Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Happy Hour #30: Cosplaying While Woman
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anie and Samantha, and welcome to stuff.
- 0:08Speaker 1: I've never told you your production of high Radio today
- 0:19Speaker 1: is Thursday, which means it is time for another happy hour.
- 0:23Speaker 1: As always, drink responsibly if you choose to do so.
- 0:27Speaker 1: Why are you drinking, Samantha, I'm keeping it simple for
- 0:30Speaker 1: this sad, sad hour, unhappy hour, okay hour. Oh it's
- 0:37Speaker 1: an okay hour. Okay. I assumed at being Annie's corner
- 0:41Speaker 1: would be an unhappy hour, but I guess it is
- 0:43Speaker 1: a neutral hour. It's an ups and downs hour, but
- 0:46Speaker 1: it's actually going to be all right, ups and downs.
- 0:52Speaker 1: You're ready for the troller coaster. I am drinking a Seltzer,
- 0:55Speaker 1: just a strawberry lemonade Seltzer, keeping it easy going summary
- 0:59Speaker 1: in this day much of a rainstorm because the hurricane
- 1:03Speaker 1: has come through for those of you out in New
- 1:06Speaker 1: Orleans and Louisiana. Were thinking about you and hope you're safe,
- 1:09Speaker 1: but yeah, what about you? I am drinking a dag
- 1:14Speaker 1: of a slug slicker, which if you could see, it's
- 1:17Speaker 1: greenish blue. Nice. Yes, because I celebrated a friend's birthday
- 1:22Speaker 1: and my birthday last weekend by staying in and eating
- 1:26Speaker 1: a lot of Star Wars themes, foods, and watching a
- 1:28Speaker 1: lot of Star Wars and drinking some Star Wars drinks.
- 1:31Speaker 1: And our friend and colleague Collie Fry, who was on
- 1:34Speaker 1: this happy hour before to talk about um Star Wars
- 1:37Speaker 1: among many things, sent me all of these recommendations. Of course.
- 1:40Speaker 1: Oh yes, And so this is from the Galaxy's Edge cookbook,
- 1:45Speaker 1: which I did get for my birthday. Yeah, it's essentially
- 1:49Speaker 1: a margarita. It's it's tequila and then blue girls out
- 1:54Speaker 1: for the color just a little bit, and then a
- 1:56Speaker 1: little bit of water and lime juice and then kind
- 1:59Speaker 1: of a rosemary ginger simple syrup. Mine, for some reason,
- 2:03Speaker 1: is much bluer than the picture in the book. And
- 2:05Speaker 1: I can't figure out where I went wrong, but something
- 2:08Speaker 1: is wry. And then I put blackberries in there. Is
- 2:10Speaker 1: it supposed to be blue? It's supposed to be green.
- 2:13Speaker 1: Oh so something with the blue curse. I was supposed
- 2:15Speaker 1: to do something, and it's not happening in mine. It's
- 2:18Speaker 1: still a cool color. Maybe you didn't put enough lime juice.
- 2:22Speaker 1: I'm put in a lot of lime juice because it
- 2:24Speaker 1: is a little bit sweeter than I normally would drink.
- 2:26Speaker 1: And so I added a lot more. And also I'm
- 2:29Speaker 1: drinking out of the glass you got Me, which is
- 2:31Speaker 1: the last of us two glass and it says, if
- 2:33Speaker 1: I ever were to lose you, I truly lose myself,
- 2:35Speaker 1: which is this very sad song slash quote. The whole movie,
- 2:39Speaker 1: the whole movie. See, it's a movie. It's a game experience.
- 2:44Speaker 1: You take it in like a movie. So there's I do.
