It’s a word that’s been on the lips of almost every geek lately. It’s surrounded by controversy, currently a major representation of the misogyny that women encounter in the geek subculture. People love it, hate it, live it and breathe it, or merely accept it. It’s a fundamental part of conventions, and as the years have gone by cosplay has gone from the few and the hardcore to a massive net of co
stume enthusiasts spreading across the globe. If you go to a convention and you’re NOT in a complex costume, you are the minority. Image sharing websites like imgur and tumblr explode with cosplay photos, and it has made its way so dominantly into pop culture that “cosplay” has even been trending on twitter a few times over the last few months. But despite its intense saturation, there are still many people who are a little unsure about what exactly cosplay is. What makes people want to spend hours and hundreds if not thousands of dollars on representing a fictional character? Cosplay is a shortened form of two words – costume and play. The early 90s saw the rising of cosplay into popular culture, although it probably originated initially in Japan. It is the practice of portraying a fictional character – at times completely identifying as that character while in costume (and thus acting as if the individual was that character to add to the authenticity of the experience). It is of my own opinion that cosplay is not merely costuming, but a very unique form of performance art. It is most widely associated with comic books, anime, video games, and most things that are geeky in nature. It has become such a massive subculture within the geek world at this point that is is essentially synonymous with the idea of a convention or a gathering of individuals who subscribe to more “geeky” interests. From personal experience, I have found that people cosplay for a multitude of reasons. Be it love of a character, enjoying the attention of being in an elaborate costume or portraying a loved character, or the appreciation from peers from completing a complex costume… there are many motivations for donning spandex or cape.
