{"id":68892,"date":"2023-02-12T17:23:14","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T00:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=68892"},"modified":"2023-02-12T17:23:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T00:23:14","slug":"a-dark-side-of-cosplay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/02\/12\/a-dark-side-of-cosplay\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dark Side of Cosplay"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Rachel Frank showing off her anime and video game figures while in cosplay in her bedroom in Foothills, Alberta. (Photo by Tuesday Sanderman\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

C<\/span>osplaying has become a staple at all kinds of conventions, ranging from those focused on anime to those promoting gaming.<\/p>\n

But along with the colourful characters and personalities, there can be a dark side<\/p>\n

Many cosplayers feel the sexualization of individuals engaging in cosplay, and the subsequent crossing of boundaries, is a serious problem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conventions have implemented rules to combat this misconduct with a common one being, \u201cCosplay is not consent.” But even with rules in place, <\/span>many cosplayers are harassed more frequently when they are dressed up than when they are not in costume. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some examples of this are cat calling, being touched, inappropriate comments and even going as far as insults and threats.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople aren\u2019t afraid to do things at cons that they normally wouldn\u2019t in public.\u201d said Randy Tao, 25, a cosplayer for two years who has attended multiple conventions. <\/span>“You’ll have people shout stupid things\u2013like to get a laugh out of everyone. Sometimes you get people who just don’t really know how to interact”<\/p>\n

T<\/span>ao said he has never been touched inappropriately, but he has experienced people crossing his boundaries\u2014including people taking his props and mistreating his personal items.<\/p>\n

Rachel Frank, 23, has faced similar issues. She has been cosplaying since she was 11 years old, but took a six-year break when she was 15.<\/p>\n

The first incident involved a trend called \u201cglomping,\u201d where a person runs at a cosplayer and hugs them holding them in place for a few minutes. At 12, Frank was cosplaying as Mello, a character from Death Note, when the incident occurred.<\/p>\n

At the time, Frank said she thought this was normal behaviour at a convention, but looking back, she now considers it inappropriate.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Rachel Frank applying foundation for her cosplay makeup. (Photo by Tuesday Sanderman\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second incident occurred when she encountered a passerby while looking for figurines. The individual harassed Frank by repeatedly asking her to repeat the name of an anime. Her friends pulled her away and informed her that he was “being creepy.”<\/p>\n

The latest incident was at a convention last year where Frank was cosplaying a controversial character named Edelgard. When she attended the convention, she had noticed people being mean.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were literally treating me like the character\u2014snapping at me, giving me dirty looks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not Edelgard. Edelgard is not real,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cosplay has become a very notable hobby nowadays but it has developed many unwanted problems. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":800,"featured_media":68896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 A Dark Side of Cosplay","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1589],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-68892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-film-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/800"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68892"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69475,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68892\/revisions\/69475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}