The joy of dressing up in a costume is as old as time. This timeline traces a history of cosplay.
In cosplay, you can take on any role you like. And that’s exactly what cosplayers do: a shy person plays a fearless superhero, a slight person gives themselves an impressive set of muscles, a boy shows up as a glorious woman. In cosplay, the body is malleable — cosplayers are often completely unrecognisable in costume. At the same time, the body in cosplay sits under a magnifying glass: you shape it, but you can never entirely escape it. Online especially, many cosplayers face discrimination, whether that’s insults or unwanted sexual comments.
For some, cosplay is where they show off their sexuality; others make a deliberate choice to cover their body through hijabi cosplay. Some cosplayers give a character a different gender, known as genderbending. Then there’s also crossplay: adapting your own gender to match the character’s identity. Some cosplayers make a conscious choice to celebrate their own ethnicity within cosplay. Cosplayers who use a medical aid in everyday life sometimes work it into their costume in a creative way.
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Cosplay can be seen as a form of activism, but also shows up in activism.
Cosplay is more than just a costume. The various accessories that bring a character to life play a major role too: from weaponry to wands, from wigs to make-up, and from jewellery to shoes.