What are some of the problematics around cosphotography in terms of various (potentially unwelcome) gazes?
The purpose and intention of cosphotography has evolved alongside social values, gender ideologies and individual agency. In the broadest sense, soliciting attention is part of cosplay, giving cosplayers an opportunity to share their hard work in a performative way rather than verbally (Morrison, 2015). But enjoying the validating gazes of other attendees unfortunately comes with it unwanted, alienating gazes too (Mountfort, Peirson-Smith, Geczy, 2018). Mountfort refers to one of these gazes as the ‘tourist gaze’, occupied by a “less specifically fan-based demographic of gazers” who may interpret and convey cosplayers and the convention environment as alien environments filled with strange people of questionable status (2018). As with any phenomenon, there comes with it controversy and critique, both within the cosplay community and outside of it. The prominence of social medias and ever-growing popularity of cosphotography leaves cosplay enthusiasts vulnerable to social media flaming, including but not limited to topics of body shaming and racism. It’s important to remember that not all photographers want to celebrate cosplayers and their work, with some having a goal to diminish cosplayers with their gazes. These gazes poison the socially inclusive and heterotopian ethos of Cosplay (Mountfort, 2018), contributing to the restraint of challenging mainstream hierarches – a pillar of cosplay practice and cons. Another problematic gaze is the objectifying male gaze, especially in regards to female cosplayers. Mountfort (ibid. 2018) states that cosplay is reduced to a “a realm of normative cliches” surrounding girls in kinky, sexy and fetishized outfits within this male gaze. Cosplay scholar Kane Anderson provides a different lens, in discussing the idea that it is source content itself that is hypersexualised, rather than cosplay itself. Convention attendees who objectify female cosplayers do so due to an expectation to see their idealized and fetishized favourite characters represented as “faithfully” as possible (ibid, 2018). This leads to the issue of depictions of people in these texts as “not just hypersexualised to the point of caricature, but ‘extra-human'” (ibid. 2018). Although this can explain an element of why the male gaze is problematic, it is still important for this not to be an excuse or justification, but more so an pressing reminder to be aware of what media you consume and how it may augment pre-existing ideologies. “Women learn that in order to be worthwhile in society, they must appear attractive in the eyes of others—or specifically, men ” (Lamp, 2018) This highlights that it is a historical and ongoing journey for bodily agency for females that has existed long before cosplay and popular media, despite the artificiality of source texts being increasingly free of determinitistic gender constraints of biological bodies to become entirely aesthetic and affective vessels (Mountfort, 2018).
References
Lamp, S. J., (2018) The Sexy Pikachu Effect: Empowerment and Objectification in Women Who Cosplay. Student Research Submissions. 295. Retrieved from https://scholar.umw.edu/student_research/295
Morrison, A. (2015) Understanding Gender Identity Among Women Cosplayers of the Gotham City Sirens. HIM 1990-2015. 1728. Retrieved from https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/1728
Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Cosphotgraphy and Fan Capital. In Planet Cosplay: Costume Play, Identity and Global Fandom (pp. 23-38). Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press.
Pop Genres 2020 