#Racism is, unfortunately, alive and well in the #cosplay & #costuming communities. In an article published by “Cosplay Central” on Feb. 26, 2021, eight #cosplayers of color expressed their personal feelings on situations that they have encountered.
Regardless of veiled it may be, racism is never acceptable.
We’ve discussed racism within the cosplay, #costuming & #fursuiting communities before. The communities still have a long way to go it would seem:
From the “Cosplay Central” article, cosplayer CosplayNay explained his experiences in this way:
“…there will come a time when every black cosplayer will encounter some form of negativity within the community. At times, it is hard being a POC cosplayer because sometimes people won’t accept you (or the character you decide to cosplay) because you’re black. For example, there are people that will look down on a POC cosplay because the fictional character is NOT black, and other times they will only recommend a specific character for you to cosplay because their black, forgetting the most important part of cosplay is that ‘Cosplay is for EVERYONE.'”
Just as we brought up in our 2018 blog post Inappropriate & Unacceptable Cosplays, CosplayNay then brought up this very interesting point regarding accuracy:
“POC cosplayers should not limit their range of cosplay to only black characters, which brings me to accuracy. So many people are hung up on ‘accuracy,’ to the point where they don’t understand that Black facing is offensive. In short, don’t do it.”
“The cosplay community and its receptiveness of cosplayers of color is a work in progress. I do think the changes that are necessary to bring forth inclusion have already begun. From the pages to the tv screen, to the big screen, change is upon the horizon. The rest is up to us cosplayers. We must educate the uneducated, promote, and support one another despite race, sex, etc.”
Similar to what CosplayNay said, cosplayer Jonathan Belle said the following:
“Sometimes there is a seemingly extra layer of judgment and pressure that Black Cosplayers get. Sometimes we continually get told to cosplay certain characters because ‘it fits us better.’ Sometimes we get told not to cosplay certain characters ‘because it’s not canon.’ When it comes to cosplaying in the Black Community, these are inevitable responses that are bound to come up, which is why I believe cosplay is being comfortable in our own skin.”
“When I think about the community being inclusive, as a black cosplayer, I definitely love that most people have a general opinion that anyone can cosplay. Of course, there are those gatekeepers who believe either a black person can’t cosplay an anime character or want the ‘pure’ form of whatever character. Diversity is a great way to have equal representation of whatever character, as long as a label isn’t added to the character. Quite honestly, I don’t like when someone says, ‘I love the black version of your Kirishima.’ I prefer when a comment is more so acknowledging that they never imagined Kirishima to be black, and they love it. Those are two very separate comments.”
“As a cosplayer of color, you often face negativity, racism, and hateful comments from trolls who want to discourage you from doing what you love. That’s why we work so hard to encourage and lift each other up so others can know that you can cosplay whatever character you want even if they do not look exactly like you. You are the embodiment of that character and not an ‘insert ethnicity’ version of the character, no matter what anyone says. Although there has been improvement in the cosplay community, we still have a long way to go. Cosplayers of color need to know that their work is valued and appreciated and that the community as a whole will be there to support them and stand up against those who will try to discourage them or tear them down.”
Cosplayer Lucky Luna not only discusses racism, but fat-shaming as well:
“I cosplay to have a community with other nerds, and it’s just a great creative outlet. I will say that as a black cosplay, I do experience criticism, whether it be for my skin tone or my size as a plus-sized cosplayer. I would like to see more cosplayers come together and support black and brown cosplayers the way lighter-skinned, thin cosplayers get that automatic support. As a black, plus-sized cosplayer cosplaying in itself feels like an act of defiance.”
Cosplayer Venture Bros didn’t hold anything back in his comments:
“Each time I have cosplayed, I have been called the ‘N’ word or told the character I’m cosplaying isn’t black. I hope that the cosplay community changes and helps stand up for the black cosplayers that experience racism. I would like there to be more inclusion with black cosplayers in big conventions as far as contest judging and panels because we are a big part of the community as well, and we notice when we are never featured or included. We all love to cosplay, so why not enjoy it together.”
“As a little girl, I didn’t have very much representation. While there were black characters, a majority of the time, they had only one gender represent both parties. So I ended up identifying with the tan girl or the one that wasn’t blonde. I didn’t realize it when I was younger, but I thought white was the default. I believed that white people could be anything and the only way I could live out my crazy daydreams was to be someone completely different than who I was. It inadvertently messed with my self-esteem. I’ve matured past that to a certain point, but it hurts to look back and think about all the time I wasted wanting to be something that not only I would never be, but something that was so systematically ingrained into everyday life. Once I finally began to love what I looked like, I decided to cosplay predominately black characters to bring awareness to what characters are out there for little girls that might be suffering as I did. I believe it is hard enough being a person. Everyone has insecurities. But to add on to that racist’s notion of what the ideal beauty should look like is something that I personally want to end for girls and boys of color growing up now.”
Never let anyone tell you that you can’t cosplay a particular character because of your skin color or body size.
Top row from left to right: CosplayNay, Kai.Esh_Black, Jonathan Bele, LeRoyal; bottom row from left to right: Utahime Cosplay, Lucky Luna, Venture Bros, Brown.suga.outlaw.
If you have ever attended a comic or anime convention, or some other event (before the #pandemic began), in which there were people dressed in high-quality #costumes or #cosplays, and these people were representing a particular #CostumeClub, you may have found yourself attracted to the idea of possibly joining such a costume club yourself. Further, if you spoke with any of the costume club members and told them about your potential interest in joining, it’s very likely that they would have given you glowing reports about the costume club and what it’s like to be a member. Naturally, this would probably have added to the appeal that you may have experienced as you imagined yourself wearing a similar high-quality costume depicting one of your favorite characters as part of the costume club.
⛔️ But, what do you actually know about the costume club? Do you know the costs involved in joining and participating?
Before you start spending any of your hard-earned money, as well as your time and effort, to own a high-quality costume in order to join and participate with a costume club, it is in your personal best interest to know exactly what you may be getting yourself into. Not everyone who joins a costume club is happy with their decision after they have experienced it first hand; and many who leave often regret ever having joined in the first place. If you base you decision to join a costume club solely on its members glowing reports and the costume club’s glowing PR on social media, then you are doing yourself a huge disservice. Not everything may be as rosy as either of them claim; and eventually, you too may only want to leave it behind, but only after you spent thousands of your own dollars to join and partiipate. The intent of this post is to assist you in making a more informed deiciosn for yourself by sharing at least some of the hard truths that costume club members and their official PR officers won’t disclose, beginning with the actual costs involved and many of the not-so-rosy truths about what actually goes on inside of the costume clubs themselves.
Here are some introductory considerations:
From an outsider’s perspective, any costume club can appear to be a truly fun experience for its members; but their “happy-face” public behavior may be hiding negative feelings and experiences that occurred within the club.
It’s very unlikely that costume club members will fully disclose everything that they had to do (including how much money they spent) to join, or what it’s actually like to be a part of the costume club. Any internal conflict and drama won’t be disclosed, or its importance may be downplayed if someone directly asks if any is occurring.
If you start to follow a costume club’s public webpage or social media accounts, what you will see are pictures being shared by the clubs’ PR officers intended to only show the most positive public image possible. By only sharing positive images and PR reports, costume clubs use the appeal to emotion logical fallacy: they won’t openly disclose any of the club’s internal problems.
📝 Always remember that a costume club’s public social media posts are almost always intended to assist it in its efforts to recruit new members.
So let’s focus on what you truly need to understand before you make any life-changing decisions to join a costume club.
1st: What’s Required to Join the Costume Club?
Most costume clubs share two main requirements for an applicant’s eligibility to join. (But, you’ll want to visit the costume club’s website to learn what the actual application requirements are.)
Is the applicant a legal adult? (Over the age of 18.)
Does the applicant own a costume that meets the costume club’s requirements of accuracy?
So as long as you’re at least 18 years of age, your focus will be on obtaining a costume that meets the costume club’s requirements of accuracy. Each costume club typically publicly shares it’s requirements for how accurate a particular costume must be in order for an applicant to be considered for membership. The requirements should list each of the components required and provide visual descriptions (especially images) of each of the required components. The requirements should also explain and visually show how the costume should appear when viewed from multiple angles, which are typically from the front, the rear, and both sides. To know these requirements, you will need to visit a costume club’s website and locate the information on what’s required for each of the costumes that can be submitted to join.
⚠️Here’s something very important that costume club websites don’t typically include in their descriptions of of what constitutes accurate costumes: estimates of how much the various components cost, as well as estimates of overall costs.
As someone considering joining, you should make a list or use a spreadsheet to document all of the required components. A spreadsheet is more beneficial for tracking the costs for each component, as well as possible sources.
📝 Using a spreadsheet to track the costs of each costume component will enable you to calculate how much the costume is going to cost you.
2nd: How Much Will an “Approvable” Costume Cost?
There are multiple costs (financial, time and spatial) that are involved in joining a costume club. The initial cost is the financial cost of obtaining the costume itself. Knowing how much a costume is going to cost is often where many would-be costume club applicants decide not to proceed.
When most people think of costumes, they often think of the typical costumes that children and adults wear for special occasions, such as for Halloween and costume parties. Costumes of this sort usually cost between $50 and $150 and can easily be purchased as a complete package from many retail stores.
The type of costume that is typically required to join a costume won’t be anything like a Halloween costume:
It’s highly unlikely that a costume that meets a costume club’s requirements for accuracy (a.k.a., an “approvable costume”) will be available from a retail store.
It’s also very unlikely that you will be able to obtain an approvable costume as a single, complete purchase; unless you find a costume club member that’s selling a used, complete costume.
