fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2413 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2413 ⌋

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

>> On the one hand, I really do understand why people get pissed off when someone cosplays as a character of a different race.

Why? Seriously, I don't understand this. If you do it in an offensive way, that's horrible. But just cosplaying a different race is in no way harmful or taking away roles from people of that race on TV/the big screen. If white people only ever cosplayed white characters, the VAST majority of characters portrayed at north american conventions would be white characters. How is that a good outcome?

It has less to do with the act itself and more to do with the history behind it. Simplified version is that for decades in mass media, non-white characters were either rarely or never featured in the media despite their presence in the actual population (hence why people get so concerned over the lack of nonwhite characters in movies, shows, etc today), and when they were, the characters were usually played by white actors. This would take away a lot of opportunities from actual nonwhite actors, and it lead to characters of various minorities being portrayed as stereotypes rather than actual characters or people. It had an exploitative factor of trying to take something from a community of people - in this case ethnic communities - but without giving them the matching opportunity or benefit. (Think clubs that would allow black musicians to perform, but then wouldn't let them dine or drink in the club - they were taking music from the ethnic community but not letting members of that community enjoy or benefit from the music they were taking).

All of this is a type of artistic exploitation that descends from the labor exploitation of the last couple centuries, where various ethnic minorities around the world would be put to work, but would not get the benefits of their work and would indeed suffer from it no matter what (anything from slaves to low-wage and abused workers). While they are obviously not the same thing, there is still the sentiment and attitude behind it - the dominant, white community is taking something from or created by a nonwhite, minority community, but not giving back and often severely damaging them in the process.

Now, when some white kid is just dressing up as Avatar Korra for the upcoming comic convention, they aren't thinking about any of this. They are not stopping anyone else from dressing up as Korra, and they themselves just happen to adore Korra and want to be just like her and dress up like her because she is their hero. But when people get mad, it isn't about what this kid or situation is doing, but the fact that he is doing something which a few decades ago, white people did for a living - at the detriment of black performers and the black community.

Now, I don't entirely agree with this attitude when applied to cosplay - if some kid who happens to be white wants to go to a convention dressed as Korra because they love her, I think that's fine. They really aren't stopping anyone else from dressing up like Korra, nor are they taking away from Korra, trying to make her white or say Korra should be white. They just want to dress up like Korra, and they happen to be white themselves.

But by that same token, I don't think we can or should ignore the history of race as applied to performers and fictional characters, and how race has played into the archetypes of popularly consumed fiction, presence in the media, etc etc. We should be talking about those and educating people and all of that. I just don't think doing all of that is mutually exclusive to cosplaying as a character of another race.

some people really do overthink cosplay. :-/ I'd say dressing in costumes to enjoy a fantasy and be someone or something you're not is much older than white people playing black roles. honestly, if you're mad about a white kid cosplaying korra, you're the one with the problem, and only you. rock on white kid. or nonwhite kid cosplaying a white character. you are the world's future and I love you.

AYRT, In that case I agree with you for the most part, I just think it's important to remember that getting angry at cosplayers is really missing the point. We should focus on the root of the problem, at least when it comes to media--white actors getting cast as non-white characters. That IS actively harming representation. Cosplay is not.

Yeah, that's definitely true. :) There's a big difference between a white girl dressing up as Katara for a convention and a white girl cast as Katara in the movie.

[ SECRET POST #2413 ]

Re: My thoughts exactly

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