Fuck Yeah! Feminism

The Houxbois Academy: Costumed Characters: It’s sort of a strange line we straddle…

clownyprincess:

jacquelineofalltrades:

Yeah, I’ve seen my fair share of “girls only do cosplay in costumes to get attention” arguments. And I really don’t agree with them. Until you actually go up to that person and ask them WHY they dressed like that, who are you to jump to some kind of conclusion like that?

Sometimes, costumes are very revealing. That’s just the way they are drawn/look. Video game characters, comic characters, even TV and movies all fall under this. A lot of skin is just there, and if fans want to dress like them, they like to get as close to the “real thing” as they can.

And calling a girl a “slut” or “Attention whore” because she dresses like a certain character isn’t helping. Again, that person is working with what they know.

Example: Power Girl (DC Comics) and Emma Frost (Marvel Comics). Emma has had a wide variety of costumes, but yes, most of them are revealing. Same goes for Power Girl. You can’t mention her costume without also mentioning the front and center chest window.

So when I dress like Power Girl and go to a con, is that slutty? Am I just trying to grab attention? I dress like PG because I admire her character. Because, there’s a lot more there beyond that chest window.

Again, the negativity that is spewed when women do things like “Gender Bend ___” and maybe show some cleavage isn’t helping. It’s actually stifling creativity and keeping others from joining in on a wonderful past-time.

So when you see that girl dressed as Felicia from Darkstalkers, don’t auto assume that you know her motivations for dressing that way. Maybe she did it to prove she could make the costume. Maybe she did it because she really loves that character.

Why don’t you take a minute out of your day and ask her why? You’ll find it more productive than calling her a slut.

I co-sign the above, totally, but I’d like to add to this…

It’s actually no one’s fucking business why anyone chooses to dress as any damn character they please. It’s actually no one’s right or entitlement to walk up to someone and ask them why they’re dressed the way they are - especially if you’re interrogating them with the determination to ascertain that they’re not a “slut” and have some ‘empowering’ intellectual reason behind it…

… because maybe she’s dressed that way because she DOES wants attention, because she DOES like looking ‘slutty’?

And what the fuck is even wrong with that? 

This is a culture that grooms women to desire positive reinforcement for looking sexual and then shames them for doing so.  That’s the bit that ‘s fucked up.

Maybe someone DOES just want to celebrate their body and their beauty by wearing an attention-grabbing costume. Maybe someone DOES just want to feel sexy and desirable in a racy outfit. I think that’s fuckin’ awesome! In a culture that still demands women be seen and not heard, I am all for women putting themselves out there. It’s an act of defiance and sometimes especially so in the geek community. The ‘attention-whore’ and ‘slut’ name-calling happens as much out of a resentment, jealousy and culturally-trained distaste for seeing a woman’s confidence in showing herself off as it does from the slut-shaming, sex-negative double-standards placed upon women by a society that demands women be sexual objects but never sexually autonomous. 

It is wrong to judge someone as a slut or an attention-whore not because you don’t know the real motivation behind how they’re dressed - but because the very concept of ‘slut’ is a flawed and really problematic and fucked-up one that’s basically designed to just keep women down. 

(Source: ajacquelineofalltrades)