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Harley Quinn: Addressing the Critics of "Crazy Sexy Cool"
Harley Quinn is a lot of different things to a lot of different cosplayers. But the thing that tends to come up a lot with critics is the sexy depiction of a character in an abusive relationship.
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Sometimes a Cosplay's Power Is What It Doesn't Do
These cosplayers defy so many of the negative stereotypes of cosplay: Cosplayers just want attention. We cosplay to wear skimpy clothes. We're just failed models. We're fake geeks ruining fandom for...
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Taking Anime Cosplay On Its Own Terms
While Western art forms are heavily scrutinized for realism, Anime frequently features unrealistic natural phenomenon. While this seems weird to most people over thirty-five, to the Anime generation,...
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Hate Disney Princesses? Let It Go.
The various Disney brands have a singular ability to inspire strong emotional reactions in people. For me, Disney is a positive thing.
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What Satoru Iwata's Legacy Can Teach Us About Inclusive Cosplay
Satoru Iwata was a businessman, but he was also a loving game designer with philosophies we could all stand to learn from. When we value happiness over everything else, what can we learn?
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My Top Five Cosplay Pet Peeves
Every cosplayer has little things regarding costumes that annoy them. These details are simple, inexpensive steps some cosplayers skip for reasons I cannot fathom.
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The Problem of the "Professional Cosplayer" Label
Many have used the term "professional cosplayer," but the more I think about it the more I realize it's an inaccurate term.
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Bioware, Please Make A Plus-Sized Female Dragon Age Character!
I haven't done a Bioware cosplay for one simple reason: my boobs are too big.
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Three Surprising Risks of Cosplaying For Charity
I mentioned to a few people that I was doing a spotlight this week on cosplayers who charge for photos, with the money going to breast cancer research. Much to my surprise, I got some negative reactions.
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What Can Cosplayers Teach Marketing and PR Pros?
One of the amazing things about cosplay is how cosplayers can serve as ambassadors for brands. Who doesn't love to see something fictional become real right before our eyes?
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Why Do We Love to Hate Women Like Yaya Han?
Yaya Han is a beautiful woman. This means that she attracts a lot of attention. This, in turn, draws the ire of some commenters who attack her as a person.
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Cosplaying With A Disability Shouldn't Require Extra Bravery
Too many people make the assumption that disabled people are included in media because of their disability, not that their disability is only one part of their physical reality.
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How Cosplay Can Help Self Esteem
Growing up, I was the ugly, awkward, nerdy, overweight one in my family. I started making costumes well before high school. Things changed when I was sixteen and made a Halloween costume of Catwoman.
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The Blue Collar STEM Charm of Ghostbusters Cosplay
I love Ghostbusters. It's one the things on my list of "why the 1980s were awesome despite the 1980s kind of sucking." Ghostbusters was informed by mass unemployment in a way that gave it a blue collar...
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Cosplay Makeup For People Allergic To (Almost) Everything
Sometimes cosplay is a balancing act with your skin's tolerance for various chemicals. Here's some tips.
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Metal Gear's Quiet and Cosplay's Unique Form of Free Speech
Cosplay appeals to shy people because it offers alternative communication for people not be gifted with strong verbal skills. This "cosplay free speech" principle is the reason so many cosplayers get...
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How Cosplay and the "Normie Stare" Made Me A Better Person
Another Halloween has passed, the night of the year when costumes are socially acceptable attire is over, and most people go back to being obnoxious to anyone found outside a convention in cosplay.
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Why I Wear Princess Leia's Metal Slave Bikini
There have been rumors that Disney is discontinuing new Slave Leia merchandise. It made me feel like some scruffy looking nerf herders still regard Leia's metal bikini as something for male enjoyment.
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How Cosplay Can Help You Be Brave
When I met Jessica Nigri, she made the comment that cosplay makes her a better person. I was just reminded of how this works this past weekend. Here's the story.
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Five Ways of Taking The Hurt Out of Online Haters
A quick primer on how to deal with the hater when doing cosplay.
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