Negative Aspects of Cosplay

Cosplay has received quite a following in the past few years. More and more people want to don costumes and becomes cosplayers, acting out roles, learning dynamic poses, and making their own costumes from scratch. Although cosplay has a lot of positive aspects, there are negative aspects to cosplay – and I’m here to talk about that white elephant in the room, so to speak.

As a fashion lover, I love the costumes worn by cosplayers! Sadly, many issues are now being brought up which point to the negative aspects of cosplay. Some of these are listed below.

1. Cosplay can be an act of fandom – or an act of obsession. Many anime and comic book fans want to cosplay their favorite characters. Simply put, they are true-blue fans. However, some people develop a certain obsession, where cosplay becomes an integral part of it.
2. Cosplay opens up a new breed of discrimination. One of the negative aspects of cosplay is that it makes many cosplayers prone to discrimination. They are discriminated in terms of gender (where males seem to have a lower rank than females), looks (where less-than-pretty cosplayers are laughed at or criticized), weirdness (where certain cosplayers are immediately dubbed weird or eccentric), and race (where cosplayers who do not look Japanese are frowned upon). For instance, try looking up the most popular cosplayers and you are bound to see handsome or pretty faces who look Japanese.
3. Cosplay gives the world a wrong portrait of Japanese culture. Many, though not all, cosplayed characters are actually Japanese in origin. A lot of fictional characters imitated by cosplayers come from Japanese anime, mangga, or graphic novels. However, cosplayers portray these Japanese characters as whimsical or cutesy, sometimes saying sayonara or kawaii, both japanese words, in little, high-pitched voices. FYI, the falsetto voices are deemed disrespectful by the Japanese as they seem to mock the Japanese race. The inaccurate portrayal of anime characters by cosplayers are seen by the Japanese as “cheap imitation”.
4. Cosplay encourages people to address their self-esteem, self-confidence, or self-image issues by “shedding one’s real personality”. There is nothing wrong with wearing a costume – but if you wear it because it boosts your confidence, then you spring back to your low self-esteem once the costume is taken off, then therein lies the problem. Instead of allowing young people to explore their true selves, they learn to hide behind masks and feel better by pretending to be someone else. The real self is discarded, as it does not produce the same satisfaction as the fantasy self. In this way, cosplay, for many shy youngsters who have self-image issues, becomes a form of escapism.
5. The world of cosplay, just like the world of of modeling, may give the youth unrealistic expectations of what they should be. False lashes, contact lenses that increase the size of one’s pupils, and wigs have become quite popular in the non-cosplay world, a phenomenon encouraged by cosplay. Many youngsters now look at these accessories as indispensible. Some cosplay critics believe that cosplay discourages people to be who they are, that it keeps people from being comfortable in their own skin while promoting a culture of pretense.
6. Cosplay also promotes the objectification of women. A lot of cosplayers will shun the idea of wearing plunging necklines in real life, but will not hesitate to wear skimpy costumes for cosplay. Many cosplay fans actually admire cosplayers because of their skimpy attire. Female cosplayers are objectified this way, earning the wrath of many feminists. There is a subset of cosplay that revolves around sex appeal: cosplayers actually choose very revealing, sometimes very explicit, costumes. To be blunt, cosplay has become the perfect excuse for many young women to wear inappropriate clothes under the guise of self-expression.

And before you call yourself or cosplayers as “otaku”…

In Japan, otaku has a negative impression. Decades ago, an “otaku” kidnapped many young girls and took videos of their dead bodies. This otaku serial killer has caused a lot of panic in Japan. Ever since, most Japanese think that to be called “otaku” is very insulting.

Many cosplay fans and cosplayers will beg to differ. But more and more people are getting diagnosed with cosplay sickness syndrome, where people who witness cosplay develop a severe aversion towards it. More psychological profiling needs to be done before the benefits and negative aspects of cosplay, from psychological, psychiatric, and social points of view, are properly identified.