Cosplayers call them “crossplayers”, people who dress in costumes meant for the opposite sex. Borrowed from the term “crossdresser”, crossplayers are one of my favorite parts of this awesome community.
Let’s face it, cosplay is one of the least understood aspects of the “nerd” universe. It goes far beyond regular boundaries of fandom, and that’s exactly what attracts me to it.
Crossplayers push the boundary even further by “breaking” the gender rules and showing off their stuff, even if they weren’t born with it! What may be surprising to some, is that this hobby is widely spread across the gender spectrum. It seems at any given convention or cosplay gathering, you’ll find an equal amount of female Wolfwood’s as you would male Sailor Moon’s. And though some take their costuming seriously, there are those who obviously just want to make us laugh.
Sailor Bubba (at least it fits!) & Anime Expo’s “Man Faye”
While some choose to alter their character’s original costume to fit their sex, other’s leave well enough alone.
Why look who we have here! It’s Jinxie as Femme-Wolfwood of Trigun!
A Femme-Squall of FFVIII by Arekearu
Femme-Vash of Trigun from my good friend Dawn
Original version Kingdom Hearts Sora from Cherry
Twice the crossplay, Sana-Chan as Van and Richii as Allen from Escaflowne,both original versions
From a Tokypop.com Article: Kimberly Balduf as Suigintou from Rozen Maiden; about 90% of Kimberly’s costumes are crossplay: “A good many of the crossplayers I have met in my years of participating in the community have been either confused or curious about their gender and/or sexuality. In my experience, crossplaying was an accepted and safe way to start to explore that side of myself.”
With so many feminine-looking male characters in the Anime and video game world, it’s not hard to see why girl could pull off a character like Berserk’s Griffith with greater ease than your typical guy.
An original version female Griffith from my favorite series ever, Berserk
I would consider myself an open minded person and my mind is obviously open to crossplay. In fact, my Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess “Postman” costume (see my avatar) was my first venture into crossplay. Though I changed the original design to fit my sex, people still recognized my male character and were very accepting of it!
So in short, let’s celebrate the crossplayer! The world’s most animated gender benders!
January 24th, 2008 at 10:56 am
LOL Ms Naru this is an awesome post
I just did a photoshoot with my friend with my Pokemon trainer outfit teehee, I’m thinking about doing a male charater from Bleach or Tsubasa not sure which yet and I have to play around on how to make the costume since I’m not a whiz like some great cosplayers witha sewing machine.
It be my first actual cosplay con that I’ll be dressing up at.
yah there are some crossplayers that scare me and those who make me laugh!
I will say and agree most of the females that do dress up as the male charaters pull it off better.
Anyone going to be at Sakura-con in March up here in Seattle?
I know that Seattle really gets no lover on the cons (really wish we did) but it would be cool to see some of yah there
January 24th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I love crossplayers! I have always wanted to cosplay as Sephiroth.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
oo that be really cool!
January 24th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Aww you blogged me! I’m so touched! ^-^ I’m actually a little ashamed of that crossplay… it was so last minute. I want to try my hand at it again with some more effort.
January 24th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Ashamed? No! Be not ashamed fellow crossplayer! Last minute or not, you were lookin fine!
January 24th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I love cross-play, but i think i could only be one of those who makes femi versions of male characters. I love cosplay because I get to be all dolled up and glamourous! If I was just cosplaying as a man, there would be no fun hair or makeup…LOL
January 24th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Sad thing is one year for a costume party, I went as April O’Neil from the TMNT cartoon. It was while I was working at Disney back in 1996 and I went to a party with some friends from parade. It was fun, but now that I look back on the night, oh so wrong on oh so many levels. I mean, me, in a yellow jumpsuit and white boots. … =/
January 24th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Seeing a pic of ManFaye made me remeber my first encounter the first time I went to AX 04. I had no idea what crossplayers were about at that time. I really do want to cosplay but I never have time to make one.
January 25th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Me too kannaya! But there’s no way I could bind myself without being in pain. :/
Is it still crossplaying if you take an opposite sex character and…make them your sex? (that sounded weird *laughs*) Or would that be considered transgendered?
Either way, I love it. Suprisingly enough, the best Wonder Woman I’ve ever seen was a male. No implants, either!