Cosplay Is For Everyone

Hello there! HGIII Cosplay here aka Trey with Con Culture and I am so excited to take what would normally be hours of video rants from the podcast about my passions, or a review of new shows and movies (new to me, at least!) and general nerdy nonsense and to bring it all into the world of the written word!

Maybe if enough of you readers enjoy today's topic and this blog post blows up, I'll even get in front of the camera and record a follow-up where I share some of your comments and thoughts. Could be fun, right?

So, without further ado...

Welcome to my first official Con Culture blog post!

Today, I want to talk about something I hold very near and dear to my heart. Not just as a cosplayer, but also as a member of the Con Culture crew.

It’s our motto. Our mission statement. Our mantra. One of our biggest core values:

“Cosplay Is For Everyone.”

We are even making shirts to sell as one of our first ever purchasable Con Culture merchandise so we can spread this message to the masses! More on that later!!!

I hope that by the end of this blog, if you've never attended a comic con or cosplayed before, you'll at least want to give it a try. More importantly, I hope you'll understand what “Cosplay Is For Everyone” truly means to me.

So... What Is Cosplay?

For those of you who might be completely new to the world of cosplay, the word comes from “costume” and “roleplay.” Millions of people around the world cosplay at comic conventions, anime conventions, fan events, online, and pretty much anywhere else people want to celebrate the characters and fandoms they love.

At its heart, cosplay is a fun and immersive way to dress up as one of your favorite characters, express your creativity, and connect with other fans who love the same things you do.

And that's exactly how I found some of the most important people in my life.

I met the Con Culture team because of cosplay and our shared passion for spotlighting cosplayers and the incredible craftsmanship that goes into this hobby! Which by the way, has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry. Billion. With a B. 

I would not be here writing this blog today if it weren't for cosplay.

I wouldn't have met some of the most incredible, kind, talented, and genuinely wonderful people I've ever known. Cosplay has allowed me to travel to places I might never have otherwise visited, experience conventions all over the country, and meet pop-culture and cosplay fans from so many different backgrounds, walks of life, ages, races, genders, and communities. And that's the beauty of it.

Cosplay has no limits.

You can cosplay whoever or whatever you want!

It doesn't have to be screen accurate. It doesn't have to be canon. You don't have to cosplay a character who looks exactly like you and you certainly don't need anyone else's permission to cosplay.

I've seen cosplayers who are absolute chameleons/shapeshifters who can transform themselves into characters of completely different genders, races,body types and ages!

Years ago, I met one cosplayer in particular who completely changed the way I thought about cosplay.If you're a longtime follower of Con Culture, you probably know exactly who I'm about to name-drop...

Our cosplay lord and savior: Knightmage.

Seriously. Go look this man up. Knightmage is a cosplay powerhouse who has portrayed an incredible range of characters across different genders, races, body types, and fandoms and manages to absolutely CRUSH the cosplay every single time. We were lucky enough to have him on the Con Culture Podcast back in 2020, and during that conversation he shared a mindset about cosplay that completely changed things for me:

“Cosplay is your fan art.”

As soon as he said that, something clicked. At that point in my own cosplay journey, I had mostly tried to cosplay characters who were plus-sized or characters where I thought I could “get away with” being a bigger version of them. I had unintentionally created limitations for myself. Then Knightmage essentially handed me the keys and said:

There are no limitations.

If cosplay is your fan art, then the possibilities are literally unlimited. I felt a little silly for not realizing it sooner. I'm an open-minded nerd that loves multiverses and variant characters! I should have figured this out! So that idea of cosplay being your fan art has stuck with me ever since and that's especially important for anyone who might look at themselves and think:

“I can't cosplay that character because I don't look like them.”

YES. YOU. CAN.

If you're plus-sized, fluffy, thicc, phat or whatever word you personally use to describe your beautiful self and you're worried about being accepted or judged at a comic convention, I want you to know something:

You belong there.

The Good Outweighs the Bad

Now, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that nobody will ever be mean…Unfortunately, I can't promise that. There will always be somebody online or occasionally in person who decides to be rude, judgmental, inappropriate, or just plain awful. The internet is a weird place. We've got trolls. Keyboard warriors. Faceless accounts. Snot nose kids. Bots!!!

QUICK RANT!

