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How to avoid causing any kind of offense with a cosplay


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I've been curious about this for some time and hoped some members of this forum would have opinions about this.

 

Basically I had an idea to try to cosplay all of the Disney princesses, having already done Elsa from Frozen and had a huge amount of fun doing that. It felt like a good idea until I thought of the princesses like Mulan, Jasmine, Pocahontas etc, none of whom are white. I know it's a rather delicate subject sometimes, but I mentioned it to a few people and the majority seemed to agree that it was 'appropriating' and bordering on offensive for me, a white girl, to cosplay a character of color. I did have my eye on a Tiana outfit (Princess and the Frog) but since she's the only black princess so far, I'm worried people would think of it as whitewashing the character if I dressed as her. I would love to cosplay Tiana but I would feel really guilty doing so because I honestly don't feel that I'm supposed to.

It's also got me a bit anxious about my cosplay for this year's LFCC. I'm going as Guinevere from BBC's Merlin, who is played by Angel Coulby. My mother has already told me I shouldn't really cosplay her because, being white, I wouldn't look the part. All I'm interested in doing is dressing as characters I love and having fun, I never really paid attention to race/skin color before people began pointing it out and telling me I shouldn't do it. But then where does it end? Can I not cosplay Amber from Sucker Punch because Jamie Chung is Korean? The last thing I would want at a con is someone coming up to me and telling me I shouldn't be wearing a certain cosplay because it's cultural appropriation or whitewashing characters of color, etc. Because that's really not my intention, but it's what most people I've spoken to so far seem to think.

 

So, essentially; is it wrong to cosplay a character with a different skin color/race to yours? I'm baffled as to how people can think like this (I personally would love to see things like your typical white Disney princesses by non-white cosplayers, the variety looks amazing), but really, if it's going to make people upset or angry, I'd rather not do it.

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I wouldn't worry much about annoying or offending people whilst cosplaying. I myself, doesn't have blonde hair, but I'm incorporating Elsa into my own skin colour and hair colour. Do what you want to do and to the naysayers who do not like it, they can go jump off a cliff.

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Cosplay is about the costume. Nothing more.

 

You get guys as guys, girls as girls, girls as guys etc etc. You're entitled to do whatever character you want regardless of age, gender, race or whatever.

 

Do whatever you want to do.

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If guys can cosplay proncess Leia in the bikini, I dont know why you couldn't cosplay a character with different skin colour. As long as you make the character credit, which should really be the aim of any cosplay, I don't see absolutely no problem with it. some people just worry too much and see problems where they aren't.

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Years ago a male friend of mine, another friend of mine and me were taking the guy's little sister to Disneyland for Halloween. We were doing a Princess and the Frog group too. The guy was Facilier, his sister Tiana and I got to be Mama Odie - don't quite have the figure for Charlotte. ;) They're Puerto Rican, I'm quite obviously not. No one did bat an eyelid, and we even met Tiana that night.

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I'm not sure where to ask this, but this seems to make sense...

 

 

My friend wants to do cosplay at LFCC....but as a Hooters Girl.

 

She has all the correct clothing and everything for a tasteful outfit and nothing out of what the Hooters Girls wear.

 

Would that be ok to do? It's our first time at a Con so don't know the "rules" or what is / isn't allowed.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Cosplay is about your love for a character and their costume, I don't think it matters at all what ethnicity or gender you are. I've seen a female Ezio that look awesome, a brunette girl in Kill Bill yellow outfit, a Japanese catwoman, it really shouldn't matter. And if it did matter, where would the line be drawn? Can a black person not dress as Boba Fett? Can you only cosplay as Frodo if you are not tall? If people say you shouldn't dress as characters that aren't your ethnicity, then I think they've missed the concept of cosplay completely and are best ignored!

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Whilst I think that Hollywood film studios do have a tendency to whitewash casts quite often, I actually would think of Cosplay as being a positive, in that it cuts across gender, race, age etc

 

People genuinely have a love and respect for a character and so it is a positive choice they are making to Cosplay a certain character and I think that send out a really strong message and cuts across boundaries. I think it will be a very sad day if people were limited to only being able to Cosplay somebody who was the same gender, race, age etc

 

Having been going to events for many years, I've never been aware of anyone being offended by someone Cosplaying someone of a different gender or race.

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Cosplay is about your love for a character and their costume, I don't think it matters at all what ethnicity or gender you are. I've seen a female Ezio that look awesome, a brunette girl in Kill Bill yellow outfit, a Japanese catwoman, it really shouldn't matter. And if it did matter, where would the line be drawn? Can a black person not dress as Boba Fett? Can you only cosplay as Frodo if you are not tall? If people say you shouldn't dress as characters that aren't your ethnicity, then I think they've missed the concept of cosplay completely and are best ignored!

 

totally agree with everything said here espechally this comment here the part about someone from japan dreassing up as catwoman is someone can dress up as catwoman and is from japan and thats ok surely its ok for people with ( have no idea what the correct way of saying it is so sorry for any advence caused ) white skin can dress up as a dark skinnd charecter it shouldnt matter in the slightest :)

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

As long as you're not doing blackface or anything like that then totally not offensive - you're showing your love for the character. In some circumstances I'd think differently though, like cosplaying a real person, but characters - go for it and enjoy.

I have never understood the outcry when people put on outfits for cosplay or a fancy dress party that involves changing their skin tone. I have seen and actually know a few people who are not white but have "whited up" to do a particular outfit/character.

 

No one cared as the outfit/cosplay was superb.

 

On the other hand I have seen cosplay by people who have remained in their normal god given skin tone yet done an outfit/cosplay/fancy dress that has been totally offensive.

 

As long as the overall cosplay you want to do is non offensive and inkeeping with the character, the go for it.

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