Cosplay and Gendermorphia

   

    Being Awesome
       
Abstract: A post World War II Japanese culture known as oaktu is a skew of sexual misadventure and gender re- identification, and has infused itself into all the major media markets. This sub culture is the basis of sexual and social metamorphosis affecting unsuspecting adolescents and seniors alike. This reality and gender bending pseudo religion has quickly become a cultural leader in world affairs affecting everything from sexual liberation via costumed super heroine rebellion in Rome and nuclear politics between North and South Korea. Without a formal understanding of these leaps in humanities this culture becomes a threat to the established paradigms of both ends of the American political spectrum.  

    The multi-billion dollar comic book convention industry exists as a result of a culture within it known as, “cosplay” or costume play. In cosplay individuals either buy or hand craft sometimes very elaborate and expensive costumes of their favorite comic book, video game or otherwise comic culture inspired character. This is no mere Halloween in July, Cosplay is a viable means of livelihood for many of the practitioners and the media that supports them. Cosplay culture maintains a society of non judgment as to foster an atmosphere of sexual acceptance. This culture of zero sexual bias breeds a sub-culture of sexually bizzare individuals who act as a fundamentally liberal orthodoxy.This orthodoxy functions counter to most dogmatic orthodoxy as they do not promote conservative values, behaviors or beliefs. Rather this orthodoxy within the cosplay community is the foundation for the liberal and feminist cannon of the comic con industry. In my field work observing these cosplayers in their natural habitat I found a richness of symbols and artistry applied to the social interactions and communications that revealed both a hierarchy and deliberate muddling of gender roles by cosplay culture.
Comic book conventions are not anything new. They date back to the seventies when there might be a few vendors selling comics or comic paraphernalia out of hotel rooms. However, today’s comic cons are sprawling mega events that receive 24/7 media coverage on both social media and from other news sources. Major media corporations spend billions of dollars and cast decades long schedules around and through the influence of these conventions. I observed the cosplay community at the Chicago ComicCon on Saturday, the busiest day of the four day long convention.  The Chicago ComicCon is a large sprawling complex of display, media and interactive services and technology housed within the warehouse like structure and carpeted concrete floors of a Convention Center. From this point forth the Chicago ComicCon will be referred to as the Field as my approach to this survey was that I was estimating behavior across a wide open space.  The Field  was a visual and audible overload that took more than a few moments to adjust to, and just when I thought I had adjusted I would round a corner and find an elaborately dressed cosplay enthusiast that would amaze me again with their craftsmanship and dedication. The sheer amount of media and pageantry would make taking all this information into account an impossible task to complete in one day. Since that was all the time had available I divide the scope of my investigation and concentrate on smaller groups for information.
I allowed myself to be swept into the churning mass of shoppers that milled through the perimeter and throughways of the Field. Booth after booth of comic and video game paraphernalia lined this impulse shopper paradise, and as the hygienically challenged crowd looped past a lobby with a cafeteria, I ducked out of the retail shuffle and slipped up next to a group of cosplayers to snoop on their conversation, hoping to pick up on something that might lead me to a better understanding.
While some of the group ate, others compared off brand Harry Potter Lego figurines and complained about the eventual long walk back to the parking lot. I knew that I needed to speak with one of the indigenous peoples, and as such, made a gesture towards one answering the age old question;”Why not Zoidberg?”
The lobersirite waved back to me with one clawed hand, and I had my invitation and made the acquaintance of Lady Zoidberg whose given name was Zally, a humanities Professor with a Masters degree. She had been a cosplayer for seven years now since she was seventeen and has fully submerged herself into the culture. She, as many of her friends, have made their costumes using online tutorials as guides and then having costume assembly/wine tasting parties with her cosplay community to finish their projects. Zally’s friends were dressed in a variety of costumes. There was a gender-bent Spiderman and a Super Mario along with a few more elaborate costumes from Japanese video games. Although I didn’t recognize them, some plain cloths participants did and asked for some photos with the cosplayers. It was then that I noted one of the first phenomena of dictated behavior and hierarchy in the Field.
“Hover Hands” Zally remarked, as she broke off a long draw from her off brand slurpee. Hover Hands is a behavior that I observed in the Field that occurred when cosplayers took photos with either each other or with plain clothes individuals. Hover hands is the act of simulating a one arm embrace while taking a photo. The hands do not touch the other person instead they hover over the person so as to not make contact. Zally pointed out that Hover Hands is part of the policy of comic conventions worldwide and is posted all over the convention hall along with other more common rules about behavior.
As it was explained to me, hover hands creates a situation in which social interaction is still  allowed to happen, but the females of the community do not have to worry about being groped. Apparently the aforementioned hygiene problem that some of the participants have had become such an issue that haver hands precludes any accidental exchange of body odor. Zally finished her lunch and offered to be my guide around the Field for an hour or so. Realizing my luck at having something of a sherpa, I thanked her and after helping her with her bags of comic freebies and purchases, set out behind her lead. Our first stop was back to the entrance of the convention floor. We received our ink stamps for readmittance, and Zally led me to something I had completely missed on my way in. An entire pageant was on parade for onlookers and photogs alike. Hollywood level costumes were being modeled on a red carpet. I adjusted my eyes to the flash of professional cameras and smart phones and listened to Zally explain that these expensive costumes were sometimes created by shops and modeled by professionals for the free advertisement although often she’d see the models at the after parties in the hotel so she suspected that it couldn't be all work and no fun.
I stopped her and asked her to walk me through the hotel party scene. Zally invited me along without missing a beat. I asked if I would be allowed to join the party as I had only camouflaged myself with a cheap Batman t shirt from Target. She told me that I would need a costume.  I asked if she had ever been to a cosplay hotel party before and she had. She then began to detail the most important aspects of cosplay that lie in two simple rules consent required and be awesome. Upon further elaboration, she explained that there cannot be discrimination in cosplay community, that not creating offense is the heart of what makes this environment accessible to everyone. She related that as she was venturing into the cosplay community, she was wary of becoming involved in a then, male- dominated environment. It has been through the efforts of cosplayer and the attentiveness of convention events that females were able to feel comfortable enough to fully participate in the community and culture.
