A Cosplay Tip for the Rest of Us: #Cospositive

This past weekend I attended my local fandom convention. For reasons of embarrassment and charity, for one of the Friday night panels all of the panelists dressed in fur bikinis, men and women alike. Like I said, charity. For your own good. Anyway, after the panel, one of the women panelists, a friend of mine, decided to tour the party floor, still dressed in said fur bikini. I missed it; I was too busy drinking at the Firefly party down the hall. (No, I didn’t wear my Zoe cosplay as it is in need of repair. Yes, I did shoot a guy wearing a Jayne hat with a nerf gun. It was a great night.) Saturday morning, while I was drinking coffee in a feeble attempt to decipher the program booklet and figure out what panels to go to, this friend of mine stops by my table at the hotel bar and says: “You write about nerd problems. Well, I’ve got one.” And proceeds to tell me about how much harassment she experienced from other women while she was wearing this fur bikini. What she told me has me here to tell you one thing:

  It is time for us to combine our fandom lessons — Don’t harass the cosplayers — with our feminism lessons — Don’t judge women by how they look — into one simple rule: The only thing you can tell about a cosplayer from what they are wearing is that they like that costume/character. Do not judge a cosplayer, male or female, based on their costume. Stop sniping on other women who opt for “sexy” cosplay. No, maybe that other woman doesn’t match your beauty st…