Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Editorial: "Cosplay ≠ Consent" and the Real Underlying Question

NOTE: The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the California Conventions Blog.

Unless you have been living under a rock in the past month, you've probably heard about  "Cosplay ≠ Consent," this new movement to bring about awareness of sexual harassment at anime and comic conventions. Even conventions like Anime Conji caught onto it and imposed stricter policy when it came to attendee conduct; according to some eyewitness accounts, they caught a long-time "creeper" and banned him from all Southern California conventions. Now, whether this was a result of the movement or they finally caught him after years of sexually harassing cosplayers and the countless reports is yet to be seen.

However, there is a bigger question that lies beyond this, what I consider to be origins of this movement:

Why is it that when people attend anime and comic book conventions, it seems like all common sense gets thrown out the window?