- 2:48Speaker 1: I do, And that's one of the reasons I wanted
- 2:49Speaker 1: to talk about what we're talking about today, which is
- 2:52Speaker 1: my experience caused playing as a woman, because I have
- 2:55Speaker 1: been working on an Ellie from the Last of Us
- 2:59Speaker 1: to cos play, which is barely simple costume wise, and
- 3:03Speaker 1: for a lot of reasons I've said before, I wear
- 3:06Speaker 1: a lot of costumes for work, and I am currently
- 3:11Speaker 1: scheduled to speak at Dragon Cord, which I'm still I
- 3:14Speaker 1: don't know what's gonna happen, but um, it just got
- 3:18Speaker 1: me thinking about all of this, and I know I've
- 3:21Speaker 1: touched on it before, but I want to talk about
- 3:25Speaker 1: it because I do. I'm actually kind of shy, and
- 3:29Speaker 1: when I do cosplay, it is it does take a minute,
- 3:34Speaker 1: like I have to get over kind of an embarrassment.
- 3:37Speaker 1: But I feel if I can do that, then it
- 3:40Speaker 1: it is a wonderful experience of feeling like someone else
- 3:43Speaker 1: for a minute, just really like really really For me,
- 3:46Speaker 1: it feels like really empowering. But that being said, there
- 3:52Speaker 1: is a long history of women cosplaying kind of being
- 3:57Speaker 1: relegated into two categories, and it really annoys me because
- 4:02Speaker 1: we've talked about gatekeeping when it comes to fandom, and
- 4:05Speaker 1: cosplay is generally seen as more of a woman's area,
- 4:12Speaker 1: um and I think everyone knows we just in case
- 4:14Speaker 1: you don't. Cosplay is like costuming. It generally has some
- 4:19Speaker 1: element of like your behaving as that character, but it
- 4:22Speaker 1: doesn't always. I think a lot of times it just
- 4:23Speaker 1: gets thrown around as you make this costume to be
- 4:28Speaker 1: this character. But the two categories I was talking about,
- 4:30Speaker 1: I feel like women are relegated to is either sexy
- 4:33Speaker 1: or funny, right, and it's you can't be anything in between,
- 4:36Speaker 1: which is that, you know, not unique to nerd culture
- 4:39Speaker 1: or at all. Like I know, it's been an ongoing
- 4:42Speaker 1: conversation around Halloween costumes even of just the options that
- 4:47Speaker 1: are available for women, and I think when it comes
- 4:50Speaker 1: to the sexualized aspect, it's really unfortunate for a lot
- 4:55Speaker 1: of reasons, because there are plenty of time when I
- 5:01Speaker 1: feel like I have to make considerations in costumes that
- 5:04Speaker 1: other like dudes don't have to make of how is
- 5:06Speaker 1: this going to be perceived? And as sometimes I even
- 5:11Speaker 1: think about what what does this costume mean? Like if
- 5:14Speaker 1: I wanted to be this character, is it in some
- 5:17Speaker 1: way like not feminist or like the way I would
- 5:21Speaker 1: wear it, is it not feminist? No matter what you do,
- 5:24Speaker 1: you're going to be sexualized. So there have been times,
- 5:28Speaker 1: because I think it's no secret that I have worn
- 5:31Speaker 1: a lot of like the Winter Soldiers, the one I'm
- 5:34Speaker 1: known for, and that one it can be seen as sexy.
- 5:38Speaker 1: It wasn't really my intent, but you know, it's like
- 5:41Speaker 1: a little weather and it's pretty tight. And then I've
- 5:44Speaker 1: done like Catwoman, just also got a little other and
- 5:48Speaker 1: then right now I'm working on like Luke Skywalker, and
- 5:50Speaker 1: I've got my helicost tube and my Harley Quinn costume.
- 5:55Speaker 1: But all of that, if you wear something like that,
- 5:58Speaker 1: which that's also called gender bending, is when you dress
- 6:01Speaker 1: as a gender that is not your own, of character
- 6:03Speaker 1: who identifies as different gender than your own. I feel
- 6:06Speaker 1: like there's this judgment that happens where usually men are
- 6:11Speaker 1: angry with you or look down on you for sexualizing
- 6:14Speaker 1: their favorite character or somehow making them like more effeminate
- 6:18Speaker 1: in quotes, are weaker by being a woman dressing as this,
- 6:21Speaker 1: like that's ridiculous. A woman could never do what this
- 6:25Speaker 1: character does. And then like I'll never forget one time
- 6:29Speaker 1: I was like, I was dressed as catwoman and I
- 6:33Speaker 1: got so many sexual comments, like so so so many.