What is very likely is that you will need to purchase the various components that comprises the costume from a number of different sources, including independent prop and costume makers. Then you will need to assemble the components to build the costume yourself. Many independent prop and costume makers take weeks, months or even a year a more in some cases to deliver the item(s) that you purchase from them. It can be a very exasperating experience.
It’s also very likely that at least some of the components won’t be available in a wearable form; they’ll probably only be available in a raw form that you will have to finish yourself. In some cases, wearable components may be available, but only at drastically higher costs than the raw equivalents.
So, once you have sourced where you can obtain the various components that are needed to construct the approvable costume, you’ll know how much each of the components will cost. You’ll then be able to have a realistic estimate for the cost of obtaining an approvable costume and chances are, when you’ve calculated the estimated total cost, you’ll be staring at a 4-digit figure.
⛔️ The cost of obtaining a costume that a costume club can approve for membership (an “approvable costume”) will typically range between $1000 and $3000, but can be even higher in some cases. The cost depends on the costume and what it includes.
Now, if you have to finish the work on any of the components to make a costume wearable, do you have the necessary tools needed to work on the components and do you know how to use those tools?
⛔️ The total cost of obtaining an approvable costume isn’t necessarily just the sum of the costs of the individual components; it will likley include the costs of any tools and other supplies that you will need in order to finish and build the costume.
This is why we suggested that you list everything in a spreadsheet because the costs for the individual components and tools can grow very rapidly.
⛔️Don’t start buying things blindly before you have estimated the total cost.
3rd: But Guess What, there are More Costs!
If you thought that the cost of obtaining an approvable costume was the only cost you’ll incur for joining a costume club, you’d be sadly mistaken. No, after you join the costume club, there will be many participatory costs!
⛔️Every time you participate in a costume club event, you will incur participatory costs.
Costume Transportability & Storage
If the approvable costume that you want to own is mostly composed of compressible fabrics and footwear that can easily be transported and stored inside of a backpack or small suitcase (preferably with wheels), then the issues of transportability and storage won’t really apply.
📝 If, however, the approvable costume you intend to obtain includes non-compressible parts (such as a helmet, inflexible armor, boots, etc.), then you will likely need to obtain a bulky plastic bin (preferably with wheels for ease of movement) to both transport and store your costume when it’s not in use. This raises two important issues:
Do you own a vehicle that can accommodate a large plastic bin as well as yourself?
Do you have adequate space in your home to indefinitely store a large plastic bin?
How large of a plastic bin are we referring to? Something along the size of 40 to 45 gallons of storage space and ranging in size from 36 to 45 inches long, around 2 feet wide, and up to 2 feet tall.
Various 40-45 gallon bulky plastic storage bins with wheels and handles for ease of movement.
While the potential issue of storage may seem like an inconvenience, over time, it can become a larger issue if it becomes a cumbersome nuisance; and this often happens with the large, bulky plastic storage bins.
The issues regarding transportation will become serious if you don’t already own a vehicle that can accommodate a bulky plastic bin. While you may be able to find other costume club members willing to pick you and your bulky plastic bin up to travel to and from events, you could eventually be perceived as an annoyance or a free loader if you don’t help with shared transportation costs with the vehicle owners.
⚠️ If you decide that you need to purchase a vehicle that can accommodate your bulky plastic bin to transport your approvable costume to and from events, then you’ve added a very large additional cost to the ownership of the costume, which could be something that you’ll want to seriously consider before making the plunge in the first place. Alternatively, maybe a different costume that doesn’t need a bulky plastic bin would be a better option, or not joining the costume club to begin with.
To transport a one or possibly more bulky storage bins between your home and costume club events, you’re either going to need a station wagon or some type of an SUV.
⛔️Pickup trucks are NOT recommended as it’s not possible to safely secure things (like bulky plastic bins) in pickup truck beds. There have been cases in which costume club members have left their bins (and costumes) unattended in the back of pickup trucks only to return and find the bins (and their costumes inside) stolen.
Participatory Costs
Let’s say that you’ve spent a few thousand dollars and a lot of personal time on obtaining an approvable costume and your application to join a costume club was accepted. Now, you have the privilege of participating in your costume at events that the costume club members are invited to attend. But guess what: attending those events isn’t free.
⛔️ For every costume club event that you attend, there will be participatory costs; and the more events that you attend, the more participatory costs you will cumulatively incur over time.
Let’s examine what the typical participatory costs are:
Transportation costs.
Meal costs.
Lodging costs (if used).
Entrance passes (if required).
Let’s say that you attend a nearby event (up to 30 miles from your residence). Your transportation costs may be roughly $5 to $10, and you’ll likely get a meal before you return home, which will probably cost you around $15 to $25. So participating in a single event will probably cost you around $20 to $35. But, since you obtained a very expensive approved costume, you’re going to want to wear it often. Let’s say that you attend one event per month, or 12 in a year. Attending 12 nearby events will cost you roughly $240 to $420.
But, chances are you will probably attend at least one event a year in which you pay for a hotel stay, possibly at a 3-day convention. Since hotels can cost around $175 per night, a two night stay could cost you around $350. Convention entrance passes can run between $90 and $120 for 3 days and the likelihood that you can obtain a discounted one is rare. Since you’d also be paying for a lot more meals while you’re away form home, the total number of meals that you’ll probably purchase while attending the convention is two each for the first and last day plus 3 for the 2nd day, for a total of 7 meals. Thus, your meal cost would be roughly $105 to $175. And, if you drove further to attend, let’s double the typical transportation cost to $10 to $20. So the total cost for attending a single 3-day convention with lodging and entrance fees will cost you roughly $555 to $665. So, attending 11 regular nearby events plus one 3-day convention raises your participatory costs to roughly $775 to $1,050.
Below is a spreadsheet illustrating the cost of attending 12, 24 and 36 events, as well as the cases in which at least 1 or 2 events out of the 12 are a 3-day convention. When combined with the cost of the costume itself, you can quickly see how fast your participatory costs can double the cost of your costume, depending upon its cost. Red spreadsheet cells indicate where the participatory costs have exceeded the original cost of the costume resulting in doubled costs. Gold cells indicate where the participatory cost is coming close to the original costume cost with costs nearly doubling.
Costume & Participatory Cost Breakdown
Since many costume club members have attended at least 100 events, how much would that cost? Using the same base cost values as in the spreadsheet above, here’s a similar chart featuring the cost of 100 events in which the total number of 3-day conventions attended varies from 0, 1 or 2 for every 20 events. The results are the spreadsheet below.
Cost of costume and Participating in 100 Events
If you don’t attend any events involving paid admission and lodging, the cost of attending 100 events combined with your costume will be roughly $5,000. Add 1 or 2 conventions per every 20 events, and you can effectively double the cost to around $10,000 for attending 100 events.
⚠️After attending 100 events, your total costume club costs could be as much as 4 to 10 times more than the original cost of your approved costume.
Several Questions that Should Ask Yourself
How much are you willing to spend on obtaining a costume?
How much can you afford to spend on obtaining a costume?
How many events can you attend each year?
How many events can you afford to attend?
Should you place an absolute limit on how much you are willing to spend overall for the cost of the costume and the number of events that you attend?
Can You Ever Recoup Any of the Costs?
If for any reason you need or decide to sell your approved costume, the more complete it is, usually the more valuable it will be; but there’s no guarantee that a used costume will retain its value over time. Like anything else, its sellable price will depend upon market demand, as well as the costume’s overall condition.
📝 You can assume that you can recoup at least part (or most) of the cost of the approvable costume, but you won’t be able to recoup the total costs for purchasing tools or other participatory costs, unless you participated in only a handful of nearby events and spent little on tools.
4th: How Much Will the Costume Actually Be Used?
If you attend 12 nearby events over the course of a year and you wear the costume for 2-3 hours at each event, that’s a total of 24 to 36 hours. Since there are 8,760 hours in a year (365 days), the total amount of time that you’ll be wearing the costume for 12 nearby events amounts to 0.3% to 0.4% of the total time in a non-leap year. That means that the costume will be in storage (and be a large paper weight) for 99.6% to 99.7% of any given year.
You could do some of your own photoshoots and wear the costume at home by yourself, but that isn’t going to have much of an impact on how much you can actually wear it.
⚠️Movie studios may spend thousands of dollars on a single costume, but an actor won’t pay to wear it, the actor will be paid to wear it. You will not only pay for the cost of the costume, you will pay every time you wear it. The other 99% of the time when you’re not wearing it, your expensive approved costume will sit in storage. If you decide to own multiple approved costumes, all of them will spend 99% of the time in storage and take up even more space in your home.
Obtaining an approvable costume may seem like a huge accomplishment within itself, and it very likely is; but it comes at an enormous cost and will be rarely used. Once you obtain it, you’ll quickly realize this yourself; but by reading this post, you have an opportunity to understand it before you spend any money. If you genuinely want to own an expensive costume and you understand that you can only wear it infrequently, then the cost of owning it may be entirely acceptable to you, but that decision should be entirely up to you. And, you don’t have to join a costume club to enjoy and appreciate it, though their members would prefer that you think otherwise. In their minds, if you’re going to own an approvable costume, then you must surely want to join their cotume club.
⛔️ Do you want to spend thousands of dollars on a costume that will ultimately be in storage for more than 99% per year? Only you can answer that.
The 501st Legion, for example, has over 14,000 members. That means that there are at least 14,000 approved costumes sitting in storage bins 99% of the time. This equates to a combined estimated dollar amount spent on them of roughly $21,000,000 to $35,000,000 (using a low average estimated average value of $1,500 per costume to an upper average value of $2,500 per costume). This, of course, doesn’t take into account those members owning more than 1 costume or members who are no longer active, but may still own their costumes. Taking those additional costumes into account will only increase the combined estimates by several more million dollars.
