What are some of the problematics around cosphotography in terms various (potentially unwelcome) gazes?

The most obvious of problematic gazes in regards to cosplay is the male gaze. That is, the gaze commonly held by men – although sometimes perpetrated by women as well, due to taught misogyny – that views women solely as sexual objects, objects of their desire and for their personal gratification. While an issue in almost every aspect of society, it is particularly notable within cosplay for several reasons.

The first is the larger population of women participating in cosplay culture compared to in other areas, especially within wider fandom. While typically seen as a ‘boy’s club’, fandom, especially for genres such as science fiction and action comics, has always had a relatively large amount of women participating in the art of cosplay, described as being ‘a product of female DIY culture’ (Mountfort, 2018, p. 48). This is evident from the very beginnings of cosplay, with cosplay pioneers such as ‘Morojo’ (Myrtle R. Jones) in the 30s through to famous female cosplayers such as Yaya Han in today’s world (Mountfort, 2018, pp. 51, 63). With a larger than usual group of women participating in this area of fandom, this unfortunately makes instances of unwanted ‘male gaze’ much more likely.

The second is the range of characters available to female cosplayers. While, given the nature and general attitude of cosplay and cosplay communities from the beginning of the movement, effectively any person can cosplay as any character regardless of gender – and there are even recorded instances of drag costuming at early cosplay events (Mountfort, 2018, p. 54) – many prefer to cosplay as their chosen gender identity in every day life (i.e. those who identify as men cosplay as male characters, and women cosplay as female characters). This becomes problematic for women as many female characters – across genres, mediums and time periods – are hypersexualized in both appearance and behaviour. This means that female cosplayers are often forced into highly sexualized, caricature-like female roles in order to participate – to the best of their ability – in cosplay culture. This wouldn’t be a problem if not for the aforementioned ‘male gaze’, which is attracted in a far greater amount by such characters (as these characters were, originally, created for the male gaze by the male gaze). If not, female cosplays must then find ways around this; often through strict ‘rules of engagement’ for both socialization and photography, allowing them at least some form of control if not outright rejection of this ‘gaze’. (Mountfort, 2018, pp. 63-64)

There are other ‘gazes’ which provide issues within the cosplay community, however. One such ‘gaze’ is that of the outsider – someone with no authentic, genuine interest in cosplay or the cosplay community. As recalled by cosplayer Kane Anderson within Planet Cosplay, ‘not all photographers actually want to celebrate cosplayers. Many spectators surreptitiously diminish cosplayers with their gazes even while the costumed performers enjoy the attention.’ (Mountfort, 2018, pp. 63-64) This often leads to another problematic gaze within the cosplay community – the judgemental gaze. These ‘outsiders’ to the cosplay community often post images and videos of cosplayers online and, along with others like them, mock and judge them for perceived ‘flaws’: in weight, in race, in general beauty standards. (Mountfort, 2018, p. 64) This can lead to many cosplayers (especially women, who already face higher standards of beauty due to the aforementioned ‘male gaze’) feeling self-conscious about their cosplay or growing disheartened with the art of cosplaying; with social media growing bigger, more invasive and more toxic by the day, this may become an even greater issue for the cosplay community, as it has become for many others.

References

Mountfort, P. (2018). Cosphotography and Fan Capital. In P. Mountfort, Peirson-Smitth, Anne, & A. Gaczy, Planet Cosplay (pp. 45-74). Bristol: Intellect Books.