- 6:37Speaker 1: This one guy came up to me and he just said,
- 6:40Speaker 1: like in the grossest like lurious voice ever, like you
- 6:45Speaker 1: know what you're doing? And I was like what, yeah.
- 6:50Speaker 1: And it's like, if you dressed that way, you have
- 6:53Speaker 1: to expect that. That seems to be the vibe. It's like, well,
- 6:56Speaker 1: you dressed like that, so this is the attention you're
- 6:59Speaker 1: going to get it you knew what you were doing. Yeah,
- 7:03Speaker 1: it's gross. It's gross. And then there's another aspect of
- 7:08Speaker 1: it of if you're dressed as a character, people will
- 7:12Speaker 1: ask to take pictures with you, and you would well
- 7:14Speaker 1: you probably would believe it, but I have gotten asked
- 7:16Speaker 1: to you all kinds of like positions and like they
- 7:19Speaker 1: just want this picture with their character, but it's like
- 7:24Speaker 1: I don't feel like you'd ask that of them, really don't.
- 7:30Speaker 1: And then on top of that, there's like, well, what
- 7:33Speaker 1: if children see me and I don't want and I'm like, hey,
- 7:37Speaker 1: that I have to think about that at all. But
- 7:38Speaker 1: I don't want them to see this like interactions and
- 7:42Speaker 1: think like this is normal or this is what should
- 7:45Speaker 1: be accepted or expected. But at the same time, if
- 7:48Speaker 1: I want to dress sexually, then I want to just sexily,
- 7:50Speaker 1: like I don't all these considerations, And the only way
- 7:56Speaker 1: to escape that is to do like the other total
- 7:59Speaker 1: opposite into the sect room and do something really funny
- 8:02Speaker 1: where you're not sexual at all, so hopefully you can
- 8:05Speaker 1: escape this kind of attention. I mean, that's a whole
- 8:09Speaker 1: other conversation too of like what costumes, How costume design
- 8:13Speaker 1: for women has been in generally sexy, so like what's
- 8:17Speaker 1: available to you to choose from sex and so we
- 8:20Speaker 1: talked about that really tell me more. It essentially was
- 8:25Speaker 1: Halloween and the costumes were I think like sexy cat
- 8:30Speaker 1: or oh frumby which or something like that. Essentially, let's
- 8:34Speaker 1: say either you're one or the other, and you can't
- 8:36Speaker 1: there's and they're like Yep, you just said a whole
- 8:38Speaker 1: mouthful right there. Yeah, it's essentially. Yeah, we talked about
- 8:41Speaker 1: that all the time, the Madonna and the Horse and droom,
- 8:43Speaker 1: like eventually you have to choose one or the other.
- 8:47Speaker 1: And I thought about that too, and I'm feeling like
- 8:48Speaker 1: really sad and down on myself, like how long can
- 8:51Speaker 1: I get away with cosplaying before people just think I
- 8:53Speaker 1: put think just terrible about having fun to continue to
- 8:58Speaker 1: do it, but that is like sometimes I do feel
- 9:01Speaker 1: really embarrassed when I do it, and there's a weird
- 9:04Speaker 1: like and I'm thinking of conventions specifically here, Um, this
- 9:08Speaker 1: is a dude space and my dude costume is really
- 9:12Speaker 1: good while yours is silly and like not good and
- 9:16Speaker 1: I don't want to be around you, and it's it's
- 9:18Speaker 1: very strange because, like I said, again, outside of conventions,
- 9:22Speaker 1: I feel like causeway is more of a woman's realm
- 9:24Speaker 1: and has been. But you enter that space and suddenly
- 9:28Speaker 1: it's like you are just an amateur trying to keep up.
