Halloween is the one night a year a cosplayer can cosplay in public and not be stared at, laughed at, or generally ridiculed. Cosplay has definitely become more mainstream over the last few years, but as someone who’s been in cosplay communities since the early 2010s, it has not alway been this peachy. There has always been confusion in where the line is drawn between cosplay and simply dressing up, but I’m here to explain it (at least from my own opinion and experiences).
I’ve seen a lot of people using the term “cosplay” to refer to basically any form of acting like or dressing up as something. For instance, when Carhartt clothes grew popular amongst more wealthy people, many used the phrase “cosplaying blue collar” to describe their style. Another example is when “underconsumption core” became a popular idea on Tik Tok, many wealthy creators were called out for “cosplaying poverty” because they were taking many things that lower class families have to do to get by and reframing them as aesthetic.
I hate that cosplay is being thrown around like this. First of all, it’s not the correct use of the word. I suggest using “roleplaying as ___” or simply “pretending to be ___”. Secondly, the term cosplay was created with the Japanese word “kosupure” in mind, which means “costume play” in English. Kosupure refers to a specific performance art of dressing up as characters from media. It’s not “costume play” if someone isn’t dressing as a character… I could go on this rant forever. Stop using “cosplay” when you mean something entirely different.
Rant over, let’s talk about Halloween. So what’s the difference between cosplay and dressing up on halloween? Ultimately, not much. In my opinion, the key difference is the motivation for dressing up. Cosplay is tied to 80s-90s nerd/geek culture and began as a form of self expression and a way to show one’s dedication to a character/piece of media. For many years, cosplayers crafted their own cosplays and props and many still do today. You can still be a cosplayer if you don’t make your entire piece on your own, but cosplay’s origins almost always portray cosplay as just as much of a craft as it is a hobby. On Halloween, you might build your entire costume and dress up as that specific character because you love them dearly, but this is when you need to ask yourself an important question: Would you be doing this if it wasn’t Halloween? If the answer is no, I believe that is the key factor separating cosplay and Halloween costumes. If the answer is yes, then you should! You don’t have to post about it or anything, just have fun as your favorite character. I hope to see you at the next local cosplay convention.
I get to embrace my inner Shaggy. BUT NOBODY HAS ANY SCOOBY SNACKS.
As a cosplayer who doesn’t dress up for Halloween, I enjoyed reading this! Something about not doing it in the comfort of my own house throws me off 😛 Someone recently asked me what’s the difference and I couldn’t quite explain it.
I love this. I never put much thought into cosplay like this before but this was really illuminating.
how do you feel about the recent cosplayer?
which one? are u reffering to the whole wheat pete situation? because that guy is a nightmare
As an ex-cosplayer, I loved this. I have the same frustrations about the misuse of the term so it’s great to hear someone else talk about it. I used to go all out for Halloween and even on a random school night when I just felt like putting on a whole cosplay for maybe 30 minuets at most. I miss those times.
This was enlightening, I had never thought about the differences between cosplaying and dressing up this way.
I like this blog. Sometimes I get cosplaying confused with dressing up, mostly on Halloween. But this is really informative article, I can see the clear differences now.