And just imagine: the more approved costumes that someone owns, the more time each of those costumes spends in storage bins since its unlikely that the owner can spend as much time wearing each of them as compared when he/she did when owning only one.
5th: The Temptation to Own Multiple Approved Costumes
So you get yourself one approved costume that cost you a few thousand dollars so that you can join and participate in a costume club, but after you wear it for a while to multiple events, you may feel tempted to get another costume so that you can have variety and choice of what you want to wear.
Most costumers & cosplayers like to wear different costumes. If they don’t spend too much money on any of one of them, then having more than one costume is usually affordable. It’s a little different for costume club members because obtaining more than one approvable costume becomes very expensive, but many still do it. If you’re going to make the effort to join a costume club, you must be aware of this temptation to own more than one, which adds significant cost. Naturally, owing multiple approved costumes doesn’t affect a member’s costume club membership, but it does significantly impact the bank account and your living space.
6th: The Costume Club Microcosm
While every costume club is unique in terms of membership and the types of costumes that they feature, when you get down to the nitty-gritty, their similarities usually outweigh their differences, especially for the large organized costume clubs.
Their similarities can be summarized as follows:
Large organized costume clubs typically have a written charter that defines its purpose, it’s membership requirements, it’s leadership structure, it’s local chapter structure, and rules of conduct often referred to as a “Code of Conduct”, along with a judicial process. Other ancillary documents, such as a set of bylaws, may also be used.
Maintaining membership typically requires participating in at least one club event while in costume annually.
Members found guilty of violating the club’s rules of conduct via a judicial process may be placed on probation for a period of time, suspended for a period of time, or permanently banned from the club depending upon the severity of the violation.
Costume clubs rarely enforce their rules of conduct, and the rules are typically so limited in scope and poorly written as to be essentially unenforceable. This enables troublemakers to harass other members with little to no fear of any punitive repercussions.
Since there may only be a handful of events available for members to participate in any given month, 99% of a member’s actual membership time spent in the club is in online communications (sometimes arguments) with other members, usually via social media.
Their differences can be summarized as follows:
Differences in procedures for elections, who can be elected, their judicial processes, rules of conduct, procedures for amending their charters, and jargon used for the names of leadership positions, local chapters and other possible subunits as defined by the individual charters.
The Broad Personality Spectrum
There are only 2 things that can be assumed that every costume club member has in common:
A love of the franchise(s) that the costume club represents.
A love of costuming & cosplay.
⚠️Beyond those two things in common, costume club members can have very different personalities, cultural differences, sociopolitical differences, socioeconomic differences, socioreligious differences, etc. All of these differences can become contributing factors and sometimes the spark that ignites much of the conflict and drama that often occurs beneath the smiling public veneer of a costume club.
We wrote about the broad personality spectrum in costume clubs in 2020. In it, we discussed what’s referred to as the “Big Five” personality model, which, unlike the popular Myers-Briggs personality model, has actual corroborating scientifically collected data that backs up much of the model. Below is a video that explains the “Big Five” model:
We also discussed what’s called the HEXACO personality model, which, as its name suggests, contains a sixth trait in addition to the ones presented in the “Big Five” personality model. That sixth trait is called Honesty-Humility and is described by the http://hexaco.org website as follows:
Persons with very high scores on the Honesty-Humility scale avoid manipulating others for personal gain, feel little temptation to break rules, are uninterested in lavish wealth and luxuries, and feel no special entitlement to elevated social status. Conversely, persons with very low scores on this scale will flatter others to get what they want, are inclined to break rules for personal profit, are motivated by material gain, and feel a strong sense of self-importance.
In our experiences, a number of costume club members who want to become decision-making officers within the clubs aren’t necessarily the most honest or humble individuals. Many of these individuals are sly, deceitful, greedy, pretentious, hypocritical, boastful and pompous as described by this sixth trait. And, these negative personality aspects are in stark contrast to the duties that costumes club officers are supposed to be responsible for, which is especially true when it comes to conflict avoidance and resolution. When a costume club officer becomes an active participant within a conflict, that officer isn’t working to resolve it. And, when a low Honest-Humble score is combined with low agreeableness and high emotionality, it only makes any situations involving conflict and drama that much worse.
A Missing Applicant Requirement: Background Checks
To our knowledge, no costume club requires a background check to be performed as a prerequisite for being able to join. This failure means that every costume club may have members who were convicted of committing violent crimes and were possibly incarcerated as punishment. We are aware of at least one such individual in one costume club (which we won’t name here) who has also served as an officer within that club. Is that appropriate? Should individuals who were convicted of any violent felony be permitted to join?
Costume clubs typically state in their charters that individuals who have undisclosed convictions for the most violent of crimes will be banned from the club. But there’s a problem with that: how long could it take for an undisclosed conviction to become known? Someone who joined a club that committed an undisclosed violent crime could be member of that club for years without being detected. And in some cases, members who have become friends with that individual may conceal that knowledge if they themselves are aware of it. This does happen.
The other problem with how costume clubs handle members who have past felonious violent crime convictions after the fact is that many violent crimes are left out from being considered, such as assault and battery. If someone was convicted of a violent assault or battery felony, would you really want to be around children around that individual? Should that individual be allowed around children at an costume club event in the first place? Costume clubs ignore this until something bad happens.
Members with Mental Disorders
While costume clubs do not deny entry to anyone with pre-existing medical conditions, some mental disorders can prove to be problematic when members who have them adversely affect the club and its other members. Unfortunately, nothing is ever done to rectify these situations. Three mental disorders stand out as contributing factors that have been witnessed by many costume club members in multiple costume clubs:
Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a mental illness that causes dramatic shifts in a person’s mood, energy and ability to think clearly. People with BD experience high and low moods—known as mania and depression—which differ from the typical ups-and-downs most people experience. The average age-of-onset is around 25, but it can occur in the teens, or (more uncommonly) in childhood. The condition affects men and women equally, with about 2.8% of U.S. adults experiencing BD each year. Approximately 83% of cases of BD are classified as “severe”.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a condition characterized by difficulties regulating emotion. People who experience BPD feel emotions intensely and for extended periods of time, and it is harder for them to return to a stable baseline after an emotionally triggering event. This difficulty can lead to impulsivity, poor self-image, stormy relationships and intense emotional responses to stressors. Struggling with self-regulation can also result in dangerous behaviors such as self-harm. It’s estimated that 1.4% of the adult U.S. population experiences BPD. Nearly 75% of people diagnosed with BPD are women; however, recent research suggests that men may be equally affected by BPD but are commonly misdiagnosed with PTSD or depression.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of extreme confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that’s vulnerable to the slightest criticism. NPD causes problems in many areas of life, such as relationships, work, school or financial affairs. People with NPD may be generally unhappy and disappointed when they’re not given the special favors or admiration they believe they deserve, and may find their relationships unfulfilling while others may not enjoy being around them. Roughly between 0.5 and 1% of the general population (50 to 75% of whom are men) is diagnosed with NPD.
How many costume clubs members may have these disorders? Using the estimates for the overall U.S. population, we can estimate how many costume club members have one of these disorders based on membership size.
Estimated numbers of costume club members with specific mental disorders.
The larger the costume club is, the more likely there will be members that have a particular mental disorder. For very large costume clubs (such as the 501st Legion), there could be multiple individuals in each local chapter that have a mental disorder.
📝Just because someone has a mental disorder doesn’t mean that they will initiate or be involved in a conflict, but one that has one or more of the three listed above may be more prone to initiate or become involved in a conflict.
A Culture of Elitism, Snobbery & Bullying
Each costume club has it’s own internal culture. While there are differences in how those cultures operate due to differences in club organization, the similarities, again, usually outweigh the differences.
The main aspect of any costume club culture is the members’ perception of an imaginary wall that separates and distinguishes them from everyone else in the world who aren’t members, which includes the members of other costume clubs. Inside this imaginary wall, members often view themselves with a sense of superiority and elitism because they belong to that exclusive club. This, of course, often leads to snobbery, as well as disdain for other costume clubs and their members, especially in situations where members have had negative experiences with other costume clubs.
So, from the onset, costume clubs by their very nature of only allowing entrance to those who own costumes that pass the club’s standards of accuracy have not only created atmospheres in which a sense of superiority is encouraged, a number of members caught up in the snobbery often lure new members into sharing those feelings. Do leaderships attempt to dissuade such behavior? If they did, there would be evidence in the costume club’s rules of conduct, which is part of their charters. Instead, all you need do is chat with non-members who have witnessed the behavior first hand and the impressions that the members left behind. A great example are the experiences of “Star Wars” actors Ray Park and Daniel Logan, who, in 2018, both quit being honorary members of the 501st Legion due to ongoing bullying from club members.
📝 So a costume club, is, in effect, a place where a few privileged superfans who can afford to own one (or more in some cases) approved costumes can gather to feel better about themselves and superior over others while their beloved costumes that they spent thousands of dollars to own sit in storage bins 99% of the time. Granted, while not all costume club members exhibit this behavior, enough of them do for it to be a broad problem. When conflict and drama begins (and they always do), the leadership is often powerless (or unwilling) to do anything to stop them as they draw more and more members into them over time. Those who don’t want to become engulfed in the drama and conflict withdraw from participating in events or online discussions: so their costumes end up spending even more time in storage, unused.
The Fertile Ground for Conflict & Drama
In a 2014 article published on “Chicago Now”, NaShantá Fletcher wrote a very good statement about groups of costumers, which we have paraphrased here: “The more cosplayers that get involved in a group, the more likely something will go wrong.” Large costume clubs are the epitome of this statement. The more people there are in a costume club, the higher the rate of conflict and drama; and the reasons aren’t hard to understand as we have listed above, and a couple more:
When conflict and drama takes root within a large group, coalitions will form that take sides within the conflict. These coalitions, which typically develop after a conflict is triggered, can perpetuate the conflict and its associated drama for months and sometimes years.
