I’ll keep this short cause I have better things to worry about. but here goes.
The argument is that people who cosplay, or the majority of them, are not actually fans of the things they cosplay. That these folks are just looking for an excuse to play dress up or use their halloween costumes again. There is an heir of elitism in this line of thinking that is self destructive. If we start pointing out who is and who isn’t “Geek” enough, then we risk alienating future generations of comic, sci-fi and fantasy fans. We also risk becoming more and more fractured. Look at what has happened to Furry. Comic conventions are pretty homogenous. There are Star Wars fans, Star Trek fans, anime, movie, video game fans, but furry is a whole other convention. Granted other factors are at play there, but the same elitist mentality did play out in many furr centric conventions. We need to be more open to new fans. New fans bring new fandoms, and fresh blood to what would be an otherwise dying medium. I think when it comes to the accusation that these folks at not true “Geeks” keep in mind. When someone who chooses to step into a convention for what ever reason. They will be exposed to the world that we, the insiders know, and they will leave changed for the better. We need to be the ambassadors of geek culture. They may like a sitcom that bases it’s humor on playing with stereotypes of geek culture (And many other cultures mind you), but they will see what real geek culture is like. They’ll see the fathers and sons, mothers and daughters sitting down at tables to play D&D. They’ll see whole families attending, not just the ones in costume. Maybe they’ll go down artist alley and see people like me and my friends making art and running small businesses. Eventually what will happen is that these so called “fake fans” will be come true fans.
New fans bring many things. And all of them are good.
Yep yep yep… right and right to the point.