Blackface Controversy Splits Cosplay Community

[Seeka 12,372]

From cultural appropriation to blackface controversy, let's rule up everyone on GGD today. 

https://cosplay.kotaku.com/blackface-controversy-splits-cosplay-scene-over-league-1838924072

Essentially TL;DR

White French Lady cosplays as a black male, going the whole nine yards by making a skin prosthetic. While she won a previous cosplay tournament with this, organisers are reconsidering her in the EuroCosplay tournament, an even larger tournament than she was previously in. The issue currently is whether or not her skinsuit, and blackface in cosplay in general, should be accepted. 

Also, btw, this entire controversy, if you could not glean from the tl;Dr, is taking place in Europe, where blackface is not as offensive in certain places as it is in America. But the cosplay community is international. Thats why this is happening. 

Oh not to mention the rise of blatant racism. 

[derpmonster 22,412]

Good they banned it.

Inb4 "sJwS rUiN eVeRyThInG". Like boo hoo hoo you can't paint your face black to pretend to be black anymore, people are dying.

[ltlmnstr 2,771]

Have you ever wondered why a clown look that way it does? The big red lips and the curly hair. 

I'm not saying all clowns are racist. 

The clown uniform descended from blackface minstrel shows where the donned...red lips and curly hair with charcoal/burntwood ash makeup imitating black slaves singing gospel songs.

I don't think a skinsuit gets a pass.
If the character is black-coded, she's commiting blackface to me. 

"Livanart herself says in this Facebook videothat she spoke with “some black people” while making the suit, heard their concerns then went and did it anyway"

oh yikes!

[Seeka 12,372]

5 minutes ago, ltlmnstr said:

Have you ever wondered why a clown look that way it does? The big red lips and the curly hair. 

I'm not saying all clowns are racist. 

The clown uniform descended from blackface minstrel shows where the donned...red lips and curly hair with charcoal/burntwood ash makeup imitating black slaves singing gospel songs.

I don't think a skinsuit gets a pass.
If the character is black-coded, she's commiting blackface to me. 

"Livanart herself says in this Facebook videothat she spoke with “some black people” while making the suit, heard their concerns then went and did it anyway"

oh yikes!

You're right about the clown thing. Probably. Too lazy to double check now. Haha. But I still like clump them together with jesters and stuff.

"My level 9 jester evolves into a clown!"

Yeah. The part where she ignores concerns is wildly worrying. 

Plus... Wouldn't it say more about your skill if you cosplayed someone of a different skin tone without changing your own?

[Zander 14,857]

As they should. You can’t cosplay as a character of another race whilst changing your skin tone, do it without doing that.

On a slightly related note I remembered the other day a well known British designer (Craig Green) painted white models black for one of his shows.

Nobody batted an eye about it, it’s crazy. He could have literally used black models to the same effect. 

[HoneyB 27,328]

Who knows her true intentions, but why is it so hard to just cosplay someone of your own race? That way you don’t have to worry about controversy...

[Seeka 12,372]

4 minutes ago, Talenti said:

Who knows her true intentions, but why is it so hard to just cosplay someone of your own race? That way you don’t have to worry about controversy...

Because literally you're almost always cosplaying someone of a different race if you cosplay someone from eastern media?

The cosplayer is also in the article as Sailor Venus. Venus, as well as a good 3/4 of characters from anime are Japanese. 

Atlus, who is well known for games like Persona, Catherine, and Shin Megami Tensei, place most of their games in Japan. 

So, even if you relate and look like a character, you couldn't cosplay them because essentially, they're not white. 

Cosplay has an unspoken rule. Anyone can cosplay anyone as long as you don't do sh!t like this.

B!tch went and did sh!t like this. 

[ltlmnstr 2,771]

19 minutes ago, Zander said:

As they should. You can’t cosplay as a character of another race whilst changing your skin tone, do it without doing that.

On a slightly related note I remembered the other day a well known British designer (Craig Green) painted white models black for one of his shows.

Nobody batted an eye about it, it’s crazy. He could have literally used black models to the same effect. 

Wasn't this based on Chimney Cleaners? Like in Mary Poppins.

I mean they're black yes but without the harmful stereotypes of big red lips and curly hair.  

I'm not defending or offended. Just trying to understand what Craig Green was thinking because I love his clothes.

[ltlmnstr 2,771]

9 minutes ago, Seeka said:

Because literally you're almost always cosplaying someone of a different race if you cosplay someone from eastern media?

The cosplayer is also in the article as Sailor Venus. Venus, as well as a good 3/4 of characters from anime are Japanese. 

Atlus, who is well known for games like Persona, Catherine, and Shin Megami Tensei, place most of their games in Japan. 

So, even if you relate and look like a character, you couldn't cosplay them because essentially, they're not white. 

Cosplay has an unspoken rule. Anyone can cosplay anyone as long as you don't do sh!t like this.

B!tch went and did sh!t like this. 

You do bring up a great point actually about Anime.

For example, Japanese people see Sailor Moon as a Japanese girl with blue eyes and blonde hair.
Watching Sailor Moon as a kid, I saw a white woman :P

It's kinda weird and it makes things much more difficult to explain. 
Like I know Blackface is still an occurance on talk shows in Japan.
(Remember USA briefly occupied Japan and most likely brought Blackface there...)

Back on topic, I don't play League of Legends so I don't know this character at all. 
On the surface, it seems to be a male character? 

[Zander 14,857]

10 minutes ago, ltlmnstr said:

Wasn't this based on Chimney Cleaners? Like in Mary Poppins.

I mean they're black yes but without the harmful stereotypes of big red lips and curly hair.  

I'm not defending or offended. Just trying to understand what Craig Green was thinking because I love his clothes.

He doesn’t tend to really reveal much about his collection inspiration this one was suppose to be about “shadows and reflection”

i just think it’s in poor taste to approach it the way he did.

[River 104,825]

to blackface or to white the character? it's a situation where she's losing in any case..

I understand that she likes the character and everything, but unfortunately it's not possible to do a cosplay of it, it's just not correct morally.

And I must say that the cosplay is awesome! maybe would be better not to waste it and let a black person do the cosplay as it should have been since the beginning.

[derpmonster 22,412]

2 minutes ago, River said:

to blackface or to white the character? it's a situation where she's losing in any case..

I understand that she likes the character and everything, but unfortunately it's not possible to do a cosplay of it, it's just not correct morally.

Not you saying that with your avi sis

[ltlmnstr 2,771]

9 minutes ago, Zander said:

He doesn’t tend to really reveal much about his collection inspiration this once was suppose to be about “shadows and reflection”

i just think it’s in poor taste to approach it the way he did.

Well here it looks like those Peter Pan costumes with his shadow. Normally it's done with a morphsuit.

 

[River 104,825]

2 minutes ago, derpmonster said:

Not you saying that with your avi sis

what is wrong with my avi? it's not blackface or racist or anything, it's just a robot of a blond girl and a witchy nose

[ltlmnstr 2,771]

5 minutes ago, River said:

witchy nose

So you're being anti-semitic then? That's a common anti-jew costume.