Cosplay and Overcoming Gender Differences

1,2,3 Cosplaying is a way for people to show their appreciation and love to a work that

they enjoy. It is also an opportunity to break away from reality for a short time and

pretend to be a character they love rather than themselves. Some people love the art of

designing and building props and costumes based off of their favorite characters,

shows, and comics. Others find great fulfillment in spending time in a community filled

with people who have similar interests and hobbies.

My friend, Kolten Cooke, cosplays for many of the above reasons. In 2009

Ghostbusters: The Video Game was released. Kolten enjoyed the game tremendously

and realized just how much he liked the Ghostbusters universe. Through a stroke of

luck he happened to meet the founder of the Ghostbusters of Salt Lake during a

midnight visit to Village Inn. There he was told that if he built a basic Ghostbusters

costume, he could join. He did so, and for the next nine years Kolten was an active

member of the Ghostbusters of Salt Lake.

Koltens costume and prop building started out very small and simple. However,

once he started into the hobby, he never stopped gaining momentum. He started

studying the proton packs and slime blowers that were used in the Ghostbusters films in

order to make more authentic props. Soon he was able to find authentic parts and

screen-worthy replicas to improve his props and full costume. When the most recent

Ghostbusters reboot was announced, Kolten immediately began working on a prop

version of the updated proton pack used in the new movie. Due to his hard work over
the years, Kolten and many other members of the Ghostbusters of Salt Lake were

invited to the Red Carpet event and premiere screening of the Ghostbusters reboot.

According to their Facebook page, Ghostbusters of Salt Lake is Utah's premier

professional paranormal investigators and eliminators. They attend comic and sci/fi

conventions, costume parties, and charity events all around Utah. They have also

created an award-winning fan film. When Kolten joined, the Ghostbusters of Salt Lake

was a relatively small organization. It has since grown which allows them to have a

presence at just about every convention in Salt Lake City as well as many other public

and private events. They donate their time and resources to a variety of worthy causes.

4 Gender roles are never universal. Gender role theory suggests that one learns

how to behave as their gender through socialization and the environment around them.

This means that roles will inevitably vary from country to country, state to state, and

even family to family. This also means that gender roles are constantly changing. The

generally accepted gender roles in the United States today are vastly different than they

were in the 1950s. Most people would argue that these changes are for the better,

however, there are many improvements that still need to be made.

There are many gender issues that affect both men and women. Women can

face many forms of discrimination in the workplace and education as well as sexism in

the society. Men are three to five times more likely to commit suicide, receive longer

prison sentences for the same crime as women and are over-represented in dangerous

jobs. Many gender issues are being improved upon, yet as society changes, new

issues are beginning to emerge.

 The media plays a large part in perpetuating gender roles. Whether it is

intentional or not, all popular media helps invent new social roles, alter existing roles, or

reinforce old ones. This is especially important when it comes to the media children

consume. Children dont necessarily have the capacity to differentiate between fantasy

and reality, to identify the intent of media, or understand irony. This means they are

increasingly susceptible to having unfair, sexist, or racist stereotypes ingrained in their

mind. Without proper attention, this can lead to many problems in children and society.

In the past men were expected to work and provide for the family, and women

were expected to stay at home and take care of the kids. While this is still oftentimes

the case, it is much more accepted in the United States for women to also work and

provide for a household. Women are becoming increasingly educated, and more and

more work opportunities are available to them that never were before. Women are also

able to express themselves in ways that they werent allowed to before.

One of the new forms of expression is cosplay. Unfortunately, this also leads to

another occurrence of sexism that still exists in our society. Women are overtly

sexualized in many of the shows and comics that people enjoy. When women try to

cosplay one of these shows, they are often unfairly labeled and discriminated against.

Another unfair criticism often posed against women in cosplay is against their bodies.

They put a lot of time into building a costume of a character that they love and then are

criticised for being too big or too small to play that character.

5 The song 32 Flavors, performed by Alana Davis, addresses the issue of letting

people live life in their own way rather than forcing them into a role. The song is a

contemporary pop song originally written by Ani DiFranco. It was released on Alana
Davis album Blame It on Me in 1998. The melody of this song has a medium to high

range, up and down contour, and the movement is a mix of both stepwise and skipwise.

The meter is quadruple simple. The harmony is in a major key. The texture is

homophonic. It starts out very transparent with just the vocal and the acoustic guitar

playing. It then becomes much more full when the drum, bass, and keyboard come in.

The tempo is moderato and the dynamics are mezzoforte. The instruments used in this

song are: acoustic guitar, drums, bass, keyboard, and vocals. The form is verse and

chorus.

A line often repeated in this song is I am what I am, meaning that regardless of

the roles that society tells people they should live according to based on our gender

among many other things, people will inevitably fall outside of those roles in one way or

another. People are not just one flavor. They are a unique collection of 32 flavors and

then some. If people realize that they should appreciate others for their unique talents

and characteristics rather than see them as a roadblock because of their differences

they will realize that the differences dont put people between you and your ambition.
 6 References

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