To her, this is what eventually allowed other minorities such as LGBT cosplayers to feel the safety and comfort that the culture of the Field now provides. So to her,consent from both parties means that any activity, sexual or otherwise, is mutual and therein free from the judgments of others. I asked her if this type of freedom is what enabled her to dress as a traditionally male character. “He’s a space insect, neither gender.” Was her only response. We wandered away from the scantily clad trio of Stormtroopers that were creating a flurry of attention and back towards the Field itself.
A group of middle aged and overweight men passed us. I turned and remarked to Zally about their clothing and costumes. I’d seen their get up before on television when I was a kid. They were all adorned in bright, cartoonish horse costumes from My Little Pony. “Bronies” she explained monosyllabically before starting again towards the cafe where her friends were waiting. Zally’s friends were going to meet another group before going out to dinner and then back to the hotel for the room hopping parties.
I asked if the Bronies would be there and was informed by an Asian-American girl who was cosplaying Luigi that they might. She sneered a bit as she related this. I asked if she disliked the Bronies. Luigi said that not all of them were overweight and “gross” but enough of them were. She then whispered to me that some of them were creeps that hid out within the culture just like “those priests would”. I gathered that what she was getting at was that some of the Bronies were child perverts. “They’re otaku.” Luigi sighed before taking a call on her mobile phone. I jotted the word “otaku” into my field notes. Upon later exploration I found an academic journal that explained that otaku was the Japanese word for someone who hasn’t left the adolescent nest or their mother’s basement. There is an entire sub-culture and economy built around these individuals. Upon further exploration I found that there is at best, questionable sexual identifying markers that define these otaku. This gender bending supports the sexual fluidity Zally had mentioned earlier.
An example from Professor Ito of the University of Arkansas illustrates that gender bending isn’t anything new to the roots of cosplay in post WWII Japan. From Professor Ito;“...cosplay in real life include Meido Cafés (Maid Café), which emerged in the 2000s in Tokyo. A  woman wears a French maid (uniform)... in certain maid cafés, all the “waitresses” are men in women’s clothes...something researchers have identified as common throughout cosplay...this sort of gender fluidity and sexual ambiguity throughout...” (1) I could better understand now where the modern American cosplayer, with their gender bending influences flush through media from; Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj to Katlyn Jenner, are comfortable exploring gender and sexual identity via this culture.    
The group had begun walking towards the parking garage. I tagged along and spoke with some of the other member of the group about Bronies to see if they shared Luigi’s sentiments.  Many of the group suggested that Bronies may have sexual deviants as a minority, but then they aren’t embraced by the sexual passiveness of cosplay culture as those abusers are breaking the cardinal rule of consent. Zally then chimed in; “And that’s not being very awesome either, is it?” I wondered aloud why something isn’t done to rid themselves of the Bronies if their being allowed to participate attracts these types of people. It was Luigi that came to their defense.
She told me that Bronies, or any other group that melds the old lines of sex and sexuality must be allowed to participate as they represent all that cosplay can be for the world, a place where anyone, regardless of what others might think or feel, is accepted and appreciated. This sentiment echoes the idea put forth in the research article published by Rahman & Wing-Sun as they explored the roles of fashion and self identity in cosplay when they said; “ . . . it is evident that cosplay can give participants pleasurable experiences, meaningful memories, self-gratification, and personal fulfillment. Through this participatory activity, cosplayers can momentarily escape from reality and enter into their imaginative world. It is a form of role/identity-transformation…”(2). This selective transformation of gender identity allows for the cosplayer to loosen the constraints that society and family has placed upon them. By allowing the Bronies to enjoy what others would consider weird or eccentric behavior without any overt criticism the rest of cosplay culture is free to explore and meld gender and identity in any way that they seems fit so long as they aren’t harming anyone against their will.
After a shorter than expected walk, we arrived at the cars. I exchanged numbers with Zally and a couple of the Japanese video game characters. I already knew that I wouldn’t be able to attend the hotel party, but I would text Zally later after I’d had chance to eat dinner and collect myself from the day. We said our goodbyes, and I left their company for my car. After storing all my free swag from the day, I commuted home and within an hour, I had showered and eaten. I concocted a text to Zally that would excuse me from the hotel scene and sent it off. Zally replied within half an hour with a few texts that woke me from a nap I was taking on the livingroom couch. She expressed her regret that I wouldn’t be able to attend the hotel party but extended an invitation to me for next year's festivities. Her last text included a suggestion that she’d hoped might help me to better understand why people cosplay. She then directed me to a chapter of the psychoanalyst C.G. Jung and his celebrated work Man and His Symbols.
From the German Psychologist; “Man becomes whole, integrated, calm, fertile, and happy when (and only when) the process of individuation is complete, when the conscious and the unconscious have learned to live at peace and to complement one another.” (3) I understood. This (cosplay) was a process of individualization of self development. Long gone were the rites and journeys that led our ancestors through their adolescence and into adulthood. Those rites and quests now lost to myth and legend were simulated on Saturdays with friends in safe places of non-judgment and commerce. Jung might have added to his summary were he alive to witness these types of events is that, the process of individuation can be fun and a great place to meet others who are exploring themselves as well.
During my time in the Field I was witness to many creative and interesting means of expressing the individual self. This support system of individual self expression and exploration supports a commerce and commercial system that has become the backbone of an industry of film, television and magazine publishing. Men and women of all ages, from very young to the elderly are unfettered by the social constraints that they might otherwise feel and be manipulated by. They have this freedom to explore ideas and concepts about themselves, their sexuality and the concepts of gender without the old guard of social norms pressuring them in any way.

