The art worlds of gender performance: cosplay, embodiment, and the collective accomplishment of gender

Abstract

In recent years, cosplay has gained global visibility as a performing art in which fans dress up as fictional characters from anime, comics/manga, or games. Although scholars contend that cosplay exemplifies gender performativity and may even offer a new heuristic for understanding social interactions in general, they rarely examine how gender is performed in cosplay. Taking together the production of culture perspective and interactionist theories of gender, I detail how cosplay participants project gendered sensibilities through conventionalized body movements and modifications. Contrary to the prevailing focus on individual cosplayers, I demonstrate how makeup artists, photographers, and photo editors all contribute to the success of gender play in cosplay. Contrary to simplistic accounts of donning hyper-masculinity/hyper-femininity, I argue that cosplay participants’ pursuit of authenticity makes singular orientation to sex category insufficient and demands a version of masculinity/femininity that also attends to the character’s personality. Situated in the art worlds of cosplay’s production and evaluation, my findings invite scholars to consider the collaboration between cosplayers and their supporting crew as a conceptual heuristic that attunes our attention to the collective accomplishment of gender embodiment, whose multi-authorship is often obscured.

Globalizing the sociology of the arts and culture: East Asian perspectives

“…Some genres have achieved regional diffusion with more success than others. For instance, K-drama, Fang The Journal of Chinese Sociology (2023) 10:8 K-pop, Japanese anime and cosplay culture (Yang 2022) have spread throughout Asia and worldwide, and Chinese TV shows have gained popularity among Southeast Asian fans. However, some genres have proven more resistant to localized tastes and regional identification.…”

“…In this thematic series, Yang (2022) examines an intriguing art world-the cosplay scene in China-and further theorizes how "cosplay" may serve as a conceptual heuristic for analyzing gender performance and social interaction in general. Over the past three decades, cosplay has become a popular subculture in China due to the global diffusion of Japanese ACG (anime, comic, game) fandom.…”

Point of View: Debate on Protecting Character Works in Cosplay Activities Based on Indonesian Copyright

“…Cosplay, a shortened form of "costume play," has grown rapidly around the world, including, and recognized as popular culture. The word "cosplay" is taken from the English words "costume" and "play", the word "play" in cosplay means that there is not only role-playing but also gender play, meaning that the characters that cosplayers want to emulate can be different genders, and gender play is common in the cosplay community (Yang, 2022). Cosplayer himself is someone who wears full clothes along with accessories and makeup that imitates the character of a fictional character, then the character will be displayed in the form of a show (Bonnichsen, 2011).…”