SPLICED LIFE /
ISSUE 02
COLUMN
"The intention of causing awareness through offence
and starting debate was always there, but something far
bigger and rather upsetting happened: I realised for the
first time what it's like to be a female cosplayer."
in my life, I got a genuine glimpse into what it must
feel like to be a female cosplayer. It was awful. It was
humiliating and frankly, pretty stressful.
simple question: "Why is it that you come to rAge,
EXPECTING women to dress like this, but when
a guy does it, it's the most disgusting thing you've
ever witnessed?"
The expectation of women in society is already
ridiculous and fraught with archaic and outdated
ideas of what a typical 'female' should be. Now
imagine the added pressure of dressing up as one of
your favourite characters and being brave enough
to wear that costume all day at a convention filled
with cloying, assumptive and salacious men, intent
on exploiting the typical ethical boundaries that
usually exist in public. As an average guy with a
way beyond average lack of shame it takes a lot
to humiliate me – chalk it up to stubbornness,
stupidity or a grand mixture of both.
This changes pretty quickly when you can literally
feel dozens of pairs of eyes on your back, feel the
thoughts behind them - the initial appraisal, the
glance at the inadvertently unshaven butt cheeks
and then the absolute disgust that follows, it's a
special kinda low.
There were things said and done that were just not
cool... Some things were flattering: "That lady [me]
has such nice legs!" Some were tacitly humorous
(getting a R10 note stuck down my top) and others
were just upsetting (between the name-calling
and obscene amounts of groping, spanking and
touching, you can get an idea). And for the first time
66
Have you ever truly felt ashamed of your perceived
gender identity? I did. The reputation of the average
male was made mud to me in a matter of minutes.
It's no wonder that male con-goers are regarded as
blight and filth, because that's what you look like
from an outsider's perspective.
It's also pretty funny how quickly the paradigm
shifted when I sported my "Equal Opportunity
Objectification" sign. That's when I got smiles, I
got understanding, I even got cheers or sympathy
for my cause. My one man in woman's clothing
campaign became real. And suddenly the
shame and hurt was abandoned in favour of
empowerment. I still got leered at, still heard awful
comments, but that didn't matter, because people
saw my message and understood it for what it was.
The so-called 'booth-babes' were especially keen
to grab me for photos, to prove a point, to have a
laugh, whatever their reasons. It's interesting that I
was approached for almost double the amount of
photos that were taken of me dressed as Deadpool.
The most interesting thing though, was that I
received genuine, heartfelt apologies from some
of the people. This is a paraphrase of a message
that I received on Facebook a few days after rAge:
"Dude I just want to apologize, when I saw you
on Sunday I had the same reaction most of the
a**holes had, I feel like a total ass now that I know
why you were dressed like that, again majorly
sorry for my reaction."
That day, Hawkeye used his booty for great good.
Now, if you want a good laugh, please visit the
fantastically funny Hawkeye Initiative blog:
http://thehawkeyeinitiative.com/