Article - When Dudes Cross the Line with Cosplay Ladies - Not Cool

Mandy as Black Cat

Cosplay in America stuck this blog link written by a Cosplayer who was at New York Comic Con over the weekend who talked about her uncomfortable interview with a bunch of pervy, male chauvenistic guys who asked her degrading questions that were meant for some porn star.


Here's a section of what she wrote about what happened:

"This group of men from some kind of Stan Lee fan club blah blah internet video channel blah blah asked to interview with them on camera about Comic Con. I said well okay, sure. Camera is rolling. The “host” is a middle aged, rotund dude. It’s an all-male crew and lots of people (mostly guys) were beginning to crowd around. The following is the interview as burned in my mind. Keep in mind that I expected this to be about Comic Con in general.

• Him: I’m here with…
• Me: Mandy, aka Felicia Hardy aka Black Cat
• Him: ..And she is HOT. Do you think I’m hot enough to pull that off?
• Me: Uh, I’m not sure, I’ve never seen you in drag.
• Him: I’ve got a great ass. Go on, spank me.
• Me: (look at his large ass, popped up mere inches away from me then look into the camera like are you kidding me . No thanks. I may hurt you, I’m a lot stronger than I look.
• Him: Aw come on!
• Me: No, seriously. Stop.
• Him: Damn, alright! Well let me ask you an important question then…what is your cup size?
• Me: (big talk show smile) That is actually none of your fucking business.
• Him: Oh! I think that means to say she’s a C. 
• Me: I actually have no breasts at all, what you see is just all of the fat from my midsection pulled up to my chest and carefully held in place with this corset. It’s really uncomfortable, I don’t know why I do it.
•  Him: (to the male crowd) Aw, come on what do you guys think? C cup? 
• —a few males start to shout out cup sizes as I stand there looking at this guy like this has to be a fucking joke, then look at the crowd and see that no amount of witty banter or fiestiness will stop making this whole thing fucking dumb. It was clearly a ploy to single out cosplaying women to get them to talk sexual innuendos and flirt with this asshole and let him talk down to them simply because they were in costume and were attractive. Whether I’m in a skintight catsuit or not, I’m a fucking professional in everything I do and I don’t need to play nice for this idiot.
• Me: This is not an interview, this is degrading. I’m done. (I walk away)
• Him: (clearly dumbfounded and surprised) ..Come on, it’s all in good fun!
• Me: Being degraded is fun? That was unprofessional and I hope that isn’t your day job because you can’t interview for shit, my man."

 Read the full article here


So here's the thing. Even though cosplayers look hot and sexy and everything, guys, it's NOT COOL to ask girls these kinds of rude questions. It's same how you won't ask a booth babe at a trade show these things, you won't ask a cosplayer these things too.

Cosplayers ARE NOT porn stars. If they are then that's another story.

Girls, if people do ask you inappropriate questions that make you uncomfortable. BE VERY FIRM THAT YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE and TELL THEM. YOU DO NOT LIKE IT.

I know in Asia, people are shy, it's not in our culture to fight back but in this case, YOU ARE BEING INSULTED and DEGRADED. FIGHT BACK.

There are all sorts of people at a con and not every fanboy is weird but there will be weird ones out there and some of them will say weird stuff to you like above. Walk away when you feel grossed out.

Just saying my 2 cents