Never Met A Nice Female Cosplayer

Let me explain. Years and years ago, I got a chance to attend a cosplay event on the East Coast, and while I didn’t go in costume, I paid extra for a pass to an area where alot of the professional cosplayers were signing autographs and taking pics and whatnot that was only open to people that were in costume or photographers. I had a camera and a notebook to note characters that I took pictures of.

Probably 90% were female, and I got there early, like around 9am. Not all of the booths or areas were filled yet, vendors and cosplayers were still arriving as well. I walked around with my bag, didn’t even take out my camera, but was just standing off and admiring the costumes. I saw some guys dressed as stormtroopers and after asking if I could take pics, got a few of them and some other Star Wars folks that were there and some others as they showed up.

There was a woman a few yards away, and when I took a picture of some of the Imperial Guards, she happened to be behind them. Not in the picture, not visible because of the cloaks of the Guards. She came over as I was putting my camera away, and looked pretty angry.

“Why did you take my picture without asking?” No preamble, no “Excuse me”, nothing but an angry question.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t taking your picture,” and explained the situation as I took my camera, and opened the pics to show her that she wasn’t in any of them.

“I saw you point your camera at me. I saw you taking unauthorized pictures earlier as well.” She refused to look at my screen, and at one point slapped my camera away. “I’m going to ask that you be removed.”

After explaining to a guy from Security and showing them ALL the pictures I took, I was told that I wasn’t going to be asked to leave, but I had to surrender my camera and bag, and could pick it up when I was ready to leave. As I walked around with just my notebook, I ran into several people that had the same situation happen. Apparently, unless you were a professional photographer you couldn’t take pictures without paying whatever vendor or person was showcasing whatever cosplay personality. I still stood off a respectable distance, so as not to photobomb anyone, and the second incident happened.

A group of women cosplayers, with elaborate costumes that i have no idea what it was from, were posing with a mech type thing, and I stopped just to see and figure out what it was. The mech thing was really cool looking, and I regretted not having my camera. I was hanging back, waiting for an opening at the table to buy one of the signed graphic novels or whatever they were selling about what they were cosplaying. One of the girls came towards me and asked me what I was doing. I looked around, and said I was just looking, and showed the little badge I had on my lanyard. She looked me up and down, then went back to her group and spoke to one of her handlers. He came over and told me that the girls don’t like to be gawked at, and wanted to see what was in my notebook. I showed him, it was just names of some of the cool things I had seen, and he asked that I put it away, and maybe just move along.

This was pretty much what happened with every group of females or single female cosplayer that entire day. I said something about it as I picked up my camerabag to another guy and he clued me in.
“This is a moneymaker for most of them. They cosplay in professionally made costumes, get paid for any pictures taken during these events, and none of them are very nice to you unless you have a model release form and a few hundred bucks.”

Not one male cosplayer asked me for money. No one at the Star Wars area refused me pictures, asked for release forms or money. They were all super polite, and gave me some information on the 501st cosplay group, and we talked about armor and stuff as we stood around. Every other female cosplayer was rude, and even without my camera, just glared at anyone that paused to see their costumes or asked anything about what series or show or comic their character was from.

One other thing that happened after I left that area and was out in the main lobby. I saw one of the women from inside that was doing a cosplay from XMen. The guy that was with her was dressed as Scott Summers, and looked amazing. I got closer than I meant to, and said that that their costumes were amazing and that I was a big fan of XMen. He smiled, shook my hand, and said I should cosplay as one next year. The girl, who was dressed as Phoenix, looked me directly in the face, and said, loud enough to be heard, that “There aren’t any fat X-Men. Maybe he could play a Morlock.”

That’s why I say that I’ve never met a nice female cosplayer.