⛔️ Do you want to spend thousands of dollars of your own money to join a costume club, then avoid its members as much as possible to avoid their conflict and drama? Is this actually worth it?
Negative Impacts on Work and Home
There’s one final thing that needs to be said about costume clubs. Members can become obsessed with a costume club’s inner private world of drama and conflict to the point there it adversely affects their real world jobs and families. This is a constant danger for anyone once they join a club and are unable to avoid becoming sucked in to its inner chaotic world. Costume club members’ obsession with the club itself is a common occurrence in multiple clubs: no one club has a monopoly on this issue.
It’s often only after a member has left a costume club that he/she is able to see the full extent of the damage that the membership has caused in their life.
⛔️Costume clubs can have fleeting moments of fun, but they can also lead to a lifetime of regrets.
Costume Club Charitable Aspects
📝 While costume club members in costume visiting sick children in hospitals or helping to raise money for charities sounds all well and good, there’s an overriding reality that needs to be stated: no one needs to wear a costume to volunteer their time or donate money to assist any charity. The entire concept of helping charities to raise money while in costume is simply an excuse to help justify a costume’s club reason for existing in the first place. Don’t fall for that excuse as a reason for you spending thousands of your own dollars on a approvable costume to join a costume club to assist charities when you absolutely don’t need to.
The argument that costume clubs use regarding their ability to assist charities may have some truth in it, but it’s entirely unnecessary and is nothing more than an appeal to emotion logical fallacy.
Why Members Stay Even When They’re Miserable by Doing So: the Sunk Cost Fallacy
The joy of joining a costume club and participating in its costumed events is as fleeting as the emotional highs that members experience at the events themselves when in costume. Over time, as members either observe repeated or longterm conflict and drama or get caught up in it themselves, they can become miserable and withdrawn as they desperately wish that the lost feelings of joy and the emotional highs that they used to experience would return. If they do, they’ll be even more fleeting than before.
Members who have become miserable due to ongoing conflict and drama within the club often choose to stay in the club because of how much they have invested in terms of money, time and effort to be part of the club and participate in it. (This can be compounded when the member has acted on the temptation to own multiple approved costumes.) They’ll maintain the belief that they can still attend events while avoiding the conflict and drama by attempting to not become embroiled in it themselves. Yet, it’s that same conflict and drama that has made them miserable, and their efforts to withdraw from most events and club chats is simply a coping mechanism. Their inability to quit the club due to their intense sense of commitment to it is another logical fallacy known as the sunk cost fallacy, and overcoming it can be difficult.
Conclusion
Joining a costume club isn’t all fun and games as smiling costume club members and the clubs’ social media accounts want you to believe. Whether you choose to spend thousands of your own dollars to join and participate in a costume club is entirely up to you. It may seem fun for a few months or even for a year or two, but you’ll eventually be exposed to the club’s internal conflict and drama, at which point, you may be inclined to avoid the club and its members. In terms of cost, the more you participate in a costume club’s events, the more money you’ll be spending even though your approved costume will sit unused and unworn in storage for more than 99% of a year. What can you do during that 99% of the year? You can chat & argue with other costume club members online while appreciating the expensive paperweight that the costume exists as most of the time in storage.
No costume club members will explain this reality. No costume clubs will explain this on their websites or social media accounts. All they want you to see is their fleeting fun and infrequent charitable events, but not the actual costs or the potential adverse impacts that being part of the club can have on its members when they’re stuck in the club’s drama and conflict that no costume club is immune from. They also ignore the simple truth that you can own such a costume, but not join their club. Not joining is always an option.
⛔️ Joining a costume club means that you accept the costs & risks involved.
Over the past week, an unfortunate chain of events in the world’s largest #CostumeClub (the #501stLegion) saw the ouster of its LCO (club president) in what can be best described as an apparent coup d’état. To achieve this ouster, there is an additional possibility that 501st Legion rules were intentionally violated to achieve the desired end.
But, that’s not all: within the information that was made public surrounding this chain of events, there are references to an elusive, “secret group” presumably comprised of current costume club members. While the existence of this secret group was initially unverified, the existence of swag produced by the secret group, along with more online information being made available regarding its membership and activities, lends credence to the view that it does exist. The name of the “secret group” within the 501st Legion Costume Club is “Project Mayhem”, spelled as “Pяojekt Mayhem”, as shown on this apparent swag that was produced by the secret group:
Attempting to understand a “secret group” isn’t an easy task since its membership, agenda(s) and activities are deliberately kept hidden from public view.
Bear in mind that a “secret group” typically doesn’t want its existence known to outsiders so that its membership, agenda(s) and activities can go unnoticed or more easily deniable and difficult to prove if and when those activities become increasingly apparent to outsiders.
So what’s a good starting point for understanding what a “secret group” might be and what its agenda and activities may consist of? How about we start with the name given to the “secret group” by its members. In this case, the name “Project Mayhem”.
First, let’s take a look at the definitions of the word “mayhem”:
Needless or willful damage or violence;
Willful and permanent deprivation of a bodily member resulting in the impairment of a person’s fighting ability;
Willful and permanent crippling, mutilation, or disfigurement of any part of the body.
As all of these definitions show, the word “mayhem” involves willful (or deliberate) violence and damage, both of which are lawless actions. Thus, “mayhem” can be synonymous with a deliberate state of lawlessness.
Next, let’s look at definitions for the word “project”:
A specific plan or design;
A planned undertaking;
To plan, figure, or estimate for the future;
To put or set forth : present for consideration;
To display outwardly especially to an audience.
The key elements from these definitions are as follows: specific planning, implying group goals, and how to achieve those group goals both in terms of achieving them and outwardly demonstrating the power of the group.
Here’s something else that is very important to bear in mind: neither the written charter nor the bylaws of the 501st Legion prohibit the creation of “secret groups” by members and whose purpose is the manipulation of the costume club as a whole.
In other words, the 501st Legion currently has no means of applying any type of disciplinary actions against the members of a disruptive, internal “secret group”.
There’s yet one more item regarding the name “Project Mayhem”, and it has to do with the deliberate misspelled word “project” as “pяojekt”.
To deliberately misspell a word is known as satiric misspelling, which is an intentional misspelling of a word, phrase or name for a rhetorical or political purpose.
The Cyrillic letter “Я” represents the sound “Ya” in Russian and is used in other Slavic languages and is not simply a backwards form of the Latin alphabet letter “R”. Thus, its use in the satirically misspelled “pяojekt” is suggestive of Russia or the Soviet Union, which has a long history of totalitarian dictatorships.
The satirical misspelling of replacing “C” with “K” was first done by the well-known racist and white supremacist group known as the “Ku Klux Klan”. It’s use today in other satirically misspelled words is suggestive of fascism and authoritarianism, which matches and reinforces the suggestive use of the Cyrillic letter “Я”.
So, based upon the meaning of the terms “project, “mayhem and the suggestive meanings of the word “project” with the satirically misspelled “pяojekt”, we can derive a possible mission statement for the secret group “Pяojekt Mayhem”:
The mission “Pяojekt Mayhem” and its members is the deliberate disruption of the 501st Legion leadership and membership elections to achieve the private goals of “Pяojekt Mayhem” using any means necessary, including manipulation, intimidation, the filing of false charges, etc. When club leadership decisions don’t correspond to the private goals of “Pяojekt Mayhem” or it goes against members of “Pяojekt Mayhem”, every means necessary, including violations of the club’s charter, will be used.
Now let’s compare “Pяojekt Mayhem” with the original mission statement that’s written in the 501st Legion charter:
The 501st Legion is an international STAR WARS™ costuming organization dedicated to celebrating the STAR WARS universe through the creation, display, and wearing of quality character costumes that represent the villainous characters from the STAR WARS sagas.
The Legion promotes interest in STAR WARS and facilitates the use of these costumes for STAR WARS-related events as well as contributes to the local community through costumed charity and volunteer work.
Is there any relationship between the goals of “Pяojekt Mayhem” with the 501st Legion’s mission statement? None at all.
Our understanding is that this is the official logo of “Pяojekt Mayhem” the its members created for themselves. The satirical misspelling is slightly different, but still has the Cyrillic “Я”.
There’s a very specific term that applies to “Pяojekt Mayhem”: Machiavellianism. In psychology, Machiavellianism refers to a personality trait in which a person is so focused on their own interests that they will manipulate, deceive, and exploit others to achieve their goals. The term was derived from the name of the infamous philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, whose most well-known work became ‘The Prince” (Il Principe). This notorious book espoused his views that strong rulers should be harsh with their subjects and enemies, and that glory and survival justified any means, even ones that were considered immoral and brutal.
Here are some tendencies that Machiavellian individuals often have:
Only focused on their own ambition and interests.
Prioritize money and power over relationships.
Come across as charming and confident.
Exploit and manipulate others to get ahead.
Lie and deceive when required.
Use flattery often.
Lacking in principles and values.
Can come across as aloof or hard to really get to know.
Cynical of goodness and morality.
Capable of causing others harm to achieve their means.
Low levels of empathy.
Often avoid commitment and emotional attachments.
Can be very patient due to calculating nature.
Rarely reveal their true intentions.
Prone to casual sex encounters.
Can be good at reading social situations and others.
Lack of warmth in social interactions.
Not always aware of the consequences of their actions.
Might struggle to identify their own emotions.
The following is a description of Project Mayhem that was posted on Reddit on June 21, 2020. It’s rather long.
A bit on who or what Projekt Mayhem is, how they formed, their goals, tactics, and suggestions on how to stamp them out.