In conclusion, I can say that I’ve observed, in the Field within cosplay culture; a working sets of rules governing behavior that go so as far as to dictate guidelines for courtship and sexual encounters. I’ve observed a marginalized sub-group and the use of language and beliefs and symbols that are unique unto this culture. In my time in the Field it became clear to me that cosplay culture requires groups like Bronies to provide an orthodoxy of  fundamental liberalism in support of the more secular liberalism that has become marketable and profitable, but also acts as a structure for personal development.

 References



“...cosplay in real life include Meido Cafés (Maid Café), which emerged in the 2000s in Tokyo. A  woman wears a French maid (uniform)... in certain maid cafés, all the “waitresses” are men in women’s clothes...something researchers have identified as common throughout cosplay...this sort of gender fluidity and sexual ambiguity throughout...” (1)

1. Ito, K., & Crutcher, P. (2013). Popular Mass Entertainment in Japan: Manga, Pachinko, and Cosplay. Soc Society, 44-48.

“ ...it is evident that cosplay can give participants pleasurable experiences, meaningful memories, self-gratification, and personal fulfillment. Through this participatory activity, cosplayers can momentarily escape from reality and enter into their imaginative world. It is a form of role/identity-transformation…”(2)

2.  Rahman, O., Wing-Sun, L., & Cheung, B. (n.d.). “Cosplay”: Imaginative Self and Performing Identity. Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture, 317-342.

“Man becomes whole, integrated, calm, fertile, and happy when (and only when) the process of individuation is complete, when the conscious and the unconscious have learned to live at peace and to complement one another.” (3)

3. Jung, C., & Franz, M. (1964). Man and his symbols. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.