The Gender Costume Question.

[BlueDragon]

I was having a discussion with some friends about Halloween costumes. I was wonder how many people actually dress up as a character or member, of the opposite gender for Halloween or cosplay?

If so, who or what did you dress up as?

[Margo]

I dressed up as Walter from Hellsing the Dawn, at last Sakura Con, on Sunday @.@;; My friend wanted someone to be Walter, since she was Alucard, lol. It was a pretty bad costume, since I just threw it together last minute, with clothes from my closet >>;; Buuut, yeah. It was pretty fun...noone knew who I was though, lol.

[Miki-Chan]

Should this be moved to the Dressing Room? ^^;

Anyway, I think it's fun to cosplay as the opposite gender just because. Of course, I think it's more "normal" for a female to crossplay than a male. XD; But that's always amusing, too.

I'm crossplaying as Yuki Sohma from Fruits Basket at the next Sakura Con. :3 I'd crossplay more but it's awfully hard for me sometimes.

[EggDropSoup]

I went as superman one time! XD My friends, Jenna, Carol, and Stacie have gone with me every Halloween for the last 3 years. (This being the third) We all shuffle our money together and pick a theme to choose costumes to go with it. (This year is a Renaissance theme :3) Than we go trick or treating. Last year was the Super hero theme. I don't really feel uncomfortable dressing up as a guy or wearing a guy-oriented costume for Halloween. I'm not realy concerned with it that much, I'm too busy thinking about all the candy, fun, and surprises that happen on the 31st. And I hope that its enjoyable for everyone else too. This year I'm gonna go as a Princess...lol...I lucked out when we all tried playing rock, paper, scissors to decide who got the Queen costume. XD

[BlueDragon]

You know I thought about posting to the dressing room, but thought this was more generic than the stuff there and didn't want to polute that topic.

As a guy, I've dressed as a girl twice for halloween. Once as Linna's Hardsuit (bubblegum crisis) and once as a chinese girl. This was a good amount of time ago, but i had a lot of fun. I don't really think it matters what you dress up as, as long as you have fun.

[Windy*]

As a guy, I've dressed as a girl twice for halloween. Once as Linna's Hardsuit (bubblegum crisis) and once as a chinese girl. This was a good amount of time ago, but i had a lot of fun. I don't really think it matters what you dress up as, as long as you have fun.

That's a great point. :D I don't think people should judge others harshly for doing crossplay. It's just for fun, but some take it far too seriously. x_X Some people even say it's "wrong"... meh. It's just kinda rude.

Anyway, I haven't done any gender-switching cosplay myself yet, but I will be when going as Souji Mikage from Utena for AX '07. :D Buuut, he's naturally rather girly-looking anyway, so it's easy to pull off. ;D Sometimes it works out well like that, eh? ^^ Us girls are lucky in the sense that many anime males look feminine and are easy to cosplay, as well. ^__^.

[Chinomi]

I'm dressing up as a very manly man, Leon Kennedy. xD;

[Alana]

Us girls are lucky in the sense that many anime males look feminine and are easy to cosplay, as well. ^__^.
Yep yep yep. As for the other way around, I couldn't quite say... it seems more comical when guys cross-dress, and more svelte when women do it (if they do it well). Some guys make better women than women. e_e

I did Shuichi from Gravitation last year for Halloween, but I think I burned all the pictures. x_X This year it's gonna be Alana as Rene Descartes (I think therefore I am, and I did it two years ago), and all I need is a moustache to pull him off. But that's 'cuz I'm a nerd. Everyone else cross-dresses as cool guys. ;_;

[Kat Avery]

I dressed up as Chibi!Trunks from DBZ for one halloween. :O except my chest was covered more. XD I had the voice and everything, so it worked.

[Matt Alan]

XD; Where's topleka when you need her?

[arick86]

I'm building a Sailor Tin Nyanko costume for a Con in Phoenix in April? (i think) I'll probably have a Nehellenia and a Galaxia too, if i have time. It's cosplay so you should have FUN! That's the most important thing! And one of the coolest things is when people think you're the gender you're dressed as and then they find out you're not! I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "I thought you were really a girl"

... dunno if that's a good thing... well in terms of costume and character portrayal then Hell yah!

[Sadako]

Anyway, I haven't done any gender-switching cosplay myself yet, but I will be when going as Souji Mikage from Utena for AX '07. :D Buuut, he's naturally rather girly-looking anyway, so it's easy to pull off. ;D Sometimes it works out well like that, eh? ^^ Us girls are lucky in the sense that many anime males look feminine and are easy to cosplay, as well. ^__^.

