This Cosplayer Has Claws: The Disruption and Replication of Gendered Norms in Cosplay Communities

This entry is part of my archive of notes on books, articles, & essays.

Introduction

The first page of This Cosplayer Has Claws: The Disruption and Replication of Gendered Norms in Cosplay Communities by Daniel Skentelbery.

This paper is open access and available to read here. In it, Daniel Skentelbery clearly defines key terms such as cosplay, gender-bending, genderswap (also known as Rule 64), and crossplay. I often use this text in my courses to expand on discussions of fandom and gender, building on the foundational ideas introduced in Superfandom: How Our Obsessions are Changing How We Buy and Who We Are by Zoe Fraade-Blanar and Aaron M. Glazer.

Selected Quotes

• “Cosplay  is  the  abbreviation  of  ‘costume’  and  ‘play.’  The  practice  of  cosplay  is  both  an  artistic medium of craft and performance and a lively subcultural activity. Consequently, ‘cosplayer’ refers to someone  who  participates  in  the  craft  and  performance  of  cosplay.” (p.1)

• "Gender-bending is the process of taking a character who is canonically female and reimagining them as male, vice versa, or giving a genderless character gendered characteristic. An example of gender-bending would be a woman adapting the male-coded costume of Han Solo from Star Wars (Lucas, 1977) to appear more feminine, such as by wearing a navy skirt instead of the navy trousers." (p.2)

• "Crossplay, on the other hand, is far less easy to spot. The hope here is to not stand out as a different gender, to present themselves as the gender of the character as seamlessly as possible. An example of crossplay would be a woman who has disguised their feminine figure to appear and perform as the masculine hero Han Solo." (p.2)

• "The aim of this article is to examine not only the ways in which cosplayers create storms within the gender binary and gendered performance, but also the ways in which cosplayers mimic and themselves become subject to the norms of dominant gendered expectations." (p.2)

• " ... three key phenomena have been observed: First, cosplayers seek to mimic their chosen characters, and failure to do so can lead to criticism from other cosplayers and the wider fandom. Second, cosplayers will adopt the values of their chosen characters: Catwoman cosplayers will become both powerful cat burglar and a feminine sexual object of desire. Third, sexual harassment in the cosplay subcultures helps to perpetuate misogyny and social-gendered norms. This latter phenomenon can occur when someone takes on a feminine character regardless of their own gender/sexuality." (p.9)