Yeah, I said it. A lot of you probably agree with me too, but you won’t say it. It is time to get real here - let's talk about fat-shaming in the world of Cosplay.
We all like to say we are open-minded, but deep down we all know that we would rather see a skinny Wonder Woman than a fat one. I mean, come on, why can't the fat girl just have the willpower and lose some weight? Doesn't she know she looks pathetic? At conventions we take pictures with the skinny Wonder Woman and not the fat one. The fat Wonder Woman may have actually paid more attention to detail in her costume, but her body type doesn't match the character so who cares?
I do - because I am too afraid to be that fat Wonder Woman. I studied costume design for 4 years in college, but I don’t feel like I can fully utilize my talents to portray the characters I’d like to because I am afraid of being made fun of. I decided to cosplay as Charizard for Salt Lake Comic Con because I am too afraid to dress up as a sexy female character like Wonder Woman. Heaven forbid I post pictures of my fat Wonder Woman on the internet - the trolls will destroy me! I am genuinely excited about my Charizard cosplay because I know I can be the most kick-ass fat orange dragon at the convention, but it saddens me that I am too uncomfortable to play Wonder Woman. Sure, no one will likely insult me to my face if I were to dress up as Wonder Woman, but I would know that I will always be second to the skinny Wonder Woman.
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Ok, I didn't put a ton of effort into this outfit, but I actually felt sexy when my sister took this picture. Then again, how can I compare to this:  |
No contest!
Maybe I’m coming off and whiny here, but I don’t think I am the only one who feels this way. Fat cosplays are met with ridicule as a general rule - as is evidenced by the fact that when I typed “fat cosplay” into my Google Chrome search bar some of the options included “fat cosplayers are gross” and “fat cosplay fail.” There is even a website dedicated to “cosplay train wrecks” with a section called “Too Fat to Wear That”. With all of this fat shaming it is little wonder that some of us experience severe anxiety over choosing an “acceptable” cosplay.
For FanEx in April I cosplayed as Kaylee from Firefly because, although I am heavier than the character, at least she just wears a jumpsuit so I won’t offend anyone with my extra curves. I recently discovered geekxgirls.com and I was so excited to submit a couple of pictures, but when I looked at their gallery and saw all of the beautiful geek girls I was ashamed of my pictures. Apparently a real “Geek Girl” is skinny with big breasts so she can live up to the sexy female characters so prevalent in comics.
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| Seriously, I didn't even post this picture to Facebook because I was too self conscious about my arms and hips. |
The interesting thing is that I am generally comfortable with my body - my husband compliments me and makes me feel sexy - but there is something about the world of cosplay that is still so intimidating. Why is that? Why do I still hear people snicker at the fat Princess Zelda? Shouldn’t geek-dom be a safe space for everyone?
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| Sorry, I don't know where this picture came from. Comment if it is yours and I'll give you credit :) |
*** Do you agree that fat-shaming is still an issue in cosplay, or do you think that it isn't an issue and I'm just too self-conscious? ***
Edit: After I published this post I went to view it to make sure everything looked good and guess what ad Google decided to show? Yeah, liposuction. Thanks a lot!
