The Problem With Cosplay Trends

Harley Quinn. Deadpool. The blue haired girl from the Me!Me!Me! video. They’re all cosplay trends. You can guarantee on seeing double, triple, and whatever number you can think of seven times over of these cosplays at a convention or on Instagram. 

Not to mention that every time a popular form of media comes out featuring a fairly simple character, it seems like every cosplayer in existence rushes to cosplay them. For instance, at time of writing, many a cosplayer with a Facebook page, Tumblr, or Instagram account is currently obsessed with cosplaying:

1. Lucoa from Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

2. “Smug Anime Girl” Wendy (the amusing result of the Wendy’s Twitter account epically roasting critics and competitors.  The internet was so impressed that it decided to recreate Wendy as a cute anime Twitter troll in fanart ranging from adorable chibis to weird erotica)

What’s the problem with this? Absolutely nothing. You thought I would spend this post complaining about how annoying cosplay trends are, and proceed to bash people for bandwagoning and being “unoriginal attention whores”? Nope. Wrong. While it’s true that some trends can be a bit tiresome, I’ve grown to view a lot of them as exactly what they are: Harmless fun. People are gonna be excited when new things come out. As a cosplayer, one of the ways I express that kind of excitement is through recreation. Besides that, it can be fun to see all the variations and takes on the same character, not to mention how much I absolutely looove giant group photos of Harley Quinn cosplayers, or the notorious Deadpool conga lines. 

It’s all in fun. It’s not hurting anyone. No harm? No problem ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ That said, what exactly is the best thing to do when the worst thing about the latest cosplay fad is that it becomes annoying annoying? Keep scrolling. Seriously. Don’t shit on anyone’s parade. Keep. Scrolling. As someone who tends to speak up a lot and has no issues expressing their opinion, even I know and continue to understand that, sometimes, you really don’t have to say anything. Just ask yourself:

• Is it harmful in any way to anyone?

If the answer is no, it’s really not worth getting worked up over. And believe me, I understand needing to voice your irritations from time to time, so when you absolutely must get it out, here are some guidelines:

• Don’t voice your annoyance directly under someone’s pictures or posts. It’s rude. Vent privately to a friend. Make a general statement on your own page that expresses your thoughts without making you look like a fun-loathing butt munch. Write in your secret journal of things you absolutely hate. Start a blog to learn to express yourself in a healthy way ಠ‿↼
• Don’t use anyone specifically to illustrate your point. For example, if you’re just so fed up with Harley Quinn cosplays that you’re gonna explode if you don’t tell SOMEONE just how fed up you are, do so without tacking on some innocent cosplayer’s picture 
• Don’t resort to personal attacks or insults. For instance, I feel like it’s totally ok to post something like “I saw so many Deadpool cosplays today, I wouldn’t mind never seeing another one again.” On the other hand, saying “All Deadpool cosplayers are unoriginal assholes, and I wish people would just stop fucking cosplaying him because they look stupid and probably aren’t even real cosplayers who read the comics 😡” is definitely not ok (and makes you look like a jerk). This should really go without saying, but there’s nothing wrong with reminders every now and then (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
• Think about why you’re actually upset by a bunch of people who don’t know or care about you and haven’t done anything wrong, and maybe you’ll realize it’s not that serious and get over it without even needing to say anything at all

With this in mind, I had the pleasure of encountering someone who broke all of these rules today! It mostly just made me rolls my eyes and laugh because I’ve dealt with enough trolling, cyber bullying, and other online harassment to not be upset, but I do feel it should be addressed for the sake of this post. Story time! 

I was inspired by a particular piece of “Smug Wendy” fan art that I saw on Tumblr, and decided to more or less recreate the look myself. 

I posted the pics of my cosplay on Facebook, Cosplay Amino, and Tumblr. The original artist was actually pleased and flattered by my portrayal, and it has been otherwise well received by other peeps as well. I had fun. I got to show off my faux freckle skills and anime eyes. Bright colors. Boobs. It was a good time. Then I saw this comment under one of the shares of my post:

The commenter broke every rule. Yikes. As you can see in my replies (purple), the spirit of Smug Anime Girl Wendy overtook me (ok, maybe I’m just generally kind of a smartass, but I still have manners and a code of decency). I wasn’t rude, but I didn’t hide my amusement and laughter either. It’s fine if someone doesn’t like my cosplay; I don’t do it for the approval of others. However, insinuating that I, and all other the other people cosplaying some variation of Wendy lack creativity, and that something is wrong with us? That’s silly. Very silly and pretty fucking rude. People can cosplay who they like, be it a simple trendy character or an obscure character with complex armor. The same person is capable of being inspired by and producing both of those things. That’s what I felt the need to remind the commenter of. As you can see, they apologized…but not without offering up excuses. Listen. We all make mistakes. We can all say things are useless or unkind or unnecessary in the heat of the moment. I get that. I really do. However, offering up excuses after you’ve already been called out as rude and then doubling down on your stance is not an apology. 

But I digress. In the end, I see and have no issue with popular cosplay trends, even the ones as completely silly as Smug Wendy. I tend find them fun. I understand that not everyone does, and even I have my own list of cosplays I don’t really care for, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna go off and sling insults at anyone who dares to cosplay them. I’ve learned that, perhaps, when it comes to unnecessary criticism and unsolicited rude comments, maybe you should just save the salt for your fries and keep it away from everyone else’s good time (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

As always, thanks for reading, and if you liked it, share it! You can also subscribe to my blog and check me out in these places on the interwebs. You also free drop me a tip so that I can continue to make more cosplay and content! 

~DeLa Doll  💖