Projekt Mayhem is an unofficial group within the 501st formed by disaffected legion officers, upset at loss of power after the 2019 Feb election. PM was primarily made up of the leadership of three garrisons (UKGarrison, Golden Gate Garrison in California, and Redback Garrison in Australia) with supporters in other garrisons. “Founding members” are very proud of such a title. Since formation the objective has been to discredit, remove and replace LCS, take control wherever possible and failing this, remove ability for the 501st to step in regarding any of their garrison affairs or individual crusades. They make their own merchandise using LFL Star Wars IP, operate in their garrisons with impunity and purge anyone they consider a threat to their control. The 501st was and is unprepared to deal with the tactics and methods of Projekt Mayhem. The legion naively assumed that leadership of a garrison would never act this way, let alone coordinate with others to subvert the mission and ideas of the group.
Brigading is an online harassment tactic rallying a group against an individual or smaller group, in a sustained and organized way. Reddit and other online communities have rules against it, the legion has no such rules and it’s Projekt Mayhem’s main weapon. It’s why the 501st boards are a festering wasteland, dominated by their voices. Anyone arrives to say anything off script? They coordinate off-forum to bring as many of their number as possible to tell this individual and anyone else watching that they’re wrong. They change the subject, talk around the argument, play things off as jokes, discredit and counter question the OP, any number of diversionary tactics. The purpose is to bog relevant conversation and questions down in posts so that it is impossible to respond or resolve within a bog of endless aggressive posting. So many threads on the 501st boards die a death from being overly bloated with eager Projekt Mayhem acolytes. The LCOGs (either members of Projekt Mayhem themselves or sympathetic to PM) are either not prepared to handle this or do not want to handle this, and do not stop them. Wondering if someone is a PM member? Check their post history. Do they look like a brigadier? They’re probably PM.
Another tactic is broad surveillance and cyberstalking across all available social media. Their network spreads information to PM members, and collects information on PM targets to be used in action taken against them. They don’t care where the information comes from, public or private social media, closed groups for women or other minorities to speak freely, they take everything. It is insidious, prolific, and has caused multiple members of the 501st from historically vulnerable or protected characteristic groups to withdraw and leave the legion altogether. Nowhere is safe, you’re unable to talk freely of your experiences, ask for help or be critical. Projekt Mayhem have made the legion unsafe for these members or any individual who draws their eye. The 501st legion has no social media policy, yet they have historically punished PM-targeted members for social media activity and have let plenty of other social media based cases slide. They aren’t subtle, making it clear that Big Brother is watching. But they’ll cry about doxxing and play the victim as loudly as they can should anyone share any of their own incriminating words back at them, or reveal them for who they are.
Another key tactic is infiltration into vital areas of the legion, removing checks and balances to protect its members. As has already been discussed elsewhere on this thread, PM put forward jury members for 501st trials and try to sway or even recruit other jurors from those same trials. The turnout for voluntary jury duty is low, so the odds of PM getting in on a jury are high, and they know this. When it was mentioned that this throws speculation of jury rigging and trial tampering onto all 501st trials in at least the last year? That’s very likely what’s happened. The same names showing up to jury lists over and over again cannot be a coincidence. What chance of a fair trial does a PM target have if they are brought up on a PM member’s charges, with a PM jury, and PM-friendly LCOGs? And PM members who get brought up on charges getting away not guilty? Extremely convenient. So this puts the entire justice system of the 501st into question. Who can you complain to? How is this fair? Who watches the Watchmen? Hearings are sealed up and you find yourself targeted if you speak of the details outside, with brigading demanding proof, knowing that sharing of details is cause for punishment which they will gladly serve you. As per tactic above, this is all recorded, passed along to the PM network for dissemination. As we’ve seen with the treatment of the LCO, whether you agree with her line of questioning or not, there is no member of the 501st too big that they would not go after. They will use all means, official and unofficial, to remove them, deny their appeals, and set about smear campaigns asap to stifle their calls for justice.
This is coordinated and brutal. Layers of followers doing whatever is needed to support and protect leaders. In return, followers are given PM protection, a free hand to do whatever they choose to whoever they want. They are not the smartest, the most creative or the most knowledgeable. The sole qualification is their loyalty and how brutally they can shut down anyone the PM kingpins consider a problem. Admittedly, watching lower-tier PM members squeal and roll on one another following the recent leak of a PM membership list has been something to see. Not quite as loyal when their safety net is revoked. “I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.”
Projekt Mayhem have driven off entire departments of legion command staff. They orchestrated a VONC (vote of no confidence) for 2019’s LCO, but did not expect him to resign before a membership vote could be triggered. This foiled an attempt to put forward a candidate of their own and seize control of the legion in a coup. The PM candidates were roundly thrashed in the 2020 elections this February by the LCO they recently managed to slyly remove. Prior to this, in 2019, practically the entire LMBO (Legion Merchandise and Branding Officers) staff walked after PM worked overtime to discredit their adherence to new LFL merch rules. The brigading was intense, prolonged and constant. Some even walked away from the legion. LMOs (Legion Membership Officers) and a few “good cop” LCOGs were pushed to resign at the hands of PM’s constant attacks. In the instance of the resigning LCOGs, they were ashamed at the state of what the office had become through PM’s influence. The others received their treatment for the simple crime of stopping PM members from doing whatever they wanted within their respective departments, because what they want regularly goes against legion rules.
Driving staff from positions and membership from legion discussion benefits them in the form of pushing through 501st charter changes while most members are not engaged due to the forums being a cesspit. Highlighting new proposals to raise membership engagement earns you a PM target painted on your back. They don’t want membership to be engaged. They want you to close your eyes and plummet with them into the ground, “calm as hindu cows”, as Tyler Durden would say.
If you’re a 501st member and actually want to try and fix the legion, talk about this in your garrisons, on the legion forums, with your friends. Have courage and do not allow yourself or important conversations to be shut down by these guys. Stop letting them run off members critical of them, because they do not have the best interests of the legion at heart and eventually you will run out of people trying to stand up to these guys. Eventually PM will be your legion. Pull your heads out of the sand, stop trying to heal the legion with hand holding and “we can do it” plucky attitudes. Their skill is looking bigger than they are. Hold your leadership accountable if they are PM or sympathetic. You voted them in, they should represent YOU and NOT Projekt Mayhem’s bullshit selfish ideals. Hold your LCOGs accountable, they are voted in now, you can vote them back out. Talk to your 501st legion council seat holders and have them push for charter changes to enable the 501st (with fresh and uncorrupt LCOGs) to fix this problem themselves before someone fixes it for them. Question new LCOG candidates to ensure things don’t get worse with a freshly hatched batch of PM-brand “justice”. Don’t let them be squad leaders. Don’t let them be detachment leaders. Don’t let them be garrison staff. Maybe not every PM member knows the full extent of the machine they’re part of, but they are part of it. Stop Projekt Mayhem. If you’re sad at the state of the legion right now? Do something.
Remove founding PM members from the Legion, cut the head off the snake. The charter protects them, and is not fit for purpose. Fix it so that the above can happen. Talk to your councillors, show them that you have a voice and you DO give a shit.
VONC the LCOGs, get a team in who give a fuck and want to fix this, and aren’t bought by PM.
Stop tolerating intolerance, bullying and harassment within the group, or very soon you won’t have a group left at all.
This morning (Dec. 12, 2019), four #StarWars #CostumeClubs (the #501stLegion, #RebelLegion, #MMCC & #DarkEmpire) issued a joint statement addressing member behavior:
“Together we are resolute in our support of inclusiveness, service, excellence, and the cultivation of an atmosphere of good will. As a unified community of Star Wars costuming clubs we hold fast to the practices and policies that best honor the franchise. To this end, we reject the practices of defamation, harassment, or ridicule towards anyone in the larger fan community or people in general.”
While this statement sounds great, it is ultimately unenforceable due to the simple fact that each club is organized and governed according to their respective charters. And, unless each club’s respective charter contains wording in its “Code of Conduct” (or equivalent) that matches the joint statement, it is unenforceable by all of the clubs.
While it may be good to issue such a statement, the only way that the clubs can have any measure of confidence that all of their respective members will behave honorably towards each other and the public at large is if they amend their charters, by-laws or other organizational documents to specifically include these sentiments as actual behavioral requirements that can result in punishment if members fail to abide by them.
Joint “Star Wars” Costume Club Statement Issued on Dec. 12, 2019
Organized #CostumeClubs typically have an official policy of inclusiveness when it comes to who can join. By inclusiveness, we mean that they don’t officially discriminate against individuals based on their race, beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, etc.; and for the most part, we know of no instances where anyone was denied membership due to any of these common causes of #discrimination.
However, just because a #CostumeClub has an official position on anti-discrimination and anti-bullying does NOT mean that all of its approved official members share these views. A number of official members of multiple costume clubs have been known to share their personal discriminatory views both in private gatherings and publicly on #SocialMedia. Now, while any forum or social media account or page operated by a costume club would never permit anyone (especially official members) to express discriminatory views (especially in the form of inflammatory slurs), no costume club has the power to enforce such rules on the private, individual social media accounts created by individual official members.
Consider the shock and disgust that many costume club official members experience upon discovering that some official members (some of which they thought were personal friends) harbor highly discriminatory and hateful views against individuals who are like themselves. Many would be surprised by just how common this phenomenon actually occurs and it’s usually discovered either after “friending” such an official member on a social media platform or hearing one or more official members express these views during a private gathering. While it may be true in a few cases that an official member who uses inflammatory slurs may be unaware that those slurs are offensive, in all likelihood, that is not simply not going to be the case.
While few people are happy about today’s highly divisive sociopolitical climate, it has had one chilling and revealing effect: it has empowered many who harbor #racist, #misogynistic, #homophobic, #transphobic, #Islamophobic & #xenophobic views (as well as other discriminatory views) to be far more open about those views because they believe that expressing those views has become far more politically and socially acceptable. As costume clubs are not limited in terms as to the types of people who decide to join them, the larger the costume club is, the more likely that its membership will include individuals who harbor discriminatory views.
