An Attack on the Cosplay Community

Edit: This is not a discussion about how “stupid” these girls were to fall for a scam like this. It’s about it even happening. Whether or not anyone fell for this scam, it doesn’t matter. IT WAS STILL THE GOAL. In the case that a girl is sexually harassed in a real life situation, do you say, “WELL YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN DUMB”. No. So don’t do it over this. I have not seen evidence that anyone removed their clothes, but the fact that it was even asked for them to is messed up and insulting

It has come to my attention that recently there has been a scam going around, targeting female cosplayers who tend to wear sexier costumes. The user has been contacting cosplayers on different social media websites, tumblr, facebook, and deviantart included, stating they were from Cosplay.com and went as far as to use the site logo. They requested video interviews via skype, and according to people who were targeted, the user that was interviewing these cosplayers didn’t use sound or video during said interview.

Now, here’s where it becomes insulting to every single female cosplayer in the community.

At the end of the interview, the cosplayers were given a quiz on their character. If you got a question wrong, you had to take off an article of clothing.

I’m furious. This is another targeted attack on the female cosplay community, where people don’t believe attractive female cosplayers know anything about their characters

They attempted to make female cosplayer look stupid and like attention whores. I am absolutely insulted for every single female in the community who has had to deal with this!

The fact that so many cosplayers who were legitimately excited about giving an interview while dressed as a character they love, in a costume they hand crafted were fooled by someone who just wanted to try to make us look bad? No. This is not okay. Female cosplayers are targeted enough as “sluts”, “whores”, “not true nerds”, and have repeatedly been sexually harassed by men in the community who think they’re better nerds

The scammer had their deviantart removed, so I cannot track them down, but I know more than one cosplayer who was scammed and is absolutely mortified.

NOT BAD COSPLAY WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS. THE COMMUNITY WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS. If anyone every makes you feel uncomfortable during an interview, you leave that interview. You should never be told to take anything off. You should never be made to feel like you’re being sexualized, harassed, stalked, scammed, or anything else.

Here is the thread to report incidences, screen caps, etc about experiencing this event to coscom: http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=309404

If anyone would like to come to me with their account of what happened, either anonymous or not, you can email me at NotBadCosplay@gmail.com

If any videos of this end up showing up on the internet, I can promise NotBadCosplay and its followers will team together to make sure they are brought down. This sort of attack on the community is not acceptable. We are people. We love the characters we dress as. We love making and wearing costumes. We don’t to it to be oggled, sexualized, harassed, or bullied. PERIOD.

12/19/12