GENDERBENT LARA CROFT COSPLAY
Genderbending cosplay is nothing new, we see it all the time. Usually it’s hot chicks dressed as sluttier versions of male characters, but we rarely see manly-men, like Dr. Teng above, dressed as scantily-clad lady characters.
I’d actually kind of like to see this idea pushed all the way to the opposite end of the spectrum — like dudes cosplaying as super suave and macho versions of half-nekkid chicks. I wonder if the character’s would even still be recognizable.
(top pic via Anna Fischer)
CHECK IT: More cosplay posts on Albotas.com
BUY: Cosplay Made In Japan (Japanese Edition)omg
I fucking love this!
@bikiniarmorbattledamage some empowering male cosplay and a lovely example of giving men the same skimpy outfits as their female counterparts. A truly wonderful cosplay, if I do say so.
Always open to a sexy male take on Tomb Raider! We had a CG 3D one and 2D colored pencil one on the blog already, so real life version is welcome as well!
This really is an equal opportunity sexy costume.
~Ozzie
Nier Automata: 2b cosplay by @allansenpaii on Twitter
As you can probably tell by now, we’re all for any empowered male take on Nier Automata.
Now, if only there was actually a mainstream game with a sexy dude protagonist who ends up pantless by blowing himself up and then reloading. And if the creator’s only answer to inevitable backlash from dudebros was “I just really like boys.”… that would be peachy.
~Ozzie
Just out of curiosity, what is your opinion of female cosplayers that perpetuate the horribly designed costumes prevalent in comic books and video games? Now that I’ve been enlightened by your blog (thank you, btw), I cringe any time I see cosplayers that wear costumes that display the problems you discuss. I can appreciate the effort and craftsmanship that goes into their costumes, but I wonder if they think about the bigger issue.
Our opinion is that cosplayers are people with their own agency, acting on their initiative and (hopefully) not putting themselves hence they’re entitled to dress as sexy as they like.
If the choices of cosplayers heavily influenced studios then Harley Quinn would still wear her full body outfit and mainstream media would have a lot greater diversity in character race (eg cosplayingwhileblack ), body types (eg chubby-cosplay ) and gender expression.
Women who cosplay already have to deal with the Fake Geek Girl Myth, explain that Cosplay is NOT Consent and receive unsolicited criticism for not meeting society’s unrealistic beauty standards (even the ones who are also professional models). Women who cosplay in some outfits display superhuman costume construction skills and spectacular personal confidence. We nothing but sincere respect for the effort and courage it takes to wear many a bingo breaking costume to a convention.
Women in sexy cosplay don’t decide that the media will focus almost exclusively on conventionally attractive women when talking about cosplay. Women in sexy cosplay don’t sit in on design meetings and write notes on concept art with a red marker. Researchers don’t create focus groups of sexy cosplayers to test marketing ideas. Having sexy cosplayer booth babes doesn’t guarantee sales or even a memorable product.
The problem isn’t even that sexy female characters exist (let alone that some people want to cosplay them). There actually are potentially good reasons for the sexy outfits. The problem is that modern media has standardized making female characters sexy to the extent it’s assumed to be a top priority.
More important than telling the story. More important than making the character interesting and unique. More important than expanding your audience outside of straight white cis men. More important than making the character human or relate-able.
This mentality is upheld by myths such as sex sells, only boys play video games and that focus groups of straight white men can reflect everyone’s opinions.
The decisions are made by executives, marketers, creative directors and occasional auteurs who make these decisions on behalf of businesses that need to sell millions of units to stay in business. They’re re-enforced by media about fantasy art and loud groups who are dedicated to halting all progress.
Sexy cosplay ladies are not a big enough demographic to keep a AAA title in business and they’re generally not respected by society – they have no more say in what goes in mainstream media than slash fiction writers, furries, let’s players or anyone else who has a hobby related to popular culture.
– wincenworks
Since convention season is in full swing, let’s remember that condemning female cosplayers (instead the costume designers and their higher ups) for perpetuating sexualization of women in media is just a derailment tactic. It shifts blame from the actual creators onto a vulnerable group of fans.
Instead of pointing fingers in the wrong direction, let’s question the complex issues behind the idea of “sexy” character design and problems cosplaying women face, as wincenworks expounds in this old post.
~Ozzie
As a follow up, I’d like to point out that if cosplay ladies got to decide the content of games – we’d see a whole lot more male empowerment.