- 9:34Speaker 1: And that can differ by genre too, because some genres
- 9:37Speaker 1: have more intense gatekeeping than others, but that that also
- 9:41Speaker 1: comes with it. And we did like the fake geek
- 9:43Speaker 1: Girl episode. I've been tested on my like Marvel knowledge
- 9:46Speaker 1: before when people come up and be like, you don't
- 9:48Speaker 1: have the right to justice as character because you don't
- 9:50Speaker 1: know enough about them or whatever, which is so dumb,
- 9:56Speaker 1: so dumb, And I hate that I get caught up
- 9:58Speaker 1: into it because all sometimes I'll be, oh, yeah, I do,
- 10:01Speaker 1: but I'm like, I should even give it a time
- 10:02Speaker 1: of day. It doesn't matter in either case, right, what's
- 10:08Speaker 1: the point in such gatekeeping when are we just here
- 10:11Speaker 1: for fun? Yes? And also, I mean that's a big
- 10:17Speaker 1: h That is a big can of worms that I've
- 10:20Speaker 1: tried to like let go. But I I don't feel
- 10:24Speaker 1: like I'm very good at making things. And there is
- 10:28Speaker 1: a kind of an air around dragon Con because dragon
- 10:31Speaker 1: Con is the one in Atlanta is more about costumes
- 10:35Speaker 1: and cosplay than it is about, I would say, the
- 10:37Speaker 1: guests or celebrities. That's been my experience. And that being said,
- 10:42Speaker 1: there is a level of judgment that comes with if
- 10:45Speaker 1: you bought your costume versus if you've made it, And
- 10:48Speaker 1: I really don't care. I do appreciate when people took
- 10:52Speaker 1: the time and have the skill to make it, but
- 10:53Speaker 1: I really, you know, great for you, but I'm not
- 10:56Speaker 1: going to judge people for buying stuff. Yeah. I can
- 10:59Speaker 1: impact up more later, but for simplicity's sake right now, generally,
- 11:03Speaker 1: I'm not going to judge people for buying stuff. But
- 11:06Speaker 1: I find that a lot of the guys who I
- 11:07Speaker 1: felt judged by I have bought like everything they have,
- 11:10Speaker 1: and I've made mine, and I guess mine is like
- 11:12Speaker 1: you can tell I made it, but a damned if
- 11:17Speaker 1: you do, damned if you don't. I'm telling you it's true. Yeah,
- 11:35Speaker 1: this is just my anecdotal experience, and I feel like
- 11:37Speaker 1: I do have a lot of anecdotal experience with friends
- 11:39Speaker 1: of mine as well. But I also feel like there's
- 11:42Speaker 1: a a level of you're not X enough to be
- 11:46Speaker 1: this character, which does happen to men, but I think
- 11:48Speaker 1: it happens way more to women. It was like, you're
- 11:50Speaker 1: not strong enough and you could never be strong enough,
- 11:53Speaker 1: or you're not you don't fit the part for whatever reason,
- 11:58Speaker 1: and therefore you're just like a little girl masquerading around.
- 12:02Speaker 1: Just gross too and kind of unrealistic because most of
- 12:06Speaker 1: the characters you're dressing up as you're nothing alike. Sorry,
- 12:12Speaker 1: so may you may look somewhat like that person but
- 12:14Speaker 1: that doesn't mean you have that personality nor mindset or
- 12:18Speaker 1: superhero abilities. You're not magic, bro, So why are you
- 12:25Speaker 1: trying to get keep? Because they don't look enough like
- 12:28Speaker 1: all you like you're faking too, like you're making pretend
- 12:32Speaker 1: and enjoying your life and having a moment that's a
- 12:37Speaker 1: little outside reality because it's nice to escape reality. So
- 12:43Speaker 1: let it be. Yeah, Well, and I think that's we
- 12:46Speaker 1: could come back and have a bigger conversation about that,
- 12:48Speaker 1: and we've talked about it a little in other things.
