalism teachers liked to say, “Others may be right as well.”