Cosplay is a favorite pasttime of many nerds, and sometimes we have to deal with a little snobbery, but sometime that snobbery has racist, sexist, classist, and sizeist implications.

1. The Social Politics of Cosplay
Allison Wilhelm
ConnectiCon 2013

2. Why do we cosplay?
Meet new people
Fun
“Nerd Cred”
Pay homage to favorite characters
Inclusion
Attention
Feel powerful
Be someone else
Creative outlet
Challenge
Sense of accomplishment
Self-expression Overcome shyness
Bring characters to life

9. The main problems
• Slut shaming
• “Fake geek girl”
• Lack of diverse characters limits options for
some groups of people
• Blackface/brownface
• “it’s a trap!”
• “Perfect” cosplay is expensive and exclusive, not
achievable for everyone
• Harassment

10. Buy vs. Make

12. Age and Cosplay

13. “Silly black girls, you can’t be Thor or Loki.”

14. “I’m A Black Female Cosplayer…And
Some People Hate It”

15. Okay, so we should let black
people cosplay white characters.
Awesome, I’m okay with that.
Does that mean white people can
cosplay dark-skinned characters?

16. That’s where things get
interesting
And a little controversial . . .

17. Brownface in Cosplay

20. “My skin color is not a costume. It
is something that has been used
by racists to hurt me &
discriminate against me. You
don’t get to wear it for a day and
then wash it off without
consequences.”

21. What about skin lightening?

24. Weight, Dieting, and Cosplay

28. Sexy Cosplay

30. Crossplay

31. She’s empowered

32. He must be gay

34. Genderswapping