Additionally, it should also not be shocking to learn that those costume club members who have discriminatory views are also more likely to be costume club elitists (which is a topic that we have blogged about before), as well as members who are more likely to engage in bullying behavior against other members, members of other costume clubs and members of the general public who don’t live up to their own personal expectations of costuming perfection. They are also one of the many reasons why some costumers & cosplayers decide to quit the hobby altogether.
#Fandoms, #cosplay & #CostumeClubs can be wonderful things: each draws a wide assortment of people together who share a common interest or love. Unfortunately, that wide assortment of people also means the potential for widely different points of view, temperaments, psychologies, beliefs and understandings (among other things) that can lead to a very ugly side of fandoms, cosplay & costume clubs: conflict and drama.
In that same blog post, we also shared a Facebook post written by Mandalore the Uniter on June 4, 2018:
Ironically, in just under 3 months after we blogged this article, the two highly-beloved #StarWars actors of Ray Park and Daniel Logan each decided to quit their memberships in the very large “Star Wars” costume club known as “The 501st Legion”. The reason why the each decided to quit was because each of them had fallen victim to discriminatory comments from official members of the 501st Legion at events. And, this hadn’t happened just once, it had happened multiple times. What finally made Ray Park decide to quit (and was then followed by Daniel Logan) was when an official 501st Legion member decided to fat-shame Ray Park during an official event.
Now, you might think that a “Star Wars” costume club would have instructed its members on how to be respectful to its honorary members, especially towards actors who appeared in one or more “Star Wars” films, but that simply isn’t the case. Fat-shaming and other types of body-oriented discrimination (as well as homophobia, raciao discrimination and the other types of very negative discrimination that we listed before) are not uncommon in the 501st Legion or even other costume clubs. And, in the case of Ray Park & Daniel Logan each quitting the 501st Legion, we are not aware of any official members that acted in a discriminatory way towards either of them actually receiving disciplinary action from the Legion’s internal judicial authority.
Attacking anyone in a discriminatory manner is a form of bullying, and as we have repeatedly implored costumers, cosplayers and fursuiters over the years, any type of bullying within the costuming, cosplay and fursuiting communities is simply not acceptable.
Going back to the topic of today’s highly divided sociopolitical climate, one unfortunate revelation that has occurred as a result of that climate is that individuals who harbor strong discriminatory views are probably not going to abandon those views, and that no amount of logic or reason will sway them away form their internalized hate towards specific groups. Unfortunately, this statement is backed up by psychological and medical data.
An excellent article examining the causes and extent of racial discrimination was published in a 2018 issue of “Psychology Today”. In this case, the studies had to do with discrimination towards people of color. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Brain imaging studies have shown that people who display an implicit [racial] bias have a stronger electrical response to black or other-race faces in an area of the brain known as the amygdala—a structure responsible for processing emotional stimuli and eliciting a fearful or anxious mental state. An exaggerated amygdala response is part of what creates the sudden visceral or “gut feeling” of being scared. And that feeling of fear has additional psychological effects that promote prejudice. It is well-established that when one feels their welfare is being threatened, they tend to become more tribal in their behavior, and additionally bolster their cultural or national worldviews, since it is those worldviews that make them feel safe. In essence, nationalism and prejudice are knee-jerk responses to anxiety.
This same article also examined how common racial discrimination is towards people of color:
First of all, how do we know that racial biases actually exist? While some may claim that they have no biases, a clever psychological experiment provides objective evidence supporting the notion that the vast majority of us do. In the implicit bias task, participants are shown words on a computer screen like “happy” and “fear,” which they must categorize as positive or negative. What results have consistently shown is that if a black face is quickly flashed before the words, individuals will be faster to correctly categorize negative words, while the same people will be quicker to correctly categorize positive words when they follow white faces. These troubling findings suggest that over 75 percent of Whites and Asians have an implicit racial bias, which affects how they process information and perceive the social world around them.
If 75% of whites and Asians have an implicit racial bias, then it’s pretty safe to say that a lot of costume club members are going have those same implicit racial biases. Let’s provide a very recent example of this: remember when the first trailer for “Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens” that showed John Boyega was released? A lot of “Star Wars” fans immediately expressed their disapproval when they saw actor John Boyega (who’s black) portraying a stormtrooper because they believed that all stormtroopers were white. Some upset fans went even further with their racial hatred, as written about in this 2015 MSNBC news article:
Although most “Star Wars” fans are rejoicing over the new trailer for the highly-anticipated seventh installment of the beloved sci-fi series, there has been a backlash as well, with troubling racial overtones.
The second official trailer for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” debuted during “Monday Night Football” last night amid a flurry of pre-sale activity, which temporarily crashed the popular online ticket seller Fandango’s website. The footage once again prominently featured black British actor John Boyega, which led to some hostile reactions.
#BoycottStarWarsVII became a trending topic on social media, with some commentators accusing the new film of promoting “white genocide,” arguing that it was made “to demoralize and destroy whites.”
While there’s no way of knowing how many “Star Wars” fans had (or still have) these feelings against John Boyega portraying a stormtrooper, it’s equally impossible to rule out the possibility that some of these fans were (or are) also costume club members.
So, if you encounter discriminatory views within a costume club (regardless of the type of discriminatory views), just remember that the costume club’s leadership is probably not going to address the issue if you file a complaint and that your only realistic option to avoid the any continued onslaught of discrimination may be to quit the costume club. If two highly respected “Star Wars” actors had to quit the world’s largest costume club to stop continually being on the receiving end of its members’ discriminatory views on body types (and who knows what else), what effort do you think that club’s leadership would do should something similar happen to you? As we posted on Facebook on January 25, 2016,
If you, as a #costumer or #cosplayer, are ever in a situation where you may need to quit a #CostumeClub, while it may seem to be a very difficult thing to do at the time because of how connected you may feel to the club, it isn’t the end of your ability to #costume or #cosplay: it’s the beginning of the continuation of your life without all the stress, problems, drama and worry that the costume club was creating in your life.
We hate to say this, but more often than not in costume clubs, the all-too-common lack of enforcement and inadequate definitions of what actually constitutes wrongdoing inadvertently favor those who willingly and regularly break the rules because they have little to no fear of reprisal.
Have you ever encountered #CostumeClub members while you were in #costume? Did they talk to you about your costume or #cosplay? Did they start to critique your costume and you make feel uncomfortable? If your answer to the last question was “yes”, you’re not alone.
The practice by some costume club members critiquing & criticizing other people’s #costumes & #cosplays is a common occurrence. Not all costume club members do this, but enough of them do it that it’s periodically a topic of conversation amongst people who aren’t costume club members or who are members of other costume clubs. While there is high likelihood that the critical costume club members are part of a #StarWars costume club, the real question is why do any costume club members behave like this?
Let’s begin with the fact that costume clubs typically base approval for membership on what its members have deemed to be a “high quality” costume, which generally implies that the costume has been constructed using durable materials that allow the costume to be long-lasting and worn many times while showing little or no damage as a result of repeated wearings. “Star Wars” costume clubs (and some others) also require what their members often refer to as “screen-accuracy”, which means (in essence) that the costume appears so accurate that it makes the wearer look like he or she walked off of a movie screen or comic book.
“High quality” and “screen accuracy” also mean something else: that such a costume isn’t necessarily common and was very likely rather expensive to obtain. The use of “high quality” (durable) materials and a screen accurate appearance isn’t something that you can just run down to a specialty costume/party store or department store to purchase. Instead, the wearer probably had to seek out private prop & costume makers, expensive commercially-licensed professional costume suppliers, or some combination of the two; plus obtaining other items, such as appropriate tools, in order to have and wear that costume. In other words, they spent a lot of time, money and effort to have a “high quality” (and probably “screen accurate”) costume just to get into the costume club’s door.
Now, while there are many other costumers, cosplayers and #fursuiters who have spent considerable time, money and effort to have the costumes that they wear, that doesn’t mean that they’re going to start behaving in a critical manner towards other costumers, cosplayers & fursuiters. Mind you, it can and does happen, but there’s another layer that contributes to the false sense of superiority that some costume club members develop: the “specialness” and “privilege” of being an approved member of that costume club.
Each costume club creates its own internal subculture that’s unique to that club. That subculture includes access to events and information that isn’t available to people outside of the club; the use of special “jargon” that developed internally within that club; access to members-only message boards & groups; the ability to purchase, own and wear members-only swag that is unique to that club; etc. All of these aspects (combined with the fact that the member owns at least one expensive, “high-quality”, “screen accurate” costume to be a member of that club) can sometimes make that member feel overly “special” or “privileged”. This sense of being overly “special” & privileged that can develop may lead to some very negative qualities: arrogance, conceit, vanity, condescension, snobbery, etc.:
“Look at me: I’m special. I have an awesome costume and I’m part of such-and-such costume club and can access things that you can’t. This makes me better than you because you’re not a member and can’t see these member-only things.”
Now, while not everyone who joins a costume club subsequently becomes condescending and snobbish after joining, when someone outside of the club encounters any costume club members that are, chances are high that that person may conclude that most (if not all) of that club’s members are the same way. This is especially true if the snobbish & condescending members acted patronizingly towards the person, or were observed by that person being patronizing towards someone else.
Costume club members who publicly act arrogantly, conceitedly, condescendingly, patronizingly or snobbishly towards non-members ultimately damage that costume club’s reputation.
