Trang 1 Jason Trang Professor Elizabeth Miossec-Backer Writing 323 6 March 2014 Cosplay: The American Gender-Bender Cosplay,

is dressing up as your favorite character whether it be from a TV show, a movie a video game, a book, an anime (Japanese animations) or a manga (Japanese comics), which incorporates a wide audience of all ages and both genders. The cosplay community has increased in participants in the past years with the main catalyst being the internet. People now are able to express their ideas, creations, and opinions over the internet with real time interaction. Additionally, the opportunities to meet face-to-face at conventions have become more common with the growing popularity and availability of anime conventions (cons). With the expanding popularity of cosplay, an interesting aspect that has also grown along with the cosplay community has been crossplay, when one individual cosplays as a character that is not their own gender. But with the growing rates of people crossplaying at cons the amount of dangers has also arisen along with it. What are the struggles and how has crossplay affected the cosplay community? Cosplay originated in Japan and is also the location where gender-bender mangas have risen to popularity. In gender-bender mangas a character may dress up as the opposite sex for comedic reasons or to address serious issues like individuals gender identity (Stevens 200). Crossplay is a main draw for shoujo manga, which is a romance genre aimed towards girls of all ages. Another rising genre in Japan is the genre of boys love, where two males may act intimate with one another or just allude to feelings of more than just friendship between them. Typically,

Trang 2 one of the characters looks more feminine or has female features and so occasionally the character ends up crossplaying as a female. The narrative structure implemented throughout the Gender Bender genre negotiates gendered identities as the characters undermine gender norms through their sustained practices of gender transgression and their dialogue concerning gendered identities (Kornfield 214). That is not to say that crossdressing has only been exclusive to Japan, but that crossdressing has also been used in America and has seen some uses in the entertainment such as movies. Crossplay has been seen more and more common at cons here in the United States. On average there are more female cosplayers than males so usually females crossplay as male characters to balance the skewed ratio (Leng 94). At conventions there are regularly crossplay panels for the growing numbers of people wanting to crossplay. People who crossplay as the opposite gender can take the idea of crossplay very serious, while others may not and do it more for the humorous aspect of going as a different gender for the kicks and amusement. Some crossplayers keep their true gender a secret and will not let any pictures of them as their actual gender be released. For crossplayer Danny, who goes by the alias Lialina in the cosplay community, crossplay is very serious for him. He keeps his gender anonymous on his online profile and at cons, and he makes sure that pictures of him that portray him as a man are taken off the internet. I make sure that pictures of myself as a man are not shown online together with my cosplay identity. I want Lialina to project the character of a female cosplayer. Although many of my fans are precisely my fans because they know that I am a male and I crossplay, within the cosplay community I think it is important to stay in

Trang 3 character[and] Lialina is meant to be femaleif I see any photos of myself [posted by fans] that show me out of character, I always ask them to take it down (Leng 92). Crossplay is more than just dressing up as someone of the other gender, there are also behaviorisms, etiquettes, makeup, voice mimicry, and striking iconic in-character poses for the camera involved. For a crossplayer finding a costume can be difficult. The crossplayer may be biologically one sex and this can result in it making it sometimes impossible to find a cosplay online to purchase that would fit. Often crossplayers must hand-make all their cosplays in order to modify the costume designs to make their appearance more feminine or masculine depending on the gender of the character they are planning to portray. People cosplay because they want to express their interests in an interactive and visual way. Crossplay is for the same reason, but with the addition of not being bound by gender constraints. This allows for crossplayers to portray themselves as the opposite gender for as frequently or rarely as they desire. You dont ask a woman why shes cosplaying a female character because of the characters gender. Why should crossplayers be asked that question? All cosplayers simply dress up as the characters they lovesome people dont make a major effort to conceal their actual gender (Leng 98). Crossplay lets crossplayers pass regular gender norms through costume and performance and cons are the perfect place for one to actively express this. Cons are all about the costumes, the venues, the people, and the activities in which people are free to convey themselves as whatever they wish to the community. Compared to everyday life, the atmosphere of cons allows for more self-expression and therefore crossplay fits in with everyone else in costume. For all the freedoms that crossplayers enjoy at cons, there are some negative situations in which people may make fun of crossplayers that take their crossplaying seriously. While

