Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Won't Miss #402 - cosplay

A rack of costumes that young women can borrow for activities in a gaming center. 

The Wikipedia entry for cosplay ("costume play") claims it is a type "performance art". This has to be one of the most pretentious and inaccurate explanations I have ever heard of the tendency of some people to put on costumes resembling anime (cartoon) characters. In the U.S., I think cosplay tends to be a part of special events such as conventions. In Tokyo, you can see women putting on costumes at game arcades so that they can cram into photo booths and take their picture dressed in some ridiculous get-up. The costumes are not about the women adopting a different persona for their own enjoyment, but about some tiny little thing which they squeeze into so that men can be turned on by how they look in them.

I won't miss seeing this type of cosplay and how it reflects the fact that young women unwittingly embrace and support their own objectification.