Cosplayers: Gender and Identity

93 Pages·2021·4.017 MB·English

by  A. Luxx Mishou

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Cosplayers

Cosplayers: Gender and Identity is an examination of identity practices in
cosplay, as expressed by cosplayers themselves. It challenges the assumed
correlation between cosplay and cosplayer identity and considers the
lived experiences of cosplayers engaging in the fan practice of sartorial
performance.
Through a series of chapters covering the blurring lines of gender,
sexualized fantasy in real spaces, and nostalgia, the author argues that
observational data run the risk of affirming normative expectations of
identity in the absence of cosplayer narratives, and produce misreadings
that generalize. The work develops and builds an understanding of a com-
plex cultural system of art, engaging with multiple methodologies to make
identity, fandom, and critical analysis on the parts of participants and
observers alike.
This is an accessible and innovative study suitable for scholars and
students in gender studies, cultural studies, sexuality studies, sociology, and
media studies.
A. Luxx Mishou (she/ her) is a queer femme Victorianist and gender studies
scholar researching cosplay, comics, fashion, and the gothic. She holds a
doctorate in Victorian literature and gender studies from Old Dominion
University, where she defended her dissertation, Holy Stitches Batman, or,
Performative Villainy in Gothic/a m, in 2020. She earned an MA in English
literature and language from the University of Maryland College Park (con-
ferred in 2007) and a BA in English from Washington College (conferred
in 2005). She has recently contributed chapters to Fan Phenomena: Rocky
Horror Picture Show (2015), Fashion and Material Culture in Victorian
Fiction and Periodicals (2019), and Sartorial Fandom: Fashion, Beauty
Culture, and Identity (forthcoming). Dr. Mishou has presented her research
on masculinity in comics at the Northeast Modern Language Association
conference (2015), on cosplay at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies
conference (2017, 2019) and the Comics and Popular Arts Conference
(2018), and on Alison Bechdel at the Modern Language Association con-
ference (2018). She currently works as an adjunct and independent scholar.
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Routledge Focus on Gender, Sexuality, and Comics

Series Editor: Frederik Byrn Køhlert,
University of East Anglia
Routledge Focus on Gender, Sexuality, and Comics publishes original
short- form research in the areas of gender and sexuality studies as they
relate to comics cultures past and present. Topics in the series cover
printed as well as digital media, mainstream and alternative comics
industries, transmedia adaptions, comics consumption, and various
comics- associated cultural fields and forms of expression. Gendered
and sexual identities are considered as intersectional and always in
conversation with issues concerning race, ethnicity, ability, class, age,
nationality, and religion.
Books in the series are between 25,000 and 45,000 words and can be
single- authored, coauthored, or edited collections. For longer works,
the companion series “Routledge Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and
Comics” publishes full- length books between 60,000 to 90,000 words.
Series editor Frederik Byrn Køhlert is a lecturer in American Studies
at the University of East Anglia, where he is also the coordinator of
the Master of Arts program in Comics Studies. In addition to several
journal articles and book chapters on comics, he is the author of Serial
Selves: Identity and Representation in Autobiographical Comics.
Batman and the Joker
Contested Sexuality in Popular Culture
Chris Richardson
Cosplayers
Gender and Identity
A. Luxx Mishou
Gender and Sexuality in Israeli Graphic Novels
Matt Reingold
www.routledge.com/ Routledge- Focus- on- Gender- Sexuality- and-
Comics- Studies/ book- series/ FGSC
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Cosplayers

Gender and Identity
A. Luxx Mishou
iv
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 A. Luxx Mishou
The right of A. Luxx Mishou to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-i n- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 71571- 7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 71599- 1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 15279- 8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
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Dedicated to Avi Santo
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Contents

Acknowledgments ix
1 All the con’s a stage: a study of (cos)players 1
Introduction 1
Setting the stage 2
Limitations of cosplay research 4
The (cos)players: research methodology 7
Conclusion 12
2 Man describes not me, nor woman neither: cosplayers
and the fiction of gender 15
Introduction 15
What’s in a name? The drag debate 18
On crossplay and identity: asking for answers 22
What do you have to say? Cosplayers on gender and identity 23
Conclusion 29
3 On bodies and boundaries: regulating fantasy in real spaces 33
Introduction 33
Peace- bound: convention rules 35
Regulating the cosplayer body 40
A defense of “sexy” cosplays 48
Conclusion 49
4 Manning the gates: minority identities and gatekeeping
in cosplay 54
Introduction 54
Cosplaying while Black 58
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viii Contents
Othered narratives 64
Internal memos: gatekeeping within the cosplay community 67
Conclusion: cosplay and identity 71
5 The cosplay’s the thing 75
Index 80
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Acknowledgments

I would first like to acknowledge the 167 cosplayers who took the time
to respond to my surveys in 2015 and 2019. Your contributions have
done a great deal to help increase an understanding of your play and
your art – I would not, and could not, have done this without you. I am
especially thankful for your stories, which have made this research all
the more human, and feel all the more important. To those of you who
shared parts of yourselves you cannot disclose in your daily lives, please
know that you were heard, and your stories are respected. I hope in the
time that’s passed you’ve found peace and love. And I hope all 167 of
you are still joyfully cosplaying.
I would also like to acknowledge the 36 nerdlesque performers who
responded to my 2020 survey. I was not able to give your stories the
space they deserve in this volume, but your voices were heard, and
I hope to share them soon.
As forever and always, I would like to acknowledge the endless love
and support of my wife Maddox, who makes writing possible. I’d also
like to acknowledge my children – enthusiastic cosplayers who were
sorely disappointed they weren’t included in this book.