Cosplay and bullying

(Photo found here.)

I want to talk about something serious. Something that's very important to me. I want to talk about cosplay and bullying.

The reason why I want to talk about this now, is because something happened on my Facebook page yesterday. A guy posted a very random comment on my page, saying "Don't be childish because someone has an opinion". I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, but it soon became clear that he was only there to cause trouble. He claimed he wanted to help, but all he really did was point out how terrible and cheap looking he thought my wigs were, and even went on to say that he didn't want new cosplayers around because they weren't good enough. As if cosplayers don't have a learning curve and can simply choose to be Yaya Han right from the start. Logical, right? What an idiot.

I personally wasn't bothered too much by this guy and his comments. (I also got some really good help from a certain Inquisition Squad. Thanks a bunch!) I thankfully don't let these sort of things get to me the way they used to in the past. On the other hand, I am not a well known cosplayer. I don't have a large following. The comments I get are 99% of the time very nice. I would probably get a lot more shit if I had a bigger name, and it may have been a lot harder to handle too.

It doesn't matter though, how you handle these comments. Whether you're strong enough to brush them off or whether they really get to you: this kind of behaviour is bullshit! For some ridiculous reason there is a whole world of people out there who somehow thinks it's okay to attack cosplayers because we don't live up to their twisted standards and fantasies.

Well, newsflash assholes: You don´t get to dictate what cosplayers can and can't do! Whether I make my costume out of trash bags or screen accurate fabric; whether I wear a $5 synthetic wig or a $300 human hair wig; whether I am too tall, too short, too big, too small or just the right size for a certain cosplay; it is none of your damn business! No really, it isn't. You may think it's your business because cosplayers put themselves out there. But it's not.

Some of these people, like in my case, claim they only want to help. Here's another newsflash: trash talk is not helping! Telling someone their wigs look cheap, is not helping! Telling someone they're too fat to cosplay a certain character, is not helping! It's rude and it's mean, and you're a douchebag for saying it.

More than anything, I get angry about this on behalf of new, young cosplayers. A lot of young people in the cosplay community are outsiders and often don't have a lot of self-esteem. Negative comments stick very easily to them. Worst case, they may stop cosplaying because of it. Have any of you sad, pathetic little pricks who leave these comments ever thought of that? Does it even bother you?

You should all be ashamed of yourselves. I desperately hope that at one point, all of you bullies will gain some sort of self-awareness, understand what you do to people, and then feel the horrible burn of regret.