O_O You better look out for me then. I'm not usually hyper, but I've been known to glomp Mikage cosplayers upon first sight (Note my sig XD ) and I'm not a glomper. I'm more like a glomp-hater. :-p

I've been thinking of doing Ishida Uryuu for a while now. The battle uniform he wears for most of the Soul Society arc; but my adoptive little sister who usually makes me cosplay is really busy right now (We just started a kimono business at Yaoi-con and it did so well some of us are looking into taking it further). So for now I've resigned myself to Ebay for my cosplay (I can't make costumes to save my life even though I've taken costuming classes >_<;;; ).

[hideko_dahlia]

One of my friends dressed up as a boy for Halloween. That was her costume. BOY. And another friend (a guy) dressed up as a girl. And then I got my bf-at-the-time in a wedding dress for Halloween. It was a weird year.

Other than that, V and I often do duets, and I always end up being the boy-ish one. Well, 98 percent of the time. I've been....:
-Shuichi Shindou (Gravitation) V was my Yuki
-Alan (Sailor Moon R) V was Ann
-Utena, who crossdresses anyway. >>; (movie school uniform)
-Eagle Vision (Rayearth 2)

Yay for crossplaying. >D

[Crimson]

Feminine boys are actually the most difficult for girls to cosplay. This is because if a girl doesn't emphasise her masculine traits 9 times out of 10 she will look like a girl. I guess, to most female-to-male crossplayers "passing" persay is not top on the priority list though, which is actually a shame... I see far too many girls cosplaying boys with their chests still sticking out or wearing their make-up exactly as they would as a girl. It looks terrible... it really does. Even A-cup boobs are noticeable, ladies.

Apathy kills female-to-male cosplays because frankly only 2% of female-to-male cosplays actually look as though they put any effort into attempting to look more like the opposite gender.

[Windy*]

Apathy kills female-to-male cosplays because frankly only 2% of female-to-male cosplays actually look as though they put any effort into attempting to look more like the opposite gender.


I honestly don't see why such emphasis should be placed on looking like the opposite GENDER. I think it's about looking like the character, and if they look female anyway, why is it necessary to make the cosplayer look more boyish...? Of course, things like hiding your chest ARE a good idea, but aside from that...

Maybe I don't quite get it, but I don't think keeping your feminine looks when cosplaying a boy ruins it in any way if the character is feminine. I see it all the time and it usually doesn't look too bad. It only starts to get messy when a girl tries to play a very manly character and doesn't put any effort into trying to hide their gender, but I have yet to see much of that. But in that case, yes, the identity of the character might be in jeopardy.

[Crimson]

Part of my harsh criticism stems from the fact that there are double standards in crossplay. The cosplay community is often critical of male to female, in the sense that say if a guy and a girl both had elabourate, well crafted costumes for the same female character the girl would have a good 'cosplay' and the guy would have a good 'crossplay'. The guy would be judged on how feminine he looked, because chances are the character he is portraying is feminine. While I don't deny that the girl would be judged on how attractive she is, there would be a bit more emphasis on her costume than on her face.
With female to male this standard doesn't seem to exist. Because it's more acceptable for a girl to dress in pants and wear men's clothing than vice-versa she is immediately accepted as a cosplayer... in fact many girls who cosplay boys don't really consider themselves crossplayers.

I myself am a crossplayer, though I realize that I am somewhat unable to truly make myself look male I do go to the effort to emphasise what I can in order to accurately portray the maleness of the character.
Female cosplayers often forget that feminine guys in anime are still guys... usually, these feminine guys still move and hold their bodies like a guy, yet I still see plenty of girls who are totally unconscious of their bodies in pictures and present themselves instead as girls. This may seem like such a minor detail, but in the end, when you are attempting to look like the character as much as possible, you really don't want to be jutting your hip out in a feminine manner when portraying a male character.

[fruitfly]

I'm a rather tall, boyish girl, so I like to crossplay as girlish boys to even things out a bit. Of course, I'm pretty poor and can't sew worth a damn, so my costumes aren't too great. A favourite experience was the time I dressed as Shinji and went around the whole day as a guy with some dude I met. He never figured me out.

Of course, I have problems when I try to cosplay female characters. I went as Lilith from Darkstalkers a couple of years back. Everyone thought I was crossplaying. Now.. if you know who Lilith is, her costume is pretty revealing. We're talking leotard, folks. Lucky me, I had a lot of people tell me that I was the 'best crossplay' they're ever seen. :S I think I'll stick to dressing as guys, because at least then I mean to look like a man.

Oh man.. so many stories from that con.

[Jaela]

Oooh ooh, me! Me!

I dressed up as Momiji from Fruits Basket for Halloween.



-Jaela

[Chinomi]

So now I have a BHK/Roxas costume in the works. YAY! How I love binding my chest!