Letter submitted on May 5, 2011: Cosplay articles don’t do the topic covered justice
While I’m glad to see a focus on the “geeky” and “nerdy” subcultures at Meramec, I feel that your articles don’t do the topics covered justice – specifically, your article on cosplayers.
In the article, cosplayers are painted as socially awkward, die-hard anime fans who dress up for attention. I’m a beginning cosplayer myself, but I have several friends who are veterans and attend conventions on a regular basis and rarely do they dress up as JUST anime characters- they take their costumes from video games, from television, from movies, from American comic books, from literature, from music, from other cultures, or they create their own characters (called OCs) from scratch. To see only a mention of anime is extremely misleading to any not familiar with the cosplay culture and makes it seem extremely limited and close-knit.
While cosplay can be used to demonstrate a person’s love for their favorite anime series, it can also be used to demonstrate the love of a subculture like Lolita, or the appreciation of the works of Neil Gaiman, or the adoration of a fan of Japanese music idols Mana and Gackt. It doesn’t require a love of anime- I recently attended my first convention, and went as a character from a tabletop role-playing game. I don’t watch anime or even Saturday morning cartoons- but I do read comics like The Sixth Gun, X-Men, Sandman Chronicles; I play games like Dungeons & Dragons and Deadlands; I follow Japanese street fashion- and I just also happen to cosplay.
– Samantha Tohtz
Student
