Language & Cosplay

I was talking to a friend the other night and he recommended that I use Lang-8 to improve my written Japanese. This website is interactive in that it allows people to communicate directly and indirectly within the learning process. For example, I can write a story in Japanese, submit it to the website, have a native speaker edit it, and give me constructive feedback on how to improve my grammar and why my grammar was inaccurate.

Lately on "kotaku," an otaku website that updates news within the anime, manga, cosplay, etc subculture, had an article on the police at an anime convention. Apparently a churchgoer was at a convention held at the same hotel as an anime convention in Southeast Asia and saw a girl with underboob showing. This churchgoer called the police on her in an attempt to flag her for indecent exposure. Except the results were much less than she had desired.

This is an important issue for the cosplay community because it raises concerns for social boundaries and interacting with outsiders--people who aren't a part of the subculture while in public settings. There are a few things that I wish this article had gone more in-depth about. Specifically the results of what the police did, how this affects the cosplay community, and what kind of impact will this have on the whole social sphere of public relationships. Cosplay outfits can be very risque, but at the same time be completely decent. Some things might look scandalous, but actually be more conservative (not all the time of course), than originally expected. It also depends on how the costume is made and worn and whether it was for more private display or more public display, such as a hotel convention.

It also raises the concerns of whether women have the right to control their body image without public persecution and forced patriarchal social views on female decency. This woman who called the cops was obviously practicing a religion and followed their views on female decency. But she did not have the right to impose her beliefs on a woman who was following all codes of conducts. Anime and cosplay conventions have strict rules on what kinds of costumes can be worn publicly at specific conventions. The staff are well informed of these rules and strictly abide by them. So if this costume was really indecent, she would have promptly been told to change. Therefore this outsider had no right to impose her personal views on something that she wasn't aware of. Instead, it would have been better for her to consult the hotel or the convention staff on the dress code before calling the police.