Speaking as a cosplayer who has judged masquerades, if there are other judges out there marking off points for the wrong contacts or skin color, they should be fired and banned.
I have never, ever heard of this practice. Skill in cosplay does not pertain to those characteristics or traits. Nor should it. And I am actively opposed to any who think that accuracy should matter THIS MUCH.
I'm not condemning accuracy as a whole. Nor am I condemning Masquerades. But a line needs to be drawn when considering what traits are up for judgment and changing ethnicity should be the line.
David Ayer accused of ‘brownfacing’ after casting Shia LaBeouf in upcoming crime film - National
David Ayer accused of ‘brownfacing’ after casting Shia LaBeouf in upcoming crime film – National
Following the release of the debut trailer for his upcoming crime-thriller film The Tax Collector, director David Ayer has been accused of “brownfacing” after casting actor Shia LaBeouf as one of the film’s characters.
After the trailer’s release, multiple Twitter users questioned Ayer’s decision to cast LaBeouf in the role.
“Tell all the kids how you’re Hollywood’s top cholo auteur, and your…
As a people of colour, I kindly ask for the artist and others, to stop fetishizing us. We fought for national liberation, and even socialism to free ourselves from the worldwide oppression, not to become a tool to validate your prejudice towards ANOTHER people of colour (coughjapanesepeoplecough).
I personally don’t mind, and even encourage, diversity in casts of fictional characters, but not to the point that you alter it without paying heed to the original lore and passive-aggressively forcing people to accept it by calling it disgusting.
I was asking cause I know she's Hispanic (as am I) and she's a pretty well known cosplayer. She sometimes makes her skin paler for some characters and the person she cosplays a lot with is white and sometimes makes themselves tanner (1/2)
but I also don't know the race of whoever that character was (like if they were alien/fantasy/etc) Is the opposite was wrong too? And what if someone wanted to use a self-tanner to get tan? Like some people do for special occasions. (2/2)
Ok, pretty sure I know who you’re talking about. The thing is, just because someone’s popular, doesn’t mean they’re not doing a problematic thing. And if the vocal majority is in support of them, then no, you’re not gonna see the people who are calling them out. But I promise you I’ve seen them getting called out in the brownfacing tags.
Here’s the thing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you are just putting on self tanner and going about your daily life, you’re still you. Unless you’re putting on clothes you normally wouldn’t wear and trying to fit some kind of stereotype, you’re still being you. Now, is tanning yourself in your everyday life problematic? I don’t know. As I’ve again, said before, there are industries that profit both on telling people to get tanner and tell people to be paler. So I can’t really say. But in cosplay? A person’s race isn’t a costume. As it was explained to me, you don’t get to put on someone’s race and then take it off at the end of the day, when someone else of that race has to live with it, and what it entails, every day.
White people have not historically systematically been oppressed in the USA (save for the Irish, who are now treated like every other white person) so making yourself paler isn’t something that comes across as problematic. However, I don’t think people with darker skintones should feel the need to pale themselves for a costume. Cosplay with your own skin. You’re beautiful just as you are. Paint yourself blue or green if you have to, but leave the human spectrum out of it.
Now, this is supposed to be a safe space blog where cosplayers can come and ask me questions, find other awesome cosplayers and even some helpful tutorials. I try to keep things as positive as possible on here. I have no issue with educating people (as much as I can) but there’s a certain point where asks about this subject are flooding my feed. Any further questions or comments on the matter should be asked off anon so they can be replied to privately, or they will be ignored.
On the topic of blackface and stuff;what do you think of someone who's already tan making themselves a bit darker/paler? One of my fave cosplayers does it and never seem to get any problems for it, but I just wondered what other people think of it
If the character you are cosplaying is of a (non-alien/fantasy) race other than white, you shouldn’t darken your skin. Period, end of sentence.
Maybe no one has actually noticed, or hasn’t come forward about it. If I don’t know someone well enough to know their background and cultural heritage, I probably wouldn’t call them out because hell if I know! It’s not my place to call someone out if I don’t know jack about them. I believe in education, not this call-out/accusatory culture (unless it’s something really blatantly sexist/racist/bigoted then I will tell you why it’s wrong but unless you’re belligerent about it I’m not going to run in with a pitchfork at the ready y'know?). I’m not interested in making people out to be horrible and awful and irredeemable. I’m interested in teaching people why it’s problematic. I used to think it was fine, too. Now I don’t.
EDIT: staymay5 said: There’s several disorders that cause pigmentation problems. At cons it may become difficult to tell who doing it for a character and who’s doing it to feel comfortable in public. Just an extra reason for annon to be careful before calling people out.
Exactly. Unless I know for a fact they’re brownfacing I’m not going to say something. It’s about educating people, not vilifying them.
I was just curious about the brownface issue. Because there are people who wear fake tans every day because they can't tan/live in places with little sun- how is that okay? Because they do it every day and not just for a character? I'm just not seeing why the community would speak up over one thing and not the other is all.
In the case that you’re just tanning, you’re just being you, tan. When you put brown makeup on to portray a character who is not white, you are essentially wearing that character’s race as a costume.
There are markets which profit on telling white people they should have darker skin (but not too dark!) and telling people of color they should have lighter skin (but not pasty!). It’s kind of a mess. But the main takeaway is that in America, we do have a very clear bias in our society, and it is anti-blackness. It’s always, “Oh you’re pretty, for a Black woman”, which is totally unacceptable but very prevalent in our society. It’s a bit hypocritical. Kind of like how white people wear dreads and it’s “edgy” but Black people do it and are often looked down upon. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t pretend to. But I think the reason why cosplayers get up in arms about one and not the other is because with one, you are reducing someone’s skin color to a costume piece, where as the other, it’s the skin color with which you choose to live your life. I think there’s a very clear difference. Even if the latter can still be morally wonky, it’s not specifically a cosplayer issue.
I don't cosplay but I would agree doing a brown/blackface is a no-go. The only time it's okay to change skin tones is if you cos as an Alien or an Avatar or Gamora etc. Otherwise let the costume speak for you if you're white & doing a PoC character
Word. I totally didn’t always agree with that sentiment (full disclosure!) in case anyone goes back a year or two in my blog (I commented on the issue a long while back, but I’ve never used darker makeup except unnatural colors like blue, personally) however, a wonderful comment by a fantastic cosplayer of color set me straight. Someone’s race isn’t a costume.
Please consider this before you send hate to cosplayers
There are differences. The word “*facing” has been generalized. Such has the aversion for it.
On tumblr people are so caught up in finding racist things. So willful to send hate to artists.
Even POC themselves have been falsely accused. Death threats have been sent.
Know the differences. Consider them at least. And think for yourself.
Maybe you have just been repeating what others told you. Social justice here is dogmatic. It does not allow to overthink. But I am asking you to because if you end up agressing against others you should at least have thought it through.