Usually, only fellow costume club members are privy to the full, unbridled extent of how arrogant, conceited, vain, condescending & snobbish some costume club members can become because they can exhibit those qualities without fear of reprisal in the perceived safety and privacy of members-only groups and message boards. The degree of arrogance, conceit, vanity, condescension & snobbery displayed in those members-only groups & message boards would surprise outsiders as it often surprises newly approved members who never realized that this occurred until after they joined. Sadly, some new members can and do get pulled into having the same negative behavior and self-aggrandizing views over time.
Reading this, you might ask, “Don’t costume clubs discourage this kind of behavior?” As an example, at the very beginning of Section 1 of the “Code of Conduct” of the 501st Legion’s “Operation Protocols” (or bylaws), the following is written:
“The 501st Legion recognizes that its costumes represent characters from the STAR WARS™ films and as such, costume-wearers carry the responsibility of portraying these characters professionally and tastefully while in public. For these reasons, all members are prohibited from acting in a manner disrespectful towards the image they are portraying, towards fellow organization members, or towards the public at large while in costume at any event where the 501st Legion or its sub-units and members are official participants.”
While this all sounds very good, one only has to read the fine print at the end: respectful behavior is ONLY required “while in costume at any event where the 501st Legion or its sub-units and members are official participants.” Thus, when 501st Legion members aren’t in costume or aren’t directly representing the 501st Legion at an official event, they can act as disrespectfully as they want. And, sadly, some of them (as well as the members of other clubs with similar rules) do exactly that.
So, how do you think arrogant, conceited, condescending, patronizing & snobbish costume club members react when confronted about their behavior towards others when they’re not in costume and otherwise not representing the club in their eyes? They become defensive and often resort to rationalizations and confirmation biases in an attempt to justify their disrespectful & self-aggrandizing behavior.
Back in the year 1997, a professor named Robert Fuller coined a more generic term to describe all kinds of disrespectful & self-aggrandizing behavior: “rankism”, which he defines as the “abusive, discriminatory, or exploitative behavior towards people because of their rank in a particular hierarchy.” Rankism is what people who regard themselves as “somebodies” do to people whom they regard to be “nobodies”. Rank-based abuse underlies a broad spectrum of negative phenomena, such as #bullying, #elitism, #racism, #hazing, #ageism, #sexism, #homophobia & more.
Rankism can occur in any social hierarchy (such as governments, corporations, families, non-profit organizations, and universities) and tends to feed on itself within a group context. Two of the many characteristic examples of rankism that apply to costume club member snobbery & condescension include the following:
Using rank as a shield to get away with insulting or humiliating others with impunity.
Exporting the rank achieved in one sphere of activity to claim superior value as a person.
The victims of rankism experience it as an affront to their personal dignity.
Incidents of rankism (arrogance, conceit, condescension, snobbery, etc) occur within costume clubs more frequently than their leaderships & members would care to admit. Examples of rankism that have been directly observed within more than one “Star Wars” costume club include (but are not limited to) the following:
People wearing costumes constructed from materials that the costume club generally regards as being “low quality” (such as EVA foam) are often viewed with derision & disdain.
Convention attendees wearing costumes or cosplays made from such materials may be directly criticized for doing so by some costume club members.
Costume club members may express their negative views regarding such costumes & materials on costume club message boards that are typically only accessible to other members.
The members of other costume clubs that permit the usage of materials regarded as being lesser quality may also be subject to criticism and derogatory names. Derogatory names such as “garbage-can Mandos” and “bathrobe Jedi” are two examples of how some members of one particular “Star Wars” costume club sometimes have referred to the members of two other “Star Wars” costume clubs.
Individuals who built customized versions of “canon” costumes may also subject to criticism by members of costume clubs that don’t permit customization and view them as not being “screen-accurate”.
Members of costume clubs that don’t permit customization often criticize similar costume clubs that do.
Costumed convention attendees who aren’t costume club members may find themselves and their costumes being critiqued by members of a costume club who take it upon themselves to let those attendees know what they did wrong and what they should make their costumes more “screen-accurate” or on par with the level of quality that their costume club requires for membership. More often than not, the costumed attendees probably never asked or even approached the costume club members or asked the members for their views on their costumes. Out of arrogance & vanity, some costume club members believe it’s their duty to impose their unwanted “expertise” upon others because they’re so convinced that everyone ultimately wants to join their club, which isn’t true.
Criticizing others due to the quality or appearance of their costumes or the types of materials that they used may sound like a familiar type of negative behavior that we have spoken against in the past: #CosplayBullying. For example, while the 501st Legion’s “Code of Conduct” (as we referenced above) lists several types of unacceptable harassment by its members (including sexual harassment, racial prejudice and sexual orientation prejudice), criticizing or harassing people due to the perceived quality or accuracy of their costumes is not specifically listed. Thus, the “Code of Conduct” of the world’s single largest costume club fails to address the problem of cosplay bullying. And, cosplay bullying is often at the heart why some people stop cosplaying altogether.
As a whole, costume clubs have failed in their responsibility to encourage members to behave respectfully towards others even when they’re not in costume or not otherwise directly representing the club. While they may not view these “out of costume” times as being enforceable, they could (at the very least) educate their members that their behavior (both in and out of costume) can reflect poorly on the club (and themselves) when they act disrespectfully towards others and are self-aggrandizing. They could stop members from behaving arrogantly, conceitedly, condescendingly & snobbishly towards other in their members-only message boards & groups, but by failing to do so, they enable the behavior instead of discouraging it.
Cosplay bullying is never acceptable, regardless of the form that it takes.
Only hours ago late yesterday (Oct. 5, 2018), #StarWars actor Ray Park (who played #DarthMaul) announced on his #Instagram account that he has quit being a member of the #501stLegion. (The “501st Legion” is the largest & oldest “Star Wars” #CostumeClub and Ray Park has been an active member for many years, as has actor Daniel Logan.)
On his Instagram, Mr. Park wrote the following:
“iamraypark #announcement I AM NO LONGER A 501st legion member. Reason: Disappointed!! However, A certain or a certain member spoiled it for me in Edmontont, 501 legion. I AM A STAR WARS FAN. I AM A FAN BUT NOT A FAN OF THIS! #sithlife #raypark #cancelled
This same message is also posted on Mr. Park’s Twitter account:
In response, the “501st Legion” on its #Facebook page issued the following apology:
“Ray Park, please accept our most sincere apology, from the almost 14,000 members of the 501st Legion. You deserve the utmost respect and courtesy, always. We hope that you and Daniel Logan can help us make this right. Thank you.”
After learning about this, “Star Wars” actor Daniel Logan (who played the young Boba Fett and is also a member of the “501st Legion”) announced his solidarity with Ray Park Instagram and that he, too, was quitting the “501st Legion”:
While not all of the facts have been publicly presented (but there’s a lot of hearsay), a recent article on Yahoo that was published only in September, 2018 may shed light as to the nature of what may have caused Ray Park to decide to quit:
“Ray Park, the British actor who first played Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, has defended his appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story after receiving “a few fatty comments” about his return to the role.
Maul made a surprise cameo in Solo where it was revealed that he had survived his “death” in The Phantom Menace, and was behind the shadowy Crimson Dawn crime syndicate that looms over the spin-off film.
On Instagram Park says that, although he doesn’t care about the comments and he doesn’t need to justify his appearance in the film, he “worked his butt off” to play Maul once again. He’s also shared photos of himself looking absolutely ripped to silence the haters.
Unfortunately, Mr. Park removed that Instagram post to which the article referred, but we are definitely appalled that anyone would “fat-shame” Ray Park.
One individual wrote the following on Instagram. While we cannot verify it’s accuracy, it’s description is aligns with some our and others own experiences:
Since we first created our Facebook page and, later, this WordPress blog, we’ve posted numerous times about toxicity and bullying that occurs “behind closed doors” within costume clubs, and that includes the “501st Legion”. This situation with Ray Park and Daniel Logan is the most public display of just how toxic some superfans within these clubs can be. Poor & weak costume leadership is clearly a factor, which is something else that we have discussed in the past:
As we posted on our Facebook page on January 22, 2016 (also linked above):
“Being part of a costume club can be an enormously rewarding experience, but it can also turn into one of your worst nightmares in the blink of an eye. As long as things go smoothly and morale is high, you can be an active member for potentially years. But if things go awry with conflict & drama, regardless of how much time and effort you have invested into being an active member of the club, you have to know when it’s time to quit. This can be an extremely difficult reality to accept, especially for anyone who has been a member for years and invested considerable time and effort into the club. The key to remember is this: if the conflict & drama is causing a significant amount of stress for yourself, what impact is it also having on your family? We have witnessed several marriages end due in large part to unremitting costume club drama that one spouse is unwilling to step away from. Is a costume club filled with drama more important than your family? Probably not. Try to keep that in mind that sometimes the only realistic solution for yourself and the well being of your family is to walk away from the club. Not being a club member isn’t going to inhibit you from continuing to be an active costumer or cosplayer; but it will very likely restore it into being a fun an rewarding experience again.”
#Fandoms, #cosplay & #CostumeClubs can be wonderful things: each draws a wide assortment of people together who share a common interest or love. Unfortunately, that wide assortment of people also means the potential for widely different points of view, temperaments, psychologies, beliefs and understandings (among other things) that can lead to a very ugly side of fandoms, cosplay & costume clubs: conflict and drama.
While this ugly side isn’t always active, it can brew just beneath the surface waiting for an opportunity to manifest, sometimes rearing its ugly head on the smallest of issues that can occur among groups of people that are only connected on a single activity of interest.
The ugly side of fandoms, cosplay & costume clubs isn’t something that members of these groups generally want to acknowledge or talk about publicly, but after it starts it can potentially become a public spectacle if it escalates. And guess what: escalation of drama & conflict within any of these groups can occur very rapidly. Further, once conflict & drama starts, it can go on for months or even years with little or no abatement.
But why does such intense conflict and drama occur within fandoms, cosplay & costume clubs? Consider the word “fan”.
