Cosplay

If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s when people dress up as characters, especially characters from video games. This may seem harmless. Until this happens.

Yeah.

Let’s face it. Video games are sexist. This may be because they cater to a group of adolescent boys who have not yet ventured completely into the world of the opposite sex and have based their knowledge of romance and women on what they learn from the media. And cosplay, at least in this form, only reinforces the sexism.

I have read many defenses of cosplay. It’s for fun. It means nothing. It’s an art form. Well, yes. Everything, in a way, is art, right? That, in no way, excuses and justifies blatant misogyny.

And don’t give me bullshit about these women are simply embracing themselves and their bodies and their sexy sides or some moronic excuse like that. If the woman in the above picture was obese, would she have received the overwhelming popularity that she has? Would she be celebrated as a woman simply celebrating her body? Women who feel the need to dress like this are adopting the sexist construct of beauty in order to feel valued.

The woman in that picture is Jessica Nigri, in case you were wondering/you wanted to Google more pics of her. She makes her own costumes and does this on her own time. But that doesn’t meant that the art form she is participating in deserves merit. Art has connotations of purity and an almost untouchable nobility but I beg to differ. This is art but at the same time, it’s disgusting.

And NO, I’m not slut-shaming. I’m not commenting on what she’s wearing and telling her not to wear it. I’m just begging people not to adhere to a fucked up notion of beauty.

-End rant-