Category:Crossplay
From CosplayWiki
Crossplay is a subset of cosplay, in which the person dresses up as a character of the opposite gender; it applies to both genders. Not related in any way with sexual preferences of the people who practices it, in most of the cases.
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Crossplay in America
In America, males crossplaying as female characters have received some attention on the internet. Characters from Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura are popular with crossplayers, although in Japan, Maria-sama ga Miteru has recently become a popular series to crossplayers. The most well known crossplayer of all time may be Man-Faye, a man dressed as Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop or Sailor Bubba crossplaying as Sailor Moon.
Crossplay in Japan
In Japan female cosplayers dressing as male characters is much more common and is now so widespread and accepted that it does not receive much special attention as a "sub-genre" of cosplay. Handsome bishonen characters from games like Final Fantasy or hollywood movies like Harry Potter are most popular with female cosplayers,possibly because of the popularity of yaoi-friendly characters with female otaku or the dislike of the female characters all too skimpy costumes in most cases.
In Japan, male photographers will often ask male crossplayers to pose sexily. Curiously, the female photographers don't.
Definitions and Use
Note: The definitions below include "crossdressing". Both crossplaying and crossdressing-during-cosplay (separate things) are theatrical modes of behavior.
Crossplay (verb) - a subset of cosplay: to wear a costume where the character in question is of the opposite sex as the cosplayer.
Crossplayer - either a girl wearing a costume of a character who is a guy, or a guy wearing a costume of a character who is a girl.
Crossdressing - wearing non-gender-neutral clothes considered to be appropriate to the opposite sex. A character may be crossdressing, but this does not automatically mean that the cosplayer wearing that costume is crossplaying. "Crossplay" has nothing to do with whether a character is actually crossDRESSING; it only refers to a difference between the sex of the character and that of the cosplayer.
- A guy cosplaying Nuriko, Kamatari or Mana is NOT crossplaying, although he IS crossdressing.
- A girl cosplaying Nuriko, Kamatari or Mana IS crossplaying, but is NOT crossdressing.
- A guy cosplaying Utena or Sakura is both crossplaying AND crossdressing.
- A girl cosplaying Kenshin or Vash is both crossplaying AND crossdressing. (Note: I am not referring to "femme versions" of costumes, but the costume designs as actually worn by the original male characters.)
When I cosplay Dilandau, I'm both crossplaying AND crossdressing. (The character himself is not crossdressing, just me.)
Neither crossplaying nor crossdressing actually indicate anything about a person's sexual orientation. You cannot tell if a crossplayer is Gay, Het or Bi just by the fact that they crossplay. As for crossdressing, whether in cosplay or even in mundane life, it may or may not indicate something about a person's gender identity, so never assume, because you could indeed be wrong.
Why do people crossplay?
The reasons vary. Occasionally one may see crossplay done as a form of satire / humorous behavior, but it appears that a large majority of crossplay occurs simply because:
- 1) a cosplayer likes a particular character,
- 2) they like the character enough that they want to cosplay as that character, and:
- 3) they do not feel that a simple difference in gender between themselves and the character should be a barrier to cosplaying that character.
External Links
Resources
The following information was cited from Wikipedia and Cosplay.com, until further information is updated and edited by other members of this community.
--Mizuhaki 14:40, 15 January 2007 (CST)