From Fan to Fanatic and Fanaticism
The word “fan” was originally a shortened version of the word “fanatic”, but now there’s a fine difference in definitions between these two words:
A fan is “a person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular person or thing.”
A fanatic is “a person with an obsessive interest in and enthusiasm for something, especially an activity.”
Thus, the difference between a fan and a fanatic is that a fan has a “strong interest”, whereas a fanatic has an “obsessive interest”. In other words, if a fan’s enthusiasm & strong interest for a fandom, cosplay or a costume club transforms into an obsession, then that person is no longer simply a fan: that person has become a fanatic. And guess what: fanatics have a much larger propensity to initiate and escalate drama and conflict than a typical fan. This description from Wikipedia really sums it up best:
“The fanatic displays very strict standards and little tolerance for contrary ideas or opinions.”
From personal experience and personal observations within various fandoms, groups of cosplayers, and (especially) costume clubs, unreasonableness and obsession are nearly always at the core of the drama and conflict when it occurs.
And here’s something very important to understand: when you think about how intolerant a religious or political fanatic can become, unfortunately, fanatics within fandoms, cosplay groups & costume clubs can experience similar levels of intolerance. This is why conflict & drama can become so intense within these groups and why it can last for months or even years.
And that, ladies & gentlemen, is what drives the ugly side of fandoms, cosplay & costume clubs: fanaticism and the intolerance that it generates. But how does the conflict and drama get started? Let’s explore that.
How Conflict & Drama Often Begins
On June 4, 2018, Mandalore the Uniter posted the following statement on Facebook:
Words are typically the weapon of choice that most often instigates drama & conflict within a fandom, a group of cosplayers or between costume club members. Words are typically also the weapon of choice that leads to escalating the drama and conflict for months or even years at a time. Whoever said that words can’t harm others obviously never saw the harm that they can and do cause, including when they’re used as weapons on the Internet.
Now, for those of you who might attribute the start of a conflict or drama to a particular action, just remember: it’s often how the involved parties react to the offending action immediately afterwards that may determine whether it erupts into a full-blown conflict & drama. And, more often than not, those reactions will probably come in the form of words.
But words aren’t the only weapon that may be used. There have been cases where inappropriate phone calls have been made to employers to try and get people fired. There have been instances of falsifying evidence to get people in trouble when they did nothing wrong. Sometimes a conflicting party might even spy or get someone else to spy on the person (or people) that they’re fighting with. We even know of a case where an individual attempted to have another party arrested by claiming that that other party had stolen something even though there’s absolutely no evidence. Just imagine police coming to your door and asking you to go to a police station to be questioned for something you didn’t do. In the case that we know of, the police ultimately apologized to the party and no charges were ever filed because the person was innocent even though the accuser continues to make the false accusations years later.
The Different Parties Typically Involved in Conflict & Drama
When conflict erupts within a group, it usually starts between 2 of the group’s members. These individuals are typically referred to as the primary participants or the initiators.
As knowledge of a conflict begins to spread within the group (as it so often can), additional parties who weren’t present when the conflict began may allow themselves or they may feel compelled to also become involved. We refer to these individuals as secondary participants.
Together, the primary and secondary participants on both sides of a conflict can be collectively referred to as the active participants.
Now, not all conflicts are two-sided; some are one-sided. In a one-sided conflict, one or more individuals who are actively perpetuating a conflict are directing it at someone else (or possibly an entire group) who isn’t actively responding to the conflict. In this type of situation, the person (or group) that’s on the receiving end, but not actively trying to perpetuate any conflict themselves, can be referred to as an inactive or involuntary participant.
Beyond the active (and possibly involuntary) participants is a third group: the bystanders. Bystanders are people who may be unaware of the conflict, or they may be individuals who do know about it, but have chosen to not take sides and remain neutral.
To remain neutral, a bystander must avoid showing any favoritism towards either side of the conflict. A bystander can express a desire to see the conflict end, but anything beyond that has the potential of drawing the bystander into the conflict itself as an active participant. It’s not uncommon for active participants on one or both sides of a conflict to approach bystanders in an effort to get them to take sides and become involved themselves.
Within a conflict, active participants can take on one or more roles. Some of these roles are more common with the primary participants, while others may be more common with the secondary ones. Some of the roles are listed below.
Initiators are the individuals that started the conflict in the first place. These are the primary participants.
Defenders are typically secondary participants who become involved to defend one of the original primary participants in the conflict.
Instigators may be primary or secondary participants, who want to intensify an existing conflict.
Trolls are primary or secondary participants who attempt to attack one side of a conflict online. Sometimes they attempt to do so anonymously.
Stonewallers are primary or secondary participants that perpetuate the drama & conflict by ignoring people perceived to be on the other side of the conflict.
Fault-Finders are primary or secondary participants that look for fault (real or fabricated) with anyone on the other side of the conflict with the intent of exploiting it for their side.
Recent Ugly Examples in the Public Eye
Some ugly, obsessive, unreasonable, racist and even threatening “Star Wars” fans recently made it into the news when actress Kelly Marie Tran decided to delete all of her posts on the social media site Instagram because of continuous abusive posts that she had been receiving from disgruntled fans who didn’t like her character. Some of the harassment that Tran faced online includes an incident in which her character’s description on the Star Wars ‘Wookieepedia’ website was altered to feature offensive, racist language.
“Star Wars” actor John Boyega was attacked in 2014 for being the first on-screen black stormtrooper, and this was coming from franchise fans; but he effectively defended himself.
And let’s not forget about what happened to “Star Wars” prequel actor Jake Lloyd. In 2017, renowned “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill expressed his dislike regarding how Jake Lloyd was treated by critics following the 1999 release of “The Phantom Menace”:
“I couldn’t believe some of the things they wrote about the prequels, you know. I mean really, beyond I didn’t like it. I’m still angry about the way they treated Jake Lloyd. He was only ten years old, that boy, and he did exactly what George wanted him to do. Believe me, I understand clunky dialog.”
And that doesn’t even include how the fans have viewed him or his performance. Not only did Jake Lloyd quit acting after “The Phantom Menace”, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Could all of the verbal abuse that Jake Lloyd received due to his acting in “The Phantom Menace” have been a contributing factor to his schizophrenia? We may never know, but words can cause a lot of damage.
Director Christopher McQuarrie has publicly said that he now never wants to direct a “Star Wars” (or superhero) movie because of how ugly the fans can become. In his own words, the toxic fandom has “cured” him from wanting to become involved in the franchise.
All of This Conflict & Drama Is So Unnecessary
Even though we have posted in the past that all of this obsessive, ugly behavior is completely necessary, it can be very difficult if not impossible to get fans-turned-fanatics to stop their negative behavior. What you can do, however, is to avoid becoming embroiled in any conflict & drama yourself as the damage that can ensue may be unrepairable. Friendships destroyed and people leaving the cosplay & costuming hobby altogether are not uncommon results from excessive conflict & drama.
We urge all #costumers, #cosplayers & #CostumeClub members to remember that today is #NationalStopBullyingDay. #Bullying is a topic that we have posted about many times in the past and it remains an ongoing problem, not only against children, but also against fellow cosplayers, costumers & members of costume clubs.
Bullying is essentially repeated physical, mental, and/or emotional abuse. While most associate bullying with children, many adults are subjected to a variety of forms of bullying. The American Psychological Association defines bullying as “a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes another person injury or discomfort. Bullying can take the form of physical contact, words, or more subtle actions.”
Common forms of adult bullying are as follows:
Physical bullying. This includes physical intimidation, threat, harassment and/or harm; such as physical attack, simulated violence (raising a fist as if to strike, or throwing objects near a person), extortion, date rape, marital rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment at work, personal space violation, physical space entrapment, physical size domination, and numerical domination (ganging up on a victim).
Tangible/material bullying. This involves using one’s title or position or material leverage (such as financial, informational, or legal) to intimidate, threaten, harass, and/or harm in order to dominate and control the victim.
Verbal bullying. This includes threats, shaming, hostile teasing, insults, constant negative judgment & criticism; or racist, sexist, or homophobic language.
Passive-aggressive or covert bullying. Probably one of the most insidious & difficult to prove forms of bullying, this involves subtle bullying while pretending to behave normally on the surface. Examples include negative gossip, negative joking at someone’s expense, sarcasm, condescending eye contact, facial expression or gestures, mimicking to ridicule, deliberately causing embarrassment & insecurity, the invisible treatment, social exclusion, professional isolation, and deliberately sabotaging someone’s well-being, happiness, and success.
Cyber bullying. Various types of tangible, verbal & passive-aggressive bullying mentioned above can also all be carried out behind the sometimes anonymous computer keyboard via social media, texting, video, email, on-line discussion, and other digital formats.
Sadly, we have directly observed all of the above types of bullying occurring within the costuming & cosplay communities, most often between members of costume clubs (and not necessarily within the same club), as we have posted earlier this year on this blog. Sadly, the bullying that occurs within costume clubs is often ignored by leadership even after multiple complaints are filed. Then there was the publicized case of an Overwatch cosplayer being bullied for being black.
You’d think that #racism wouldn’t occur in the #cosplay & #costuming community, but it does & here’s a sad example: #Overwatch #cosplayer #bullied because she’s black. It doesn’t matter what race, what culture, what religion, what gender, what sexual orientation, what age or what size you are. Anyone can cosplay any character that they choose to cosplay and it’s time for this community to unite against the bullying, racism & bigotry that continues.
As a cosplayer or costumer, what do you want this hobby to represent? The freedom for anyone to express themselves through the wearing of a costume, or people trying to tell others what they can or cannot wear because of the color of their skin, their gender, or anything else that makes them different from the character that they’re cosplaying?
Costuming, Cosplay & Costume Clubs 101 