– wincenworks
Just out of curiosity, what is your opinion of female cosplayers that perpetuate the horribly designed costumes prevalent in comic books and video games? Now that I’ve been enlightened by your blog (thank you, btw), I cringe any time I see cosplayers that wear costumes that display the problems you discuss. I can appreciate the effort and craftsmanship that goes into their costumes, but I wonder if they think about the bigger issue.
Our opinion is that cosplayers are people with their own agency, acting on their initiative and (hopefully) not putting themselves hence they’re entitled to dress as sexy as they like.
If the choices of cosplayers heavily influenced studios then Harley Quinn would still wear her full body outfit and mainstream media would have a lot greater diversity in character race (eg cosplayingwhileblack ), body types (eg chubby-cosplay ) and gender expression.
Women who cosplay already have to deal with the Fake Geek Girl Myth, explain that Cosplay is NOT Consent and receive unsolicited criticism for not meeting society’s unrealistic beauty standards (even the ones who are also professional models). Women who cosplay in some outfits display superhuman costume construction skills and spectacular personal confidence. We nothing but sincere respect for the effort and courage it takes to wear many a bingo breaking costume to a convention.
Women in sexy cosplay don’t decide that the media will focus almost exclusively on conventionally attractive women when talking about cosplay. Women in sexy cosplay don’t sit in on design meetings and write notes on concept art with a red marker. Researchers don’t create focus groups of sexy cosplayers to test marketing ideas. Having sexy cosplayer booth babes doesn’t guarantee sales or even a memorable product.
The problem isn’t even that sexy female characters exist (let alone that some people want to cosplay them). There actually are potentially good reasons for the sexy outfits. The problem is that modern media has standardized making female characters sexy to the extent it’s assumed to be a top priority.
More important than telling the story. More important than making the character interesting and unique. More important than expanding your audience outside of straight white cis men. More important than making the character human or relate-able.
This mentality is upheld by myths such as sex sells, only boys play video games and that focus groups of straight white men can reflect everyone’s opinions.
The decisions are made by executives, marketers, creative directors and occasional auteurs who make these decisions on behalf of businesses that need to sell millions of units to stay in business. They’re re-enforced by media about fantasy art and loud groups who are dedicated to halting all progress.
Sexy cosplay ladies are not a big enough demographic to keep a AAA title in business and they’re generally not respected by society – they have no more say in what goes in mainstream media than slash fiction writers, furries, let’s players or anyone else who has a hobby related to popular culture.
– wincenworks
Since convention season is in full swing, let’s remember that condemning female cosplayers (instead the costume designers and their higher ups) for perpetuating sexualization of women in media is just a derailment tactic. It shifts blame from the actual creators onto a vulnerable group of fans.
Instead of pointing fingers in the wrong direction, let’s question the complex issues behind the idea of “sexy” character design and problems cosplaying women face, as wincenworks expounds in this old post.
~Ozzie
As a follow up, I’d like to point out that if cosplay ladies got to decide the content of games – we’d see a whole lot more male empowerment.
– wincenworks
Historically accurate leggings. Lorica Clothing’s inspiration is straight out of the Metropolitan Museum’s Arms and Armor exhibit.
Lorica (latin for body armor) is funding their leggings project on Kickstarter, and have already far surpassed their goal, which means the leggings are happening. Read more
@bikiniarmorbattledamage I was reminded of you guys when I saw this! Thought y’all might like it.
I remember the last time we featured literal spandex armor clothes (including leggings not unlike those) on the blog.
Love how those are designed and named after actual pieces of historical armor. Such a nice touch.
~Ozzie
for not-literal spandex armor on BABD see: spandex chainmail | skin-tight metal
Think how much more amazing Nier Automata could have been if they’d made the bold artistic decision to make 9S more like this Eve cosplay by Leon Chiro.
So bold. So empowered.
– wincenworks
Dragon Age – Cassandra Pentaghast Cosplay by HydraEvil
@l-heure-du-the send help im dying
@bikiniarmorbattledamage should appreciate armor done RIGHT.
If she wear a real person I would move for Cassandra Pentaghast to be sainted as Our Lady of Badassery in Sensible Armor. Sadly she is not, but HydraEvil is real and I am grateful she shows us how amazing Cassandra via amazing cosplay.
– wincenworks