The fear of fat women who cosplay
Let me start this post by saying that I have never been to a convention, or “con.” I have never cosplayed, or dressed up like a character from a movie, comic book or TV show. The main reason is that I can’t afford the costs of traveling to a con, although one of my goals is to visit a con, and maybe one day that will happen.
Body size has nothing to do with why I’ve never been to a con. As these events get more popular, we’re seeing people of all shapes and sizes attending, cosplaying, and having a good time. Unfortunately, there are a number of those who believe that big people, especially big women, shouldn’t be allowed to cosplay.
They believe that benefit belongs just to women who can pass for Playboy pin-ups. I touched on this in a post at my blog Life on FATS.
The Doctor Who Convention was held in Cardiff, Wales last weekend and sold out like hotcakes. Whovians from all over the world showed their love for the extremely popular sci-fi show, and a lot of them chose to cosplay. The BBC America website and the official Doctor Who Facebook page (both of which I belong to) have been showing pictures from the convention and a lot of the cosplayers were getting some really nice comments — until this picture came up on Facebook:
The woman on the left is a clock android from the 51st century. The woman next to her is dressed as the TARDIS, the Doctor’s time machine. Some of the comments (from men of course) were not that kind. Luckily, some of us gals (myself included) took up for these two and told the trolls to stop with the body shaming.
The fear and loathing of fat is so prevalent that we can’t even wear a costume without being snarked on. Apparently, we are supposed to stay home and wallow in our Ben & Jerry’s while the thinner fans can do whatever they want.
Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way.
These events don’t have a weight restriction. There may not be a lot of fat fictional characters around, but the idea of cosplaying is to celebrate the love of fiction.
Seeing fat people having fun and dressing up shouldn’t be considered such a horrible thing. Instead, seeing the confidence in fat people who choose to dress up and proudly display their pictures in public, knowing the trolls are ready with body-shaming insults, should be considered downright awesome.
fiercefatties
dufmanno
vesta44
JeninCanada
atchka
erylin
lexiedi
joannadeadwinter
dr deah
shaunta
roundgirlrocks
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lifeonfats
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The Smokin' Deist
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I love her TARDIS outfit! It’s such a cute interpretation of it, much more creative than a blue cardbook box that says “POLICE” on it.
I love that outfit! I’ve never been to a con but I would love to do something like that. How fun!
Not to mention the ingenuity in coming up with costumes that fit their bodies and look awesome! Not something you can just go out and buy or rent if you’re a person of size.
Someone just shared a link to a Facebook group for plus-sized cosplayers. Check it out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113823435310826/members/
Peace,
Shannon
*like*
This is the #1 reason I wont cosplay, if I ever did get to a con, unless I can make an entire Gravity Suit and wear it around all weekend. Samus is badass in her powersuit (not the Zero Suit, I hate it) and I would like to do something as a fat, powerful woman and not try to shove myself into a costume and character that just doesn’t work. As LittleBigGirl points out, so many of the characters and costumes out there available to cosplay are SO unrealistic, it’s very hard for ANYONE to get it ‘right’.
The irony to me is that many cosplay costumes are based on anime cartoons which have characters who, like Barbie, are physically (physiologically?) impossible. So anyone who dresses up as these characters is going to look unrealistic compared to the ridiculous physicality set up by the character itself. Almost no one looks like the characters they dress up as - they just look like themselves playing dress-up. ;-P I just look at cosplay as expressing your creativity, sharing your love for whatever your are a fan of, and the excuse to dress up like it’s Halloween any time of the year. Don’t let the trolls ruin the awesomeness of that!
There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with the way those women look. I was looking at their costumes, not their size. I thought they looked cool.
Thank you
<3
I’ve always felt guilty about cosplaying due to my larger size. I mean when you go to a convention you see all these itty-bitty skinny people and…well it’s definitely not an ego-booster.
But this was. THANK YOU