- 12:50Speaker 1: But and I could be totally wrong. This could be
- 12:52Speaker 1: just me, you know, analyzing dude fans at these conventions
- 12:56Speaker 1: that have done this to me, because I've met plenty
- 12:59Speaker 1: of nice, like male fans, but in general, my bad
- 13:03Speaker 1: experiences have been with dudes at these things. And it's
- 13:07Speaker 1: almost like they're so insecure, like they feel like they've
- 13:13Speaker 1: been made fun of for being nerds for their life.
- 13:16Speaker 1: And we talked about this with Gatekeeping for sure, like
- 13:19Speaker 1: that they want to put you down and make you
- 13:21Speaker 1: feel like I've done the hard work, I know what
- 13:25Speaker 1: I'm talking about. I've earned this expertise and their right
- 13:28Speaker 1: to do this, and they just assume because you're a
- 13:31Speaker 1: woman that you haven't and I feel, I don't know,
- 13:36Speaker 1: it feels to me like it's coming from a place
- 13:37Speaker 1: of insecurity, And I could be totally wrong, but like
- 13:40Speaker 1: they're they're nervous about being made fun of, so they're like,
- 13:44Speaker 1: I'm gonna make fun of her before she can get
- 13:45Speaker 1: me first. Oh sure, there's a lot of insecurity and
- 13:49Speaker 1: a lot of this. Again, he's part of it. Some
- 13:53Speaker 1: people take it very seriously, very seriously, like we talked
- 13:59Speaker 1: about with fandoms, don't mess with people. Step out of line.
- 14:02Speaker 1: You're gonna get called out real quick. And it goes
- 14:05Speaker 1: beyond just loving something, and therefore it becomes a whole
- 14:10Speaker 1: other level of ownership, which is not the worst thing,
- 14:15Speaker 1: but can become unhealthy. Oh absolutely. And there there's so
- 14:20Speaker 1: many avenues of cosplay which I love, that have been
- 14:25Speaker 1: unhealthy and are improving. Um. And when you talk about
- 14:29Speaker 1: conventions and specific like the things we talked about all
- 14:32Speaker 1: the time, like there's layers of racism and ableism and sexism,
- 14:35Speaker 1: just because it's not like it's separate from the world.
- 14:38Speaker 1: It's that's the world we live in. So there are
- 14:41Speaker 1: aspects of that as well. And I'm glad we're having
- 14:44Speaker 1: those conversations and also just you know, access, like who
- 14:47Speaker 1: can afford to go to these things and who can
- 14:50Speaker 1: afford to buy their costume? Are to make their own costume,
- 14:53Speaker 1: like all that stuff, and then we're judging people who
- 14:56Speaker 1: had to do whatever they had to do to be
- 14:58Speaker 1: a character that they want to be and love and
- 15:01Speaker 1: then making them feel guilty about it, which it should
- 15:04Speaker 1: be a fun experience where we're sharing like a love
- 15:07Speaker 1: of something. And I think, you know again, I know
- 15:10Speaker 1: I bring it up all the time, but like things
- 15:12Speaker 1: like fan fiction, I feel like there's a judgment of
- 15:16Speaker 1: my way is the right way to enjoy a fandom?
- 15:19Speaker 1: You don't get it. You're making it worse for being
- 15:21Speaker 1: here as a woman because it's so I feel like
- 15:25Speaker 1: there's just a layer of seeing as weaker like you
- 15:27Speaker 1: were making How dare you dress as the Winter Soldier?
- 15:30Speaker 1: Because now I feel like he's weak and effeminate like
- 15:32Speaker 1: that aspects of it. All that being said, I do
- 15:36Speaker 1: love cosplaying and I find it really rewarding. I find
- 15:39Speaker 1: the dressing up of rewarding. And I also, like I said,
- 15:42Speaker 1: I don't feel like I'm good at making things, but
- 15:44Speaker 1: I did make it like I was persistent and determined
- 15:47Speaker 1: and there was some amount of of real success that
- 15:51Speaker 1: I got from that, And especially when um the Winter
- 15:54Speaker 1: Soldier arm I've made four of them, and they I
- 15:57Speaker 1: feel like they got better and better and I eventually
- 15:59Speaker 1: got so good at it. I posted a video on
- 16:01Speaker 1: my Instagram of like, here's how you do it. I
- 16:03Speaker 1: did it one like, you know, a couple of hours,
- 16:06Speaker 1: whereas before it took me like months to do it.