Nine times out of ten, you can use a perfectly innocent cosplay related tag or hashtag and some random troll account or a bot consisting of approximately 101010101010101010 will crawl out of the internet woodwork to say something completely out of pocket. Meanwhile, you're just over here trying to post your cosplay photos and videos and live your best life. ANYWAY!

The point is this: Don't let the possibility of a few bad experiences stop you from experiencing all the amazing ones. Because the good in the cosplay community can and does outweigh the bad.

The friendships. The compliments. The photographers. The craftsmanship. The convention memories. The random kid who sees your costume and absolutely LIGHTS UP. Those moments are why I keep doing this crazy and fun hobby.

You don’t have to be 9 feet tall or have massive muscular arms to cosplay a certain character. I’m a ghostly pale chubby nerd from Texas and I cosplay characters like Wreck-It Ralph. 

I am not nine feet tall. I am not a gigantic muscular video-game character. But when I put on that Ralph cosplay?

I'm ready to wreck it!

My Wreck-It Ralph cosplay is one of my favorite examples of what “Cosplay Is For Everyone” means.

And I absolutely LOVE the reactions I get. From kids and their parents. From fellow cosplayers. From people walking through conventions who recognize the character and immediately get excited.

Those moments are some of my favorite parts of cosplaying. Because for a few minutes, it doesn't matter what I look like outside of the costume. I'm Wreck-It Ralph.And I'm having a blast. That's what cosplay means to me. It's not about whether I have the “correct” body type. It's not about whether I'm the exact height. It's not about whether every single piece of the costume is screen accurate. It's about loving a character enough to say:

“I want to be that character today.”

And that's enough. Have fun with it! That’s all that matters at the end of the day!

Cosplay Is For Everyone…But So Is Respect

Now, before I get too carried away with the whole “DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!” message, there is one very important thing I want to mention. The cosplay community has another saying: “Cosplay is Not Consent.”

Yes, cosplay is for everyone. Yes, you should feel free to express yourself. Yes, you can cosplay whoever you want. But that doesn't mean other people's boundaries disappear when they're wearing a costume.

Don't be weird. Don't be inappropriate. Ask before touching someone's costume or props. Ask to take a photo. Respect people's personal space. And remember that the person underneath the cosplay is still a person!

That's a whole other blog post for another day, but I wanted to throw that out there because “Cosplay Is For Everyone” also means creating a community where everyone feels safe enough to participate!

So, I think I've gone on long enough. I've made my points. I've gone on a couple of rants. I've talked about Knightmage. I've yelled about internet bots. Honestly, that's probably enough for today. But I want to leave you with a thought that I think beautifully connects everything I've been talking about.

There's a line from Spider-Man: Brand New Day that really stuck with me that I want to share with you that I think speaks well to today’s topic.

SPOILER WARNING if you haven't seen the movie yet!

Seriously.

Scroll or click away now!

...

Okay…You've been warned!

There's a beautiful moment involving Aunt May where she gives Sadie Sink some words to remember…

“You're beautiful, and the people who love you will love you not because you're special, we love you because you're you.”

Remember this whenever you are feeling alone or are having any self doubts! You are beautiful! You are special! You are loved! That is what I want cosplay to feel like. When I see you at a convention dressed as your favorite character, I don't care if you're screen accurate. I don't care if you're plus-sized. I don't care if you're tall, short, skinny, muscular, disabled, young, old, male, female, nonbinary, or anything else.

I care that you love that character. I care that you love that fandom. I care that you're having fun. Because we're going to recognize something in you that we recognize in ourselves:

You love this thing, too.

That's the magic of fandom. That's the magic of conventions. And that's the magic of cosplay. So don't hide the light that makes you YOU. Go do the thing. Buy the fabric. Hit the thrift store. Order the costume online. Break out the hot glue gun. Put together that closet cosplay you've been thinking about. Make the costume that nobody else understands.

Go Cosplay!

Because you don't need anybody's permission to be a fan. And you don't need anybody's permission to create your own fan art.

Cosplay Is For Everyone!

I'm HGIII Cosplay, and thank you so much for reading my first official Con Culture blog post! even though it was all over the place!

I'd love to hear from you. What does “Cosplay Is For Everyone” mean to YOU? Share your thoughts and stories in the comments!