Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Conformity and Cosplay


Conformity and Adolescent Females

            Cosplay by definition is a play on words between costume and play. 
It involves dressing up like a cartoon or anime character, and then parading it 
around either at a convention or another social gathering (Cosplay)
Conformity has made its way into the Cosplay world—my world. 
It happens to involve the two groups involved, adolescents and females
 of whom are bound to conform due to scrutiny for the costume choices and
 negative sexual attention.

            Conformity is described by Psychology today as “Conformity is
 the tendency to align your attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those
 around you” (The Pull of Conformity , n.d.). Solomon E. Asch studied it 
with his line experiment, in which students were shown a series of lines 
and then asked to tell which line was the same as those in the other group. 
Confederates were told to give the wrong answer, and this led participants
 to feel pressured to also give in to the wrong answer. When giving the 
wrong answer, they seemed incredibly uncomfortable, and even looked
 like they were in physical pain in some scenarios (Asch, 1956).

            In more recent cases, conformity has been applied to the 
sexualization of adolescent girls, and how they feel pressured to give
 into society. Some adolescent girls feel the pressure to cover up, while
 other girls feel the need to show more. Girls of whom were studied in
 a five year longitudinal study about conformity and this period of time
 as being a “heightened psychological risk for girls.” The researcher 
joined in at the “struggle and resistance at this developmental juncture” 
due to the pressure of conformity on these girls (Brown & Gilligan)
In another study, girls were scrutinized during their “coming of age” 
moment and this impacted them psychologically for years to come 
(Lesko, 1996). The pressure that young girls feel does have 
negative consequences on their psyche.

            In Cosplay, sometimes writers or artists don’t draw women
 as proportionate and modest as they should. Sometimes in comics, 
women are portrayed as large breasted with tiny waists and dressed 
less than modest. Independent of this assignment, I began making a 
costume that could be considered less than modest. Black cat is a 
character from marvel whose breasts take the forefront of her skin 
tight leather suit. Immediately, from cosplayers, photographers,
 and just fans, I began feeling the pressure.  My breasts became
 my identity and I gave way to conformity.

            The pull as to whether to cover them up, or boast them out
 became almost unbearable. I chose the latter and I got a lot of 
scrutiny for it. I am part of the group affected, the young, adolescent
 girl who was looking for her identity. I aligned my feelings and actions
 with those around me by giving way to boasting my breasts all over 
the internet, and the streets of D.C. this weekend. Like Solomon
 Asch’s participants, I picked a line.

            I am not the only girl in the Cosplay community to feel
 this pressure. Most comic book or anime characters are done
 disproportionately and over sexualized. This is the way that most
 of the girls are in the media. The Cosplay community is made up 
of people mostly my age, they’re probably between the ages 
of 14 and 25, and they’re making and modeling these less than
 modest costumes (Cosplayer, 2014). One girl who’s under the age
 of 18 said that she’s had “complete strangers walk up and put
 their hands on my chest…, send me sexual messages online,
 touch my butt when taking pictures with me, try for the whole 
'upskirt' thing while I’m walking up stairs…” These guys see
 these characters which are literally their greatest fantasies
 and they feel the need to touch us and say inappropriate things to us.

         
  Conventions should have policies put into place to protect
 cosplayers. They have Disruptive behavior policies, line etiquette
 policies, 18+ policies, and many more (Otakorp, 2014). Possibly
 conventions should use the positive sides of conformity, and make it
 “not cool” to touch and even make it a positive thing for cosplayers
 to stand up for one another. Anime and comic book conventions 
could use their pull in the community to cause people to align aside
 of them and stand up for those who are too afraid to stand up for
 themselves. Either option should be okay, whether it be modifying
 a costume so that it is as modest as the cosplayer feels, or even
 flaunting their breasts at a convention. They could use the positive
 effects of conformity to enforce this, and eventually everyone will
 align with the “attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors” of the community.

Works Cited

Cosplayer Nation Documentary [Motion Picture].
Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Retrieved from PsychNET: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/mon/70/9/1/
Brown, L. M., & Gilligan, C. (n.d.). Meeting at the Crossroads: Women's Psychology and Girls' Development. Retrieved from Feminism & Psychology: http://fap.sagepub.com/content/3/1/11.short
Lesko, N. (1996, December). Denaturalizing Adolescence. Retrieved from Youth & Society: http://yas.sagepub.com/content/28/2/139.short
Otakorp. (2014). Vitals: Policies. Retrieved from Otakon.com.
Cosplayer. (2014, April 7). Cosplayer Interview. (Cosplayer, Interviewer)
The Pull of Conformity . (n.d.). Retrieved from Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/conformity



No comments:

Post a Comment