8. Do not dress up as an elf. Ever. This is just a personal bias of mine. Okay, everyone who has hung out with me in person knows this story, but for the rest of you: Years ago I developed the Pointy Eared Whore Theory. Over a lifetime attending cons and other events featuring people dressing up as characters from fantasy and science fiction, I noticed a disturbing trend. The ones with really good, high quality pointed ear prothestics (elves, Vulcans, doesn’t matter) are total whores. Seriously. Go into the handicapped stall in a restroom at one of these events, and I promise you that you will find something sordid, and someone in pointy ears will be in the middle of it doing something for which governors pay 4300 bucks, and college students do for a box of wine. I remember a ladies’ room at a fan faire in which the stall door swung open, and out slunk a dude in a kilt, followed a moment later by an equally chagrined female in caster robes… followed by a satisfied-looking female in leather armor and pointy ears. Ten years earlier I’d seen a similar scene involving a Klingon, a human Star Fleet officer, and a Vulcan.Excerpt from a post from Eating Bees
I found this quite amusing. Actually, I’m understating it. I laughed uproariously. The reason is because I’ve been following a little trend that I find to my horror endlessly fascinating. For the better part of a year or two I’ve read about cosplaying. Cosplay is a condensed term for “costume play” in which people dress up as one of any fictitious character for whom they might have an affinity. Think Star Trek conventions where the fans dress up as Klingons, Vulcans, Romulans and Star Fleet officers.[1] Except, the anime and manga crowd currently outnumber the Star trek/Star Wars crowd. The above mentioned post just reminded me what’s so fascinating about it.
Cosplaying has quite a storied history. It began here in the US as a subculture which meant that a literal handful of people did it to amuse each other on the weekends at conventions. It somehow became known to the Japanese who in turned took this little thing and made it a very big thing. Things have come full-circle as now it’s in the mainstream here in the States [2]. The costumes are almost OCD-like. The attention to detail when it comes to the costume creation are insane. I wouldn’t doubt that hundreds of hours are spent on this particular hobby all for competition, amusement and enjoyment of others.
I’ve even been considering going to the local A-kon convention here in Dallas to see cosplaying up close.[3]
Note:
[1] The fact I know any of these terms should in no way lead you to think I’m some pasty dude, living in a cave of a room, who likes to marathon watch every episode of the original Star Trek series for weeks on end. This is not true. I’ve since broken that addiction :p. Also, my room is more cavernous than cave-like.
[2] Mainstream is overstating it, but it’s definitely not as rare as it used to be at conventions.
[3] Purely as an amateur sociological study and a scientific endeavor. It’s not because of the elves. Really!