My experience at Acen, part 2: cosplayers and body types

http://www.gweem.net/4.html
http://red3.blogspot.com/2011/07/in-defense-of-fat-cosplay.html
http://geekalitarian.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/cosplay-race-and-fat-shaming/
At ACen, a lot of people cosplayed, including me. There was also a lot of diversity in the cosplayers, which I thought was pretty cool. There were people of all races and physiques cosplaying. Several cosplayers in wheelchairs dressed up with the people who assisted them. Picture requests were everywhere and the atmosphere I experienced was very friendly.

However, some cosplayers were not so lucky. While I saw some cosplay girls wearing sexy costumes (Mario, Wario, Luigi, Waluigi, WOLVERINE, Spiderman, etc.) being drooled over, I also noticed several overweight cosplayers being made fun of due to their largeness. Both groups were being objectified, but the double standard is that the sexy girls got praise, while the overweight cosplayers got disdain. This standard is wrong and ignores the real spirit of cosplay.

The word 'cosplay' combines 'costume' and 'play' to describe people who dress up as their favorite characters from anime, tv shows, books, etc. The essence of cosplay is modifying your appearance to play make believe as your favorite characters, and most people spend hours making their own costumes. Body types shouldn't get in the way of someone's enjoyment of cosplay. The people who criticize fat cosplayers attack them for not having the right body type for the character. But they give gender-bent sexy girls a pass, even though they may be dressed up as originally fat characters such as Mario. These people attempt to impose "no-win rules about what they are allowed to wear. That's not even getting into the ways appropriating fashion standards for conventional bodies onto unconventional bodies can expose the absurdity of those standards" when the models are just as unconventional. Although these girls are just as objectified, only this time as sex symbols rather than targets for scorn. A sexy "male Huntress or Power Girl is a reminder of how dehumanizing portrayals of women" have hijacked the cosplay world. Both kinds of cosplay "have much the same activist purpose in drawing attention both to the objectification of thin women and the way fat bodies are made invisible" because haters are attempting to police everyone until only the sexy girls remain to be gawked at. Overweight cosplayers are shamed for daring "to cosplay conventionally attractive characters" like "she thinks she’s attractive or something" just for the sake of male con-goer fantasy. 

Really, people should "get to make up their own minds on how to express themselves and their fandom," regardless of their actual appearance. Cosplay is a form a self-expression that should be open to anyone without fear of being put down.