Trang 4 crossplayers may be more common at cons, they are not the majority. In addition to not being in the majority, they are looked down on and frowned upon by other con participants. Others that crossplay as a joke or to poke fun at people who do crossplay seriously can end up intentionally or incidentally being disrespectful towards serious crossplayers. Along with the negative connotation that disrespectful crossplay brings to cons, it also creates a negative image for people outside the cosplay community in that crossplay is viewed as disgusting and only used for parody reasons. Another misconception about crossplay is that all the crossplayers are gay, bisexual, or transsexual. This is due to people placing stereotypes upon them and people associating crossplay and drag together, because they see similarities between the two and then believe that the two are one in the same. This is because they place their knowledge of one onto the other without having any actual knowledge of it (Ito 47). The difference is, you have Drag which exaggerates and to some extent parodies womenand Crossplay, which I would say is more of an impersonation that replicates and honors feminine characters. Unfortunately, the Drag is more outlandish, more out there and ends up being the stereotype most people identify with (Leng 103). When men crossplay as female characters people start to associate it with drag, but when females crossplay as male characters they end up with less negative perceptions than males. That could be due to the overwhelming amount of females at cons or the fact that anime and manga have portrayed male characters as being more feminine and beautiful than their real life counterparts. This enables it to be easier for females to crossplay as very effeminate male characters (Gn Joel 584). One more fallacy is that because crossplayers crossplay at cons that they crossplay in their everyday life as well, which may hold true for some, but is untrue for others. For the

Trang 5 crossplayers that do crossplay in real life, they go through tougher times when they are not at cons amidst others in cosplay. In Jacobs piece he interviews and follows a crossplayer in Asia named Maggie. She explains Maggie as a transsexual that has yet to come out to her family for fear of them not supporting her. She is a border-crossing individual who can manage to fluctuate between gendered personalities, though her peers are not easily accepting of this kind of mobility. Maggie has become a more confident and queer activist-oriented over the years, yet I often overhear negative comments about her from other purist Cosplayers who could not appreciate her highly eclectic or complicated identity (Jacobs 42). Like Maggie, this situation is common for many other crossplayers that choose to crossplay even outside of cons. Male otakus (hardcore anime fans) are exposed to the anime/manga world where things are usually presented to be more light-hearted than real life. Female otakus are drawn towards more romantic settings or action shows with a wide variety of handsome males. Female otakus are so drawn to these handsome male characters that they end up wanting to cosplay as male characters rather than the typical female protagonist that men are drawn to (Jacobs 31). And for otakus there is a term called trap, where a character is shown to be a beautiful female character but it turns out that in reality the character is a boy or vice versa. Crossplay or crossdressing is more accepted by otakus than others. Crossplay has been more socially acceptable in Asia where some professional female cosplayers cosplay male characters because they match better with the androgynous features that male anime and manga characters have. Another term that is used in the anime and manga community is the term kigurumi, which is growing in popularity in Asia, in which a person, usually a male, will dress as a female

Trang 6 but wear a mask to hide their masculine faces. They distinguish themselves from all other forms of Cosplay because they openly embrace a love of fetish costumes as a type of alternative sexuality, while validating cross-dressing as an aspect of sexual pleasure (Jacobs 39). Usually the mask will look very feminine with abnormally large eyes to represent the characteristics of most female anime characters. Kigurumi have been presented to be more of a personal sexual pleasure rather than an open pleasure that one would share at cons. But most popular kigurumis are posted online and have received worldwide attention due to the accessibility of the internet where people can anonymously share photos without risking the revealing of their identity and gender. I myself have learned many things about cosplay during my time researching and writing this paper, and even though I am an avid cosplayer there were many different aspects of the cosplay community that were new to me. The community is gradually evolving everyday making cosplay a subculture that I am proud to be a involved with. With the growing popularity of the anime and manga industry, cosplay is increasing at an equal rate along with it. Last years con will differ from this years con due to new series cosplays appearing of the more recently released anime and manga hits. Cosplay is a hobby and sometimes lifestyle that has traveled from Japan and is heavily influenced by anime and manga. It is not limited to just anime and manga as people now cosplay as their favorite characters from comics, TV shows, or video games made in the West. The fact that people are so fascinated in Japans culture leads to the merging of both cultures into one that can be liked by many. Crossplay is another form of cosplay that can let one express themselves and be accepted at cons. There are many ways that cosplay conflicts with the standard one mold of gender, but although crossplayers sometimes face criticism for their choice to cosplay as the opposite gender, nowadays within the cosplay

Trang 7 community there is more acceptance of crossplaying. Therefore distinct male and female gender roles are becoming blurred and creating a gray area in relation to gender. With the growing acceptance of crossplaying in the cosplay community, the possibility for acceptance of crossplay as a lifestyle is becoming more likely as well. In the future it is not inconceivable that crossplay can become an acceptable lifestyle.