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[fangrrl_squees]

Y'know, for all my insistence that I'm not a cosplayer (ie, someone who roleplays a persona, as well as wearing a costume) I sometimes wish I did more of it.

The fact that I've not played in a LARP for at least eight months probably has something to do with that...

Comments

[hai-irouchuujin.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware that was the difference between cosplayer and costumer.

With a single exception, that of a very disturbed Tuxedo Mask cosplayer who insisted that he was Tuxedo Mask, all of the "cosplayers" that I've met at anime cons seemed quite reasonable and sane and were not "in character".

Are you saying that all of those "Klingons" who insist on singing Klingon opera and are constantly "in-character" at cons should be called cosplayers? Or those annoying folks at ren faires who hassle women who wear pants and who think saying "prithee" a lot makes them authentic?

I always thought that cosplayers started in anime fandom and were borrowing the Japanese term because they were unaware of the older costumer tradition in fandom.

Prithee fair maiden, enlighten yon ignorant squire.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Depending on who you ask, there is NO difference between "cosplay" and "costumer" or there are WORLDS of difference.

Yeah, "cosplay" is a word borrowed from anime fandom. In my observation - and that of a few other costumers with whom I've talked - the meaning of the word outside of the anime circuit has, to many folks, come to mean "a person who roleplays, at least to some degree, the character who's costume they are wearing" whereas "costumer" usually means "a person who is in costume, and not RPing the character".

Now, some folks see NO difference between the terms and use either to mean "person in costume, who might or might not be RPing their character"

In my personal vernacular - and that of many of my non-anime convention contemporaries - we put the cosplay/costumer line as the diff between RPing the character and not.

I like being able to mention/discern the difference although, really, it doesn't amount to a hill of beans, of course.

But, as a long-time RPer, I like having the option to differentiate between being in a costume (costuming) and roleplaying with a costume (cosplay).

But that's just my take on it. Some folks are very vehement about there being NO difference between the meaning of the words, they only indicate whether a person comes from an anime background, or somewhere else.

As for those annoying folks at Faire, I think the diff between calling them re-enactors, cosplayers or costumers depends on how well-researched their persona is, and the degree to which they play it. He who's playing Robert Dudley at NorCal faire, I'd call a re-enactor (or historical interpreter, if you prefer) because I know that (by the rules of his guild) he has EXHAUSTIVELY researched not only his costume, but also the history and behavior of the person he's being. Whereas the general guild-folk, I'd call cosplayers or re-enactors (as they're usually historically accurate, but have created an original, non-historic persona to play). The washerwomen at the well, I'd call "faire workers" and me, in my entirely-non-historical, non-persona'd self who's paid to be there, I'm a "playtron"

Mind you, as you might have guessed, there's whole other rules regarding Faires. ;)

But, really, there's no established, er, standard for this stuff.

[hai-irouchuujin.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that was very informative.