Instructions

The purpose of the discussion board is to exhibit your comprehension of important class readings and concepts, form your own opinions about these topics, and discuss them with your classmates. Each student must post three times with one initial post responding to the question(s) asked based on the reading, and two posts responding to your classmates.

Please use evidence from the text and your own experience in order to support your argument and statements. Your discussion board posts should interact with the assigned reading as much as possible. Initial posts should be no shorter than 150 words. Do not simply agree with someone elses statement, rephrase someone elses statement, or comment on the quality of someone elses statement. Each post should say something different (please do not say the same thing in each of your posts, the purpose of these posts is to have academic discussions.)

Keep in mind that your discussion forum postings will be seen by other members of the course. Care should be taken when determining what to post.

This assignment requires MLA intext citations (author and page number). Failure to include accurate page numbers will result in a 0 on your assignment.

Questions

• Which aspect (pick either a positive or negative one mentioned in the article) do you think has the greatest impact on the cosplay community? Do you think these events should be internationalized or remain local? Why?
• Do you have any personal experience with fan culture? How has it influenced your understanding of fandoms? If you dont have any experience, discuss how you have seen it portrayed in media or by others around you.
• Which of the main conventions discussed in the article (mentioned in the authors methodology) would you like to attend and why? How does this reflect your interests in fan culture?

I want you to respond to the following responses

“One influential development in the cosplay community is the standardization of cosplay competitions, which both brings fans together worldwide and introduces new issues at the local level. The article notes that cosplay is increasingly structured around global contest formats and rules are standardized at the international level (Lamerichs 170). Although this global framework helps build a culture for cosplay, it can also destroy creativity by forcing people to shape their local events like the international event. Therefore, I think that cosplay should be held at both the local and international levels, given that regulations and rules are diversified at the international scale to promote more creativity. Both have their pros and cons. Local conventions provide more relaxed environments that support experimentation and creative expression, while International competitions encourage global connections.

I may not have experience with cosplay myself, but I have a friend that does cosplay. He influenced my understanding of fandoms, more specifically cosplaying by showing me that cosplaying is more than just putting on costumes. Its a community that has similar interests. When he creates a costume he uses things he already has, but sometimes buys parts, and he spends a lot of time making the costume perfect. He does it because he likes cosplaying and being part of that community. These fandoms have created their own community with its own culture.

Personally I would attend Otakon because its a convention more focused on artwork. Otakon has mostly Japanese content but there is some western content as well (Lamerichs 162). I would want to attend it because I would like to see everyone’s artwork and all their different styles. This reflects my interests because I like drawing, so maybe one day I can showcase my own art at this convention.”

“The theme of over-professionalization and the international standardization of cosplay competitions has harmed the cosplay community (Lamerichs, 169-170). The World Cosplay Summit is an international contest that aims to bring fans together from around the world; however, Lamerichs explains that these contests come with strict rules and expectations for cosplay, which tend to prioritize the craftsmanship accuracy as well as the length of performance over the creativity and/or traditional aspects of local culture within cosplay. For this reason, many cosplayers don’t want to be involved with being able to participate especially if they are cosplay according to their own casual preferences or are involved as a group with other cosplayers. This shifting trend may also result in distancing younger/less financially secure fans from being able to participate in cosplay events because of a lack of funds being able to provide for travel or competition level quality of cosplay materials.

As a result of this, I feel as though that all cosplay events should primarily be held at a local level with optional possibilities of hosting international cosplay competitions. This way, the local cosplay conventions can allow fans to express their own creativity through cosplay in ways that can also foster a more inclusive and community-based experience than a purely competitive. Lamerichs notes that in the Netherlands there have been a decrease in large group performances as well as casual participation in cosplay because of international competitive pressures (Lamerichs, 170). By keeping the events local, we are able to both maintain accessibility as well as allow cosplay to be a cultural experience to all fans, and not as something to be judged based on worldwide competitive standards.

My personal experience in online fandom has shown that creativity and a mutual love of the subject are far more important than the end result or perfection from a fans perspective. This supports Lamerichs assertion that fandom thrives most through fans having free access to each other and to familiar culture, which includes cosplaying (155). Thus, the strength of cosplaying comes from its ability to create opportunities for fans to participate rather than provide prestige.I would prefer to attend a local convention like Animecon, because they emphasize the importance of community involvement and accessibility instead of solely focusing on who is the best. This shows my belief that fandom is a cultural area in which creativity and social connection matter more than receiving recognition as a professional (Lamerichs, 170).”