Lady Noctis Interview
Lastly, I end with a mini-interview I had with Lady Noctis, the lovely, intelligent cosplayer I posted a photo of at the start of this article:
1) How do you feel when people claim you are being “objectified”?
It baffles me when I see such comments being made on my images (and other’s for that matter), this only seems to occur when my modelling/cosplay images have been shared; and can mostly be seen present within my Star Wars series.
I think people forget that these shoots are my chosen concepts, and I am at no stage in any of these works being objectified, I’m a dork in dress up; and an actual person with feelings.
2) If someone says a picture of you makes them uncomfortable because they feel it makes them feel as if they don’t measure up or don’t want to conform to male desires, what do you think?
I’ve never experienced this, but I don’t think people should compare themselves to images as such, or view it as them conforming to “male desires”. I do these cosplays for myself, and just me; and that’s the way it should be.
3) Do you also appreciate women who cosplay “seductively” in the way you think a male audience would, as well as appreciate their skills at making dresses and so on? Do you enjoy seeing the female form in sexy attire on its own merits?
I think this kind of attitude is the problem to be honest. Yes, there are more seductive takes on cosplays, but let’s not forget how a lot of female characters are presented within the illustrative comic book world. If people have issues with women recapturing these incredible strong iconic female characters, then surely you should have an issue with the initial source too. Which most people seemingly do not have a problem with. So my view is, if you have a problem with the cosplays, stop drawing the women that way.
If it’s a kick-ass cosplay, and you can see that the person has taken time in creating the concept, the outfit etc etc; and you should just appreciate it for what it is.. which is a frakkin awesome cosplay! Who cares if they’ve gone for a more seductive take on the character, kudos on them for having the confidence to do that!
And to end it, here’s some gifs I stole from imgur:
TL:DR – sexuality is awesome, let’s enjoy it, be moved to uneasiness by good drama AND understand we’re all lovely people too.
