The Current State of Fandom

[ThreadJack]

Thanks, Brooke. I agree completely, cosplaying is all about becoming the character now matter who you are. 


A group of cosplayers approached my friends and I in a different con and gave me their support saying that I cosplayed Master Chief very well after I received similar hate from a group of toxic and racist cosplayers that got kicked out for their behavior.  They then showed me that they're an LGBTQ group of cosplayers which I didn't realize and that they receive a lot of hate due to being so.  We all hung out that week and had fun since all of my friends were cosplaying either a character of a different sex or a different race but only the haters noticed that. I say cosplay Mara Jade and enjoy it, I wouldn't of know that you were trans until you mentioned so a few months back.  To me, anyone can cosplay any character.  The haters are confirmation that you're doing things rights

I'm lucky, it's not obvious. I'd probably get the other "normal" comments too....

Just cosplay who you want, haters don't matter!

[Infinit01]

Thanks again and the same goes to you too, TJ.  Cosplay whomever you want and don't worry about the haters.  I look forward to seeing how you'll cosplay Mara Jade

[Darth Knox]

[Musashi Padawan]

I enjoyed reading this thread, much of the discussion hit home for me as a con participant and proud supporter of my daughter, thank you. 

[Darth Knox]

I enjoyed reading this thread, much of the discussion hit home for me as a con participant and proud supporter of my daughter, thank you. 

You're welcome.

[Infinit01]

Point for that, Knox

[ed_ification]

Only just caught this thread.

And there's a lot to this.  I have made some GREAT friends because of "OMG, you are interested in X, too?  That's cool!"  And yeah, for a time, geek culture was a subculture.  And it shifted.  Cultures shift - they're a living thing.  As people aged, nerds grew up and brought it with them.  But as nerds came up into wider culture, we also had the rise of the Internet.

And the Internet gave the anonymous voice power.  And along with that, anonymity gave the darker voices a forum.

It is easier to hold yourself to account when talking with a person that is different from you.  When you look them in the eyes.

But when they're a name on a screen, it's EASY to think that those names aren't real, that they're a persona, a masquerade... and that the feelings of the persona don't matter as much as YOUR feelings because YOU'RE real.

I won't say I'm innocent of it.  Thankfully, it's been quite a few years, but it can be easy to slip into the dark spot, especially when life isn't going how one thinks they deserve.  It's easy to be angry at others enjoying what seems to be good luck.

But I know it's there, and I acknowledge it.  I also have the benefit of a good spouse who is an anthropologist and very much works for empowerment of others, so I do my best to learn from the knowledge she brings.  I brought this up in a thread that got kiboshed back on the Random Thoughts thread (and I don't object to that; it was straying into raw territory that was hitting a lot of emotion, and wasn't something sought for these forums), but to sum up, I WANT more voices.  The more voices we have, the better the choir sounds.  The more voices we have, the more stories we get to hear.  And that's a good thing, in my opinion.

[PsychoSith]

Way I've always seen it I like swinging lightsabers and raiding with friends. I don't care what your story is, lets just have a good time and make some laughs.

[Darth Knox]

I WANT more voices.  The more voices we have, the better the choir sounds.  The more voices we have, the more stories we get to hear.  And that's a good thing, in my opinion.

Exactly.I think I mentioned somewhere on the site (probably in one of the Captain Marvel discussions) that diversity and inclusion does not mean taking away seats from the table so that people who were already there can't sit down. Diversity and inclusion means adding more chairs to the table so more people can sit down.

We have different genres for a reason and different people/cultures can also give us something new and different within those genres, which is a good thing.

[Infinit01]

Exactly.I think I mentioned somewhere on the site (probably in one of the Captain Marvel discussions) that diversity and inclusion does not mean taking away seats from the table so that people who were already there can't sit down. Diversity and inclusion means adding more chairs to the table so more people can sit down.

We have different genres for a reason and different people/cultures can also give us something new and different within those genres, which is a good thing.

Agreed. Diversity doesn't mean that it's replacing what's already there, it's adding to it.  My personal opinion is that toxic fans that attack other fans who cosplay or like a character for their own reasons are just insecure with themselves.  Cosplaying is a lot like the saber hobby where we all come together no matter color, sex, age, religion, toilet paper of choice, location, favorite Lethal Weapon film, etc. and display our love for a movie, character, series, etc.

[janx]

Amen.

I've seen the angry tweets that Star Wars  or Star Trek has turned SJW.  Those people weren't watching the same thing I was, these stories have always been about social justice.

Infinit01's story reminded me of the Aurellio Voltaire concert I saw.  Before he introduced his country song, Hate Lives In a Small Town, he talked about how being the only weirdo in town and how he got a daily dose of "you suck" and "you should kill yourself."  That after awhile, like that popular song you can't stand, if you hear it enough times, you'll catch yourself humming it.  Well, one night, he was feeling down and humming that tune and took a turn into the sole town diner for another round of abuse before his last stop.  And right after the first idiot starts the refrain, some people at a table he'd never seen before said, "You should sit with us."  And they were dressed in ways he'd never seen before, and told him about the Rocky Horror Picture Show they were going to see.  He'd found his crowd.

Used to be, in the 1980's,  that was what nerdom was.  Finding that crowd of freaks and geeks and weirdos, who accepted your brand and showed you the many others you might also like.

We've forgotten that lesson. Maybe we never learned it.  We just gotta be there for others, and offer them a seat at our table.