- 16:09Speaker 1: So I feel like there's so many levels of expertise
- 16:12Speaker 1: in this, whether it is your knowledge of it or
- 16:14Speaker 1: your love of something or how you made it. And
- 16:17Speaker 1: people get really really creative, and I'll never forget one
- 16:19Speaker 1: time this like college professor came up to me like
- 16:22Speaker 1: took a picture and you know, said can I use
- 16:25Speaker 1: this in my art class? How did you do this?
- 16:27Speaker 1: And that's that's a wonderful feelure. And I think like
- 16:31Speaker 1: a lot of women do that where we doubt the
- 16:33Speaker 1: things that we've made or have done or put together
- 16:36Speaker 1: and we shouldn't like we shouldn't have that level of doubt.
- 16:40Speaker 1: That being said, we have an episode coming up on
- 16:42Speaker 1: blogs and you asked me, Samantha, like if you could
- 16:45Speaker 1: have made something doing something else, or if you could
- 16:47Speaker 1: have a blog, what would it be. You would obviously
- 16:49Speaker 1: be fan picture, but I think I could do a
- 16:50Speaker 1: cosplay one because that's where I've gotten a lot of
- 16:53Speaker 1: tips for how to make things through cosplay blogs. And
- 16:57Speaker 1: I once was asked if I would cosplays for actually,
- 17:00Speaker 1: and I thought, the damn business card. But there's a
- 17:03Speaker 1: light where time out there cosplaying and getting paid for it.
- 17:07Speaker 1: You should because your stuff is really good, very thought out.
- 17:12Speaker 1: I think you have a lot of good supporters because
- 17:14Speaker 1: you're friends. Some of your friends are amazing at this
- 17:17Speaker 1: cosplay thing, and again our friend of the show, Holly
- 17:20Speaker 1: amazing at this cosplay thing, just amazing. And general loan crafting,
- 17:24Speaker 1: I have no skills, so I would definitely be that
- 17:26Speaker 1: person that would buy things. I mean, I'm not even pretending.
- 17:28Speaker 1: It's not like I'm being self deprecating. I really don't
- 17:31Speaker 1: have the crafting skills to make things. I can barely
- 17:35Speaker 1: draw things. My handwriting is unintelligible, Like that's just it's
- 17:38Speaker 1: just bad. So for people who do things, I'm like, wow,
- 17:43Speaker 1: great job, and you do a great job. Oh thank you.
- 17:48Speaker 1: You know, as always was never an attempt to get
- 17:50Speaker 1: a compliment, but I will take it. I will take it.
- 17:53Speaker 1: And I have had to be creative and I've I've
- 17:55Speaker 1: liked that, like I've had to like find pieces and
- 17:58Speaker 1: stuff that normally wouldn't go together and make it. And I,
- 18:01Speaker 1: you know what, proud of that profit you should be.
- 18:04Speaker 1: But listeners, oh my goodness. If you have cosplay pictures
- 18:08Speaker 1: you want to share with us our tips, please send
- 18:11Speaker 1: them our way. You can emails at Stephanie and mom
- 18:13Speaker 1: Stuff at I heart me dot com. You can find
- 18:15Speaker 1: us on Instagram at stuff We'd ever told you or
- 18:16Speaker 1: on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks as always, you
- 18:19Speaker 1: are super producer. Christina also good at most things she does.
- 18:22Speaker 1: I believe, yes, oh for sure. And thanks to you
- 18:25Speaker 1: for listening. Steph, I never told you his protection of
- 18:27Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts are my Heart Radio
- 18:29Speaker 1: because the Heart Radio ap Apple podcast. I'll ready listen
- 18:31Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.